Baltics24: Day 8 – Tallinn

Another full day in sunny, historic Tallinn.

We headed out into the suburbs to see a bit more of Tallinn and check out some shopping. We took the tram, and after a couple of stops could hear an accordion playing, followed soon after by a teenage boy with a cup seeking donations. Not many other passengers paid any notice, and even had we wanted to, so far it’s been a pretty cashless trip — I didn’t need to get any SEK in Stockholm, and haven’t had to withdraw any euro here, it’s all been card. Even the public transport both here and Helsinki could be done using a standard credit card.

The mall we ended up in looked a lot like malls everywhere, though with a few more outdoors/home decor shops, and at least three toy shops. We smelt the Lush before we saw it, so all is normal there. The one unique thing was that, in addition to the regular lifts and exercises, there was a slide down from the first floor to the ground. While we were both tempted to give it a go, we figured it was best left to others.

We took the train back to Talinn central and had a wander around the Creative City, which we walked around on our food tour without going in. There are three or four buildings with interesting shops and artist galleries within, hence the creative I guess. It used to be a train maintenance depot, and has been repurposed/re-invigorated with cafes, arts, and all ages activities.

Lunch was at Ulo, a quirky cafe not far from the Creative City, that were noted as having gf options. Our server was quite friendly, telling us that the desserts were to die for. We went for a goat cheese and nectarine salad, the fried cauliflower “wings”, and the crispy potatoes. All were really good, and meant that we’ve had at lest some veggies. To drink I went the sea buckthorn “lemonade”, which was orange, not fizzy, and had a definite citrus tang, making it very pleasant but not what anyone would think of as lemonade. It was all very filling, so we skipped dessert. When asked what we thought of the mean, I mentioned that, based on what our guide had told us about Estonian praise yesterday, it was “okay”, which amused her a lot. It was actually very delicious, lots of fresh chicory in the salad, and very yummy potatoes.

After being wished the most “okayest” holiday, we strolled back via the gate known as “Fat Margaret”, a short round tower that now houses the maritime museum. It seems that no one really knows the origin of the name, some time between it being built in the 15th Century and now it just picked up the moniker, and it stuck. From here we wandered up through the town, checking out souvenir shops, before heading back to the hotel for a break.

For dinner we headed out to a place called Hell Hunt, which promised interesting food, snacks and beer. They weren’t very knowledgeable on gf unfortunately, so of the small presented selection for L, the stake seemed best. Overall some places in Tallinn have been good for gf, while others less so. Some restaurants mark items that do contain gluten with a G, while with others that means gluten free, so there’s a bit of inconsistency there to navigate. I went with the pig tongue and the loaded fries. The tongue was smoked, so it really tasted like a lean sausage, nothing very confronting, just delicious. The loaded fries promised cheese, bacon, tomato, onion, jalepeno, and the result was more like that thick orange liquid US-folk call cheese, with salsa and bacon. Not too bad, just unexpected. The first beer I went for was the Hell Hunt local dark beer, which was very drinkable, a medium dark beer full of malt, a little creamy, and didn’t take long to disappear. The second was one I’d heard mention of, Tom Yum Mun from the Kabliku brewery. It wasn’t bad, sure it didn’t have prawns or tomatoes, but instead they’ve created the flavour with lemongrass, kaffir lime, salt and habanero chillies. The chillies were possibly a little heavy, but given the inspiration it could have been a bunch worse (i don’t endorse anyone adding belachan to beer, though if I encountered it I’d still probably give it a go). The third beer was from Humalakoda Brewery, the Kuuse Willem historical pale ale. Brewed in collaboration with Tallinn university from an 18th century recipe, the ale is not hopped, instead flavoured with carrot and spruce tips. They also used a wine yeast, which would explain the dryness of the brew. Tasty, unusual, i can’t say that I tasted carrot in the mix but there was a herbal quality to it. I’m going to guess that it was brewed to 21st century brewing hygiene standards. Like many places, Estonia appears to be going through a bit of a craft beer explosion, with lots of breweries pushing boundaries in attempting to make the biggest/weirdest/strongest/okayest beer they can. And good luck to them but certainly among this I’ve tasted some wonderful “standard” Estonian beer, and I’d hope that their brewers don’t lose sight of this.

Then it was back to the hotel to pack, as we’re on a morning bus to Riga, Latvia, tomorrow. It’ll take a few hours, and we’ll get to see some Estonian countryside. Then it’ll be up to Latvia to show us what makes them the nation they are, which hopefully also involves feeding us well.