My home is my Kasel

Our Very Last Day in Kasel

The dogs love Kasel.

The last Kasel weinfest we will attend. Prosting with the Scherfs at their booth.

Mrs. Scherf is awesome. At the weinfest, we said good-bye to the Scherfs. Fortunately, we have a large stock pile of their delicious wine. They kept telling us we had to come back and visit. They have an extra room. They insisted we bring our (future) babies with us. Ha!

One of our favorite houses in Kasel.

Scherf booth.

Last meal at the Schnitzelstube, down the street from our house. Best schnitzel, Bitburger, Pommes mit mayo, und salat EVER

Last Bitburger

Best dog sitters of Kasel!!

Good-bye

One of the many wineries in Kasel: Chrisopher von Nell

Schnitzelstube. DELICIOUS!

Another winery in Kasel: Neuerberg Weinhaus. Best Rose in Kasel.

Moving Day Kasel

(a few weeks before)

The day started off nicely. Just look at our lovely view.

And then the storm moved in. Quite nasty.

The Scherf house before the storm.

The Scherf House and Winery (not the same Scherf). Svenja's house a street over.

Nasty storm.

Complete with hail. I think this was a sign we weren't supposed to move.

But then the sun came out again. Look at this great house. Man, I want to live here forever.

Neighbors. First a German couple (Doris, the actor, their son, and a golden retriever). Then Micael and Matt (best neighbors!). Then Tanya, York, and Nero.

Our beautiful house.

The view. Ahhh. REALLY missing this place.... especially after seeing the 'views' in Dayton.

As we pulled away, the residents of Neustrasse were lining the streets saying good-bye. It was so sad. I cried, of course. Everyone coming outside to wave (which we taught them how to do), shake our hands, say good luck, etc. Even the drunk across the street started crying! What a great place to live for three years, the best place.

recently rapalje

Just a warning. We (yes, BOTH of us, not just me) only have depressing things to say.

We traded this amaaaazing weather....

For this terrible weather... and mosquitos. UGH.



We traded this amazing-ness...



For this awesome-ness...

Can you believe they sell Bitburger at the Food Lion in Blacksburg??! Of course it is ridiculously overpriced... and we don't even like it. But still.



Our new awesome license plate. 



While driving from Blacksburg to Cincinnati yesterday, we had to stop in the middle of the road to clear a fallen tree. Only in America.



Today's the day that we've been not looking forward to now for quite some time.

We fly out tonight. Ahh.

Monday, we said good-bye to Kirsten and Roland, our dog saviors. Then we went to the last Kasel wine fest we will ever go to to say good-bye to the Kaselites. We ate at the Schnitzelstube, our favorite. Michaella made me cry. Awesome. A said goodbye to all his work people. Then last night, we said good-bye to the Wilsons. They were nice enough to pick us up on base since we are car-less and take us to Abtei Himmerod, a cool abbey turned restaurant/beer brewer near base. Delicious. Today, I have to say good-bye to Jandee. Super bummed about that. She's been awesome and is even driving us, all of our crap, our two dogs, and dog crates to the airport today!

But what's really making me feel the worst is the dogs. The poor things have moved so much in their lives already. And just recently, we moved them from Kasel to Schweich, then they went to Kirsten and Rolands, now they're on base, then they have to fly, then to my Mom's, then to Ohio. I know the whole thing stresses them out. Boston turns grayer every flight :(

Sad day. And for some reason, still doesn't REALLY feel like we're moving yet.. ?

iPhone Dubrovnik

Our Mac, where I usually load all our pictures, flip through them, edit them, etc, is on it's way over to America. While we were in Dubrovnik, I wanted to look at a few pictures, so I put the card into A's computer. It ate 22 pictures. 22. Remember our Ireland disaster?! Same. But only 22. I wasn't even trying to upload them, I just wanted to see them on a regular sized screen. Oh well. I guess that's what I get. It's hard, but I'm trying to be patient to look at my pictures. So all I have are these stinkin iPhone photos. I took very few, partly because the photos don't turn out awesoe (my iPhone is ancient), partly because I'm getting rid of the phone, and partly because I have my awesome camera (which was my 'we're moving to Germany' present! Can't believe that was three years ago).

 Apartment view.

 The best dinner we had in Croatia. Dinner at Orsan in the Zaton Bay of Croatia.

 Dinner view.

 Local Rose.

 "We'd like the grill fish," and our waiter comes out with a plate of fresh fish to choose from. Love this.

 Black/Squid Ink Risotta. Always a winner.

Swiss Chard with fresh EVOO. Anything with fresh EVOO, can't go wrong.

 House Tereza - Zaton Bay, Croatia



Rough life.

Well, we're back. We made it back last night and by the time we finally got out of the airport and all the way to base (we have to spend the last 3 nights on base. gag), it was 2:30AM. Yikes. It was nice having a late flight though, because we could spent the entire day on the water, swimming, hanging out, acting like it was a normal day on vacation. I miss that place already. What a trip. A (and Chris) both agre that we are now having two week vacations... one is simply not enough. Ha.

I teared up on the plane. I was flipping through pictures on my iPhone and I have ALL these pictures of the vineyards of Kasel, the dogs running through them, our normal walk multiple times a day, after dinner with A and I got so sad. I just love it here. A just loves it here. The dogs love it here. Our house is incredible. We have neighbors that we like, that we hang out with, who make me feel so safe. We have friends that we hang out with all the time. A's job gives us ample time to travel. We really have the life here. Yes, I'm happy to see family, we both are, but we are not happy to leave this amazing place we've called home for the past three years, the place we actually consider home.

Good-bye, Croatia

It's our last day in Croatia. Our last day of European vacation.

We have never, in all our travels, had trouble staying longer at our hotel or apartment, past check out time. Here is no different. However, for the first time, we are being charged. Can you believe that?! 30 euros. But well worth it. Our flight out is not until 9pm. One last day soaking in the Croatian sun and swimming in the Adriatic.

While we were here, we gladly traded in this weather...

For this weather..



No complaints here. Overall, we were just talking about this last night, we have really lucked out in the weather department. Never have we had a trip where it has rained more than a day or so. Never before has a trip been ruined because of weather. Ever. In three years. That's really something if you ask me. We had a BIT of rain in Ireland, but it's Ireland... and it didn't rain there the entire time. Only a few days. It rained a day in Salzburg. It rained one day in Gothenburg, Sweden. And honestly, that's the only bad weather I can remember. What a great three years of traveling.

Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina

WOW. Better than expected. Mostar is not to be compared to Morocco... not to Istanbul either.
After learning Shanna wanted to go to Mostar (if we hadn't gone on this trip with the Wilsons, we probably would've missed this gem), we google-image searched it to see what it was about, what to expect, etc. The only pictures that pop up are of the Stari Bridge, this slightly pointed bridge that runs over the beautiful green/blue Neretva River. The pictures of this bridge alone made me want to go. Then you read about the bridge a bit, the city a bit, and you still want to go.  It was weird though, I could find no more pictures of Mostar.. none. So I just assumed, well, there's not much else there... maybe nothing, the war was recently, afterall.  And while that is partly true, there are not a lot of tourist attractions, the Old City itself is very cute, definitely worth the walk around... even in the 90F heat (yes, and we were lucky, today is 99F).

When beginning to research our day trip to Mostar, first thing I did was google maps direcitons from Dubrovnik: fail. Directions, according to google maps could not be calculated. Could this be a hint we should not be going into Bosnia? If so, we didn't listen. Surprisingly, the tomtom, after failing us so many other times (according to the tomtom, Greece is not even a country), pulled through! The drive took two and a half hours, exactly as anticipated. 2.5 hours could be a bit much for a day trip for some, but come on, it's our one and only chance to go to Bosnia. We also heard the driving time was dependent upon the hold up at border patrol, which you through four times on the way there, four times on the way back. Long lines happen, and apparently are quite frequent, but not for us. Easy peasy. On the way home, the Bosnian man checking our passports looked at the covers only, laughed, and said, 'oooh Americans! Hello and Goodbye!' Handed them back, and we were through! Security what?! Ha. We also read parking was a bi-atch IN Mostar. Again, not true. Easy as pie. We found a 'secure,' meaning guarded by two sixteen year old girls, parking lot two minutes from Stari Bridge. It cost us only five euros to park for the afternoon.... and when we returned, our car and everything in it was still there (that's more than I can say for Brussels!).

The major, and I mean major, (but only) disappointment was lunch. And we can really blame ourselves for that mess. We ALL FOUR read that the food in Bosnia was terrible. Terrible. What did we do right after we walked across the infamous bridge? Sat down for lunch. I mean, it was 90F and we were all sweaty fools. We found a shaded spot overlooking the river and ordered drinks... the only part of the meal that was not terrible (but really, Bosnian beer isn't awesome either). Then we all four made the mistake of ordering lunch. The boys got the Mostari special, a variety of local dishes. Shanna and I thought we were playing it safe by ordering salad. Fail. Epic fail. I mean, the guys ate their food. It looked SICK and it wasn't good. But they were hungry. It basically consisted of a tomato stuffed with minced meat, some nasty looking cottage cheese stuff, and a pepper stuffed with the same minced meat. No thank you.  I had one piece of lettuce in my salad, topped with already chewed up tuna. Seriously. So nasty. We did get bread which was OK... only OK. After lunch, a bunch of stray, malnourished, nasty, disease stricken cats swarmed us. I mean swarmed us. So we fed them. And caused a cat fight. But at least something appeciated the food. And they needed it more than us. After lunch, walking around a bit more, we risked our lives again and ate gelato. It was quite delicious and the cheapest gelato ever eaten. None of us, well scratch that, I don't know about Shanna and Chris yet, got sick from the food... so that's something?

The Stari Bridge is beautiful and definitly worth the trip, although super difficult to walk on! The tile is very slick. The old people were struuuuuuggling. The Old City surrounding the bridge is super cute, not trashy. The people selling the same trash they sell everywhere are not annoying, not pushy, not vocal at all really. That is quite refreshing. There are a ton of buildings just outside the walking/car-less areas that are still damaged from the war. Bullet holes are visible, obvious. And many of the buildings inaccessible, in ruins. There were other tourists there and at times a bit busy, but nothing compared to the Old Town of Dubrovnik.
I cannot wait to get a look at my pictures. Seriously, the lighting, the lack of clouds, the awesome views of the bridge from both sides of the river, from multiple bridges, the wide angle lens (love that thing)... these shots are going to be moneyyy.

Bosnia and Herzegovina... the last European country to be added to our list for a while. Sad.

Boston and Riva are on vacation too!

I was reading my usual blogs this morning after kayaking around the Zaton Bay (rough life, I know) and found this website: http://dogvacay.com/ Suddenly, I got (only a little) more excited to go back to America.

I know, I know, it's only a small thing, sending your dogs to someone's HOUSE instead of a kennel. And to some, it may seem like no big deal. But part of the reason we are able to travel SO very much in Europe is because we have three AWESOME options of what to do with the dogs when we travel.

1. Take them with us. Almost everyone in Europe is super pet friendly. They can go in shops, in restaurants, in hotels, and the like. Every Monday and Friday I had German class for a year and I ALWAYS brought one of the dogs (2 was a bit much). They used my dogs as babysitters for the women who brought their children to class.

2. The neighbor girls, Jill and Svenja. They were absolutely great to live beside, especially with the dogs. They would often come over to walk them even if we weren't traveling. They would gladly exchange dog watching services for American food.. hot dogs, oreos, pancake mix, 'green soda' (Mt. Dew), or a few shirts from Forever21, etc.

3. Kirsten and Roland. LIFESAVERS. When we first got here, a few of the pilot wives I was friends wtih told me about a couple near the base who watches the dogs. They kept telling me, it's not your typical kind of place, if you want a kennel, don't go here. No, it's not your typical kind of place. It's like dropping your dogs off at a vacation home. Kirsten and Roland are animal lovers to the enth degree. They have 5 dogs, x number of cats, x number of dogs, etc. LOVE animals. And, lucky us, they watch dogs... our dogs... and love them. They have a huge back yard area, an area for the dogs to dig, an area for the dogs to swim, etc. The dogs get excited when we get in the car because they love going to Kirsten and Rolands. Love it. When we go and pick them up, the dogs are absolutely exhausted and stink to high heavens. Translation: They had a great time.

Having three absolutey solid options of what to do with the dogs is key to traveling. And I think dogvacay.com may bring me that reassurance in America!

Kotor, Montenegro

I don't typically blog while on vacation. I come home, look at all my photos, and try to remember the best and worst parts of the cities we visited, then blog. However, this trip is slightly different. We recently bought a desktop.. which is now making it's way across the Atlantic. Since it will be quite some time before I can put my pictures on the mac and hence, quite some time before I can blog pictures and words, well, I might forget by then.. nooooo! And our little balcony here overlooking the Zaton Bay, literally 10 feet from the water, has wifi and is a beautiful place to sit and blog, so why not. I can only sit in the sun and read for so many hours anyway.

Yesterday, we had plans to lounge around here, kayak, etc. But it was partly cloudy. So we went ahead and took our trip to Kotor, Montenegro. Luckily, our friends who went with us were flexible with the days. So we headed to the city center of Dubrovnik to pick up Shanna and Chris. The drive was supposed to be 1 hour and 20 minutes and since we got a later start, I thought it would be better than going to Mostar, Bosnia, last minute, which is more of a two hour drive. Well, the drive was a bit longer, but not because of distance. One very large section of the road was under construction. And I mean a VERY large section. It was completely gravel. And allowing traffic at times, only one way. Slightly annoying. But not too bad.. the conversation and company was entertainining. Then we got to the border. I guess it was our fault, getting a late start and all, but we had to wait to exit Croatia/have them check our passports, licenses, car info, and stamp us out. Then we had to wait at border patrol for Montenegro... same thing. THEN we decided to take the scenic route, not the ferry across the water which was only supposed to cut off 30 minutes. Our hour and twenty minute drive turned into more of a two and half, three our drive. Of course, that includes the stop for a brew and bathroom break, many stops at scenic overlooks, and a stop to look at the incredibly adorable town of Perast, Montenegro. I am SO glad we decided to take the scenic route there. Gorgeous (If you ever go, I do suggest it, and then take the ferry that cuts off a very good portion of the drive back).

Perast, Montenegro, was a very, VERY cute stop along the way. We did not spend too much time there, just enough to take some photos, etc. But definitely worth the stop.

So, after our lenghthier-than-we-thought drive, we arrived in Kotor. We were impressed from the start. We found a little parking platz right outside of the walled city that wound up being DIRT cheap, no complaints there. We wound up eating an awesomely delicious lunch on a beeautifully scenic terrace overlooking a cute square. Since it was a late lunch, we had the place (called Luna Rossa) to ourselves. We had local wine (Croatian wine = not so good) out of the biggest wine glasses I've ever seen. Not so happy with the wine, but very happy with the wine glasses, so it all worked out. We started out with bruschetta. I had a salad which was very fresh, very delicious. A went all out and got the seafood kebabs accompanied with black squid ink risotto. We have had squid ink or black risotta multiple times now, but never before has it been THIS black. A's white linen napkin was destroyed by the end of the meal, along with his lips, his teeth, his entire face really. I mean, we are talking BLACK. It was gross. So gross, in fact, I didn't want to take a picture of his face because I didn't want to remember it (only kidding). Luckily, Chris got a few good shots of him upclose. It seriously looked like an ink pen exploded in his mouth.. or maybe 10. Shanna had a salad as well, along with prosciutto and melon (don't get me started on how much my vegetarian self misses prosciutto), and Chris, the lamb. mmm. Overall, good meal, good service, great view. Impressed.

Other than that, we walked around, saw the sights, yapped, bought a magnet, the usual. Had we had more time, we would have (or at least Chris and A would have) hiked up to the fortress. From below, you can see an awesome and intimidating fortress wall that jaggedly runs to the top of the nearby mountain. Very cool looking. Chris and A kept talking about how the wanted to hike it. Shanna and I..well... nah. If you go to Kotor for longer than a few hours, or stay nearby in Montenegro, I would definitely put it on your list of to dos.

After a few hours of eating and sight seeing, we left. We drove back to Dubrovnik and used the (extremely cheap, very fast) ferry and made it back in no time... or the time originally quoted, one hour, twenty minutes. The other side of the water, gorgeous, more so than the side we drove I think.

Kotor, Montenegro,was even better than we anticipated...Not that our expectations were low. We could definitly have stayed in the near of Kotor for a longer holiday.. a few days, long weekend, something like that... if only we were staying in Germany for that extra year we were counting on. Bugger.

First Impressions of Dubrovnik

Well, the trip started off lagging. Our flight was delayed... an hour. But not the ok kind of delay where you sit in the airport and have an extra cup of coffee... the kind of delay where they put you on the plane anyways and make you sit there for an hour while they bang away on the plane. Not reassuring. What kills me? The fact that they didn't even MENTION of the delay. Not one word. Instead, we all just sat there (well, not A, he laid there snoring for the hour), wondering what's going on.

But thankfully, that has been the onl (cross your fingers) bad part. Picking up our rental was quick and painless.. and we got a 4 door so our trips with Shanna and Chris will not be crammed. The drive from Dubrovnik to Zaton Bay (where we're staying... right on the water.. yesssss) was absolutely beautiful, even at 9:30 at night (I do love the European summers). The address of our house was not in the GPS, but thankfully, the owner sent directions, which were, 'stay on the same road past Dubrovnik for 30 minutes.' Detailed. Surprisingly, no issue. The one turn we did have to make at the very end of the 30 minute drive, the road that the house was on, we missed of course. But found it. And all in time to go watch the Croatian soccer game on TV. Woo!

The place where we're staying in half awesome, half not so awesome. The location is fabulous. We are close enough to Dubrovnik to go just for dinner, like we did last night for dinner and a little sightseeing, but far enough that we're away from the crazy cruise tourists of Dubrovnik. This house is right on the water. I mean, how can you complain about that?! The apartment itself? Well, not so special. But the location, that does it for me. This will be a nice long last week.

Where are the Rapaljes now?!

Today we head out to Dubrovnik, Croatia, Montenegro, and Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. We will be gone for a week... our very last week of European travel.

tear.

bye bye bye

Saying good-bye, tschuss, aufwiedersehen really stinks.

A week ago, we went to Piesport for dinner at one of our favorite dinner spots to say good-bye to Marie. She's moving to Alaska!

Last week, we said good-bye to Dave, Molly, Kensie, and Kai...some of our more normal AF friends... trust me, they are hard to come by. They're also in the same boat as us... wanted to extend, got denied, only one year left so they're getting sent to a crappy location/crappy job. 

Last weekend, we went to the Ilbertz' for drinks and a barbeque to say bye. Frauke came as well. Very, very sad. Although I think we'll see them again after Croatia!

A few weeks ago, the McMurrys came to say good-bye to us.. and the dogs. I think we may see them one more time on the day we flight out.. hopefully! I know the dogs will loove to see those girls again!

Tonight, we are heading to the city to watch the soccer game (huuuuuge deal here - Euro 2012) with some friends, where we'll have to say good-bye to Mirjam and Par. 

Below, one of my favorite Kasel-ites. This is the "you have one black man," guy... remember that story? (One of my Kasel regulars. I pass him multiple times a day when walking the dogs. He told me that he spoke no English, then proceeded to tell me, in English, that I had one black man and one white man. Ha! He was meaning, one black dog and one white dog of course.. really trying to speak a little English, but it was just so funny. From then on, he always called me black man! Ha! This guy is a trip.)

We have said bye to many good friends from this base.. Sarah and Eric, Micael and Matt, Macey and Teflon, and more coming up. I'm thankful we met this, but this life of moving every one to three years is hard.

eek

Thanks to crimebaltimore.com I've officially freaked myself out about moving to downtown Baltimore....!

Just look at all these shootings... in 2 months. Eek. 

After looking closer, however, the middle of Federal Hill, the middle of Canton, and the middle of Fells Point look pretty safe... so that's where we're moving! Just thought this website was super interesting and informative.... just not sure if that's a good thing or not.

It also told me I have a 1 in 21 chance of being a victim of a non-violent crime. A 1 in 66 chance of being a victime of a violent-crime. And that Baltimore is safer than only 4% of cities in America. 

Awesome. 

But in all honesty, we really are excited to move here. Everyone says we will love it and that there's so much to do! I just might stay away from these sketchy areas at night... and when I'm by myself... and since A will be working 24/7, I guess that means always!

Tallinn, Estonia: A Travel Recommendation

And for our last city this trip, Tallinn.

From Copenhagen, we flew SAS to Helsinki, where we spent one night (I posted earlier about our Helsinki leg...). Then from Helsinki, we took a two hour ferry across the Baltic sea to Tallinn, Estonia! The ferry was so, so cheap.. much cheaper than we anticipated considering we'd been in Scandinavia for almost a week (not so cheap). Also, completely painless. The port was right by our hotel, so we walked the morning of our departure, bought two tickets, and immediately boarded! The ship had free wifi, cheap food and drinks, and surprisingly, the people on board with us were not too obnoxious! Couldn't have been better.

All the advertisements we saw for Tallinn said, 'only a short 10 minute walk to old town from the port,' however, we google-mapped it and it was a strong 2km. So... we taxied.. first time all trip. We usually use public transportation. We do. But it just wasn't worth it here. Estonia is SUPER cheap and it was just much more convenient to taxi. So we got off the boat and strolled right up to the least friendly taxi driver we could find. Seriously, he didn't say a word, didn't crack a smile, nothing. A broke out the iPhone to give him the hotel name and address (mistake). BUT it was I think 4 euros... yea, you can't complain. A only had a 10 spot, so he got a good tip.. and of course cracked the first smile... Maybe we made his day. 6 euros.. that's some big bucks in Estonia. Sidenote: I always look at the taxi driver's name/company when we get in a taxi. Of course this has never once come in handy until this trip.. His name: Sander. So back to the story...we get out at our hotel, grab our stuff, taxi driver smiles and dreams of all he can do with his 6 euro tip, and we check in the hotel, which has free wi-fi... So naturally, I go to take our the iPhone to see if we need a password.. might as well get it while we're checking in. No iPhone. I search my bag. Oh yea, A had it. He gave the address to the driver. "A, give me the phone, I'm going to see if we need a password." He says, "What? I don't have it." Yes you do, no you don't, yada yada, you can imagine it. Must've fallen out of his pocket in the taxi. I never lose anything :) So, we ask the front desk lady who we are still sitting in front of, to call the company. She asks if we know the company name. Yes. And she looks surprised when I tell her I know the cab driver's name! 3 minutes later, Sander and my iPhone return! Guess that 6 euro tip was really worth it!

So anyhoo, we check into the Baltic Imperial Hotel (dirt cheap, nothing special, but great location IN old town, recommended by a friend who stayed there - good choice!) and have the rest of the afternoon to walk around, have dinner, etc etc. Tallinn had some awesome weather while we were there, so we managed to steal some chairs in the sun outside, read our books, have some local Estonian beer, and just hang out til dinner! What a day. While we were there, we had some REALLY awesome food with even better people watching... The Gastro-Pub = Superb. As well as La Bottega a Trattoria/Enoteca... to die for!! And all for cheap.. not 130 euros like Oslo... and we managed to eat... a lot... and drink... a lot. Fabulous. Just fabulous.

The Old Town of Tallinn is super small. You could see everything in a day, no problem. We, however, were there for 3 nights, 2.5 days. Since our weather luck was SO awesome, it was perfect. We spent lotttts of time outside reading, soaking up the sun, eating and drinking... that IS how we vacation, afterall! But for the normal go go go tourist, one full day is enough.

Tallinn is known for their linen and amber... skip. Actually, I did try on some linen pants, but they were a no-go. We did, however, successfully add to our magnet collection (!) so the trip was a success!

The only MAJOR disappointment we had were the women. I know, sounds odd. But Todd and Sally, our friends who have been basically everywhere in the world, looove Tallinn. It's one of their favorite places. And Todd (and Sally really too) just RAVES about how beautiful the women are. Tall, blonde, thin, super model status. I was really hoping to people watch...yes, maybe only for a few minutes before I felt like Shrek, but still. A, of course, was REALLY hoping to people watch. Well, we people watched.. and no beautiful women. I mean, really none. They're not heinous. But not what we were anticipating after all the stories... Maybe all the beautiful women moved out of Tallinn when it became a tourist spot. Who knows. We did see beautiful women, lots, in the Tallinn airport. So they do exist... but where do they live? Oh yea, and A said he read something about Tallinn being the #1 spot for European men to have their bachelor parties... yea... gross.

As for the sights, I'd recommend going to Town Hall, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Toomkirik, Oleviste Church, Toompea Castle.. you know, the main tourist-y stuff. If you're there for more than a day, you'll have PLENTY of time to see it all!

Don't go to a medieval dinner. I can't say this because we went to one, only because you see them all throughout Tallinn and they just look annoying. Plus I heard the food is terrible.

 Local brews - Saku. The one on the right is this pear fizz beer thing. Girly, I know, but delicious!

 Some sort of fried fish on fresh rye bread. GOOOOD. 

 The most amazing soup I've ever had in my life. Unfortunately for me, A ordered it. Cream of archtichoke and something else. OH MY GOSH. Seriously. Unbelievable. I have to find a recipe for something similar. Have to. (Gastropub)

 Baked goat cheese with pine nuts, balsalmic, pesto. WOWzers (Gastropub). 

 Red curry soup with tomatoes. Delicious. But would have loved it even more if I hadn't tasted A's... (Gastropub)

 I could not even smell this. WAYYY too much meat for me. Some sort of sausages and potatoes. A loved it. Me.... ewwww...not that I tried it. (Gastropub).

 Cheesecake with strawberry sauce (gastropub).

 The most amazing Italian food we've ever had. And we've had some pretty awesome Italian food. This includes the food we've had IN Italy.. Unfortunately, no pictures of the food.. I don't think. I'm going to have to go back and look to make sure. Great selection of wine and everything is affordable...cheap even!

 Main Square Tallinn, Estonia

 A being artsy... view from our room at the Baltic Imperial.