Money Museum and Eateries

On Wednesday we went to the newly restored Money museum on Gediminas across the post office. It is the best museum of its sort that we had ever been too – lots of thought went into creating interacting exhibits that convey the subject matter in a way that will get even the most disinterested visitor really excited. Not like there were any visitors of that sort. And it is free, and they give out souvenirs. For example they have the scale that will measure your weight in the current value of gold, silver and Byelorussia money.  And they pull live figures off the Internet. If I was made of gold, my value would be in excess of $2,000,000. That’s an exciting additional reason to continue our gluttonous quest to which I am about to get. We also spoke with a curator – she was very engaging and knowledgeable and clearly loved her job very much.

So on to the food. Did our morning studying at Coffee Hill – the new opposition to Coffee Inn. Décor, taste, and pricing about the same. The guy at the bar spoke flawless English with a beautiful British accent, Russian and Lithuanian. So amazing.

Wishing many years of success to the Kibin Inn. I think we are starting to scare them with our repeat visits and predatory buying behaviors – we dropped in at 5:30 on Wednesday and bought off all the meat ones for our dinner with Natasha, Andrey, Alicia, Inga and Danik. Poor other customers J. They have perhaps 30 different kinds of kibinai.

Ekaterinburg crew were on the Kuronian spit last week and brought SMOKED FISH. I know it is a little lame to capitalize, but I meant it. Inga brought Israeli food goodies. So our weight in gold is probably well ahead of the market rate.

On other subjects, other than the dying playgrounds near St. Catherine’s and our backyard there are no functional playgrounds anymore in the old town – the ones in the park are all vandalized. Very sad. I wish someone would make them build new ones while they are in prison.

 Had dinner w. Vitalik’s family. It was very relaxing and pleasant. Ilyusha is very tall for his age tonight. Very nice kid. There was supposed to be an open air concept near St. Francis’ church and a great number of youths J gathered there but it started late and we left without waiting.

Visited Dominican church on Traku. I know it isn’t St. Peter’s in Rome but it is awe-inspiring. It is restored beautifully to show its age and history and wealth in a dignified way. Macabre frescoes are my type of thing. Walked down Literatu in the evening. Even more art on the walls. There was some kind of a corporate scavenger hunt doing on and young adults were running at deathly speeds and looking for something among those artworks. Dan was out after dark yesterday and he says that there were some lighting changes on the Cathedral square and now it looks like Gediminas statue is projecting a shadow on the lower castle.  

Dead or Alive tour

Today, we made a quick run to Trakai castle to confirm that it is there and kibinai are still as they used to be. Check out the sign on the left. Line 3 - I wonder who the target audience is :) As we parked on our typical spot in Trakai next to the large Church at the beginning of Karaimo street we noticed that the entire church yard is dug up. Several teams of men were doing excavations with metal detectors. By the look of how they all stopped at stared at us until we left it makes me think that not all of the artefacts found will make their way to the excavation catalogs.

After that we went on a general tour of checking what survived the winter in Vilnius. Here is the list. We did not actually go into all of them so cannot comment in more detail.

Gone

Double Coffee:  I will miss their luscious muesli breakfast

Ruma Namai: good riddance

Soup place in the alleyway off Gediminas – very sad

Still there

Coffee Inn, Vero Coffee had expanded in several locations, Wok the walk, McD, All Pizza places, Gusto Blini place near Austros Vartai still there, Indian near Cathedral Square, Bistro 18, White Elephant.

 

Newcomers

Coffee Hill, Kibin Inn, an interesting Asian restaurant decorated by the birch trees and having menus shaped like turtles, a few kebabai places and Italian restaurants. A new grill restaurant Kerchma opened up where Dubliner used to be. They also have outside terrace where there used to be a big hole in the ground next to Dominican. I wish they tried to restore the whole monastery complex instead of razing the parts of it and converting them into a parking lot. This is a pic of one of the last standing buildings in the complex. Looks like abandoned Chapel.  

There are more bookstores and they don’t all sell the same things. Office goods store, gourmet kids clothing store, bike rental on Vilnius gatve are all gone. We still did not see Rosita and our homeless guy yet. Though there is plenty of new faces of the same kind around.

 Visited Alicia. Spent some time talking with her outside. Even though she said that she only lays claim to 4 cats, we saw 5 line up for petting around her bench.

There was a free concert by Ozomatli near the city hall tonight. It was very nice. Large crowd gathered.

Digging through the pictures. Will put more out on prior blogs.

Back in Vilnius

This was a night full of sounds as victorious Lithuanian fans took their celebration to the streets. Closing windows was not an option on account of the heat. The good thing is that we are used to it on account of living upstairs of Depeche Mode for three months. Less good thing is that Georgia was bitten by probably 20 mosquitoes. At first we though those must be bedbugs but the bites are all over exposed areas. Also Latvian mosquito bites are not as itchy as those by Estonian ones. 

We walked around the city in the morning. It really is beautiful. The sheer quantity of amazing buildings is staggering. The ride to Vilnius was pretty good. The kids were either sleeping or watching cartoons.

A few modern building had sprang up around Vilnius. Some coffee shops changed the names and windows. The entrance of the Lower Castle is still blocked by the construction fence. Gediminas might need a facelift soon. But other than that, not too many other changes. Minsk, the supermarket that was Iki, is now bigger and beautifuler than can be imagined. Jaw dropping actually. And there is a new Maxima XX where Zalgiris used to be.

Alicia looks good. We counted 24 cats in the vicinity.

We had dinner at Cili Kaimas downstairs from our apartment on Vokieciu. Prices are up
50% from last year. I like Lithuanian beer the most compared to Latvian and Estonian. 

The city has been crowning its victors. As we were entering the city we saw displays saying that Gediminas prospectas will be closed due to the procession of the winning Lithuanian Basketball team. On the city hall square they had a whole presentation set up afterwards with players witting on stage wearing the laurel wreaths. There was a hot air balloon next to the stage done in the national colors. The crowds showed up in red, greens, and yellows as well. It was very lively and exciting. We were wondering if they would continue celebrating like they did in Riga, but they did not – it is 11:15pm and it is really quiet around here.  

Georgia had been recognizing places here and there. She is really enjoying the city.
 

On to Riga

This morning we left to see the last few remaining Saaremaa sites before heading down to Riga. One of them is genuine Estonian village on the neighboring island Muhu. We must be jaded. Moss covered stone fences were nice but not out of this world.

Back on the ferry – everyone enjoyed ice-cream on the upper deck while the trip lasted.

The ride was pretty long but kids held out until the end. On the way we stopped over on the Latvian side and Georgia went for the dip. Isabella had no-sand day and stayed in the stroller almost the entire time. Periodically Georgia brought a bottle of sea water to her to wash her “blankie” – the diaper cloth off the sand.

We are staying in an awesome hotel: Konventa Seta hotel. Supposedly it used to be a convent before but now it is a closed system of apartment buildings, restaurants, galleries, and more. And in the heart of old town. The suite has great views and our car is parked downstairs with. Refreshed and rested we headed out to see the city.

It is looking even better than last time. A bunch of buildings had been renovated. A new square instead of half collapsed building is filled with coffee shops and features a stage. Juffin’s Dozen no more – it is now Garaze. There is still not a single playground and definite lack of greenery but is has become more pleasant. Lots of different varieties of drunks.

On the last one, it might have something to do with there being a basketball match between Latvia and Estonia here tonight. Crowds in yellow, green, and red are filling the street, some very drunk already. Chants "Something something Lietuva" from time to time from every direction. 

Then again it is not hard to get very drunk very fast. We went to have a dinner at a 100% Latvian restaurant - that's what the sign said. Dan and I ordered some beers, and bloodsausage and then he also asked for the national appetizer, and for something for the kids. As we were starting to feel a light buzz from the 15% proof beers, national appetizer was brought out. It consisted of several little dishes including really good honey, cheese platter, beans dish, and also 4 half a liter cups of more beer. We weren't about to let the good national appetizer to waste and plunged into the rest of the beer. In the end it was Georgia who asked the waiter to bring our bill because "Daddy got himself drunk already" - "Mozhno check, a to papa uzhe napilsya" He really did not, it was still a good buzz but it was the right move on her part.
  
The museum of occupation has some posters hanging outside to the effect of Soviet and Nazi occupation. They mention that Nazis destroyed a lot of Jews and recruited Latvians to assist with the killings. Not sure if anything changed inside the museum. But it is a good start.

Isabella was so happy that she was not in the car anymore that she could not quiet down. She must have been on her feet from 5 pm till 9pm. Georgia was already walking around glassy eyed. Isabella wants everything the Georgia has and repeats everything that she does. Georgia follows us when she eats ice-cream – so that Isabella would not see her – otherwise she would scream to take it away. Georgia is a great older sister and is very tolerant to her. On the other hand Isabella is good to her as well, most of the time. If she asks for a piece of bread, she asks for another one for Georgia and then tries to force feed it to her.

Exploring the island and great news!

Today was a busy day. We got through some of the key attractions: Kaali meteorite site –Angla windmills, Panga cliffs, Odalätsi spring, flounder farm, a bunch of churches. These sites were nice but they are not worth the trip to the island. The nature is beautiful. But locals are selling off their forest. Maybe tomorrow will bring more surprises.

Another other interesting element of contrasts. One of the guides we got at the Information office had an entry about Tehumardi Memorial to commemmorate one of the bloodiest battles between Russian and German soldiers during WWII. Memorial looks like a giant sword with some faces cut in the handle part. Russian guide mentioned that the faces of brave soldiers who lost their lives during the war. Given the exhibits at the castle a day earlier, which brave soldiers were they? This offers some clarity, but does not help to resolve the conflict. Here is a more politically correct version.

One exciting thing about today's travels was that there are insane quantities of wild strawberries and blueberries everywhere. We never had so much in our lives. Even Isabella started to string two words together: “more wild-strawberries.” And when those were not coming fast enough she helped herself. We even found a different kind of wild strawberries – they were just as the other ones but the flavor was more like strawberry preserves – and very sweet. Irina says it is another wild-strawberry variety that grows on the fields. The berries were hard to separate from the stalks. And the stalks were very talk. Berry picking was delightful.

Some more highlights were Dan going for some coins in the Odalätsi spring. The water temperature was slightly above melting. There were not major finds but the hunt was worth it.

Now to the good part. In the evening, while we were at the pool, Georgia started to swim on her own!!! Yesterday she swam with a small arm floater she found at the pool. It should not have held her weight but we decided not to say anything then. And today she forgot to put in on when she jumped in and just kept going. This is soo awesome! This is like her first day walking. She is very excited about it. And she discovered that she can also swim on her back too.

Tomorrow, we will continue our trek South. Not sure about Internet access – will try to connect as we go. Will upload all pictures afterwards. So come back and reread the blogs.

Saaremaa, the island of contrasts

So today we packed everything into a red station wagon given to us by Andres from rent.ee and went to the island Saaremaa. The ride was a long 4 hours. The highlight was being on the ferry from to Virtsu to Muhu – the connection point between the mainland and our destination. The ferry was really cool! Not only about 60 cars fit into it, as it started its 20 minute ride, we went to the upper decks and enjoyed the view. The kids stayed in the covered lower deck that among with multiple food options also had impressively stacked children’s corner.

We were staying on the main city Kuressaare. It is a sleepy little town. Every restaurant option we tried – and we tried most of them in our two days here was great. In general, locals make startling contrast to the mainland folk, in terms of their girth. We particularly recommend the windmill tavern – a real very large windmill. As long as you clear your own table and order at the grill, the service will be fast. And views magnificent.

Fine, while I am on the topic,… restaurant Madhu, looks like a someone wanted to recreate their extended Goa vacation. A full stock of cheesy décor will elephants and glitz. Patrons wear earrings made from the thing on top of a can. And, suitably, Bob Marley provides ambient sound. But the food, and we covered the full ground here, was all different and magnificent. Almost forgot, the waitress who had “I’ve got my Zen, you motherfucker” attitude. Disconcerting, but added to the richness of the experience. In general, the service in the restaurants is quite awful. Maybe no one leaves tips, and they are all depressed? However, if you order from the bar or make the appearance of doing so you will get your food.

Final food note. The restaurant that is right next to the old city hall and the information office – the beautiful one,.. they serve a soup that is called something like Cheese and Bacon. Yes, it is. Imagine the rich stock of heavy cream with some cheese melted in and large pieces of bacon (with meat) languishing on the bottom, while croutons, their light counterpart, float on top. A few sticks of dill bring freshness to the lake of cream. Every spoonful says, “MORE and F.U arteries!”

The highlight of the town is the 13^th century castle. Very nicely preserved. Lots of winding staircases – every room had at least 2 exits. Sometimes 3 or 4. We were completely lost. On the bottom floor in the chapel there was a girl in an ethnic costume who was playing a bass. That’s was the nicest part. After that there was extensive exhibition that described the ravages Soviet occupation on several floors with gusto... To the point that period of Nazi control that was shown on a few meager displays started to seem like a welcome time in the history of the country. Here is a little tidbit that shed some additional light on how some Estonians tried to deal with Soviets during WWII. Taking aside any knowledge of history, the almost sadomasochistic zeal that they’ve used in that museum just made one really sad and angry. I would think twice about taking kids there if I knew. After that exhibit of mounted local animals and birds in the basement was just nauseating.

Another note to close in on the contrasts. Quite as expected, most locals do not speak Russian. English is a lot more popular here. I got the feeling that if you want a bit nicer service, start with English. But there is a lot of Russian tourists - at least half of the ones we saw were Russian.

On a happier note, we came back to our hotel Johan Spa Hotel, and spent a few hours going through some of the great water activities they offer: several pools, sauna, Jacuzzi, many different types of massaging showers. The hotel itself is adequate and reasonable value for the price, but the water part was awesome. 

The Last Day in Tallinn

Thursday was a hectic. We were planning to go to Saremaa island and after some contemplating decided not to come back to Tallinn. It was time to go to Vilnius anyway. So we had some logistics to take care off – rent a car, tell our trusty agent Audra (gelminta@delfi.lt) that we would be coming on Tuesday, pack. The plan was to arrive to Kusseare (the capital of Saremaa) on Friday, go sightseeing on Saturday, and leave early on Sunday to drive through Latvian castle area and stop there for the night.

Between the packing we also worked, paid last visit to Pelmeni place and the talented artist in the cellar, discovered an interesting way to walk through the textile row near St. Catherine’s. The first day of 4-day Medieval days festival was going on in town as well. However for the first day, it was not very impressive: it looked like Wednesday market folks just came back on Thursday dressed in traditional clothes. A few workshops opened up near the Nigulist church.

Speaking of traditional clothes, locals wear them and wear them well. Clothing is clearly very thoroughly done – it is really clothes, not cheap carnival gear. Ladies have 2 layer dresses with beautiful under dresses, and very elaborate upper dresses with interesting drooping sleeves. Men wore laced up leather booties and similarly complicated overcoats. Hats represented all medieval periods and social-economic types. Just beautiful to look at. We even saw a few “beggar kids.” Their faces were smeared with “dirt” and clothing consisted of linen tunics all ripped up.

At night Dan and I walked around and made a few final discoveries as we were saying goodbye to the city. The first was finding the abandoned Dominican monastery. I saw it from the window of another monastery mentioned in this post (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). I looked around and tried to find it but could not. We walked into a restaurant on the street where Master’s Courtyard is located to see it closer – it was enormous. And inside, there were glass doors right onto the monastery. Amazing sight!!!

The second discovery was the way up towards Parliament building tower. There was a staircase from the ponds below the city wall directly towards the tower. We walked around that area all the time and never noticed it. We passed a bunch of people sitting in the niches of the wall and having a picnic and watching the sunset. We wish we found it earlier.

Finally, we randomly walked into Reval café located near the Victory square. Turns out that it is giant, cavernous inside. It is filled with comfy red armchairs, pictures of views from NYC Greenwich village. And they sell the best deserts. Finally! It was great to sit down inside for a bite. And some closing thoughts about the city. We had a great time!!!

Kumanetz

Nice day in the city. It looks like cruise ships had come back – the city is teeming with the passengers. We had been here for a while – we start to recognize and greet regulars in the streets. As for McDs, we practically live there. I order my coffee and Georgia’s pastry and they deliver it to our table.

Before lunch we dragged Dan out and went to see the oldest cellar in the city and associated Ukrainian resident-painter. He was pretty silent the whole time. Only spoke with Georgia who shared our entire family history. He is amazing. It is like 5-6 different artists working there. Even in the same media the styles are completely different.

In honor of all Ukrainian we decided to have lunch at Kumanetz close by. They pulled off a pretty decent Ukrainian borsht with unsalted pampushkas but it went downhill from there. Chicken salad with feta cheese consisted of dry croutons, dry feta and dry chicken cubes. 2 soups, dumplings, and 2 sides, 3 juices  =  40 euros. Make your own choice J.

Preparations for the Medieval days tomorrow had started in the town square. Hurray! 

Kids went to the Zoo with Irina today. They checked out one of the picnic areas and turns out that they have a big closed in baby animal area. Baby animals were baby goats, ducklings, chicks, turtles, even a snake. And you could feed them fruits. Kids had a blast.

When we were having our 11pm cup of coffee with cake at the Kehrwieder Chocolaterie we found a journal with entries from tourists who visited the coffee shop. The final entry probably was made today. It was by American couple Dan and Deborah from St. Louis, Missouri who are in Estonia for a month. These are our final days here. I am a little jealous of them. Hope they have a really great time! Skipped on the free pickle today. Maybe tomorrow.

Almost Robbed & Happy Birthday Alan!

That thing I said about nice people yesterday, scrub that.. well fine.. scrub that for the alcoholics, drug addicts and whoever it was that tried to rob our apartment last night and destroyed the lock on the bicycle chain that keeps our stroller attached to the stairs downstairs.  

I guess it is better to start from the beginning. Last night we heard some noises that sounded like they were coming from our apartment. Usually the noises from the night club downstairs do sound like they are coming from our apartment, but those are usually laughter and Brits saying incomprehensible things. These were scraping noises. Dan went to investigate and did not find anyone in our apartment.

So in the morning we headed down to grab the stroller and go outside – and the lock was all scraped up. They did not manage to open it so to get over their sorrow they got some stuff stuck inside so we could not get the key in.

The evil Renata from BookingEstonia first said it is 9am and she is not at work yet. And anyway “she warned us that this is the old town and any kind of riffraff hangs out here.” She actually did not – she said it is OK to leave the stroller downstairs. The bike chain was Dan’s idea. Anyway she suggested to wait till 10am and the bike rental place opens up to see if they have the special scissors to cut open the chain. I asked if we should call police – she said don’t bother, they have enough to worry about.

We did call the police (110) and initially the girl on the phone said it is not their responsibility to open up the chains and that I would have to call the locksmith. But she agreed to send over the car to get report filed. Meanwhile Irina found another bike guy near the information office who was at work at 9am and so he called someone over to help. At about 10am both the cops and the guy showed up at our place. The cops were friendly young guys who spoke very good Russian. They helped the guy with metal saw to open up the chain. Took him a good 10 minutes. So it was a very good chain. Afterwards they did do a police report in Russian so I could understand it – and I could see that this is not something that they typically do since the guy really had to think hard not misspell. So that thing about nice people is still on J. We got the new bike chain and now take the stroller inside for the night. So we are all good!

Other than that nothing really that exciting. The first part of the day was kind of scrubbed. And things seemed a bit sad afterwards, well until lunch anyway. After lunch it was as good as new J .   

Dan spent some quality time with the coin guy near Solaris. Got a book he is excited about. Thinking about some more books tomorrow.

We walked around in the evening looking for a perfect chocolate cake. Realized that most of the restaurants in the old town are Italian. There are a few Old Estonian ones that specialize in bucktorn jelly and rhubarb cake which are great but not chocolate enough. We finally found a tiny coffee shop on the fashion designer street. It was really beautiful inside and had copies of Pikker magazine that dated back to early 70s. In pristine condition. The coffee and cake left a lot to be desired though. We are thinking that past 11pm the best choice is trusty McDonalds. Its donuts are soft and tender and deep with flavor. Almost sounds like a poem.

We were in a perfume store today with Georgia and she was sampling. For one of perfumes she said: this one must be really healthy for you. I asked why? She said the smell is not so good J

Krishnaits are lot more dedicated bunch here than those in Vilnius. They typically greet us as we come out of Viru mall at the end of the day, every day. And they usually have something new and fun going on. Today they were playing harmonica and carring around a sign with some kind of a mask.

Waiters on the main square still try to invite us in even though we refused for the last 3 weeks. Well today, one of the guys who works at the restaurant in the cellar of the city hall followed us around with a goblet in his hands putting on a beautiful drunk act and offered us a flier with a free cucumber if we go to his restaurant. This is one invitation we cannot refuse. So we have a date set for tomorrow J 

Happy 3rd Birthday Alan! Georgia said Hello! Isabella looks like in a few months she might say Hello too.

Rakvere Castle

On Sunday it was cooler and we went to see Rakvere castle. The trip almost did not happen when we got out of the house and saw literally every single school age kid dressed in region's gear hanging around the center. There was some kind of a national holiday going on (that they did not warn us about at the Information office a day prior).

They looked beautiful but they blocked the only road from the parking lot. We waited for an hour for a gap in their numbers and made a dash out past come traffic cop who turned around to pretend that he did not see us.

On the way we made a 15 kilometer detour to Palmse to try to get the best cheese Danish that we had last week. We were in luck – got the last 6 remaining ones and most of the cheesecake they had in the store. If you are in the area, definitely drop in, it sooo worth it.

After we got out of Palmse we stopped after seeing some blueberry bushes and picked us some blueberries. There were so many berries that you could sit on one spot and eat and eat and est. Don’t know if they have any nuclear power plants around but clover flowers were the size of plums.

Only the shell has remained from the old castle. But during renovations everything on the inside was rebuilt for the most part from wood. The castle is the prime example of a multi-media experience similar to the one we had at the Bastion tunnels. After coming in we immediately headed to the red-lantern district to the brothel that was built there recently.

We passed an alley of alluring medieval pictures on the subject and doors with pictures and the names of the lady-inhabitants inside. They were all locked except Dorothea’s. From behind that door we heard bits of the conversation that sounded like “Let me try that chastity belt on you to see if it fits.” “Now put your hand your wife’s behind, and now she is turning. Do you see that hare’s ass on her chest – gross. Isn’t that discouraging?” So we stayed around for the chance to speak with the learned woman.

After she was done with those customers, she spent some time with us sharing the delightful tidbits from that time period in line with her character. Not to say that they were really delightful but the way she was dressed and talked (in Russian) was hugely entertaining. Inside layout complete with a bath barrel for 2 and a 4 post bed was probably too luxurious for the time period.

After that she offered to take us to the barber to check how we were feeling and in we were in the need of some bloodletting. For the next venue she played the barber and offered to relieve my condition with some bloodletting from a vein. Some English tourists walked in and asked what she was doing seeing her clean out a rusty knife with  water from a dirty flask. I said that she was going to cut my veins. They stayed around to watch. Next she dipped the knife in the dark liquid from a second flask. She pressed on the inside of my hand and pulled the knife across leaving a dark streak to the loud gasp of the audience. It was expertly executed. The liquid was most likely iodine. Real fun to watch.

After that there was a torture museum with some horror rooms reminiscent of US fun parks, alchemy demonstration,  horseback riding, farm animals feeding, archery, candle and pottery making. We did not do most of them because we ran out of time. They basically have loads of different family oriented activities to choose from, some free and some modestly priced for 1.5 euro. You can also walk around the castle, enjoy beautiful views on the walls. They have cellar (viewable by candles) and armory – with lots of different sword types that you can try out. A great playground for kids and adults.  

Feeling a bit overwhelmed we got back in the car and drove to Toolse Castle. We never found it but did make another stop on the way, this time to pick the wild strawberries. Loads and load of them. Irina got so excited that she walked off in unknown direction and disappeared. After we ate our fill, we started calling for her and she did not respond. I suggested alien abduction but Georgia said that she has probably gone feral and will attack us. Fortunately Irina heard our car’s honking and appeared shortly. She did not go feral. She found a really great spot right on top of the anthill and ate her berries while fending off the ants.  

We finished the day at an Armenian restaurant while still on the road. A local variety of Kim Kardashian served our shishkebab and fries. At home we went to sleep at 8:30pm local.

On Monday the 4^th, there were no highlights. Maybe except a band of guys dressing up like babushkas and playing Beatles classing in a style of a military band. Just perfect!