Two drifters off to see the world. . .

Well we just spent the past 4 days exploring Estonia’s capital city, Tallinn. We spent most of our time in vanalinn (Old Town) which is a two-tiered medieval town with part of it’s defensive wall still intact and is a UNESCO world heritage site. We arrived at our hostel on Sunday night and after checking in we walked around the Old Town for a few hours. That evening we were invited for dinner with Andres and Liisa. They served us a nice meal and we drank lots of wine over some good conversation. After we said good-night to Andres and Liisa, we decided we were not ready to call it a night yet so we headed to the Depeche Mode bar (which only plays Depeche Mode music). 

Monday, the 20th, was Estonia’s Taasiseseisvumispääev or Re-Establishment of Indepence day (August 20, 1991) so there were lots of events going on in the city to celebrate it. We started by attending the placing of flowers on the Estonian Independence Monument. The previous president was there and they gave some speeches and a marching band played music. (We had run into the current president’s motorcade in Kuressaare). After that we went to the grand unveiling of a reconstructed gate that was next to the Niguliste Church. It was rebuilt and included the original keystone in it, which depicted an angel which rich people would walk under for good luck. Although the luck didn’t seem to help them unveil it as the curtain covering it was stuck when they pulled the drawstring and someone had to climb up and rip it off! [read on]

After recharging our batteries in Saku, we decided to make another large road trip through Eesti. This time though, we headed east instead of west. We drove from Saku to Kiiu Torn (Tower) which has an estonian liquor named after it. We tasted them and would really recommend the coffee and herb flavors. We then drove onwards through the Palmse Manor, and the Estonian artists museum in Viinistu. We then visited the Rakvere castle, which included a torture room, and some interesting exibits where you can actually play with swords and jousting equipment. We then drove through Lüganuse and searched around the graveyard, where we believe some of Eero’s relatives are burried. (The Ahermaa side of the family…which we didn’t end up finding). We then continued on along the northern cliffs and ended up spending the night at a really nice farm B&B run by Tia Rüütopold (a Canadian-Estonian who’s been living there for nearly 15 years now). [read on]