The sun is out again!
The joys of being on holiday quickly turned into the banalities of everyday existence today as I realised that I needed to buy fruit and veg. I decided I’d go to the Biomarket at Balti Jaama Turg and stock up on some essentials, killing two birds with one stone as it also allowed me to do some more exploratory walking.
Even though it was later than I expected when I finally upped and left the flat this morning, I was still in time at Hetk to practise “tere hommikust” with the lovely staff. If I’m honest, I’d not actually intended to have breakfast but as I inadvertently said “hommikusöök” I realised I was at a point of now return, so ended up choosing the veggie breakfast – it it Thursday, after all – which was lush.
The taimne hommikusoök was worth every centime, and consisted of avocado, potatoes, eggs, hummus, and lovely salady goodness, all washed down with a bottomless coffee. It came to about 10€, which was a bargain. Of course, I felt a little guilty as my initial plan had been to buy some things to go with leftovers from yesterday’s supermarket mission.
Still. It is Thursday.
In a red pill blue pill moment I added to my sense of recklessness by going a different way to wherever it was I had in mind I was going. Instead of crossing the Freedom Square, I walked around the outside of the old town, past the National Opera, across Tammsaare Park — or Headfuck Park as I shall call it, as the paved lines radiating from the centre really warped my mind as I walked — only to end up again at Porky Peg, from whence I continued past the Academy of Arts and, almost by accident, found myself at the raliway station again. I say “by accident” because I’d expected it to loom, but it didn’t. It was just there.
It might sound as though this was a brisk but productive walk but in fact Tallinn appeals to my ability to be easily distracted by shiny colours, and interesting little side-streets actively conspired to make my walk far longer than it should’ve been. Nonetheless, I found a Russian Orthodox Church (v pretty), the Bremeni Tower, and lots of pretty doors. I’ve never really thought of doors as being particularly interesting, especially in a place dominated by pointy towers and spires, so I’ve started looking at doors.
My life is that interesting.
The Biomarket shopping experience was not the finest I’ve had. It was a long walk for a shop with very little in it, and automated tills the clearly hated me.
Walking back I experienced the joys of drivers who will, to quote Host, “stop on a dime” for pedestrians, as well as pedestrians who actually take note of the whether the little man is red or green. There’s even a countdown timer to show you how little time is being taken out of your life and to remind you that it isn’t necessary to hurl yourself across the road into the path of oncoming traffic for the sake of 20 seconds. It’s the antithesis of somewhere like Paris (or anywhere in France, really) and I like it.
When I arrived on Monday evening I was concerned that locals might think me odd, waiting religiously for the little man to turn green even in the absence of cars, but it turns out they think I’m perfectly normal.
Everything is relative.
In the evening I cooked a makeshift chilli, drank some Ukrainian vodka (better than vodka in a cup, which was very disappointing) and put myself to bed.
