Tallinn tie dye - and gourmet tucker

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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 here 4 days! - those damn circular streets are not as handy as grid cities that for sure.

I organised myself to go on an all day trip yesterday 20th to Laheemaa peninsula - City Bike also hire bikes, but do a van tour out there - and you can safely forget really doing it by public transport that's for sure. 3 other people went - a German lady called Doris and an English woman in her 40's - Barbara I think her name was, and her 16 or so daughter Naomi (who were going on to Russia to stay in hostels - onya Mm!)- who did not really say a word to anyone - typical teenager but did have her head stuck in a Jilly Cooper novelette in between times. All 3 had arranged bikes - so I spent the rest of the day with the driver Marcus and had a very one on one experience from 11am to 5pm with the girls cycling until the girls and bikes met up with us at a place called Kasmu. Fortunately Marcus was a very keen photographer and had a good hi-end Pentax so we had a good photo ramble thru a forest walk taking pictures of different kinds of mushroons and so on - and right at the end had some good views thru my binos of some black and white, red crested woodpeckers - who did not do any woodpecking as such but moved quite quickly from tree to tree. Plenty of wild berries around - blue berries, and red ones called cow berries. Marcus was showing me different plant things to try - various clover type grasses etc - he did not suggest any toadstools and I assumed what he recommended was safe - and my stomach did not need pumping later so must have been OK! People gather wild mushrooms at this time of year - yellowish chanterelles are on restaurant menus etc.

Laheemaa has some sort of mystical experience for Estonians - but I did not overall think it was that distinctive an experience - a walk thru flat even birch/pine type forest - only a very few woodpeckers as mentioned - some wild mushrooms and berries - wow! - just as well Marcus was good company and we had endless things to talk about. And the sea shore where we ended up was rocky coast - the Estonians love boulders and their mystical properties - it aint called E-stonia for nothing, ha ha.. (mind you, Zimbabwe is the only country I know that has large boulders on the back of most of its bank notes! - one up on the E-stonians!) - actuallt the E-stonia is more likely to apply to the wi-fi state of the natioa - everywhere allegedly - I downloaded my mail to my Itouch in a cafe this afternoon while waiting for the cappucino.

I started late today and headed up to the 2 churches on Toompea (the big rock platform above my hotel with the Parliament etc) - one Orthodox cathedral, the other St Mary - before heading over to the large Kadriorg parklands - where Kumu (the modern art museum is - too late to get in tho - damn! - too slow to get there) - Peter the Great's humble cottage also there - and the Presidential place with 2 bored soldiers standing guard outside, doing the occasional drill to wake up. Organised a couple of tram tickets - 1 for today, one for tomorrow to go to the main bus station to get out of town.

Dinner tonight at a place called Restaurant Aed - the Embassy of Pure Food. this was pretty damn good and has a general eco vege vibe but also relatively and loosely gourmet - menu items marked G (gluten free) L (lactose) free etc. And a number of items celebrated the festival of the carrot ! (bloody hippies)- including the carrot ice cream and also in quite a few other things. My herring entree came with nice salad and green pea ice cream - not as bizarre as it might sound. I had rabbit main which was very nice with some roasted carrots and snap peas. A nice mousse type dessert allegedly with Vana Tallinn (local liqueur). All up this was 510 E Kr (just under 60AUD) - my dinner at a restuarant called E (unpronouncable - like Erhh apparently) 2 nights previously was 1100 odd before tip - annoying that menu prices there did not incl. GST/VAT - and that's 20% here (its 22% in Finland!). That was a high end experience tho - 2 sorbets between courses and a very nice aperitif starter - white fish roe and a warm beetroot consomme in a tiny cup. The crayfish soup, with chicken and finished with dark beer - not sure where the crayfish went! - then some beautiful pigeon breast, darkly pink and a bit of leg - along with confit piglet (which was drop dead melt in the mouth) on a jerusalem artichoke puree - are we getting the drift? Then a curd cheese brulee with cubed strawberries and raspberry sorbet,. Accompanied by a glass of vin d'Alsace, then Valpolicella - then a Schlumberger Alsace sweetie - backpacker burger tours this aint!

now better upload some pix and get to bed!

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