Southern Estonia

Despite being a relatively small country, Estonia has a lot of history and a lot of beautiful places to discover. After our visit to Saaremaa, we were back in Tallinn for a couple of days for a Passover Seder, then traveled south to Tartu, Estonia’s biggest university town.

We ended up enjoying Tartu more than Tallinn, mainly because the “old town” seems more oriented towards locals than tourists, so restaurants are more authentic / less stereotypical. As well, Tartu has some beautiful parks mixed amongst the city and the parks are dotted with sculptures, ruins or other points of interest.

We were also in Tartu for Jon’s birthday (April 11) and enjoyed a great home-curated lunch from the Tartu market, including a variety of herring and salmon, as well as some moose salami, coleslaw and home-made pickles (which were good, but not up to Ellenzweig / Tupholme standards).

We also toured the A. Le Coq Brewery in Tartu, definitely a non-Estonian name (Mr. Le Coq was a Belgian) but the leading producer of beer in Estonia.

After Tartu, we rented a car and toured around the countryside, including Viljandi, birthplace of Kristi's step-grandmother and home to another great park and castle, and we ended up spending the night in Parnu, a beachside resort town.

We finagled a sea-view room in Parnu and the weather crept up into the mid-teens, so we took a great walk along the beach / boardwalk and explored some of the other highlights.

We returned our car the next day to Tallinn and spent our final night in a hotel that also houses a pool / spa facility, with about 6 different hot tubs, multiple saunas, steam rooms, etc. - a relaxing way to end our stay in Estonia.

Tallinn - Sporting Events

We are currently in Tallinn Estonia and have been in Estonia for the past week. Since arriving on March 31st, we have spent time in both Tallinn (the capital city) and on the island of Saaremaa (subject of a future post).

We have tried to stay on top of Estonia's sporting scene since arriving (which is pretty easy to do), and have attended a World Cup 2010 Qualifying Match as well as an Estonian Basketball League game.

Estonia does not have a very rich football (soccer) background, which has shown in their World Cup 2010 qualification efforts (Europe - Group 5). Thankfully, they were playing one of the few teams in Europe ranked below them, Armenia (Estonia is ranked #115 in the world and Armenia is ranked #124 - click here for the full rankings).

The match took place at Estonia's largest football field, A. Le Coq Arena, sponsored by A. Le Coq, one of Estonia's largest breweries (and the one with the most interesting name).

Positive notes on the match:
1. Both teams tried their best.
2. There were a decent number of Estonian fans that turned out, despite the early start time (6:00 PM on a Wednesday).
3. Surprisingly, some Armenian fans made it to the match.
4. Estonia won, 1-0.

Room for improvement:
1. The grass was very brown and patchy.
2. Neither Estonia nor Armenia are very good at football. Lots of players on both sides either play in their local leagues or in places like Iran, Kazakhstan, Georgia, etc.
3. No beer was sold during the match (a FIFA rule, not a local one).
4. The concession stand sold out of Estonian Garlic Bread (a GREAT local snack, not like Italian garlic bread) before half time, so we didn't get any.

Next up on our sporting tour-de-force was a match in the SEB Korvpalli Maestriliiga, more commonly known as the KML or the Estonian Basketball League. You may be asking yourself, something like "Hm. I didn't know that Estonians play basketball. I don't recall seeing any of their players in the NBA or in the Olympics". Well, due in part to their Nordic ancestry, there are some tall Estonians out there and at some point, they got together and started playing basketball. Unfortunately, they are not very good, which is why we generally don't see Estonians in the NBA. They do, however, also participate in the Baltic Basketball League, which is typically dominated by Lithuanian teams.

The game we went to was between one of the local Tallinn teams, BC Kalev (mascot pictured above) and its chief rival, Tartu Rock. Thankfully, the local team won (boxscore) and the 1,200 (or so) fans in attendance all went home happy.