We returned to Estonia to visit Kristi’s friends and family over Easter weekend, flying out from Gatwick this time, The trip out was made interesting by being surrounded with twenty-odd members of a stag party, all with bright yellow plastic fire helmets. It was quite amusing listening to their conversations when coming in to land, as they pointed at the Estonian equivalent of our allotments and proclaiming “What kind of place have we been brought to, just look at the shanty town”. Things were made even more amusing when departing the plane. There was a strong wind, and the stag group were being warned by the stewardess to hold on to their hats as they left. Sure enough one of them didn’t hold on tight enough and off it flew, with one of the ground crew running after it. As we boarded the shuttle bus the poor guy could be seen running off in the distance still chasing this hat. I watched and could not help but imagine the Benny Hill tune playing in the background as this guy zigzagged across the runway, the hat blowing away every time he bent down to pick it up.
 Kristi’s mum greeted us and took us back to hers, where we were to be staying for the duration of our break. After dropping our stuff off we went to Kristi’s hairdressers, where I left her to recieve her annual chop whilst I wandered the streets for a while taking a few random snaps of the local architecture. An hour later I returned to find a rather red haired Kristi.
After over-coming the initial shock, we made our way to a bar called VS. This was very nicely decked out, with a kind of modern decor and not to mention waitresses in very short skirts. Anyway, we met up with several of Kristi’s friends and had some rather nice cheese and chicken naan whilst they caught up.
The 2nd day we set out for some shopping in the morning. In the afternoon Kristi visited her dad for his birthday while I worked on this site a little. Sad I know, but I had already seen the sites of Tallinn the previous year. For the evening we headed out into the old town to a pub known as the Beer House. This is aimed towards tourists, set out as an old traditional German tavern, complete with more short skirted waitresses. It was quite expensive by Estonian standards, but the food was good and they brew their own beers. They also had live music and put on several displays of traditional dancing complete with traditional dress.
 Kristi had heard that there was a puppy exhibition going on, so we met up with another of her friends and walked across. After an hour or so of looking at dogs and amusing ourselves with the owners trying to control their pets, we headed for lunch. Walking back into the old town, we headed for a place renown for its excellent savoury pancakes. I had a rather tasty bacon and smoked cheese pancake, while Kristi shared a salmon one with her friend. Later that day we travelled to a pub just up the road that had the interesting gimic of providing board games for the patrons to entertain themselves. So while having a spot to eat we played ‘Around the world’ and some card games with another couple of Kristi’s friends into the night.
Sunday saw Kristi, her mum and I heading down to Kristi’s grandparents for a family lunch. This was in a village on the Latvian border. After food we decided to nip across the border to Latvia. Well it would be rude not to when only being ten minutes away. We had our passports, but unfortunately we didn’t have the car documentation, so we proceeded to explain to the border guard that we just wanted to walk over the border and take a few pictures. After a few strange looks he let us across (Without, I might add, checking our passports after all), and so for about five minutes I visited a new country. The blog on that one may be a little short.
 We headed, via tram, across town to a decommissioned paper mill factory. This had converted outlets dotted around its complex, and hidden away in one part was a bowling alley. We again met up with a couple of Kristi’s friends, and had a couple of games. Afterwards we headed to a lovely restaurant called African Kitchen. This was decked out with tribal masks, zebra and tiger patterned cushions, mud hut effect walls. They do some pretty nice food, although not too sure how authentic they are (Will have to see one day). They also do a nice variety of cocktails, named after African countries, which we preceded to “sample”.
For the morning we headed out to a Hungarian restaurant. Food wasn’t too bad, albeit rather garlicky. So we treated ourselves to a cake in a cafe over the road. The afternoon saw us making our way back to the airport, finding out our flight was delays be a couple of hours, and so heading across to the shopping centre handily situated next-door. We bided our time there until setting off for good old England, and for once much warmer weather.
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