Our Weekend Trip to Tallinn and Riga

On our way to Tallinn, Estonia we had an overnight bus ride that lasted about 10 hours. Luckily I had my handy-dandy Hunger Games Book, which I could not put down the whole bus ride. In turn, I was not able to get any sleep, due to my interest in the book. When we arrived at Tallinn, at 6 am, I was super tired but I was not going to let that stop me from exploring the city. We were all suffering from the lack of sleep and had not patience for a couple of creepers, left over from late night partying, that felt like it would be cool to follow us to our hostel. Luckily we didn’t have to deal with that much longer after the hostel we were at found out they were not staying there LOL, and they were given a much need boot.  After we checked in to the hostel we went around the city to explore. Areil, our head teacher, had already been to Tallinn. So she knew what was cool to see. We came upon this old hotel that was the locals believed the devils wedding took place. During Areil’s previous visit to Tallinn she talked to the owner of the Hotel and learned the story of the devils wedding, which goes at follows:

                A very strange man had come to the town and nobody knew who he was. The man checked in to this particular hotel for one night. The hostess showed him to his room on the top floor, but she never returned. After a while the owner heard loud noises as if there was a party taking place. Irritated, the owner sent the bell boy to go stop the party. After some time the bell boy never returned, the owner went upstairs to stop it himself. When he arrived at the door, the owner looked through the key hole and saw the devil wedding his hostess. After this event the town decided that he must burn the hotel down or brick up that room completely. So the owner ended up bricking up the room, and now there is a mock window where that room once was. The people in the town were experiencing the need to try to prevent this from ever happing again, so they did the most logical thing they could think of. They took all the cats in the town and sacrificed them in the well in front of that hotel. Then, due to the dead cats in the well, the people that drank out of that well got sick and died. So this led them to apologize to the cats by making a statue in their remembrance. THE END.

We stopped to rest our feet in a cute little underground coffee shop, where we all got Hot Coaco. If you ever come here, don’t order Hot Chocolate, they will literally give you hot melted chocolate lol. After we rested a while and played card games, we went to see the church that was home to an amazing painting depicting the black plague called The Dance of Death.

My personal favorite thing we did was visiting the Museum of Occupations. This museum was about who/how/when Estonia was occupied by other countries and how they regained their freedom. I was so interested in the manipulating process that took places to make the people, mostly youth, think that socialism and communism was in fact what Estonia needed. I could go on and on about this process of manipulation because I heard, read, and saw so many things in that museum that I have seen, heard, and read in our current America today. It makes me sick.

Thanks to Areil, she remembered this cute hidden Palmini restaurant targeted at backpackers. Later, after we got gussied up, we made our way to the Opera! This opera was awesome, and the music was even better! It was in Italian yet they had English subtitles, so people like me could understand it LOL. When we were done at the opera we made our way up to a lookout point over the city. It was so beautiful to see the lights of the city light up one by one while a nearby restaurant was playing beautiful jazz music. After our adventures to the top of the city, we retreated to our hostel, where we discovered a band from England playing. They were really good, and they played one of my favorite songs by Damian Rice. It was a good ending to a good day.

The Next day

We all somehow managed to wake up and stroll down to this awesome pancake place call the Kompressor. Let me clue you in on a little knowledge about pancakes in this area, they are all usually thin and they always fold them. So here I am looking through the pancakes on the menu and they are really cheap so I decide to get two flavors. Then out comes our pancakes and they are not just thick they are STACKED and WIDE! I would be the one that gets two of these huge pancakes LOL. If anyone knows me I can’t let down a challenge, and the other girls dared me to eat all of them; so I did. It worked out in the end because I didn’t have to eat anything the rest of the day LOL. After I wobbled my fat self to this beautiful church called the Holy Ghost church, where one of the first Swiss flags in this area were hung. The Paintings were the best part of that church they were amazing!

We went to a castle wall in the city and went up very steep stairs to the top of the tower where one could see a bird’s eye view of the city. The wind was blowing the sound of a church choir above the buildings. We wondered a little while and came to Olaf’s church where once stood the world’s tallest tower. I felt so small next to the huge building. Later, we walked down a street devoted to venders selling Scandinavian sweaters. All I was thinking as I was walking down the street was “My mom would love everything here!”

As we were checking out of out hostel there was a Hippie man that we had seen around the city here and there that was staying there. After seeing the hippie multiple times I made a joke that he was my hippie buddy. In the end, before we left the hostel, we kicked it off chatting about the places he has been in his life. prrrrrrrettty cool.

We hopped on a bus down Riga, Latvia and checked in to the cutest hostel ever. The hostel’s name pretty much described its cuteness. The teddy bear hostel! The next day we went to this huge market, where I got some yummy strawberries for a picnic in the park latter. My favorite part of this day was going to the photography museum with salvaged photos from Latvia’s past. The museum also was featuring the work of a Russian photographer, Alexandra Demenkova “Territory Of Broken Dreams”. This was an accumulation of picture of getto arias in Russia. I thought it was super neat so I wanted to get a pitting picture to remember that experience. I was flipping through the some small 25 cent photos when I saw a picture of a Russian mother teaching her two little boys how to dance. Immediately as I saw this pic I got a joyful feeling inside me, I thought about how amazing it is even when one may be in the “Territory Of Broken Dream” one can still find happiness in something as special as dance. This is just one of the reasons I love Dance.

Church in Riga was interesting and really cool because the church was located on Church street in a tall building on the 3^rd floor in a cramped flat. It was interesting hearing the talks and meeting the people there. The church is always the same no matter where  you are in the world, THE CHURCH IS TRUE! Lol

Picnics are the best! We had a fun little picnic in the park next to the art museum that we were anticipating go in. During the picnic a very attractive cop came up to us and asked us if we had any beer. When he heard us say that we don’t drink, he was surprised and looked a little sad as he said “I need beer”.  LOL

The art museum was great and I realized my completely contempt feeling with being able to be by myself and enjoying amazing paintings without a nagging boyfriend complaining about it. I was so full of joy J. Now I wonder if I would be able to adjust when I decide to date again… lol.

After the museum I was able to finish my lunch in another park. I was sitting on a step by a statue when a young boy comes up to me and says something in Latvian. I figure that he was asking me for money or food so I shared some of my lunch with him. He sat down next to me and spoke broken English about random things, and was trying very hard to communicate with me. He seemed very happy to get some food because he was smiling a lot.

The next day we finished our trip in Latvia with a visit to the Occupation’s museum. This was my favorite visit because I understood the hard work that these people went through just to gain their independence; which they have only had for 20 years. I am so grateful that I was able to be born in a free country able to speak my mind without the worry of being taken away from my home. I am so happy that I am able to worship the way I want. I am grateful for my freedom.