In the Middle of Nowhere?!: First time home

For Mr. Special that is... to my home ;) Oh he's been waiting for this trip for years! Years! :D And finally it happened.

First stop: Police

I needed to get a new passport (since someone ruined it last year...) and it's the Police and Border Control that deal with them. The office used to be about half an hours away from my house and used to have horrendous queues, I don't think it I've ever waited there less than an hour. And that was when they had a couple offices across town. Now they've moved into one really inconvenient location.. no public transport can get close to it... But it took us less than half an hour I think... In and out and done - hopefully it would be done quickly enough so I could pick it up before I leave again...

Then home time :) Fooooooooood! Proper sandwiches ;)

What could be a better impression of Tallinn than the old town! That's where we were headed for the evening. A nice stroll through the streets of the upper town. Although we started off having waffles at the newly renovated market. Soooo pretty, but doesn't it have quite a bit of wasted space between the "houses"/stalls? Or maybe we got there at a really quiet time and that space is needed to breathe fresh air between the masses of people that flock to it during busy times? Back to the waffles that did not disappoint :) Although it was more like an ice cream cone... with a cream filling (not ice cream). But still heavenly good and the little unit was decorated very cute, in tender pastel pink. I think I first heard about this company a year (2?) ago when someone ordered these for their birthday party and wanted to try them ever since, but always forgot to go (priorities... :() until now!

Once tummies filled (again) we went to explore the city and decided to take the stairs up to the first viewing platform. Ah these pretty red roofs.

From there we made our way through the narrow streets between government buildings "wow so patriotic nearly every house has a flag up" to Toompea Castle (and it's shop - I didn't even know it had a shop). Unfortunately both the Russian Orthodox Church and Toompea Castle were under repairs so not the nicest of photo opportunities. From there to the Danish King's Garden that has had an upgrade since the last time I was there :) A good upgrade, it's much more gardeny, with flowers and pretty shrubs, it had been quite bare beforehand. And who could not notice the 3 eery statues of monks? Creepy...

Down the short leg to Rataskaevu where they used drown cats in... And where you can spot a false window, where the devil had had his wedding before disappearing... Spooky!

And the grand finale that day was of course the Town Hall square.

We finished the day off with a bbq with my friends. Which was preceded by a trip to the supermarket - if you ask Mr. Special this was the highlight of his day, maybe the entire trip even since once he knew the location and proximity of the supermarket he was a frequent customer :D But he was very impressed by what we do for our normal/plain BBQ. In the UK this would be considered a feast and too much effort...

Fun fact, the next morning when Mr. Special was itching to go to the supermarket and asked if we needed anything from there: bread and sour cream. And after I tried to explain how to get to the supermarket and where the sour cream is located in there and what it looks like, my smallest bro (7) sighed and said "I'll go with him, shall I?" :D In Estonian of course because he hardly understands English yet... And they did go, just the two of them, and it was a successful trip. I can just imagine Mr. Special trying to talk the entire way (he's talkative like that) and my lil bro just pointing to things without saying anything (he doesn't talk to strangers or when strangers are around even in Estonian not to mention trying to utter anything in English) :D

The reason we came this time was my family reunion! About 50 people came together and most I even vaguely recognised from photos and faint memories. For some reason our side of the family, my grandmother is one of 6, has been quite distant from the others. They kept talking how they spent they're summers all together etc. I wonder why me and my sister were never taken there... We are/were the same age as the other kids, now 20 somethings. Anyway the reunion was held in the middle of Estonia, in a nice rented house, with a huge pond right next to it and a lake with a proper beach 5 minutes away. And it was a warm warm sunny day! Major regrets for not taking anything to swim in! Luckily I did wear a dress so could at least get my feet wet and take thousands of photos. The photoshoot was rudely interrupted by the looming thunder clouds tat rapidly came over us and made everything so dark. It started pouring down heavily just before we made it inside. And they had been taking group photos at that time... :D Without us...

Mr. Special again was super impressed by the food on offer. We had a traditional long table with all the usual food which he called simple and fresh. Hardly anything fried or deep fried or in pastry in yellow colour like you would find party food in the UK (processed food). Fresh salads, fish, potatoes and so on so on. Healthy food but so simple to make. And he finally gets what I mean when I want something fresh to eat.

The next morning we made a fairly early escape to discover some of the Eastern part of Estonia and lake Peipus since we were in the area (sort of). And made our way to Alatskivi Castle, apparently the prettiest castle in Estonia which was inspired by Balmoral.

We also found the National Geographic yellow rectangle near there! Awesome! Ever since I heard they've put a few up in Estonia I've wanted to see one and now all of a sudden by luck I could. Another photoshoot time!!!!!!!!!!!

Then the best onion pie ever! Still dreaming of that. We had two to try, one just an onion pie and the other with added chanterelle - the only mushroom I will willingly eat. And it was DELICIOSO!!!

From there a quick visit to Lake Peipus which separates us from Russia! So we nearly went to the border of it... well sort of if we pretend hard enough. It's only on the other side of the water.

To finish the day off we went to Rakvere to get a glimpse of the famous Bull and to peek inside the castle ruins but deemed it to be too expensive and more aimed for kids for us to pay to go in. Opted for a nice pancake cafe instead. MMMMMM savoury pancakes! With sour cream sauce almost always added. Now that's what I dearly miss!