On to Tallinn (but we are in Riga)

On to Tallinn (but we are in Riga)

Wednesday, June 13

We needed to give our regards to Helsinki.  Finland seems to be a neglected country.  Our collection of books at home included an Eastern European Phrase Book and one for Scandinavia.  The former covers countries from Albania to Russia, including 4 of the five countries we will visit – not Finland.  We bought a tour book for the Baltic States, covering 3 of the 5, and got ones for St. Petersburg from the library.  Our Scandinavian one didn’t include Finland.  We gathered and printed a lot of information from the internet (especially wikitravel.org) before we came, so we were OK.

We are traveling to Tallinn by ferry.  By looking carefully online, we found that the LindaLine Ferry was about half the price of the other line we had considered and faster – 2½ vs. 3½ hours.  Our confirmation said that we should be there an hour ahead of departure time and that boarding would start 30 minutes ahead.  An hour before, the terminal was nearly deserted. 

Boarding started about 25 minutes before departure and was smooth. The ride on the hydrofoil was smooth and there were no issues.  There was just a tiny outside deck, mostly used by smokers.  It was quite chilly out there, so most people wouldn’t want to stay for long.

In Tallinn, we took a cab to the place listed in our email.  We went to the door between the Don and Donna Shop and the pizza place and pressed the buzzer for 38.  A pleasant voice answered, told us to come to the 4^th floor and buzzed us in.  Inside were 2 sets of stairs.  We started up one with our luggage and decided that wouldn’t work.  Near the other staircase, we saw a tiny lift.  We barely squeezed ourselves and bags in, but managed to get there.  Kristiina greeted us cheerily, did the needed paperwork and told us that while we had signed up for a studio apartment, they were putting us in a 1 bedroom.  

Somehow, we managed to get the 3 of us plus bags into the lift and down to street level.  We walked a block over cobblestones and came to a pleasant building with an unmarked door. 

Kristiina showed us how to use the magnetic door lock and then we walked up a flight of stairs, unlocked another door and entered a magnificent apartment.  There was a huge living room / bedroom, a well appointed bath about the size of ours at home, a large, wide hallway and a pretty kitchen.  She told us that since we were staying away from the other apartments, they had supplied us with food to make our own breakfasts.  There was plenty there for 3 days of breakfasts, some snacks, 2 days’ lunches and still a decent bit leftover.  

Everyplace we booked had advertised WiFi, and so far we've had reasonably good signals and speed everywhere.  Here in Tallinn, there was a block of access to all the Smithsonian websites, so Jim was unable to check his email from there for 3 days.

After acclimating to our great new surroundings, we stepped out into the town.  In the initial flurry of getting to our place, we failed to notice our surroundings.  When we stepped out, it was like going into a fantasy world.  There were so many wonderful buildings, we will just scatter picture of them through our blog for Tallinn without comment.

 

After going a block and a half, Jim realized that he had forgotten something and went back to our place.  When he emerged, he saw the most orange skirt he had ever seen in his life heading into a fancy shop.  Jim probably ranks in the bottom 10% of people in terms of fashion consciousness.  In the block and a half walk back to meet Ardith, he saw 3 more women wearing orange, though not as bright as the first.  He has seen many more in subsequent days, so has learned a fashion lesson.

We poked our heads in a lot of shop windows. Jim decided that it would be fun to move the stacking doll set for Angela Merkel in with cartoon characters.

It was drizzling on and off, but the temperature was pleasant.  After strolling through several streets, we decided that we wanted to eat outdoors, but not get wet.  We had picked a restaurant with Estonian cuisine from our map and saw that they had a corrugated canvas roof over the outdoor tables.  Streets and sidewalks were narrow, but cars aren’t permitted in many of the streets in Old Town and restaurants have outdoor seating in the street.   

Ardith had roast pork, sauerkraut and oven roasted potatoes.  Jim had wild boar stew. We shared a great dessert. We were very pleased with the food.

Earlier in the day, we passed by a tourist information place that indicated that there was a guitar concert at 8PM in a place called House of Blackheads.  We still had energy and arrived about 7:15 to make sure we got tickets and good seats.   

The Blackheads was a society in medieval times consisting of unmarried men who were merchants or craftsmen.   Once they were married, they were eligible to join the guilds.  Several were of African descent, thus the name and several of the figures on the building.  It had a reputation of being a partying group.

The concert was by a quartet called Aquarelle, from the UK.  We noticed that 2 of the players had leg rests and supported their instruments directly on their legs.  The others had stands attached to their guitars that rested on their legs.  We were incredibly happy that we came to the concert.  We were able to get seats on the end of the front row.  The music was outstanding.  They started Spanish pieces, not usually part of the guitar repertoire.    They had arrangements they had done of pieces from the movies Frida, Il Postino and Motorcycle Diaries.  They also played pieces from very contemporary composers and Balkan songs and dances that were far from folksy.

One of the guys said that a common joke about guitarists is that they spend half their life tuning and the other half playing out of tune.  They did a lot of tuning.  They audience went wild with applause, including a few minutes of rhythmic clapping.  Their encore was a piece by the famous jazz guitarist, Django Rhinehart called Minor Swing.  A perfect evening!