Travel, 50+, Estonia

This country is going to get just a mini post with (there being only one exception) pixabay images (because I am too lazy to dig through old boxes to find photographs or negatives and scan and...). Why? Of all the countries, I visited Estonia the last time the longest time ago.

It was the time of woolly mammoth still stomping among us. The Samurai were still sending prank faxes to Lincoln and the Vikings were sailing to exchange pelts to definitely not pirated Doom II with A4 printed (black and white no less) covers and no box. Back then, Estonia was known as the Hong Kong of Europe and Mustamäe was the epicenter of totally legal sales of everything from music with funny translation errors behind the CD, absolutely genuine football jerseys the sales people professionally recognized by the name in the back (eg. Del Piero, Bergkamp and more) while not recognizing a single team once named. It was the time when Viru Valge kept flowing north with covetous reindeer. When south from there was considered dangerous. Right after the singing revolution. Good times.

I arrived to the country on a ferry as was customary at the time. The passport was slapped with a stamp and I survived the arrival without a colonoscopy. Right after, a scam artist and a mafia taxi attempted to kidnap myself and someone else to "go wherever you want to go". The host of our trip cut it short and took us to the legal taxis, inconveniently far due to being violently driven off by the mafia guys. We took a ride to a place I did not recognize, had a stroll and went somewhere else. As it is one of the only trips I have not been in part or fully organizing, I cannot really tell where we went. Not in detail or any form of accuracy. We did, however and for certain, go to Tallinn old town. A well preserved specimen and the shiny pearl of Baltic old towns and even a very good specimen were we to consider the status of Eesti as an honorary Nordic country (you picked the wrong flag folks). Within, we paced along the streets in awe, finally stumbling upon a restaurant that was fancy enough in its medieval glory to satisfy our little entourage's hunger of food, drink and restaurant level cosplay.

The servants were fully in their role of having watched too much of the Knights who say Ni! Repeatedly going "Ni!" every time a social interaction took place. While they did not demand a gift of shrubbery, they did have a go at feeding us some. Rose petals are, apparently, one of only very few petals that are edible. I can only surmise. None of us died, at least.

We walked here, adventured there and ended up in a location that, to this day, is the only one in which I have been assaulted on the road. An older Russian speaking man came at me, whacking his paws in my general direction. I was young, slim and agile and went full contortionist limbo at his attempts to smack me around my general facial region. I lost my cap and the man went at it like a lustful dog on a soft toy. Apparently the old man had an issue with caps. Or Adidas. Or perhaps the color, who knows. Intercoursed the cap up real good. Either way, I survived the assault unscathed. We went here and there, I cannot say where, but it was rather uneventful beyond what has been described.

The Judgment:
Estonia remains a calm small place in my mind, despite that one assault. I recall it being very green and having a bunch of old windmills and stone walls, allegedly there were many castles, but my selective amnesia denies me confirmation. Prices were very acceptable in kroon. I imagine somewhat higher in euros. I cannot really place Estonia in any particular price range, but via Latvia and Lithuania, I'd imagine it's somewhere in the middle in what comes to the continent. Might be a tad more expensive than the other named examples here. Certainly cheaper than the Nordic countries. In a lukewarm judgment, I'd say it's a place for people who like peace, quiet, nature, castles and cool beaches. Crown jewel being the Tallinn old town.

Would I go again? Maybe. If it's on the route, I'll have to take a peep at the other island, Tartu and maybe some other town.