Sunday, Dec 4
Friday afternoon the three of us drove up to Tallinn where the rest of our audit will be. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and it's where a third of the country's population lives. The town is on the northern shore of Estonia and only a 3 hour ferry ride from Helsinki Finland.
I was excited to see the xmas market in the town square in old town tallinn. It was a 5 minute walk from our hotel but it was quite cold. I wanted to buy a fur hat because my stylish newsboy cap wasn't cutting it! With zero degree weather you cannot afford to expose your extremities for long. Everybody has to wear hats, gloves and scarves.There were plenty of stands with fur hats and scarfs and wool clothing. I was cold and wanted to buy everything - had to remind myself to not overdo it and that I will return to my home in the desert in a couple of weeks!
Udo told me that this is one of the best xmas market he has seen. It's not crowded, the scenery was perfect because of the snow, there was a beautiful 30 foot xmas tree all lit up in the middle of the square. The many stands displaying local foods, hot drinks, crafts & clothing were also decorated with lights. There was also a big stage set up to play estonian music or movies. We snacked on grilled bratwurst and hot wine. When our toes start to freeze we would duck into a shop or a cafe to thaw out. On average we could only stay outside for 1 hours at a time - it had warmed up to 14 degrees!
Old town itself dates back to the 13th century and is surrounded by a totally intacted wall. We found a really cool wine cellar/restaurant (Restoran Gloria) on Friday and had our drinks & dinner in front of a fireplace. We were litterally right next to it so Udo was in charge of adding logs to the fire throughout the evening. At one point when I told Laszlo I didn't want any bread because it wasn't hot, he placed a piece of bread on one of the fireplace tools and toasted it over the fire for me. I think he had a couple of glasses of wine by then and didn't care that we were being obnoxious.
We were warned about the drunken Finns but was still not prepared for the scene. Our hotel for the weekend was the Viru Sokus with 600 rooms. At any given time there were hoards of finns in the lobby, drunk. It was really claustrophobic. The breakfast room in the mornings was a sight to behold. Hundreds cram into the room and piling on masses of food like there was no tomorrow. Some looked like they never went to bed or stopped drinking. We couldn't wait for them to get back on the ferry and leave on sunday! It was funny to see them lug 6-packs of vodka as they get on the tour bus to leave.
There were so many restaurants in Old Town that we never thought to make reservations. Learned the hard way on Saturday when we walk all over town and couldn't get a table! It started to snow pretty hard so we were covered in snow and had to wipe off each time we go into a restaurant to check for a table. Finally found one place where there was a free table in the basement. So weird, the waitress tried to talk me out of it by saying it will take a very long time for the food, at least 45 minutes. She also said that they are 3 floors and 1 kitchen and it's very busy. If we hadn't walked all over town in bad weather desperate for a place to eat I would have told her to shove it and walked out. Stomach more important than pride!
Laszlo had a favorite restaurant - Restoran Aed - the place we went to for lunch on Saturday. The waitresses were cute and friendly and the restaurant itself had so much personality. It was built in the 17th century and had so many different nooks and cranny over 3 floors. The walls inside look like it's still the original wall and there were hanging plants winding around the beams. The food wasn't that great but the guys really loved the place.
I was excited to see the xmas market in the town square in old town tallinn. It was a 5 minute walk from our hotel but it was quite cold. I wanted to buy a fur hat because my stylish newsboy cap wasn't cutting it! With zero degree weather you cannot afford to expose your extremities for long. Everybody has to wear hats, gloves and scarves.There were plenty of stands with fur hats and scarfs and wool clothing. I was cold and wanted to buy everything - had to remind myself to not overdo it and that I will return to my home in the desert in a couple of weeks!
Udo told me that this is one of the best xmas market he has seen. It's not crowded, the scenery was perfect because of the snow, there was a beautiful 30 foot xmas tree all lit up in the middle of the square. The many stands displaying local foods, hot drinks, crafts & clothing were also decorated with lights. There was also a big stage set up to play estonian music or movies. We snacked on grilled bratwurst and hot wine. When our toes start to freeze we would duck into a shop or a cafe to thaw out. On average we could only stay outside for 1 hours at a time - it had warmed up to 14 degrees!
Old town itself dates back to the 13th century and is surrounded by a totally intacted wall. We found a really cool wine cellar/restaurant (Restoran Gloria) on Friday and had our drinks & dinner in front of a fireplace. We were litterally right next to it so Udo was in charge of adding logs to the fire throughout the evening. At one point when I told Laszlo I didn't want any bread because it wasn't hot, he placed a piece of bread on one of the fireplace tools and toasted it over the fire for me. I think he had a couple of glasses of wine by then and didn't care that we were being obnoxious.
We were warned about the drunken Finns but was still not prepared for the scene. Our hotel for the weekend was the Viru Sokus with 600 rooms. At any given time there were hoards of finns in the lobby, drunk. It was really claustrophobic. The breakfast room in the mornings was a sight to behold. Hundreds cram into the room and piling on masses of food like there was no tomorrow. Some looked like they never went to bed or stopped drinking. We couldn't wait for them to get back on the ferry and leave on sunday! It was funny to see them lug 6-packs of vodka as they get on the tour bus to leave.
There were so many restaurants in Old Town that we never thought to make reservations. Learned the hard way on Saturday when we walk all over town and couldn't get a table! It started to snow pretty hard so we were covered in snow and had to wipe off each time we go into a restaurant to check for a table. Finally found one place where there was a free table in the basement. So weird, the waitress tried to talk me out of it by saying it will take a very long time for the food, at least 45 minutes. She also said that they are 3 floors and 1 kitchen and it's very busy. If we hadn't walked all over town in bad weather desperate for a place to eat I would have told her to shove it and walked out. Stomach more important than pride!
Laszlo had a favorite restaurant - Restoran Aed - the place we went to for lunch on Saturday. The waitresses were cute and friendly and the restaurant itself had so much personality. It was built in the 17th century and had so many different nooks and cranny over 3 floors. The walls inside look like it's still the original wall and there were hanging plants winding around the beams. The food wasn't that great but the guys really loved the place.
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