Funky Tallinn

I've been neglecting our little neighbouring country for too long. Therefore, a free boat trip to Tallinn offered a welcomed incentive to get to know its capital Tallinn a bit better during a short summer trip. Tallinn doesn't need to be the destination only for the Finns looking for cheap alcohol as it has many attractions interesting to hipsters and others enjoying nice and atmospheric restaurants and cafés.

I surely enjoyed the sunny Saturday there just walking around the city's less beaten tourists paths (anywhere outside the old town). We enjoyed admiring the pretty wooden houses and feeling the slightly bohemian vibe of Kalamaja without any preplanned programme. The design map of Tallinn helped to orientate a bit.  

Here are some Instagram moments of the day trip (sadly I didn't get any photos of the karaoke on the boat... less hipstery atmosphere...).

We had some trouble finding a café at 7am when we arrived to Tallinn, but a bit later we were getting into appropriate holiday mood with prosecco (5 EUR / glass, a bit expensive for Tallinn) at the terrace of Klaus, just next to the fish market. It has a wonderful interior decoration and friendly service (as everywhere we went). Worth a visit!

Older women were selling garden flowers at Balti jaama torg, i.e. the market of the train station.

Lunch at F-hoone, in the "funky neighbourhood" in Telliskivi. The place is full of Soviet style industrial buildings, but inside they had this very cosy and cool restaurant and some small design shops.  Lunch was simple and tasty (I had bruschetta for a starter and buckwheat with mushrooms for a main course; with wine it was only 13 EUR). They offered many vegetarian dishes and, for some unknown reason, clogs for children!

After lunch, looking for some treasures at the flee market.

Dessert at Boheem Kohvik (a crêpe with cottage cheese and honey, yam!). Once again, a very nice interior with furniture that we could have bought for ourselves immediately.

I'm already looking forward to my next trip to Tallinn, for a nice combination of good and inexpensive food, trendy cafés, Estonian design and perhaps some beauty salon stuff (third of the prices in Helsinki). Tallinn made such a nice impression on me that I'm actually considering of traveling to other places in Estonia as well. Aitäh!

Finding the sophisticated metropolis

On my fourth day in Hanoi, I started getting more used to the traffic and crossing the streets felt like part of the tourism sport. In general, I strated liking the city a bit. And more was to come. I had read an interesting article on the New York Times about the contemporary art scene in Hanoi, "The Awakening of Hanoi", and I was inspired to look at some bits of this awakening. I followed my dorm mate's advice and visited Mai Gallery and Apricot Gallery. I have to admit, I was impressed. For 3000 dollars you could buy some pretty great paintings (next door they were being copied by lesser talents). I especially fell in love with Nguyen Van Cuong's powerfully coloured paintings of Vietnamese women.

My art tour was followed by an espresso (oh, it felt good: even though Vietnam is a huge coffee producer, the coffee here is extremely sweet, almost tasting like hot chocolate, the Italian coffee snob in me speaking again) in a little coffee house, La Place, next to St. Joseph's cathedral. The neighbourhood around the church gave me a glimpse of that sophisticated Hanoi some articles were writing about. I was sitting next to three local hipsters that really caught my attention with their cool clothes and fashionable hair styles. I started talking with them. It turned out that one of the guys, Nick (right in the photo), was actually a fashion designer himself and sold his clothes in La Cage, in the very expensive neighbourhood close to the opera (he's photos are all over La Cage's website). Perhaps, an avantguard of Vietnamese fashion. Nick had lived in London and spoke perfect English with a Brittish accent. I felt bad in my crappy traveller's clothes. I quite didn't understand before arriving here that Hanoi is actually a capital just like any other, and as in London or Paris, people don't walk around in trekking shoes but girls are wearing high heels of 10 cm. Nick however noticed my Marimekko bracelet and with a sparkle in his eyes admitted that he was a big fan of the Nordic design (maybe I pushed it a bit though...).

Mausoleum.

Contemporary art, espresso, and local fashion designer, not all that bad for getting into Hanoi's sophisticated side. Well, let's not exaggerate, I also visited Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum, one of the creepiest tourist site's ever and got into the socialist side of Vietnam as well. After queuing for one hour in a strict order kept by many soldiers in their white costumes, I spent 20 seconds around HCM's body (not that I had wanted to contemplate the waxy body any longer). I was almost laughing out loud; the idiot stuff you need to do when you're a tourist... Next to the mausoleum, there's also a museum dedicated to HCM. It's only slightly less weird than the mausoleum but definitely worth a visit. It's quite unlike any other museum I've visited. On display were many installations and documents that introduced HCM's ideas and achievements to the visitor mostly in a very symbolic level. It was socialist propaganda in almost a cute format that made it feel very unreal.

Ho Chi Minh.

The text for this weird display read: "The symbols of nature in its beauty contrasted with industrial plants in this hall represent Uncle Ho's expectation that Young People shoulder the reponsibility for the protection and preservation of peace and the environment, and prevention of aggressive and destrucive wars." Well said, even though the Alice in the Wonderland kind of a display is pretty funny.