Eating Well In Tallinn

Tallinn has a lively and varied restaurant scene, and we ate well during our visit...

Every day started well with the hotel breakfast; sometimes I augmented
my traditional American/English breakfast with some beets and herring and
other local such stuff

Mistakes were made...imagine the disappointment of
the guy who ordered a burger with just mayo when he
got Vicki's double burger with ketchup and pickle...

But on the whole we did quite well, starting with Moon, a traditional
Estonian Michelin-Red restaurant down by the harbor...

A bit of the decor

My borsch

Her chicken Kiev and mash

My roasted aubergine tartar with truffle artichoke sauce 
and sunchoke crisps

Her Napoleon cake, with various stuff; the presentations were fun and
impressive

Another treat was Tai Boh, a Thai resto in the center of
the old town...the modest entry led to a large outdoor terrace
where we ate; the decor of the restaurant was said to be "life-
changing," which we interpreted to mean someone had
watched The Beach maybe way too many times...

My Tom Yum (and a pancakey sort of bread thing they recommended)

Her duck

Her dessert

The food was fine, but the interior of the restaurant was a hoot

Bar

Muay Thai..."get there earlier!"

Upstairs lounge and toilettes

Handwashing station

Speaking of stations...

Lastly there was Chakra, a traditional Indian restaurant closer to our
hotel; the aromas from the kitchen windows and the chefs waving at
us were all the invitation needed; above, Vicki's roasted tika masala

My coconut shrimp curry; both fine and, with papadums and naan,
all we could eat

Tallinn Scenes, 4

 And now, the exciting conclusion of our Tallinn Scenes series...

Our final goal for the day: Tallinn's central market

Baking bread the old fashioned way

Not much else about the market was old-fashioned...it would have
been right at home in any American suburbopolis; this scene is in
the one very large seafood store

Eventual fate of all original Fiat 500s

Finished bread and baker's assistant

Back in old town

Rarest of sights...following a printed map

"Shire...Baggins..."...what are the Nazgul doing here?!

So next day we are approaching and entering the upper fortress

Looking out at a bit of modern Tallinn

In the inner fortress, the Alexander Nevsky Russian Orthodox
Church; very Russian-looking

Clandestine shot of the altar area

For our next church, in order to evade the 2 euro charge, we decided
to fall in between cruise ship excursion groups #78 and #79 and
hopefully pass unnoticed

The church, a former Lutheran one, I think...

"Famous" for displaying the crests and shields of Estonia's great
(Protestant?) families; at this point, we were done, opted out
of the excursion groups and headed back to a great Indian restaurant
for dinner (next post); and for packing up for our next removal...

Parthian shot from Tallinn

Tallinn Scenes, 3

 Still more scenes from Tallinn...

And another, big art deco; OK, I'm now saying Tallinn's art nuvo and
art deco offerings are underrated

For you, Marie: the Tervis Museum (click to enlarge)

The contemporary sculpture sometimes leaps right
out at you

Passing under the central old town fortress (next day's post)

Another fun place to eat and drink; a former nunnery, I assume

Sculpture and fountain in one of the several old town parks

So our goal for the walk was the Telliskivi Creative Center,
an older warehouse district somewhat outside the old town,
which is being gentrified and artrified; the digitus impudicus
among its symbols; we'd read there was a peoples' flea 
market there on Saturdays...but, alas, no more

More sculpture

Lots of murals

Not everything gentrified yet

Beyond the courts you can see rows of manufacturing/warehouses
waiting to be fixed up and made trendy

Helpful map #86,928

Of course

Walking back under the central fortress

Resto consisting of choo-choo dining cars