Estonia

MISSION: ACCOMPLISHED
DATE: JUNE 29, 2008
PLACE: MOLLY MALONE’S, TALLINN, ESTONIA

We hopped off the bus from Riga and meandered to our hotel. Despite it being later in the day, there was a lot going on outside … Tallinn is a young and bustling city. I didn’t have much in the way of expectations, but it quickly became one of my favorite cities in the world.

Unlike the pouring rain in Latvia, the weather was gorgeous in Estonia. In fact, it was warm enough for a ponytail, but I didn’t have any hair elastics, so Damon improvised with a shower cap:

Estonia is a very walkable city, with a big cobblestone square full of restaurants and pubs — including Molly Malone’s, where we watched the 2008 Eurocup Finals and had a few Guinnesses. It was Germany v Spain, and while I expected a mix of fans from both sides (given that we were in Estonia), we were practically the only two people in the entire packed pub that wanted Germany to win. (Germany lost. Guess we didn’t want it badly enough.)

Every major city has a sex museum, and I usually avoided them, but we decided to check out the Erootika Museum (if only because Erootika is very fun to say). It was a sex museum. Nothing I hadn’t seen or heard of before

Despite it being a walkable city, it’s not necessarily a safe-to-walk city, as I learned when I nearly fell through a sidewalk grate into a deep hole. Watch your step.

Estonia in its current form has only been a country since 1994, and it’s definitely odd to see a sign that says “Estonia’s Oldest Pub, Est. 1994.” Despite its painful past, Estonia has an amazing vibe … it’s strong and vital and seems, from my not-very-educated perspective, to be doing a strong job of respecting its past while embracing its future.

In the morning we hopped a boat over to Helsinki to complete our whirlwind weekend tour.

As always, thanks to Damon for photographing the trip. Make sure to check out all his photos from Tallinn.

{ 0 comments }