We got out for a walk into Old Town, and also decided to take a Hop On Hop Off bus tour, as Aurélie had seen it would include the soviet statue “graveyard” I wanted to see. We took the first bus, knowing we’d need to walk from the Song Festival Grounds to the Estonian History Museum where the statues were. Unfortunately, Citymapper’s direct route, whilst starting well, took us into nettles and swarms of mosquitoes! It was a bit traumatic for a few minutes, but we recovered ok. But walking through the park would have been better!
I was expecting/hoping to find the statues piled and tumbled willy nilly, but no, these are items in the museum collection. So interesting, but not the kind of Ozymandias delapidated hubris I had in mind. I once again regret the loss of the photos from my Russian trip (see https://sleath.blog/2021/02/20/memories-of-russia/).
The sun was pretty fierce but we waited until the next bus to take us back to town, and we then walked across the old town, picking up a set of lovely ice creams on the way (pesca naranja for me, top stuff) looking at Toompea Castle and lots of other historical buildings, before getting one more bus to do a final loop. A bit of a rest at the hotel before sallying forth to Kaerajann, an old town restaurant which was excellent. Good schnitzel, good duck. You have to watch out for seagulls though – we saw a couple at the next restaurant over get dive-bombed – they were fine, but their meal was somewhat… compromised.
Next day, I got out for a run, just along the promenade next to the sea.
Breakfast done, we summoned a Bolt (bigger than Uber here) to go to Nōmme for a silk printing workshop. It was a bit of an effort getting there, as most of Tallinn is being dug up to make it better, bigger, newer. Buildings, roads, tram tracks – everywhere you turn! But we made it and the workshop was absolutely lovely – Kadrin hosted it in the garden of her house and patiently led us through the crafting of a painted silk scarf. Really good fun, for all the family!
We popped into Nōmme itself to look at the market where we bought some pirukad (like a pasty, but made with doughnut batter) for a quick lunch and some apricots which we ate while waiting for the 36 bus back to town, and cherries that we ate on the bus. 🍒
We spotted an H&M and bought some things to print on (more on this when we get to Riga), then visited the PoCo Pop Art gallery. It’s a nice exhibition, but so interesting as it’s hard to tell which pieces are “original” – and that’s kind of the point with Pop Art! I asked the guy (the only employee in the place, I think) who said the Warhols came from the Factory (so official copies), the Banksys come from Pest Control (ditto) and one of the Keith Harings was an original.
Morale is good, but there is a degree of fatigue, especially around food. We went to a Mexican place, Taqueria, which was ok, then the girls + Mum went to playground… ironically, the sudden downpour occurred while I (who’d been wearing a waterproof) was back in the hostel, but fortunately the girls found it funny and saw a rainbow too.
Timsformational 