Tom met Liam and I at the Tallinn airport. We took the Estonian version of Uber into the old city where we have an AirBNB. It is right on the Town Square where the Old Town Hall is located. A great location with only walking, no cars.

We had a little glitch with the AirBNB as they had the wrong key in the lock box but that was quickly resolved. While we were waiting for it to be resolved we went to a nice bar and had local beer – a double IPA. I know that beer is not my usual beverage of choice but it was very good and beer is more common than wine in Estonia.

We found this great restaurant – Rataskaevu 16 – for dinner. We had some fantastic food – for appetizers we hard duck filets, liver pate and smoked eggplant, salted salmon with salmon caviar, they served great bread that was baked with molasses and for our entrees we all had braised elk with parsnips, beets, and in this delicious wine and beet sauce. The elk is hunted wild on an island of Tallinn and then braised for 3.5 hours. It was so tender and tasty. We had a very nice Spanish Crianza as there was not Estonian red wine.

The old city is quite compact and very walkable. Lots of cafes and restaurants with outdoor seating – not sure how they do in the winter! The weather is really pleasant – about 70 degrees which is a nice change from. Washington.

So far everything has been great and am looking forward to more fun days on the trip.

I forgot to take a picture of the elk dish but will try to be better at putting pictures in the blog.