The third new country visited on our Baltic cruise was Estonia! We booked a food tour (not through NCL) and had some time before the tour to explore Tallinn on our own.
We toured the Estonian Maritime Museum. It is located in the Fat Margaret tower (Tallinn towers have some quirky names), so as you visit each level of the museum you get better and better views of the city. The very top level is an outdoor bar that offers a great vantage point. The museum was very well done with a lot of interactive displays. Strangely, there was a karaoke booth on one of the levels.
A large part of the Baltics has some warranted emotional baggage in regards to Russia. We happened upon the Russian embassy while strolling around Tallinn. As you can see, people don't much care for Russia.
We enjoy food tours! It takes the pressure off finding places to eat and helps us learn more about the city and culture that we're visiting. The Tallinn food tour was fantastic and so varied! The first stop was one of my favorite bites of the tour (I'm getting a bit hungry just looking at the picture). These are lamb dumplings served with a garlic oil and sour cream. So delicious!
We also tried sea buckhorn juice. I had never heard of sea buckhorn, but the juice was refreshing.
Another stop was to a chocolate shop! They had some common flavors, but also some very unique ones. We all tried chocolate with reindeer moss. They also had flavors like spruce and kama flour (more on that in a little bit).
There were a few medieval style restaurants in Tallinn. We visited this one that had some cool ambience inside. We tried a soup and sausage roll. It felt like we stepped back in time.
Another stop brought us to a pharmacy, which may seem strange. They have been making marzipan forever! We were able to sample some. According to their website, this marzipan is "a good cure for alleviating the ache of love and promoting brain activity."
Our next stop was to sample kama. I was at a table with three other people who sampled their kama before I had a bite and they had me worried. They did not seem like big fans. Upon trying it, it just made me think of yogurt. To be fair, yogurt in Europe is a little different than yogurt in the US and I have grown more accustomed to European yogurt. It tends to be more sour tasting. Kama has an interesting texture from the grains. I don't know if this is something I would order on my own, but I'm glad to have tried it.
The café where we tasted kama is also known for marzipan, although we did not try any of theirs. I loved the display case filled with the painted marzipan figures. They are too cute to eat!
We walked through a food hall and tried some delicious lemonades! Charles had the kind in the orange can and it tasted like apple pie. Mine was an apple lemonade, but did not have the cinnamon spice flavor.
These mini pancakes were so yummy! Charles had condensed milk on his and I chose Nutella.
For the last stop our guide gave our group the choice between ice cream or local brewery. We chose brewery! This part of town was covered in really cool street art, too. Charles and I enjoyed a refreshing cider while enjoying the sunny afternoon.
We thought about booking a street art tour in Tallinn, but there were no tours offered the day we visited. I would love to return to Tallinn to go on that tour, though! There were so many cool pieces!
