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enismirdalReview of holiday - Warning - stuff behind the cuts is LONG
Some general impressions of Tallinn:
Tallinn is a city of four smells - sweet lime blossom, fresh tar, blocked sewers and urine. Which smell you get depends on where you go in the city. The tourist areas are mostly flowery.
The old town is very pretty, and the prices of the restaurants are pretty much up with those at any other restaurant anywhere in Europe, i.e. £4 for the very cheapest main courses, going up to £20 for venison steak. Local dishes are rich, substantial, meaty and delicious, and leave you VERY full. Mulgi is nice. Sauerkraut is popular (yay!) and the little fried garlic bread pieces are delish.
When old Estonian ladies get really old, they don't go to care homes. They become museum curators.
The holiday itself:
Wednesday - left not as early as I'd feared, lots of sitting in a car down to Gatwick.
Found Gatwick hotel and were duly unimpressed - strong smell of stale cigarette smoke in spite of room being non-smoking. View out of window was of the (rusty and horifically ugly) air-conditioning units, complete with one item of female underwear which had presumably been flung from a window on some upper floor. Ironically, the air-con in our room barely worked. The TV remote didn't work at all, not that it mattered since the TV was tuned to a seemingly random variety of channels in no particular order and had extremely dodgy reception. Went for walk to escape room, and saw many wild rabbits. Many many. There was a sick one, so I went all gooey and felt sorry for it, but what can you do?
Slept, got up very early. Dumped car at a BNP, got coach into airport. Mother got caught in security; she'd forgotten she'd packed nail scissors in her hand luggage. But the lady was dreadfully nice about it, searched her bag with total respect for her possessions, and disposed of the offending items.
Plane fine, managed to avoid killer earache by wearing earplugs, was pleasantly surprised to see that Estonian cabin crew consisted almost exclusively of beautiful blonde women. (No, Avvie, I'm not going to run off with an Estonian air hostess, really). In flight food = 3 mini frankfurters and some unidentified block which seemed to be like a piece of quiche, only without the pastry, containing the egg stuff, carrots and peas. Then strawberry yoghurt and drinks.
Taxi to hotel. Compared with Gatwick hotel, this one was seriously nice! Large big huge TV, comfy beds (the other ones, you could feel the springs under your ribs), no smoke, view pretty dull (edge of multistorey carpark) but still, could see a lot of Tallinn. Discovered that the glass on the window was one-way, so took childish delight in mooning out of the window for a bit. Discovered Estonian restaurant round the corner and ate there - v. nice.
Next day (Friday) investigated the old town thoroughly. Dad took lots of photos. Postcards bought, but I didn't write any until I had something to say :)
Saturday, went to Tartu, the main university town, and posted the postcards. Dominant smell in Tartu is fresh tar. Pretty city, nice and spacious and lying on a large-ish river. Went to Zoology museum and got bouncy about the exhibits (espcially Siphunculids!). Decided that needed some new stuffec exhibits; giraffe looked rather threadbare. Botanical gardens (found one stinky plant, fly-pollenated, which my dad compared to old ladies' groins in scent. How he knows about the scent of the aforementioned, I do not care to discover), and former KGB cells. The isolation cells were scary - imagine living in a space the size of a wardrobe for 5 days straight, being fed every 3rd day. Ugh.
Sunday, went to look around the National Park. It was very beautiful; wildflowers everywhere. We saw beaver dams! Also, the grossest toilets yet recorded (if you're familiar with the Viking toilet described at the Jorvik - well, it was exactly that). Much of the National Park is plantation, which feels a little unnatural (like prepackaged trees, all identical in age and size). Peeked at some teeny fishing villages and discovered that the Baltic Sea smells bad and is not overly clean near the shore.
We ran into a fascinating village, clearly originally a settlement for the workers at a nearby abandoned Soviet factory. It had an absolutely huge manor house in the middle, in which, surprisingly, was a high-class restaurant. Presumably, some enterprising person had bought the manor on the cheap; it was in an appalling state, but the damage seemed mainly superficial, and had decided to do the place up and attract more wealth to the village. Popped into the local shop, which was a fascinating crowded place piled high with every kind of foodstuff. Looked around lots and selected cheese flavour crisps, which turned out to taste more like butter. Odd.
Monday was our last day with the car. The original plan had been to visit Parnu, a seaside resort famed for its mud-baths. But, realising Parnu was at least 2 hours' drive and the car had to be back to the hire place by 5pm ideally, we ruled that out; no time to do anything! Instead, we selected a closer seaside resort, Haapsalu (leading to much puns involving 'Haapsalu-tely'). I'm glad we did. Haapsalu was less of the touristy and therefore more of the cheap and seemingly, more Estonian in character. The castle was interesting; it had been restored in a few places to stop the ruins falling to pieces, and the central grassy bit served as a kind of function-area for town events. Visited a little Estonian supermarket, purchasing bread (15p a loaf), cheese, chocolate, 'cocoa flavour milk bar' (looks like chocolate, but tastes more like vegetable fat with sweetners), etc. Fed 4 of us for about £3. Found a 50ft by 20ft rectangle of sand next to the sea to eat. Took one sniff of nearby loos and decided I could hang on. Car back in good time.
Yesterday evening, we'd already visited the ferry port to work out 1. how long it took to walk there and 2. where we had to go to get our ferry. My dad then bought us all drinks from the bar there, and we sat around drinking them. We were then dragged into a conversation with an amusing but utterly bonkers Finn, who started the conversation by laughing incredibly loudly. We discussed his family ("They are all drop dead - HAHAHAHA!"), English, languages ("My German teacher - I think he was a Nazi - HAHAHAHA!"), Finland, beer runs (the Finns do booze cruises to Tallinn just like the English do them to Calais; and yes, the giant booze supermarkets have cropped up over there, too) and other matters. He was quite fun, found everything hilarious, and my mum seemed to like him.
We subsequently arrived at the ferry port in good time on Tuesday; I was able to wangle 15 minutes in the internet café (my only fix for the week); caught up with most of LJ in that time. Managed to travel on a boat without feeling sick, which was nice; slept a lot. It was a seacat, too, which are bumpier; I was very pleased!
Helsinki is cosmopolitan, big, busy; much like and European capital. Lots of things to see, but scarily we kept ending up walking up and down the same boulevard. It has 2 cathedrals; both beautiful. One is white, with 2 gold angels either side of the altar. Looking at them, I suddenly understood that the beauty of stunning androgynous men began far earlier than I thought. Got irresistible urge to slash the 2 angels together, although still haven't worked out quite how. Other cathedral was Eastern Orthodox and, like all such churches, covered in gold everywhere.
Helsinki market stalls sell reindeer sandwiches and smoked eel curled round and put on a stick, like a fich lollipop. I contented myself with calamares and seafood rice for lunch. Also tried whitebait; interesting flavour, but I can't get over the weirdness of eating something with eyes, a tail still attached and a teeny backbone sticking out.
Found a record store and thought I'd take advantage of the location to purchase Nightwish CDs, which I did. Also, was given free Nightwish posters, go me! Felt very pleased with myself.
Wednesday, we tested out the joys of Estonian trams - they are indeed rather good. Tried, and failed, to find the botanical gardens, but saw a mini-palace instead. Sehr cute. Also tried and failed to find the radio-tower. Still, got to see more of Tallinn from the tram, and got a pretty tram ticket to take home:
I ducked out of afternoon activities and spent the afternoon writing and watching TV instead, which was nice. Returned to out lovely Estonian restaurant once again, and I left a quick note in their guestbook. In Sindarin :p
Up at a seriously stupid hour - 5:45am. For Pete's sake, I've gone to bed barely before that previously! I'd been stupidly insomniac all night - at one point I decided I'd had enough, so sneaked out of bed (without waking my mum, who was sharing the twin room) and went into the bathroom so as not to disturb her. Sat down in the shower and sketched and wrote.
Airport, security, plane. In flight food = 3 mini frankfurters and some unidentified block which seemed to be like a piece of quiche, only without the pastry, containing the egg stuff, carrots and peas. Then strawberry yoghurt and drinks. Sound familiar? This seems to be the all-purpose meal, suitable for breakfast, lunch and supper. 'k
Customs - noticed that UK citizens got processed somewhat faster than the Estonian ones...odd. Although all with good humour. The staff at UK airports are lovely. Picked up car from BNP, then long drive home.
Got home feeling somewhat sick from all the rich food on holiday, and exhausted from travelling. And so ends the saga.
Anyone who read all that...you have too much free time! *giggles*
Some general impressions of Tallinn:
Tallinn is a city of four smells - sweet lime blossom, fresh tar, blocked sewers and urine. Which smell you get depends on where you go in the city. The tourist areas are mostly flowery.
The old town is very pretty, and the prices of the restaurants are pretty much up with those at any other restaurant anywhere in Europe, i.e. £4 for the very cheapest main courses, going up to £20 for venison steak. Local dishes are rich, substantial, meaty and delicious, and leave you VERY full. Mulgi is nice. Sauerkraut is popular (yay!) and the little fried garlic bread pieces are delish.
When old Estonian ladies get really old, they don't go to care homes. They become museum curators.
The holiday itself:
Wednesday - left not as early as I'd feared, lots of sitting in a car down to Gatwick.
Found Gatwick hotel and were duly unimpressed - strong smell of stale cigarette smoke in spite of room being non-smoking. View out of window was of the (rusty and horifically ugly) air-conditioning units, complete with one item of female underwear which had presumably been flung from a window on some upper floor. Ironically, the air-con in our room barely worked. The TV remote didn't work at all, not that it mattered since the TV was tuned to a seemingly random variety of channels in no particular order and had extremely dodgy reception. Went for walk to escape room, and saw many wild rabbits. Many many. There was a sick one, so I went all gooey and felt sorry for it, but what can you do?
Slept, got up very early. Dumped car at a BNP, got coach into airport. Mother got caught in security; she'd forgotten she'd packed nail scissors in her hand luggage. But the lady was dreadfully nice about it, searched her bag with total respect for her possessions, and disposed of the offending items.
Plane fine, managed to avoid killer earache by wearing earplugs, was pleasantly surprised to see that Estonian cabin crew consisted almost exclusively of beautiful blonde women. (No, Avvie, I'm not going to run off with an Estonian air hostess, really). In flight food = 3 mini frankfurters and some unidentified block which seemed to be like a piece of quiche, only without the pastry, containing the egg stuff, carrots and peas. Then strawberry yoghurt and drinks.
Taxi to hotel. Compared with Gatwick hotel, this one was seriously nice! Large big huge TV, comfy beds (the other ones, you could feel the springs under your ribs), no smoke, view pretty dull (edge of multistorey carpark) but still, could see a lot of Tallinn. Discovered that the glass on the window was one-way, so took childish delight in mooning out of the window for a bit. Discovered Estonian restaurant round the corner and ate there - v. nice.
Next day (Friday) investigated the old town thoroughly. Dad took lots of photos. Postcards bought, but I didn't write any until I had something to say :)
Saturday, went to Tartu, the main university town, and posted the postcards. Dominant smell in Tartu is fresh tar. Pretty city, nice and spacious and lying on a large-ish river. Went to Zoology museum and got bouncy about the exhibits (espcially Siphunculids!). Decided that needed some new stuffec exhibits; giraffe looked rather threadbare. Botanical gardens (found one stinky plant, fly-pollenated, which my dad compared to old ladies' groins in scent. How he knows about the scent of the aforementioned, I do not care to discover), and former KGB cells. The isolation cells were scary - imagine living in a space the size of a wardrobe for 5 days straight, being fed every 3rd day. Ugh.
Sunday, went to look around the National Park. It was very beautiful; wildflowers everywhere. We saw beaver dams! Also, the grossest toilets yet recorded (if you're familiar with the Viking toilet described at the Jorvik - well, it was exactly that). Much of the National Park is plantation, which feels a little unnatural (like prepackaged trees, all identical in age and size). Peeked at some teeny fishing villages and discovered that the Baltic Sea smells bad and is not overly clean near the shore.
We ran into a fascinating village, clearly originally a settlement for the workers at a nearby abandoned Soviet factory. It had an absolutely huge manor house in the middle, in which, surprisingly, was a high-class restaurant. Presumably, some enterprising person had bought the manor on the cheap; it was in an appalling state, but the damage seemed mainly superficial, and had decided to do the place up and attract more wealth to the village. Popped into the local shop, which was a fascinating crowded place piled high with every kind of foodstuff. Looked around lots and selected cheese flavour crisps, which turned out to taste more like butter. Odd.
Monday was our last day with the car. The original plan had been to visit Parnu, a seaside resort famed for its mud-baths. But, realising Parnu was at least 2 hours' drive and the car had to be back to the hire place by 5pm ideally, we ruled that out; no time to do anything! Instead, we selected a closer seaside resort, Haapsalu (leading to much puns involving 'Haapsalu-tely'). I'm glad we did. Haapsalu was less of the touristy and therefore more of the cheap and seemingly, more Estonian in character. The castle was interesting; it had been restored in a few places to stop the ruins falling to pieces, and the central grassy bit served as a kind of function-area for town events. Visited a little Estonian supermarket, purchasing bread (15p a loaf), cheese, chocolate, 'cocoa flavour milk bar' (looks like chocolate, but tastes more like vegetable fat with sweetners), etc. Fed 4 of us for about £3. Found a 50ft by 20ft rectangle of sand next to the sea to eat. Took one sniff of nearby loos and decided I could hang on. Car back in good time.
Yesterday evening, we'd already visited the ferry port to work out 1. how long it took to walk there and 2. where we had to go to get our ferry. My dad then bought us all drinks from the bar there, and we sat around drinking them. We were then dragged into a conversation with an amusing but utterly bonkers Finn, who started the conversation by laughing incredibly loudly. We discussed his family ("They are all drop dead - HAHAHAHA!"), English, languages ("My German teacher - I think he was a Nazi - HAHAHAHA!"), Finland, beer runs (the Finns do booze cruises to Tallinn just like the English do them to Calais; and yes, the giant booze supermarkets have cropped up over there, too) and other matters. He was quite fun, found everything hilarious, and my mum seemed to like him.
We subsequently arrived at the ferry port in good time on Tuesday; I was able to wangle 15 minutes in the internet café (my only fix for the week); caught up with most of LJ in that time. Managed to travel on a boat without feeling sick, which was nice; slept a lot. It was a seacat, too, which are bumpier; I was very pleased!
Helsinki is cosmopolitan, big, busy; much like and European capital. Lots of things to see, but scarily we kept ending up walking up and down the same boulevard. It has 2 cathedrals; both beautiful. One is white, with 2 gold angels either side of the altar. Looking at them, I suddenly understood that the beauty of stunning androgynous men began far earlier than I thought. Got irresistible urge to slash the 2 angels together, although still haven't worked out quite how. Other cathedral was Eastern Orthodox and, like all such churches, covered in gold everywhere.
Helsinki market stalls sell reindeer sandwiches and smoked eel curled round and put on a stick, like a fich lollipop. I contented myself with calamares and seafood rice for lunch. Also tried whitebait; interesting flavour, but I can't get over the weirdness of eating something with eyes, a tail still attached and a teeny backbone sticking out.
Found a record store and thought I'd take advantage of the location to purchase Nightwish CDs, which I did. Also, was given free Nightwish posters, go me! Felt very pleased with myself.
Wednesday, we tested out the joys of Estonian trams - they are indeed rather good. Tried, and failed, to find the botanical gardens, but saw a mini-palace instead. Sehr cute. Also tried and failed to find the radio-tower. Still, got to see more of Tallinn from the tram, and got a pretty tram ticket to take home:
I ducked out of afternoon activities and spent the afternoon writing and watching TV instead, which was nice. Returned to out lovely Estonian restaurant once again, and I left a quick note in their guestbook. In Sindarin :p
Up at a seriously stupid hour - 5:45am. For Pete's sake, I've gone to bed barely before that previously! I'd been stupidly insomniac all night - at one point I decided I'd had enough, so sneaked out of bed (without waking my mum, who was sharing the twin room) and went into the bathroom so as not to disturb her. Sat down in the shower and sketched and wrote.
Airport, security, plane. In flight food = 3 mini frankfurters and some unidentified block which seemed to be like a piece of quiche, only without the pastry, containing the egg stuff, carrots and peas. Then strawberry yoghurt and drinks. Sound familiar? This seems to be the all-purpose meal, suitable for breakfast, lunch and supper. 'k
Customs - noticed that UK citizens got processed somewhat faster than the Estonian ones...odd. Although all with good humour. The staff at UK airports are lovely. Picked up car from BNP, then long drive home.
Got home feeling somewhat sick from all the rich food on holiday, and exhausted from travelling. And so ends the saga.
Anyone who read all that...you have too much free time! *giggles*
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no subject
Date: 4 Aug 2004 23:57 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2004 14:05 (UTC)My family used to own land south of Tallinn...
no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2004 08:12 (UTC)The story of the two angels is a tragic story because they can't actually move to share their Twu Wuv.
I do not have too much free time, but I do have too few tuits.
no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2004 09:14 (UTC)UK citizens processed faster than Estonian ones because UK citizens don't have border controls for entering the UK, don't need visas, etc....
Mm, writing. Must do more of that. Would help if I knew what happened next in the things I was writing...
no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2004 09:52 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2004 10:06 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2004 12:06 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2004 12:17 (UTC)no subject
Date: 5 Aug 2004 16:55 (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 Aug 2004 10:28 (UTC)no subject
Date: 6 Aug 2004 15:51 (UTC)