Teetering around Tallinn
The Guinness
After dinner on our first night we headed to the centre of town to find Molly Malone’s bar. I’d researched it a bit before coming and had exchanged e-mails with them to get reassurances that they had some Guinness in stock. It was indeed open and serving Guinness though the band was just packing up as we arrived which may have been a good or bad thing. It was lively and we found a place to sit at the back end of the bar and sup our Guinness. Before ordering a second I explained to the Liana why we were here and she agreed to pick out my next destination . There was no hesitation when I asked if I could take her picture – in fact she looked like she enjoyed it. Liana never stopped moving all night so it was kind of her to spend time listening to my mission.
.JPG) |
| Liana picks out Berlin as my next destination. |
Getting there and around
Why, I thought, should winter hold me up on my quest for Guinness? I’ve never tried a short break in December and little did I expect the issue to be the weather in the UK rather than Estonia. Britain was in the middle of a fiercely cold spell with some of the earliest and heaviest snow for years. I was keeping a very close eye on the weather forecast to see if we’d be able to get to the airport in Stansted and whether it would be open. Gatwick and Edinburgh airports had been closed for days.
On the day Stansted remained open and we got to Tallinn for our long weekend in the cold. The pavements were treacherous, covered in powdery snow and ice. Would we get through the weekend without tumbling over? The temperature was a crisp -7oC.
One reason for having the Guinness on the first night was just in case Helsinki had been picked out and we could make a mad dash over there on Saturday but it wasn’t to be. It was Berlin that got picked out so my thoughts turned to when to go and who may like to join me.
Team Makeup
A rare weekend away with my wife.
Accommodation
The St Olav was only a couple of hundred meters from the centre of town. It was old to say the least and full of bare oak beams and windy sloping corridors and crooked walls. It had been tastefully renovated with areas of bare brick and inscribed walls peeping through plaster. The walls were full of reproduction oil paintings and antiques lined the corridors.
Breakfast on Saturday was quite a lavish affair in one of the old state rooms. Waitresses in traditional costumes buzzed around and we tried to decide whether potatoes, carrots, eggs and fish were what we wanted at that time in the morning or whether the traditional cereals would do. Whatever the decision I think the pink pickled cabbage was going to be passed by.
Food
After settling into the room we set off in search of something to eat. We only had to go ten yards down the road when we found an Italian restaurant. To make it look more authentic the owners had imported two Mafioso to stand and smoke outside and tell passers-by it was a good restaurant and worth going in. Fearing for our life, we did, only to find it full. The woman looked very apologetic. After we’d headed down the street 20 yards we were called back by the woman with the two men standing behind her, now holding machine guns. The people at the corner table had somehow been vaporised. We hadn’t seen them come out and they were nowhere to be seen. The smokers were right; it was a good restaurant and the pasta was homemade as was the deep fried goat’s cheese we had for starters and the wine very smooth.
Sightseeing highlights
The highlight was probably the Palace, park and Peter the Greats summer House. When we arrived at the park we saw it was deep in snow. It looked wonderful against a clear blue sky and it was good to be out of the city. We wandered around looking at the guards trying to keep warm outside the Palace and then up to the Peter the Great House museum which he bought in 1714 to live in while the magnificent Kadriorg Palace was being built. After seeing Tallinn he apparently said he wished he had chosen Tallinn as a site for his main port rather than St Petersburg. The cottage was small but had good descriptions in Estonian and English. It gave you a good feel for what it must have been like to stay there over 200 years ago.
Quirky moments
It felt pretty cold, particularly when the wind whipped around the corners. Tallinn is a sea port. We went outside the Old Town and down to the harbour where some trawlers were moored and a few stalls were selling fresh fish and sardines. The smoked fish and eels were bathed in ice though I don’t know why as there was little chance of it thawing out in these temperatures. Elderly couples plodded up the hill with their plastic bags of fish for the weekend.
The freezing temperatures brought about a host of hazards. Not only was there the danger of slipping over on the ice but you had to beware of the three foot long icicles hanging precariously from the guttering. These were evidently known hazards and marked by sticks on the pavement, wrapped with red and white tape and placed at an angle to the building. Later in the day we saw men up cherry pickers removing the larger of the icicles or even man with long poles trying to knock them off.
A suspicious man sidled up to me asking if I wanted to buy something. No it wasn’t hashish for once, it was a jar of caviar. It was approaching lunchtime but still it didn’t appeal so I wished him a good day and moved on.
The European Film Awards were being held tonight in Tallinn. I’d looked up at the films that had been nominated for awards before leaving home. In fact I had recently seen the only English film up for awards called Ghost about a man (Ewan McGregor) who was a ghost writer for an ex-British Prime Minister (Pierse Brosman) living in USA.
After a bit of searching we found the location of the Film Awards.. It wasn’t the crowds or bright lights that had given away the location. As we took our places behind the railings, waiting for the stars to turn up. We were two of only about a dozen members of the public there. Soon the chauffer driven Mercedes drove up and uniformed attendants opened the doors. Smartly dressed people got out, looked around as if waiting to be recognised and applauded before looking disappointed and headed inside. Through the glass doors we could hear a traditional Estonian choir sing. Their repertoire was rather limited. They appeared to have one song with just a single verse. It went on and on and on…..
 |
| Sparse crowds at the European Film Awards. Where's Ewan? |
When we switched on the TV in the room what should we see but the climax to the European Film Awards. Ghost had swept the board. McGregor was making his acceptance film whilst on location in Thailand whilst Polanski was holed up in Paris and used Skype (in honour of Estonian technology inventors) to accept his ward.
We took a tram on Sunday which led to us almost being arrested. After taking advice on buying tickets we duly mounted the tram and stuffed our 100 Kroon note into the drawer and pushed it through to the driver who duly pushed it back again. Whilst this was happening I spotted a female and young male policeman making their way up the tram checking tickets. Our 100 Kroon note was still being pushed back and fore between us and the driver when the police arrived and asked for our tickets. I would have thought our willingness to pay was evident by our actions but the young policeman was having none of it. We think the problem with the driver was us not having the correct change. We found enough for one ticket but not for a second. Just before the handcuffs were applied some kind passenger arrived and gave us a ticket and spared is gaol.
Lasting Memories
Looking down over the Old Town and the snow covered roofs and pointed spires. It looked like a fairytale.
No comments:
Post a Comment