Monday 29 January 2024

A 5.30 am start in the dark and +1c to the ferry terminal to catch our ship to Estonia for the day. The day trip to Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, is a common thing for the Finns. The shopping and booze are significantly cheaper in Tallinn and they take full advantage of this with car loads of goods and cheap vodka, beer and crazy RTD’s like gin and passionfruit!

It’s a similar ship to the 10-deck one we caught from Stockholm and an easy 2 hour trip on they grey Baltic. No ice though, until we reach harbour.

The sun has been shining for a couple of days now and the temperature has been around 2 and 3 degrees (positive). This makes for great photos but it also melts the snow, which refreezes as ice in the shade and windy places, making walking bloody dangerous. Not for the Finns, who walkabout in flat soled ballet slippers, but mandatory spikeys for us.

We had coffee and breakfast at one of the buffets on board and then we were there. Lady P had arranged to meet a ‘Tallinn Greeter,’ who turned out to be a nice young bloke in his 40’s with good English and a knowledge of Estonian history.

As you might imagine, Russia and Germany have played a big part in their history, particularly recent history. However, with about 1.5 million population, I doubt the Ruskies give them much thought these days.

Tallinn (population 427,000) is very much a preserved medieval town (the old town), with cobbled streets, town walls and towers and stunning architecture, juxtaposed against the high rise of the new town. Our guided walk took in the old town.

Rein, our guide, had a dry sense of humour and let slip a couple of anecdotes of his time in Tallinn as a university student and of the legends of the beat bars of the 60’s under the Soviets and literally under the streets in basements. He did know quite a few bars.

However, it was Monday; relatively early in the day; and post covid, As a result, a lot potential bars and cafes were shut.

We spent two hours doing the old town from top to bottom and it was great not to have any tourists, or locals for that matter, to deal with. We could walk on the roads as well, to avoid the black ice.

One interesting aside of the walk, was a small public toilet called the ‘millions toilet.’ Apparently, it cost two million kroon (about 400,000 Euro). A nice picture is included.

After the walk we ended up at our restaurant we had researched before leaving Helsinki. It was called Tbilisi.

As no Estonian restaurants, serving that highly regarded, eastern European haute cuisine, were open, we decided that Georgian food was close enough.

This was an excellent decision. The Tavern was long and cavernous, probably seating 100 and we were the only guests at 1.30 pm. A couple of flash Russian lads in sunglasses arrived mid way through.

We shared three dishes. A starter of Phali, which is blitzed beans with beetroot, some with walnuts and the other with spinach. A bit like vegetable pate and delicious. Next, and fairly traditional anywhere east of Germany, was Khin Kali. These were pork stuffed into dumplings. You will notice they look like mushrooms. This is because the “stem” is what you use to pick them up, take a tiny bite to put a hole in the dough, then suck out the broth. After that you eat the dumpling. Two courses in one really.

For the main we shared lambakarree. These were smoky, spiced BBQ lamb cutlets, served with potato wedges, flamed eggplant and red capsicum, raw red onion and a tomato sauce. They were excellent.

Now, as you know, Georgia was the birth place of wine and over the years, Flashy has had some good, average and not so good Georgian wines. You don’t get a lot of them in Dan Murphy’s, though. Anyway, we had a Mukuzani red made from saperavi grapes and given some oak ageing. Saperavi is similar to Cabernet Sauvignon and it was so good we had three glasses!

On leaving, Flashy noticed that at the end of the restaurant there was a stage and some fake Cossack costumes. The place must go off in the season, thinks he!

At the end of the tour and 20,600 steps (16ks), Lady P asked if Flashy enjoyed the views and architecture. “I would have,” he said, “but I spent most of the time focused on the two feet of pavement in front of me.” Black ice you see. Terrible stuff.

We get back after 7pm for a GnT and a reasonably early night.

Shades of the past. The old KGB HQ

Phali

Khin Kali

Blue sky

The millions toilet

lambakarree