Wine Country

It took us a long time to decide where to go, we had the dates for a long time but no destination yet or even an idea. So we looked at flights daily, coz we want a good deal! And decided on Sicily, waited a few days and the price had gone up! Bleh! Back to the drawing board! 

And voila out of nowhere Bordeaux popped up! And I've ever only heard good things about it!

We got there quite early, got a little confused at the smallest airport ever, signage is just not clear! Were surprised how cheap the bus ticket to town was and went on a hunt for food, brunch. This was quite a mission as the French eat at certain times and if you're too early then tough! So weird seeing cafes full of people but everyone's drinking their little coffees or soft drinks. Finally after wondering up and down a street that seemed to have plenty of cafes and shops we found one that was opened and served galettes :) Why aren't savoury pancakes a thing in the uk? Why?

We stayed at an airbnb really close to the city centre so everything was just a little walk away and after settling in really early we went to explore the city everyone talks sooooooooo good about... In my honest opinion I was underwhelmed... The streets didn't really caught my eye as I would've expected. Maybe I came here with too high expectations, I mean it was ok! Not bad, it was pretty, it was quaint but I felt like the je ne sais quoi was missing...

We did manage to get to Place de la Bourse at the best time - when it's dark outside and all the lights of the buildings mirror on the water in front of it. Now that is magical :) During the daytime the water switches from being a mist to a 2cm pool.

If you know me you know I have an obsession with towers and must go to the top whenever I can. I absolutely hate those narrow staircases but the view at the top is ALWAYS worth it. Don't think I've ever been disappointed... so in Bordaux we found 2 towers: Puerta de Cailhau which is more like a City Wall entrance port and Tour Pey Berland which is a standalone tower next to the Cathedrale Saint-Andre, offering amazing views.

Having heard that there is a new big museum dedicated to wine and everything to do with wine + free tasting of a wine of your choice who could say no? It's quite a walk from the city centre, especially if it starts raining (not heavy luckily) in the middle of that walk and your wearing a dress and nothing to cover your bare shoulders... The visit to the museum starts with the wine tasting and there is quite a big choice of wine to taste (not just the regional) and the barman is very knowledgable in recommending which one would be perfect for you. My taste is simple, sweet and obviously I enjoyed mine. And that is the most important thing I took from the museum, is that sweet wine is gold/yellow in colour. The museum is very interactive with sounds/stories that start playing when you step in the right spot or push the right button. There are games you can play, such as pick the right colour for the wine, aroma stations. Fun facts and stories of current vineyards and their owners. Not to mention history reenacted through humour. I do regret not taking more photos of the inside.

Snails (tasted like dirt imho)

Frog legs (hardly any taste to them imho)

Our first daytrip started with a faff. My cards weren't working :D Like all 3 of them :S Hawkward... None of them were blocked though so it must be the type of card machines used. Finally after trying a few machines one card started working and worked through the end of the trip! Phew! Thanks to the faffing around we arrived at the train station with about 10 mins to spare before our train. Went to the tunnel that lead to platforms and it was closed! With a mass of people waiting to get into it and no information! Finally finally, 2 mins before our train there was news of another tunnel that was open! ARGH couldn't someone have been there guiding us towards that to make our train instead of endless "I don't know what's happened". Clearly we did not make our train. The next one was in an hour and luckily our tickets were valid for that as well :)

St. Ėmilion is a charming little village just an hour by train from Bordeaux. It has narrow winding streets, multiple height levels, monastery ruins, church, viewing platforms, restaurants, wine and vineyards surrounding it. What else could you need?

What's up pussycat

The biggest sand dune in Europe is also only a couple of hours away from Bordeaux. A little awkward to get to though as the train and bus times do not match perfectly. We had to wait an hour for the bus to take us there, which gave us a little time to explore Arcachon.

It's a HUGE pile of sand... We took full advantage of the staircase to get up to the top and the view was amazing, ocean on one side and forest on the other.

What better way to finish our wine country holiday than to go on a wine tasting tour! We visited two castles.

Horses!

There were the most annoying American/Canadian girls sitting behind us on the bus!

Last meal of the trip was sushi!!!! Because I can't get any in my own little town...

Ttyl ;)

Jazzz...

More of Old Town Tallinn

Ok so we were enjoying the amazing pancakes you saw in the last post in Rakvere when my sister's phone rang and it was our mom wondering where we were... Turns out they were waiting for us to get back to celebrate the independence day with style. Oh the infamous sandwich cake that I always eat when home! It's delicious and only one! shop has it! And I couldn't find any this time :( (yes this epic failure must be noted down). She did manage to find a sandwich cake, just a different flavour... Plus potato salad, viinerid, and CAKE! yum!

Roll on the next day after an amazing foodie weekend. We went to the Open Air Museum. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best, trying to rain but luckily didn't. We saw a really fancy rooster, all the old farm houses, their summer kitchens outside (he was so surprised and worried about my nan having an oven outside on the roofed terrace, where every summer she cooks and eats, he had never ever seen anything like it, until now where we found out it's a long long tradition) and tried kiiking - made Mr. Specail nauseous. The newest (I think) house in the museum was exactly like ours (before renovation), pretty cool to find your house, wallpapers, furniture etc in a museum already :D

Obviously had a lunch break there which serves oldy traditional food, with fresh pickles mmmmmm....

The evening took us to another trip to the Old Town, another part of it now, the new Freedom Square and the BEST pancake place in the World. Huge portions, cheap prices! Needed a good walk around all souvenir shops to walk it all off. (fun fact, it's quite hard to find a good souvenir shop since most of them sell Russian things and amber which really don't have any connection with Estonia...). Ooooh and that night we found a busker who was playing the Game of Thrones theme tune on a violin! So awesome!!!

Cheese balls!!!

Garlic bread!!!!

Hello there!

We also went to the Fat Margarita which Mr. Special seems to think is one of the main attractions... I think he just heard the word Fat and was fascinated ever since. In reality it's just a big big tower on the city wall, with a maritime? museum in it. Nothing too special :D Pretty nonetheless. Further down from there we stumbled upon the Annual flower festival where different themed gardens are set up... the mermaid one was freaky, the bee one had a tiny maze shaped like a beehive.

The next day was supposed to be a better day in terms of weather so we chose to go see Kadriorg Palace and gardens. But as soon as we had to step out of the tram it started raining. Heavy! Really heavy, likked soaked instantly heavy. Ok can't exactly wait at the tram stop until it's over, so we legged it to the nearby cafe, to wait it out. Had a little cake and coffee to cheer us up but when we were done the rain still wasn't, although it wasn't as bad so we made the decision to hastily go straight to the castle. Mr. Special managed to quickly take a photo of the swan pond, I had initially wanted to walk around that park as well as it is divine.

The Kadriorg Palace was built for Catherine I of Russia and now houses an art museum. When we were finally done exploring all the art, it had finally stopped raining so we could head outside to check out the garden behind the Palace. Behind that garden is another Palace where our president lives and works.

We also went to have a look at the Japanese Garden in one of the corners of that huge grounds.

Since Mr. Special's dad is a big football fan, obviously he wanted to go and visit our local Arena, A le Coq Arena which luckily isn't too far from my house so we could walk there. There is  a big sport shop there as well but even that is quite poor in the souvenir selection... clearly football is not all the fuss in here :D We did manage to find a scarf and a pin luckily...

Don't think I've ever been to the TV Tower in Tallinn... until now :)

And guess what we did on our last day??? Went to the Old Town obviously! :D

This time climbed the Oleviste Church tower which at the time it was built was the highest tower in the World! Don't worry there are a few seats half way up the tower to catch your breath before the stunning city views.

Lunch time! This time we opted for a real medieval feel of a cafe, which served soup, pies (wild boar, deer etc traditional meat + carrot, cabbage) and sausages. There were no lights and it was superbusy, we were lucky to find a table, missing a seat at first but as soon as we got all the food a seat became available as well :) A really cool place! glad we found it!

After that we made our way to the gallery of my favourite artist Navitrolla. I bought some postcards with his work on. I love his quirky style and humour and used to have a calendar but haven't found that in a few years :(

Finally I had to show you how crazy Mr. Special went... I don't know how we managed to get it all in the suitcase and it was only 1kg over! Ooooh he lost it, because we didn't get there "early" enough and the queue was HUGE. Tbh I wasn't expecting the queue to be that big, can't actually remember the last time I travelled with a big suitcase...

This is what milk looks like

Ttyl ;)
Jazzz...