about Parnu - but now in TARTU what with the doom and gloom of the Great Wallet Loss Disaster of Parnu of 2009 - what else to report? did I actually see anything? was there anything worthwhile to see? well, yes, sort of. The main thing it was famous for - they are not still open but the building is still there, down at the Strand/beach - is the Mud Baths - a snap of the pink and white building is hopefully attached. the Russians were big onto spa and mud type things - and as they have relatively occupied the place for 100 years before final independence Parnu became one of a few such places to go for the Russian elite etc. Kuressaare was somewhat the same - and still is - but spa tourism ... read more

Parnu - Estonia - 26 August it is 11.45am as I start this, sitting at an outside table at the Cafe Piccadilly - which is supposedly a wine bar, but which also does minor food and coffee. So I just had some ham and mushroom quiche - for breakfast really, as my hotel, Hommiku Hostel, did not supply breakfast - mid you for 600EKr for a single room one cannot have everything. It was easy enough to go and get pastries and coffee for breakfast after all - this morning was a little savoury but I suppose it is almost lunchtime. The reason for such languid time frame is because I was hoping (with no specific info) that there might be a bus around 11.30 - not only is there not one, the 12 noon to ... read more

so this was Kuressaare on the full second day - with sunshine, after day of arrival when I ended up rreading my book and then spending the rest of the evening in the Vinoteek (see separate bibulous account) - Barbara said I thought was A. A. Milne - had to Wikipedia that one, as I thought he was the bloke who wrote Winnie the Pooh and other stories (or maybe he did that AND wrote about food for the Sunday Times!). Anyway finally down to the Kuressaare Bishop's Palace marked on the map attached generally as Vallekraav - it does not always appear to be there - you will likely have to click on the hypertext link above with map name which will take you to the map - it is about the only real attraction ... read more

I am now on Saaremaa island the largest in Estonia - in a place called Kuressaare, which is the biggest town here - but we are only talking about 11,000 people so WAY smaller than anywhere else I have been. It was quite a surprise to come somewhere so small. However I was ale to use my initiative and found a pretty reasonable hotel not mentioned in the LP (Lonely Planet) the Arabella which was only 500Eek (thats Estonian krons - about 9 to Aussie dollar - so that was pretty reasonable. The bus ride to Kuressaare is about 4 hrs (incl. 30mins or so for the ferry crossing to the island) from Tallinn and I got here around 4pm yesterday. I was a little worried about it being the weekend and no booking but it ... read more

tie dye? no hippies really, just running out of titles for these things. This is my 4th night in Tallinn - and I have not seen a lot really as too slow to get going and so forth - knowing that it is not dark til 10pm really means that you can justify (sort of) not getting out of the hotel room til 3pm (like today) - but I was updating my photo blog Mum, gimme a break. well another photoblog update, now that I have solved the technical problem, and can take suitably small files separately to upload to keep youse updated with the visuals. And I guess Tallinn, being medieval jewel blah blah is like that - and I still almost always get lost trying to find my hotel - and I have been ... read more