Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Tallin,night life!Clubs bars restaurants and.... US!

Tallinn, beautiful Tallinn, why art thou that cold?
It s not the coldness of the place itself but its inhabitants seem to be cold. And closed. At the beginning. So it was with us. We were warned it would take some time to conquer the Estonias. We were suggested to see some Finnish films to understand this nordic nation. But we did it with tango.
After the first two days our general impression was: do they not like us/ or they do? Do they understand us/or they not? The most easy way would be to ask streight forward as the Estonians seem to be perfect at non expressivity.
( our guardian angels at the hotel expained us that the reason for this mentality, apart from the climat is a historical burden: wars, partitions, invasions and the last heavy period of communism and soviet rule)
It changed slowly-they were warming up. The last 4 days we were bombarded with invitations. Therefore we could disover the REAQL LIFE AND REAL PEOPLE here. AND THERE IS A NIGHT LIFE IN TALLINN!

INITIATION no 1: milimallika.
Strange local mixture. More than just a strong vodka with the spicy aftertaste burning your throat. Nobody knows what 's in it, they told us. A soviet bar which has not changed for decates- Valli Bar. Now, the municipality protects it. YES, WE DEFINITELY WANT TO GO THERE and meet the old Russians drinking and singing their songs! It was our first stop of ' clubbing' with Tiia Maria and Hardi.
After that shot sining with the other / drunken/ Russians and Estonians, estonian songs to the tune of accordion player. Even ' Buenos dias, Argentina'.On the picture: iron ladies- Aisha and our Estonian student Tiia Maria.

Another stop was very different- cosy romantic wine celler-restaurant called ' Three faced men' . They were so impressed by Argentinean tango that we exchanged our little spontaneous tango show ( they moved the tables and chairs) for a dinner. With wine and grappa!


The third and inevitable one was a famous Claaz club. Brasilian night, live music and friendly Brasilian singer Denise that we were presented to ( and chatted Portugeses). It was just GREEEEAT to dance some samba bossanova!Our guides of this special clubbing night were Hardi and Tiia Maria ( sic! its her name!) Tiia Maria, apart from looking latin speaks perfect Spanish ( from Spain). And BEHAVES LATIN, what a relief!
We had loads of fun together and the first hand information about anything ESTONIAN...Drinking cherry beer ( local speciality) and eating olives and cheeses made us feel at home. CLAZZ, on Tue ( and Sun) - highly recommended!


For a farewell dinner Karmen chose to invite us to a modern sushi bar ( she would not belive that we are satisfied with a take away Turkish Kebab place opened 24 hours...) so, we got to know another special place. Our students joined us to chat and say good bye.. our last night in Talllinn...up and out till 3 am, which I suppose it s quite unusual here.
BUT they want us to come back!
I got a declaration of love from my Estonian students- in Spanish too. Handwritten. But the most fascinating are their NAMES!!!
Hardi
Vambo
Tiit
Piret
Meelis
Liivi
Einar
Tiia Maria.... to name just a few!


On Tursday we said good buy to our favourite places in town...

And to our hostel. WE LOVED IT!
Its decor. Especially magic mushrooms paintings...


TO BE CON TI NU ED!
Victor with a strong estonian drink at the old communist harbour with a good view on the Baltic sea. The kitchen in our Hostel appartment and the view on the old trees. One of the mornings during the breakfast: meeting Spanish travellers who invited us to have... Argentinean mate! The first mate ritual in Europe!
Our Guardian Angel of the hostel: Rui, on a psychodelic background.
Chestnuts in bloom and the names of the streets in Estonian....

The emblematic view on the old Tallin/ the towers of the defense walls of Tallinn.

And the view of the roofs. Baltic sea in the horizon.

The place recommented for romantic walks, also by night-Danish King's Garden.
And more red roofs seen from above.
An picturesque ortodox church which we chose as a background for our project " Tango around Europe" .
and we danced our tango there!
Our travel continues!

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