I was up relatively early on Tuesday morning, but Kuniko needed to be near WiFi to handle an email from a co-worker at 8 am. I figured I’d use the time before the phone call by going out and taking some early morning pictures of the Old Town without all the tourists. I walked through the center of town, now completely empty, and proceeded to the northwest as far as the train station to look around. The train station was small and quaint, and even this early in the morning a few trains were lined up getting ready to head to other parts of Estonia and Europe. Beyond the train station was a newly revitalized area of town. Artists had taken up residence and renovated and redecorated what used to be run-down warehouses and storage. Now things were colorful and a little more edgy. It felt a little like walking through Berkeley, California when I was younger – counter-culture and a bit grungy but very interesting. As I walked back towards town a young man was laying on a park bench crying loudly. It looked like heartbreak to me, but I didn’t stop to offer counseling.
By the time I made it back to the hotel room Kuniko’s job stuff was wrapped up and we went together to go get coffee. We walked around the outside of the Old Town a bit and found Freedom Square, another two cathedrals, and then finally ended up at “Maiasmokk”, the oldest café in a very old town. The coffee was excellent, and when we arrived there were only a few customers besides us. But as we sipped and relaxed surrounded by marzipan animals and glamorous décor more and more tourists streamed in. Across from us a family of six sat around a table each staring at their own smartphone silently and I felt like it was getting to be time to leave.
Outside we could see that the cruise ships had arrived, and suddenly the streets were filling with tour groups following their guides and eager to see the Old Town. We proceeded outside of Old Town, and found an interesting shopping center/produce market that was built inside an old railroad depot. Outside was the produce market and in front was a big artistic metal sculpture the emitted mist when the temperature went up. The interior was stylish and clean and had a very good vibe. We looked through each shop – the cheese shop, the fish market, the candy store, and then ended up having two big pints of beer at a small beer kiosk on the first floor. The kiosk had some local beers on tap, and we enjoyed a little relaxation time while chatting with the staff, who were young, attractive, and spoke excellent English (again!). The beer we really liked here was by the brewery called Hell Hunt, and it was called a “Tume” which is a style of beer we’ve never had before. It was dark but not heavy and easy to drink a lot of – a dangerous beer!
We headed back in town just in time to buy eat at a pancake restaurant for lunch. A restaurant called Kompressor serves up savory and sweet pancakes in town and we really wanted to try it. We were waiting at the door when they opened, and that was a big factor in us getting our pancakes before the rush of other customers showed up. These pancakes were huge! We ordered some fried potato balls with garlic sauce as an appetizer to go with our sparkling wine, and then dug into our pancakes. Kuniko ordered a peaches, cream and brie stuffed pancake, and mine pancake was filled with button mushrooms and blue cheese. We finished both big pancakes, surprisingly enough, and then went back to our hotel for a little recovery time.
In the afternoon we figured we ought to try a quick test run to see just how far away the bus terminal was. The next day we were taking a bus to Latvia, and we didn’t want to waste any time by choosing the wrong way to the terminal. After walking for about 20 minutes we gave up and decided it would be best to hail a taxi from our hotel instead. That turned out to be the right choice as it was still a long ways off.
On the way back towards town we stopped in at a big department store called Stockmann (which we found in several other countries on this trip), we walked through a big shopping mall called Solaris and admired Estonian food courts and mall dining, and we took a brief rest near another cathedral to let our feet recharge. After doing a long loop around town in the rapidly warming weather we found a place I wanted to try, called the Boheme Café, which had dumplings that were recommended. We sat inside to beat the heat and had two tall beers and a small bowl each of dumplings – one with sour cream and one with chili sauce. As Kuniko said, they were more like pasta than dumplings, and we enjoyed them but it didn’t feel like an “authentic” dish. Little did I know then just how many more dumplings were in our future…
Already we had done a lot of walking, so we figured that a nap was in order. Back in the comfort of the hotel room we dozed a couple of hours and then headed back out in search of more food. The life of a foodie is not easy – there is never enough room in your stomach to try everything.
One of my students had recommended an underground beer cave called Porgu in Old Town, so we went there thinking we’d have a couple of drinks and just some small dishes of food. We ordered the food, but the dishes were anything but small – the antipasti plate had big chunks of meat and fish, and the cheese plate wasn’t sparse either with lots of different cheeses and big bread croutons. I tried a couple of beers there but the best was a “honey beer” (not mead) that really had a nice honey undertone while being completely without sweetness. Kuniko tried the liqueur famous in Tallinn, called Vana Tallinn, and we decided that we might as well buy a bottle later and bring it back to Japan for the cocktail shelf. After our meal we did some shopping to get the liqueur, as well as some cheese, meat and snacks for the bus ride tomorrow.
We got back to the hotel at about 9:30 that night and it was still bright outside. Although nightlife in the city was just ramping up, we called it a night and retired to our hotel room for journal writing and packing. We’re on the road again tomorrow to another new country.
