My last weekend was spent on a short trip to the neighboring country, Estonia. During our 5-hour drive we stopped in small scenic towns and saw a couple of pretty waterfalls. The soil there is very rocky, and such waterfalls are quite frequent.
We reached Tallin, the capital of Estonia in the early afternoon. The Old Town of Tallin is beautiful in its own way; it has many medieval buildings that are a bit less ornate a more fortress-like in comparison to what we can see in Riga.
I loved wondering many narrow pebble stone streets
and marveling over the skyline of old rooftops.
Many buildings are decorated with rod iron, and I liked this ship sculpture hanging over the doors of the marine museum especially.
Estonians claim that they invented marzipan and they have a museum dedicated to this culinary art. We visited a workshop where we had a chance to make an edible sculpture ourselves. Here’s my gold fish that I made for my husband—I hope it travels well back to the States.
Here’s the entrance to one of many cute sweets shops—having a sweet tooth, I couldn’t get enough of them!
Of course, visiting Tallin couldn’t have been the same without us sampling their famous trout dishes and beer. This is me and my niece having a drink of the house-made cinnamon and herb beer—it was great!
Besides wondering round the streets of Old Tallin, we also checked out its outskirts and the port.
There is a beautiful Kadriorg park in Tallin with a palace that Peter the Great build for himself so he could stay there while visiting his navy (Estonia is very close to St. Petersburg, Russia, and Tallin has been conquered by Russians many times since old ages). This palace and the park was built in the same style as his other residences in Russia.
And check out these roses—just a small patch visible in this picture.
On the outskirts of this park there is the contemporary Kumu (the name comes from Kunst Museum) building with a large exposition of Estonian art. I enjoyed walking through its many rooms and learning what Estonian art is about.
On my way back I made my last stop at a store and bought a few edible souvenirs: pickled herring that Estonians are very proud of and their famous liquor, Vanna Tallin. I am not sure that these two things would pair up well together in one dish, but we'll certainy enjoy them separately before too long.
