Saunas and Skatin' and SANTA!!

Tuesday, December 01, 2015
Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia
Today was such a fantastic, Chrisma-gasmic day, I can hardly stand it. There are days when you travel, where all the stars align, and the results are a day that is unforgettable. This was one of those days.

First off, the wind stopped. And the rain and sleet stopped. What was left was a chilly, but lovely day, quite nice for walking around all bundled up in scarves and hats. So we did. We decided to visit all the places we'd missed yesterday, so our first stop was the Kalev Marzipan Museum. Estonia is apparently the birthplace of marzipan, and it is everywhere. And given that I am travelling with a pastry chef, this marzipan museum was a must-see. It wasn't much of a "museum" as it was a candy shop with bizarrely intricate marzipan designs, and the opportunity to watch artisans decorate and paint the marzipan in front of you. The candy was interesting, but not so much appetizing, as it looked like your fusty grandmother's Hummels collection. Anyway.

Sometimes, when one travels to foreign lands, the language translation becomes so absurd that it's pure comedy. Such was our next stop. I had seen a signpost pointing to this site, and this sign made me laugh out loud. So obviously we had to visit. This Estonian landmark is a tower, erected to watch over the town. The tower's guards, however, spent most of their time peeping into locals' homes instead of watching over the city. So the tower earned the nickname of "Peeping into the Kitchen"....in English (and I kid you not): Kiek in the Kok.

I'm just going to let the delicious awesomeness of that sink in.
Even better, the "e" in "Kiek" has been modified on many signs to be a "c."  Because, of course it has.

Our next stop was the Museum of Occupations, chronicling Estonia's troubled 20th century under Nazi occupation during World War II, and then Soviet occupation for fifty years, until the Soviet empire fell in 1991. It was pretty brutal. It actually got me thinking- we tend to believe that Europe was essentially liberated after World War II and Hitler was defeated, but that really isn't true. Nations like Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia were left to be terrorized by Stalin and the Soviet regime. And nobody helped them. The best theory we could come up with is that the US got involved when fascists invaded other countries, but if they terrorized their own people, we pretty much stayed out of it. I'm not entirely sure how that explains the fact that the free world left these nations to suffer for fifty years, but I am glad that this museum made me think about it.

So after fascist oppression and marzipan in the morning, we headed to a quintessentially Estonian experience at midday: The sauna and water spa. OK, so it's not completely Estonian- the word "sauna" is stolen directly from the Finnish word- but it is a Nordic phenomenon to love water and steam. We went to the Kalev Water Spa, where for the princely sum of 7 euros each, we spent two hours in jacuzzis, steam saunas, wet saunas, swimming pools, and WATERSLIDES. (Admittedly, we were the only adults riding the waterslides, but one must amortize one's admission fees.) But it was a lovely way to spend a chilly "when in Rome" day amongst Estonian locals.

We had a very late lunch at Hell Hunt, a cozy pub near our hotel ("Hell Hunt" sounds much scarier than it is- it means "Gentle Hound" in Estonian), and after Estonian ciders and wild game, we realized we'd finished just in time for happy hour. We headed for the town square to soak up more Christmas market ambience, and noticed a teeny pub called Kolmas Draakon. It was a medieval-themed bar, with no electric lighting, and serving just mulled wine (and pickles) out of giant vats (separate vats, I should note). We ordered two mulled wines and enjoyed the show, which pretty much consisted of the owner, in medieval dress, haranguing the customers for using cell phones in the 14th century. This was my kind of place.

We stumbled across a tiny bar called Tap Room, which was unfortunately named given that it is a wine bar. And not just any wine bar. This wine bar boasted every glass of any wine in stock was just TWO EUROS a glass. Now, this was a challenge we could not possibly ignore, and we proceeded to really, really make the owners rethink their business plan. But in the meantime, we enjoyed multiple mulled wines. And Spanish wines. And other wines. I'm just saying, it was two euros, and I'm only human.

So after our wine diversion, we wandered back to the Christmas market....and SANTA was in residence, with reindeer in tow!!! So we waited (somewhat) patiently in line with the town's children, and were rewarded with a pretty cool Estonian-Santa photo.

After one meets Santa, the only way to ratchet up the Christmas-ness is to go ice skating. And in Tallinn, they feature a lovely outdoor rink in Old Town, in the shadow of the walled city's towers. It was perfect weather, and enough to make me think, I am ice skating in Tallinn at Christmastime. I am a lucky girl.

After an ice skating adventure in Tallinn, one obviously requires mulled wine. I can't say if the Tap Room was happy to see us for a second time in the same night, but they did take our euros as happily as we took their wine.

And a Merry Christmas was had by all :)

Comments

2025-02-13

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank