Day 25 – Vilnius Cathedral Crypt

This weekend is particularly striking in terms of the late night partiers. The nightlife was going on downstairs even as late as 3:30am even though most of the establishments had closed. Isabella was up at 5 and we got so see the wavering remainders sit themselves on the benches downstairs or on the grass. At 6am, the alcoholics usually take their ladies on the bottle picking tour of the surrounding garbage cans. And at 7 the street dies down until 10-11am.                                                     

This morning we planned to go to Calvariu market to check whether they had started to sell the first apples of the season. We do see apple trees with plenty of largish looking apples on and off the trees in the backyards.
                          

As we came out of the building a Russian woman approached us with a printout from the Old City Apartments. She and her family just arrived by train and were looking for the office or the apartment. We tried calling, to no avail. Then we walked with them to the address of the apartment they rented on Boksto 8 (do not recommend – very un-restored looking street, heavy traffic and no people. And everything was closed there too). So we sent off the poor family back to the city hall square with their suitcases to wait for the information office to open up. We walked up the street to see if we could spot anything. But there was nothing there either. At last the people from the company called back our cell and told us where these people should go. It was nice to know that they will be finally settled. This timeliness thing is particularly typical to the place. A mental note to us is that if we are arriving somewhere unusually late or early, we should warn the people where we are going. We ran into them 2 times more today, it is a really small city :)

We checked out Calvariu market and the apples were not there yet. Apricots are already gone. Plums and chanterelles are in full bloom, sort of speak. We stopped by at Alicia’s on the way and Georgia asked to stay – she was pretty tired of walking in the heat.

We walked back and had lunch downstairs as we were waiting for Irina. The timeliness thing is a factor with her, but it is hard to be upset with Georgia being so excited when she gets to be with “Irinchik.” She takes her for a full ride and gets drinks, snacks, and cartoons from her whenever they are together.                         

We just barely managed to catch the 2pm tour in English of the Cathedral crypt. We checked a few times and were told that there is a tour on Sundays at 2pm. We were told to show up at the ticket office if we wanted to go. When we came we were told that the group had already left (at 1:50) but the ticket lady said that another lady would walk us there. We rushed to give Isabella to Irina who entered the church with Georgia and ran downstairs.

Only a small portion of the crypt is open to public. It is nice looking but nothing thrilling. There are a bunch of modern looking narrow coffins and a large section dedicated to the coffins of Barbara Sigismuntene, Elizabeth Sigismuntene, Audust Sigismund and someone who just asked to have his heart buried in Vilnius. The thing that impressed me was how fragile the cathedral appeared underneath its huge, solid while on the ground exterior. There were concrete boxes to strengthen the building set up in various places but overall with its high arches and thin-looking walls it did not seem like a super solid structure. The other thing was the pagan altar that was brought to our attention by the tour guide. This used to be a pagan temple to the god of thunder and probably, even millennium ago, even though this place looked vastly different, it was a gathering place where people came to pray and worship. Not altogether different from similar places in Jerusalem.

Here is some additional information about the Cathedral:
http://www.lituanus.org/1990_1/90_1_04.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius_Cathedral

Earlier in the day we went to St. Paraskeva Church. Georgia was very impressed with the fine image of St.George killing a picturesque dragon with a fair maiden waiting nearby. That church too used to be a pagan temple. And the square in front may have looked very similar too - with the sellers of the souvenirs and other stuff in the front.

After the tour we went home and got some sleep. After that we reunited with the kids and Irina and got dinner at Wok the Walk. In the evening we walked around but did not go into any more backyards.

Check of the "Nightwatch Truck" on the right.

And this is my kind of a cup on the left.

Day 24 - Kaunas, Lake and Trakai

In the morning Dan did his usual Saturday run and saw a portion of the treasure trove being sold. There are probably many more where this came from but the laws of the land are not very condusive to reporting. So these end up in the private collections, or out on the fleamarkets and history is lost.

On the image on the left the dog is doing pretty well.

After that we went to Kaunas. Gotta go somewhere. Did our usual walk down the Laives alley. If Vilnius would take at least 5 years to get on the road to recovery, it is questionable if that was to ever happen to Kaunas. Some establishments did not survive the winter, like Vilnius. We found a good new one, though Senamesteis Sriubas. In this heat, a cold soup is a welcome and satisfying meal. Especially the good ones that they have.

The one other thing that does not change about Kaunas is its brides. On a Saturday morning through afternoon, you are sure to find 3-4 in the old city hall squre of all kinds and levels of tackyshness. Taking the habitual pictures next to the fountain, sweaty bridesmaids, smoking best men. 

Next we went to Trakai. We were going to swim in Trakai lake but as we saw the surrounding lakes are we approached Trakai it became clear that there will not be any parking in the little town. So we pulled over near one of the surrounding lakes where two other cars were already parked.

The lake was very nice with pretty warm water and sandy bottom. The surroundings were not so much. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and apparent demise of the park rangers few people are consientious enough to clean up after themselves. There were loads of bottles, plastic bags, and other goodies all around. We all stayed in the water for about an hour and then dried up and went on to Trakai. While we were drying up, another family took a place next to us. Georgia commented that it is nice nice that they had something to eat. So they treated her to some ice-cream. Even she knows now that it is nice to be a kid.

When we arrived to Trakai we saw that we were right about parking. But Dan had a secret place that he discovered during one of our last visits - church parking on the main lake. Unfortunately main road was under contruction but he accidentally found a side street that went right into the parking lot. We were also lucky that a wedding party was getting into their cars and leaving. As we passed the church, we heard the wedding music playing inside and looked in. Another bride was coming out and had a cameraman and a photographer coming out before her. I whispered to Georgia to keep quiet. But as the best woman came out, Georgia could not contain herself: "Wow, look at this giant lady!!" We dragged her off with much embarrassment. The lady had it coming not only through the obvious but by also wearing bright purple and yellow bodice.

We walked around the lake and had kibinai and kvas from a street vendor. Kibinai tasted almost like ours at home. What a weird concept. It was very pleasant and not very hot anymore. The kids spent some more time in the lake next to the castle. There were more wedding and bachelor and bachelorette parties. The party whose coming out of the church we ruined got a follow-up from us as they were crossing the bridge to the castle. As they started walking towards us Georgia said, "here is a beautiful bride, and here is a princess, and here is a queen, and here is a ..." and then she stopped, with her mouth opened because she was asked not to comment on that and similar ladies. But the rest of the party must had already made that comment in their heads, so we lowered our heads and kept on walking.

Here is a particularly striking and beautiful example of the bachelor party - note the guy on skis on the tour around the lake.

By observation I think that the requisite items of a Lithuanian women's wardrobe are white linen dress, white linen shirt, and white or/and brown linen pants. Anyone reading is welcome to comment on the truthfulnes of these statements.

Isabella really hates driving and she let us know that during all the drives. On the other hand, Georgia wanted us to tell her fairytales all the time to drown down the "noise." Dan has gotten enough of it and asked for someone, anyone, to keep it down. Georgia, the sweet heart, obliged. She stuck out her tongue and tilted her head and said "Schitaite chto ya dohlaya." - "Consider me dead." It was really funny and made us laugh.

Day 23 - Long, thick, and black and the backyard rejection

As the first part of the title suggests, Isabella and I went to the market this morning. There was a bucket full of them long, black, and thick things that seemed really out of place in the produce isle. Incredulously I asked the sales person what they were. She was quick to accuse: "Lady, you really don't know anything about the beet varieties. I was relieved to know that I now know a little more. Next time I'll bring a camera when I go, these are meant to be shared.

Today was a lucky day. I got the pictures of two of our characters. Unfortunately the homeless guy was taken from the back. I was afraid he might do something crazy from the excitement. Rosita was happy to pose. She straightened her dress and scarf.

We worked out of the soup shop of Gediminas 9 Mall. It is air-conditioned. It's awesome! 

Georgia said several funny things today: Alicia said to her: "It is so hot that I am dying." Georgia looked at her with great curiousity and asked "How?" She really wanted to learn more about the process.

Then there was a homeless guy with a board saying that he needs money. Georgia asked Irina why he is begging. Irina said that maybe his house burned down and he does not have a place to live. Georgia asked why houses burn down. Irina, already sorry that she got on this slippery slope, said that sometimes people smoke in bed and fall asleep with a cigarette burning. Then they both decided that it is unliked that this is what happened because the guy looked fine. So Georgia asked for another reason. Irina said that sometimes fires start when kids play with the matches. Georgia had huge eyes: OMG, we play with playdough and matches! Irina was stumped, she said that it is conceivable that the guy is lying and he is not homeless at all. Georgia seemed to like this explanation the most.

In the evening we went out with Alicia and Irina and then afterwards just walked around. Got up the Gediminas tower hill to look at the city. It has one of the prettiest old towns compared to Tallinn and Riga and the worst preserved one. Only a few main streets are fixed up and even there, there a empty abandoned buildings ruining away. And off the main streets, there are countless other buildings and courtyards. I don't see it getting any better in the next 5 years at least.

It is interesting to watch the people come out on the streets in the evening. Definitely more attractive women out in the finest of their finery. Some new moms are crammed into the tight clothing and makeup that says: "I am so hot, there is no way he would dump me for someone else hotter and without the kid." I heard that in Russia the demographics are even worse and women have to try even harder to win over and keep some prospective alcoholics.

We wandered into a new backyard. I guess our couture failed here as well because a lady on a balcony facing the backyard started screaming to get out or she would call the police. We tried to be polite about it and eventually Dan switched to English asking her not to be rude. Some gears switched in the lady's head and she said "bitte shan." Great! We should have responded with "Hail Hitler" and continued our walk. The non-funny thing is that people like that are probably sitting in every backyard and walking the streets. And if you scratch a little, below all that finery, is the same age-old thing. I always have a blog entry like this. We rationalized back our good mood and went home.

P.S. Sorry - will upload the pictures tomorrow.

Day 22 - Revisiting the old places

A lot of these posts is going to have 'again' on it. But even though we keep revisiting the old places most are never the same. Lots of eateries did not survive, lot's more were opened, most of the things that were crumbling had crumbled some further. People go from nice to mean and back.

For lunch we went to Restoranas Sriubos Namai in Gedimino 9 Mall. In addition to being air-conditioned, the service rivaled that in Estonia and soups were all great, especially Italian cold tomato soup. Georgia had some of each and really enjoyed them. Isabella munched on Georgia's crepe. I anticipate that Isabella will soon start competing with the rest of the family for food. She ravenously goes after anything we happen to be eating and lets us know that she will not take no for an answer. Just the other day she grabbed the dough from kibinai from the plate, stuck it into her mouth, and informed us that she will scream if anyone tries to take it away.

In the afternoon Georgia and I started out on our tour of Usupis in the blistering heat. The first stop Rimi. Given that it was the afternoon, like the proper two ladies, we got some sweets with our water. We ate them in the shade on the grass next to St. Casimir church. Next, we walked up St. Casimir gatve and visited the Artist's club. It does look like a proper high end hangout for a actors or artists without being overly pretentios. I wonder it that superlong bar inspired one in the certain Frei book. Does not look like they have a menu but as far as bar is concerned is promicing.

After that: Subacius gate. Older lady emerged from the entrance to the museum wearing yellow robe and carrying a bucket. We assumed that she was a janior and asked whether the museum was open. While emptying her bucket full of small stones into the trunk of her Volvo, she said it has been under reconstruction for the last two years, and will be for another two, unless the European Union gives them some money. We wished her luck and went around to look at the gates. They now have construction gates around them, possibly to keep down the number of janitors. The gates were open and we could see our lady scurrying around the empty contruction site with her bucket.

Some of the backyards around the gate are very scenic, though there is higher concentration of alcoholics in the area. We found a cozy coffee on the corner facing the gate. It has free Internet and fans. Will check it out next week.

Onto Usupis proper next. About 30% of establishments are gone. The rest are selling a lot of identical little nicknacks that locals call art. Georgia enjoys more now going into interesting little stores or maybe it is the temperature outside. I guess my couture was off or they are pretty desperate here because the store clerks kept following us around. Pretty anoying. St. Bart's was closed, unfortunately, it is my favorite place here.

The one place we both enjoyed was the atelier of a seamstress. Georgia said, "mom, do you love me?" I said, of course. "Then we must go down and visit that shop." So we went inside and I explained to the seamstress and older guy who was there that Georgia has never been in one of these places and wanted to see it. The lady and the gentlemen were very nice. She jumped up from her sewing machine and showed Georgia the machine, the changing room, and pretty dolls they have in the window, while the guy was marvelling her looks and good behavior.

As we were walking along the river to the mermaid bridge I found a coin: 10 silver Russian pennies from 1909. Just lying there on the path. There was some guy nearby washing his underwear in the river. Doubt it was his through. Dan was really excited about it. The coin that is. We went back and looked some more but that was it. I thought back to the Subacius gate. The yellow lady is probably digging up a hidden treasure.

Dan joined us, while Irina hanged out with Isabella. We went to Chinese on St. Michael's for dinner. The service and presentation were fast and excellent as two years ago. But to our tired old palates the taste was a bit on the bland side. The portions are huge. We emerged patting down our heavy expanded bellies and carrying doggy bags where the owner had stuck everything down to the last piece of cucumber. Cold lithuanian soup is a bit easier on your stomach even if accompanied by potato pancakes with sour cream and bacon.

On the way home we stopped by the new basement beer bar-shop on Sticliu, next to the felt store. It is a beautifully restored basement with ancient city bricks lining the walls. There are fridges with beers and kvas from the breweries all over country lining the walls. There is a stand with a multidude of mouth watering beer appetizers. And, off cource, there are comfortable chairs and other bar paraphenalia. If we are ever to build our house, it would be sufficient to only reproduce a basement like that and forget the rest. Even if all the bricks are fake. Forgot the camera, but not to worry. We will be back, time and time again. I hope that as far as revisiting things goes, this one would not change for a while.

Dina and Ilusha came in the evening. It was good to hear more stories about the family and more plans for the coming year.

I am finishing this up on Friday afternoon. Exciting little story from this morning in the next blog. It might even perk up Elena.

Days 20-21 - A bit of a routine

Random interesting things.

On Tuesday they were filming a movie downstairs along the alley walk. Probably nothing major - just 5 people crew, maybe a documentary. And passerbys were pretty civilized about it - no one was stopping, pointing fingers.

Georgia and I went to Radvilu Namai museum near Woo in the afternoon. They have a pretty interesting exhibition of the Lithuanian painters. Unfortunately no information in English or Russian was available so all we could do is stare at the pictures and figure out what they mean. Georgia got pretty bored soon though and graciously offered for me to continue the tour alone. One of the ladies of the museum offered to keep an eye on her while I walk around. It was surprising and very sweet, and even though we were the only people in the museum we declined the offer and went home instead.

In the evening we went to St.Casimir's for the organ concert. The church was full. It was nice to see some tour guide lady, a very committed one, shuffling the benches around and even carrying them across the church to sit her group. Other people came in looking very much like ordinary city residents in the summer - flip flops, summer shirts. There was, of course, a requisite bunch of the connosseurs, dressed in their finest for the occasion.

Georgia managed about 20 minutes of it. As she said afterwards "it was very unpleasant, there was no popcorn." She was probably referring to the annoying little girl who sat on the benches in front of us. Her throughful grandparents loaded her up with all sorts of munchies and drinks. Every minute the little girl was sticking something into her mouth, much to Georgia's dismay, who only had the leftovers of Isabella's pasta soup prior to coming. But wasn't just the food. The music selection is partly to blame too - the pieces were so high that it times the organ sounded like a flute. They really did not leverage off the great instrument or the fine acoustics of the place.

We met up with Irina and Isabella and went searching for dinner. We eventually settled down on Gaby. While we waited (the place is notorious for the poor service and limited selection) I took the kids for a walk to St. Anne's. I tried to show Georgia what Napoleon had meant when he said that he wants to pick up the church in his hands and carry it home to France. I even showed the spot where you can fit the base into the palm of your hand. I assumed that's where Napoleon stood too, considering that he was thought of as a short person, but it is not correct.

We also went to the new organic store on Literatu and got a cheesecake with blueberry preserves on top for dessert - Dina and Ilyusha were joining us later. I also got a cup of mint tea. The kids took turns drinking it as we walked back. The food still had not arrived.

Dina and Ilyusha came. He is sooo big. He is 3 but is Georgia's height. It is fashionable here now to give kids a kind of a loose mullet haircut. It looks much better on the kids than on the adults. He has it too and looks adorable.

Dina told me about her visit of England to see Vitalik who is trying to find a permanent job there. They are determined to move out of LT and look for better opportunities elsewhere. It is strartling to realize that they are where our parents were 20 years ago. But they've got a headstart because they are younger, are not coming out of the crazy country frozen in time, and probably would not require much of retraining to find their place.

On Wednesday, Georgia and I were going to see Usupis in the afternoon but went to sleep intead. So, inputs and publishing of the blog got delayed by another day. Plus I have a bit of the anxiety given that Elena told me that there is no juice or meat in the blog other than in the literal sense.

So I'll add a few more observations hopefully to spark your interest and excitement again. We got the toilet paper with the pictures of and smell of strawberries. It was not intentional - it was the cheapest one in the store, per sheet. It smells heavenly. None of us ever used scented toilet paper so it would be a really new experience. Waiting for the old plain roll to end. Still I wonder why it was the cheapest and what's the catch.

Our good old characters had gone out of character: the homeless guy with dreads who walked the Vocieciu-Pilies-Vilnius gatve in the opposite direction of us examining every dumpster on the way can now be spotted having a cup of coffee outside the occasional coffee shop. The guy who used to ride on his bike singing "America, America" no longer has his bike, and says other things besides his customary selection. And Rosita is nowhere to be found. It is pretty disconcerting. I can only speculate that maybe it is somehow related to the paper or the temperature.

On the subject of coolness. For the most part people behave in dignified ways, as mentioned before, like this is a capital city rather than Kishinyov. But occasional acts do go against this perception. The other day two cars pulled up with a loud screech at 6 am at a 45 degree angle to the sidewalk. 5 people in suits with a boombox emerged. They turned up the boombox to the maximum volume and walked onto one of the side streets. I do not even wonder, why? It is the good thing there was just 1 other car on the street, otherwise all the alarms would go on on all the cars around, and the owners, rejoycefull of hearing their vehicle communicate to them would not turn them off.

What's really cool, is to see the hot air baloons pass so low over the sleeping town in the morning that you can hear the people inside the balloon basket turn on the gas to warm up the air and bring the baloon higher. Even Dan looks like he might consider this sometime.

How many people do you see per day? I wondered about that yesterday. When we came out in the afternoon to go to Alicia's house, within minutes we counted over a 100. In our part of NJ it would probably be around 40, tops, in a day, and only if you walk all around the office and hang out extra on the street walking the dog. It is nice to be living in the city. While in the spirit of things, we also counted the cats gathered around the front portion of Alicia's building. 12. If we checked out the ones in the back, and those that were inside, it would probably equal to the people we see in NJ on a given day.

Day 19 - Eating out

In the morning doves were nowhere to be found. It was drizzling, but, in my opinion, not bad enough for wait for the next feeder to come along. We left our bread crumbs on the group and Isabella and I went to the Coffee Inn on Pilies. At 7am the cappuchino machine did not warm up enough to serve us so we went to the one of Austros Vartai. It is interesting how in the different places they serve coffee differently. On Vilnius gatve and here they actually shake the jug with the milk froth to get the liquid to come down. They they pour that in. The capucchino is occcupying nearly the entire papercup. While on Pilies and Gedimino they pour out the froth. Which settles shortly. So you end up with a 1/2 cup full. And there is no point in arguing. They will tell you that "this is how the machine is set up" and as far as they are concerned, they are correct.

At 8am Georgia woke up and Irina and Christina showed up. For another hour the apartment was upside down. Finally we cleared out leaving Christina to deal with our messes. Dan and I went to the Double Coffee, which substantially decreased in number during the last year. Irina, Georgia and Isabella went out walking. It was such a pleasant and cool day we too wanted to stay out as much as possible.

Around lunch time we ordered and then waited for 30 minutes for our 2 pasta dishes and soup to be harvested. Then they asked if we were sure that we ordered 2 pasta dishes instead of 1. Unthinkingly we said "Yes." So it was another 20 minutes. Isabella got to know all the surrounding plants very closely while waiting. The food was really good though. I especially like the cream of mushroom soup made from the real mushrooms and halved pecans.

In the afternoon, Irina continued walking with Isabella while Georgia and I worked on some artworks. Alicia came in the evening and we went to the new restaurant that opened up in the restored abandoned building next to St. Catherine's. We ordered and I went with the kids to the Coffee Inn on Vilnius gatve. It is about 10 minutes away. We also spent some time waiting in line. So we were back in about half hour and by that time only Alicia got served. Finally in about 15 minutes we all got our food. The selection is pretty poor, the prices are high, and, for shame, they only have 2 kinds of beer and no cider or kvas. The only positive thing is that they restored the building. But at this level of service, quality, etc, it is conceivable that it would be abandoned again. It is funny, but on the way to get the coffee we passed Woo, and I was thinking that enough time had passed, maybe the place had improved. But somehow I do not feel like checking it out anymore. On a more positive note about the area, in the little square in front of St. Catherines there are now noon performances by local and foreign musicians. Occasionally really good.

Next on our tour of eateries was the pretty pink milkshare bar that opened up also on Vilnius gatve next to Segway rental. Inside it is equally pretty and pink. Even the fans inside a pink. Georgia ordered a cherry shake. It was really good and a "Small" portion came in a pretty impressively sized plastic cup. So it is a good place.

Day 18 - Getting back into the swing of things

Georgia, Dan and I split our breakfast between the Coffee Inn and Svejais Bandeles along the obvious separation lines. Afterwards I went the market while Georgia watched cartoons and Dan played on the computer.

It was nice to be there. The smell of the cucumbers, dill and smoked meats is amazing. Also, at this time it was much busier than when Isabella and I usually get there. All kinds of people, speaking LT, Polish, Russian, and English. And the sellers: skinny Byeorussians with dirty hands, babushka's with their glasses full of chanterelles and blueberries, all sorts of others. I felt like a French lady in some kind of Amelie'like movie going around, smelling stuff, and looking at people. I overdid the shopping part and barely dragged my bag home. It had the farmer cheese, home-made cheese and smoked pork, huge yellow zucchini, picture perfect carrots, wild strawberries, sunflower seeds for the doves, and other stuff.

Versatile fountain in front of the city hall.

At noon Irina came and brought Isabella. Isabella was happy to see us. She seemed bigger. The tooth is smaller than I thought but it just came out, so I guess it needs time to grow out. The kids played in the bath to cool off. Dan put all the food in refrigerator because it is so hot out and our windows are open and they were attracting flies.

We made a bold attempt to get to Vingis park but failed. Instead we walked up the river from the Parliament to the Green bridge. It was very quiet and pleasant. There was a guy playing a reedpipe on the other side. There was a huge thunderstorm in the evening. It got eerily dark at 9pm and tree branches started thrashing wildly. Nice to be at home and getting ready for the next week at this time.

There are no zoning rules here. Check out a family having pizza next door to the strip club. I have never seen women coming and or out of these places that are in large numbers around the center of town. I am sure that the employees are the most concervatively dressed ones if you see then on the street.

Not sure what this was about: a signalling police car, an escort of Harley Davidsons, and a bunch of aged athletes running in the middle. Maybe they had something in the news about this.

Day 17 - A little more of Tallinn and back

We tried to be more leisurely and the working A/C did help so today we headed out to breakfast at 8:30. We pretty much ran around the upper and lower towns again.

Today, on Saturday there were substantially more people out at this time in the morning. In the top town we noticed that there are stairs going up near the tower where we had mulled wine. They were pretty narrow so with some difficulty we managed to get up to the first floor. There was a lady who was selling the 30 Kroon tickets to go the rest of the way. So, like the proper dumb tourists we paid up and walked up the same number of steps to the coffee shop that was on the balcony of the wall. Great! We tried to milk it for all its worth - walked every square inch, took loads of pictures, examined the medieval bathroom, but after 15 minutes there was just nothing else to do. Great business! Once we got down, we helped another couple to not make our mistake, and satisfied got on our way.

The next item on our agenda was the ships festival. The port area stretches around 5km and festivities were on at different times and in different places. Plus, there is no ground connection between the ports so you have to get back to the city before getting to the other port. So, first we tried the port that was the closest to the old city - we saw lots of locals heading that way. Turns out we were partly right: there are some ferries leaving from that port so the locals were going there. But there was also a fish market there so we were in luck. They were selling freshly caught fish and also smoked and fried one as well. We got some really delicious little hering like fish that was dipped in bread and eggs and fried.

But it was time to check out the festivities. So we went to the right where the Helsinki and Stockholm ferries were leaving from. On the way we got up to the huge concrete monstrous Soviet era building, clearly a work of a madman. It was enormous, with some crazy stairs going nowhere, some passages littered with the broken bottles and covered in graffity and clearly used by the local alcoholics in more than one capacity. Some areas of the building actually looked inhabited. Taking pictures of this monster would not do it justice. We finally escaped through a hall in the wall and went through the overgrown grass field towards the ferry area.

They did have a small market going on with some more fish kiosks and souvenirs. At the information desk the volunteers suggested taking the ferry boat to yet another area with festivities and directed us to it. After waiting for 20 minutes in sweltering heat with 50+ other people, a small boat came up that could possibly fit 15. There was no chance for us. We left, even though Georgia was disappointed.   

Not sure about the the image on the left. There was a guy that was wearing what seemed to be the top part of the milirary uniform and ripped fishnet stockings on the bottom. He was riding Segway. There were no other men around him, (other than the guy from the rental company) so it did not look like a bachelor party.

The next stop was back at the Solaris mall where we all needed some cool temperature accompanied by food. On the second floor they have the Food Court. Notice the capitalization. Incredible food court. With lots of restaurants, the main one being the serve yourself with amazing selection of food at working end of Newark Chinese Buffet prices. There were maybe 6 varieties of fish alone. The setting is really beautiful too. The high ceiling of the place has been made to look like the village - with the houses and other areas. This seriously begins to look like an option for the next year. Dan got him some more personal souvenirs while we were there. Having gotten some buns and water, we were ready to go.

The first stop was the shallow beach in Latvia again. This time we pulled over as soon as we saw parked cars along the road. And we were not disappointed. There were very few people on the beach and pretty far from us as well. The water was great. We all but ingested the incect repellent so gadflys left us alone. We spent about an hour. Georgia really loved it.

As we were nearing the Latvian border we were stopped by the police again. During this trip Dan was going annoyingly exactly the speed limit. The TomTom really helps. We just entered a small town and Dan started to drop his speed from 70 to 50 when he saw the sign. We explained this to the cop, and he let us go. Even the license was OK. This is a miracle. We did not take a picture of that cop, so there is no proof. And there is no rational explanation. So I guess we would leave it at that.

We drove on for the next 4 hours without stopping from all this excitement. When we started thinking about the dinner it was already too late and all the coffee shops on the road were closed. We got home at 11:30. In our absense, the evil owner had put an ugly tablecloth on the table and did a few other annoying misardly things. And Isabella's first tooth had come out.

Day 16 - Tallinn

The only fly in the oinment was that a/c was not working. It was nice and cool outside but pretty hot inside. And leaving the windows open did not help for some reason. The staff tried resetting the unit and drained it a few times but to no avail.

We woke up at 7:30am and went to Entrecote Restaurant for breakfast. The waitress spoke beautiful Russian and flawless English with the British accent. Breakfast was great. I really liked yogurt which came in several interesting varieties like baked apple and cinnamon and also linden berry and cheesecake.

We decided to start at the top and went to the top of the Toompea hill. The old city is split into two parts - the high city on the hill, and lower city. The top of the hill used to have the houses of the nobles while merchants lived in the lower part closer to the port. There is a heavy door and the gates between the towns to "keep the rif raf out." Tour guides tell stories about weird rules like coffee not be allowed in the lower town. Nowadays the high town houses the parliament,  some state building (with  an awesome micro-helipad off the side of the fortified hill)), different embassies and there are several blocked off houses and courtyards for the people with the means.

Most of the areas were beaufully restored. Next to practically every building there is a glass board with the historical info about the building in Estonian and English.

The only thing that's gone is the restaurant in the wall of the high city. We used to have mulled wine in the beautiful and scenic cellar in our previous visits and fantasized that we would wish our basement to look like that. It is probably good that it is gone.

As we walked around the streets started to fill up with tourists, and with locals dressed in the historical costumes and cheerfully selling various wares in various languages. We especially liked the nut vagon where they sold almonds dipped into a mix of roasted mix of spices. They offered a try too. We examined every little backyard and went into every church and were done in about 1,5 hours.

On the way down we visited a few souvenir shops and galleries. While many of the places had gone the route of generic, there are still places where you can see the unique creativity and craftsmanship.

We spent some time in the lower town. Checked out the oldest pharmacy in Europe. They have an old section which is a kind of a museum. Check out the bottles with a few ingredients on the left. Based on the travel channel they were supposed to be selling love potions. Georgia wanted to get it for one of the boys in her pre-K, Jacob She did not want him to fall in love with her but she wanted him to start being nicer to girls. Disappointingly they sell a piece of marzipan with a few almonds stuck into it as the "love potion." Could have really tried a vial with some syrup instead. We got one anyway, though I suspect its potency.

Next, the supermarket. It was located on the lower level of the Solaris mall. The supermarket is looks like a successful offspring of Wegmans married to the hypermart. We liked everything. I especially liked 20 brands of smoked salmon. We settled on the mix of freshly baked buns.

Next we went to the money museum next door. Dan got him a few things from the shop and then we walked through the small museum. Georgia got a gift - a puzzle in the form of a 100 Euro note. The museum is very well designed. Estonian monetary history with covered well but without obsession. There is stuff in there to catch interest of laymen and experts alike. They also had the wax figures of various historical figures related to money standing in small group throughout the museum. Walking up to them or brushing against them every now and then was a bit disconcerting.

Next we walked to the song and dance grounds 2 miles away where there was supposed to be a carnival. Dan carried Georgia most of the way because it was pretty hot. On the way, we tried to determine which buses/trolleys/trams go there. There seemed to be so many that we very quickly lost track. We got there at 2pm and found out that it opens at 5pm. So we headed back along the beach. It was much cooler there. The water was cooler too than where we were a day before. Geogria had a lot of energy and jumped and splashed around.

Afterwards we caught a bus back to the city center. Both the bus driver and another passenger were really helpful in directing us on how to get back. The passenger also recommended to buy the tickets in the news kiosks because it is at least 50 cents cheaper per ticket.

We dropped off out things and went to the Beer House across the street. They make their own live beer. It was still a minimal improvement over two versions of Estonian saku last night. I don't know what we were thinking but we ordered 3 appetizers and pizza for Georgia. Appetizers were pretty big, but pizza was at least 14inch pie. We tried very hard but could not prevail. We took pizza back to the hotel and finished on our subsequent trips to the room. Incidentally they did manage to fix the A/C after all.

Later we went up to the viewing platform of St. Olav's chuch. The views of the city are great through not all to different than from the high town. We are very proud of Georgia. Don't know too many 4 year olds with the stamina and patience to get up 250 steps in the narrow and cramped staircase.

Cake stop next to retain the strength and calories lost. There were a few girls passing that had the look that said "not a professional, but getting there." We overheard one of them saying in Russian "What does he think, I am a girl?" using the literal implication of the word. Georgia amused herself and us by singing "I am not a girl anymore, I am not a girl anymore."

Final bit of walking closer to the outskirts of the old town. There is a beautiful modern urban rest area behind the parking lot of the Niguliste church. There are little sections with beach chairs and square "pools" made up of blue glass and look like they have water fountains underneath. These areas are separated from each other by neatly cut bushes. The impression is that of being on the beach.

The children's play area is not that bad either. It has the tilted rotating rings. It looks deceptively easy to walk around on the ring, but if you try to walk the ring it starts rotating and pulling you down to the lowest point. Kids can do it without particular difficulty. Georgia managed it pretty soon. But we had a hard time and so did other mommies and daddies who wanted to repeat their kid's feats. Georgia enjoyed beating us at this. Dan and I finally managed it by doing it together and using each other as a counterbalance.

The final note. The paid bathrooms are aplentiful. It is a major plus not to have to worry about searching for the nearest bushes or McDonalds when traveling with the kid.