I am the bull and you are the china shop

Estonia, Estonia, Estonia. Music to my ears. After 3 days of traveling with a 30 lb pack we have all realized that it is hard to maneuver our person in tight corners, nooks, crannies, and around small children. Also, around Eastern European pottery. On the other hand, we discovered that Finland has wonderful wool, reindeer furs, fresh fish, and sporadic live music in random parks. Excellent. This morning we took a ferry over from Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn is a mecca for adorableness. It's true. The entire old town of Tallinn is about 10-15 streets with outdoor cafes, historic palaces and forts, old Russian churches, Amber malls (that's stores that sell amber jewelry and amber jewelry only), medieval torture restaurants, ice cream shops, and helpful men on segways. We started the day off by walking to a cute cafe where we bought delicious lunch pastries. We then decided to go for another snack at a hidden (literally) cafe that included only Estonian people, amazing coffee, and some of the best tiramisu I have ever had (look at it and salivate).


After spending about an hour in a quiet courtyard, listening to the birds sing, we decided we should actually explore the town of Tallinn. We went to a mysterious Dominican monastery that was actually Russian. We trailed one of the oldest pharmacies in Europe and took a look at preserved mummy hands, deer penises, and pickled toads. We also went to Alexander Nevsky Church and got distracted by the all too touristy archery challenge that was actually archery blackjack. Kat and Katie were brave enough to pick up a bow and arrow and attempt to make excellent fools of themselves. Please enjoy the pictures that follow:

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Who knew that the archeologist and the med student would be so good at archery? Katie even won us a traditional Estonian liquor, PARTY! We then proceeded to actually look at Alexander Nevsky Church: magnificent architecture...not really sure what it is or who it is for, but it's definitely pretty to look at, just like the Finnish men.

Oh, also...we were in a palace with some towers that had names and secret Estonian music rooms, and one more, little Estonian children performing the art of parkour. Here we are, look at those grins!

To commemorate our thus far great experience, the ambitiousness of this trip, the joy we all get from traveling, and the fateful years of friendship, also apparently health, we all purchased a piece of traditional Estonian amber jewelry. Check it out, we thought we were pretty rockin'.

The memories have been made and Tallinn is a city that I would consider moving to as well. I think we see a trend here. It was peaceful, not too busy, charming (this is actually what I would call charm city, sorry bmore) and it had a colorful culture. I'll leave you with a fun fact: Estonian is NOT the official language of Estonia, it's actually Russian! I just wish I spoke Estonian, because those accents are pretty cool. Tanan for now (thank you in Estonian).
Nomad Wannabe