Estonia

Hey Everyone,

First, I have delayed blogging this week as I have wanted Ann to continue basking in the limelight after her entertaining post last week.  She was quite excited with herself after she had completed it.  Granted, it took her a bit longer than it did Thomas Crapper to invent the flushing toilet, but she worked diligently and created a nice piece of writing, on time as well;)

We hope you are well and getting excited for Labor Day weekend.  We have to give a big cheers to the Annual Labor Day Weekend extravaganza at the Berenz High Climb in Hancock, WI.  Every Labor Day at Ann's family's cottage, the Berenz, McGrath, Klotz, and Nelson Families get together for a weekend of debauchery.  There is the annual flip cup tourney, bags, washers, "Tolf," late night bonfires, and usually some kind of costumed karaoke adventure into Sneaky Pete's or the Hancock Hotel.  Be safe up there this weekend and I have $20 for the team that finally dethrones the overrated "Champs" in the flip cup tourney.  They are rubbish.  The Senior Director thinks that team is untouchable, but if you would look at the amount of beer spilled from their cups, you would know that they are just cheaters!!!!

We had our form of the UK Labor Day weekend last weekend.  We flew to Tallinn, Estonia for the weekend, and wow, it lived up to all of the hype that we had heard.  Estonia is a small country that sits just south of Finland and West of Russia on the Baltic Sea.  You can just imagine how cold it must be in the winter as the Baltic Sea freezes over in many places.  The poor country finally just got its independence about 20 years ago after USSR collapsed as it had been a communist country since after WWII.  Before that though, it had been ruled by the Danes, the Swedes, and the Germans for almost all of its history.  The Etonians, we discovered, are an incredibly proud people though and were able to maintain their heritage and tradition despite all of the oppressive rulers.  The old part of Tallinn is this incredibly amazing walled, medieval city with winding cobblestone streets.  It was like stepping back into the Middle Ages.  On Friday night when we arrived, we had been given a recommendation for this restaurant called Olde Hansa, a traditional Estonian establishment(see pic above).  As you can see, all of the tableware was wooden, and you order these set feasts.  I have to give you a rundown of this Wild Game Feast that we ate because it was just an awesome experience:

Starters:
- Juniper Flavored Beef with Horseradish Sour Cream and Quail Eggs
- French Royal Poultry Liver Pate with onion jam
- Andalusian Salmon
- Pickled Cucumber Lavonian Style
- Saffron Pickles
- Berry Sauce and Herb Bread with Nuts
- Rye Bread with Lard
- Cheese

Main:
- Smoked Grilled Salmon with nut sauce
- Bear, Wild Boar, and Elk Game Sausages
- Mild Game Pork
- Roasted Rabbitt
- Wild Boar Steak

Dessert:
Rose Pudding

To be perfectly honest, I have had better wild game, but the experience was unmatchable.  They had this brilliant cinnamon beer too that was tasty.

Saturday, we started the day walking and taking in the sights of Old Town, and then decided to do this 4 hour Kayaking tour on the Baltic Sea that had been recommended to us.  The Port of Tallinn was built as quite a stronghold for the German and Russian Navies and consists of multiple harbors that were once used for building naval ships and submarines as well as a prison.  Today, the Berenz fleet of boats on Fish Lake in Wisconsin is most likely more formidable than the Estonian Navy, but there were still some old war ships and cool structures to see.  We also kayaked out to one of the many islands in the Baltic near Tallinn and took in one of the nicer beaches.  Overall, I think we kayaked about 6 or 7 miles, so it was a really fun experience.  We said to each other who ever thought that we would be kayaking on the Baltic Sea.  Most importantly, Ann kept pretty calm in the front of the kayak where she had no power over the rudder and ultimately which direction we went.  I had to take her lead with paddling though, so it was a nice display of team work, and despite some raised voices at times while we paddled into the wind and over white caps, we got out of the kayak still speaking to each other!!!!  Saturday evening, we decided to see how the night life was in Tallinn.  We started at the beer house, which was pretty funny.  Ann was obsessed with the local Estonian people dancing and tried to convince me to dance with an 80 year old woman.  After the beer hall, we ended up stumbling(not literally) into this beautiful little outside restaurant completely enclosed by walls off of a main street.  They had a great 3 piece band and we ordered some delicious scallops and a cocktail before moving on.  We finished the night in a couple of classic karaoke bars(Estonians love Karaoke apparently).

Sunday was a fantastic day as we had covered most of the major sights on Saturday.  We slept in and had a nice morning and then ventured on a couple of bus tours that took us through some sights outside of the city.  Sunday afternoon, we found this quaint little restaurant back in Old Town called Von Krahli Aed.  The food was incredible.  Ann had a mutton chop that was extraordinary.  Sunday night, we actually found a movie theater and went and saw "Midnight in Paris," Woody Allen's new film.  It is funny because we usually do not have time for movies in London, so this was a perfect opportunity.  It has not been officially released yet in Europe, so we actually watched it in this 40 seat screening theater with these huge plush, leather arm chairs.  It will be hard to sit in a regular theater again.

Anyway, that was Estonia.  We flew back on Monday afternoon as we had a holiday last Monday.  As I type, our friends Patrick and Susie are just a few hours away from heading to the airport in Minneapolis to board their flight for London.  We are so incredibly excited to see them.  We stayed at their house our last 2 nights in Minneapolis last December after the movers had come before we made the trek to Fondy and then London, and that is the last time that we have seen them.  It has been too long and we are just so looking forward to the comfort of great friends here with us.  They are here in London until Tuesday and then heading to Ireland.  We are going to meet back up with them next Thursday night in Dublin and spend their last weekend there.  I am counting down the hours to their arrival.

Enjoy the long Labor Day weekend.  Perhaps we will get the Senior Director blogging a bit more since she has revealed her skills!!!

Cheers
Kevin and Ann