Haapsalu, Padise monastery, & Paldiski

Today was a great day!!!

First we went to Haapsalu. At first, after 1.5 hour ride from Tallinn, we were disappointed when we approached familiar Soviet blocks that lined the suburbs. But after we got to the city center with its winding streets and beautiful castle, we were sold. The old monastery was magnificent. Starting with the best playground we ever saw. It was made to look like a castle. Georgia refused to go anywhere and she stayed back with Irina.

Dan, Isabella and I went to see the monastery. It was started sometime 13^th century. After switching hands a number of times it was abandoned in 16^th century and renovation started 1970. They did a great job. Some rooms are still empty. But they have excellent exhibits related to monastery’s alchemist room and doctor’s office accompanied by a man in the anti-plague masque and bloodletting manual for a she-male.

It was our turn to feel stupid for having made Isabella go with us up the two winding staircases up to the watchtower and medicine room. She refused to stay on the ground with either one of us so we had to drag her along. It was a bit scary.

When we came back to the playground, Georgia and Irina were playing with some ducklings. They appeared out of nowhere and their mom was missing. Chances are someone will eat them soon. Pretty sad.

Speaking of eating, next we had pizza for lunch at Pizza Grande. Highly recommended. That's no duckling. Fast and good, and the amount of cider they serve with your order is enough to give one a serious buzz. We stayed in the courtyard. In addition to having entertaining signs it was also possible to see laundry drying in the backyard next door. The funny thing, it did not register – it felt like a part of scenery. We must be pretty desensitized. I wonder what would someone from another part of the world think seeing this.

Next we walked ourselves to the promenade – walking area around the coastline. This was historically vacation town but a very small one. The place was just amazing. To start, it was quiet, with very few people. Along the walk there were a few glass gazebos out on the water so that you could enjoy the sea without the wind. You can see the water inside the opening made middle of the gazebo. This is nothing like Klaipeda or Jurmala.

We walked up to the old dining hall. It was made to look exactly like it did in the beginning of the last century – paint, colors – impeccable. Some real old places deliberately have a shabby look to convey the “old” feeling. I think that this building really accomplished this goal by doing the opposite. You could perfectly imagine families of vacationers with ladies wearing their beautiful hats and hoards of children in brilliant white dresses and hats accompanied by nannies going to have their lunch or breakfast at a place like this. And they had a few old photos inside that showed that same exact place with vacationers around. Waitresses in crisp white bonnets served our cappuccinos and cakes. Even the bathroom had the right look.

A bit further out in the sea was a sculpture of a polar bear, hanging out on a piece of ice. I guess to give the perspective or something to relate to vacationers depending on the time of the year they were vacationing.

We walked further, fed the birds, continued around the salt water lake of this Estonian Venice. Really lovely town.

Next we asked our TomTom to take us to Paldiski to see the cliffs. On the way we quite randomly passed Padise monastery. We stopped and got out to see it. It was totally awesome. It was the one castle where you can go anywhere you want, cellars included, without any stop tape, or chains or warnings. Unfortunately we did not bring our flashlights so cellars were out (Never again!!). But we went just about anywhere else. We tried to find the treasure around the ruins on the outside wall but found lots of ripe wild strawberries and had to content ourselves with that. Near the monastery there was a little pond. Grass around it was teeming with little frogs. Probably hundreds of them. Georgia tried to sneak one home.

Next TomTom took us for a trip through some fields. The road got pretty bad. Some of the places had the holes so deep with puddles so big that it looked like we might not get out without someone pulling us out. Georgia got pretty worried and said: “Are we going to be stuck here for ages? How am I going to marry my love back home?” "My chto - ostanemsya zdes' naveki?" We tried to convince there that there are plenty of nice looking Estonian boys but she was very determined. So we kept going and eventually got to the normal road.  

We stopped on the way to look at what appeared an old submarine in the shallow water near the coast. You can see from that point that it a pretty enormous bay that would be a perfect place for the ships.

Finally, the last stretch . As promised, Paldiski looked very ugly. We kept going and going and it seemed like those Soviet blocks would never end. Then we checked TomTom for the local attractions (in Estonian) and clicked on one that seemed to be on the beach and kept going. It was the right place. There were wind turbines around, Estonian largest lighthouse and huge limestone cliffs. This was a closed town that Russians relinquished only in 1995. Maybe there is a giant cave under there housing those nuclear submarines under those cliffs. In the end Dan did some cliff edge driving for the last bit of adrenaline of the day. For the last bit of meal we stopped at local Maxima and stacked up of some freshly made food including 5 cent buns right out of the oven.

A note about Estonian weather. When it is sunny, it gets pretty warm, you take your sweater off and bask. When, a few minutes later, the sun hides behind a cloud and a light breeze starts to blow, you grab that icy sweater and put it on while shivering. In a few minutes the cycle repeats. It seems that the best way to go is to either have the sweater on or to have it off and try to disregard the changes in the weather entirely. Isabella, Irina, and I go the sweater route, Georgia and Dan do without. It is a matter of personal choice.