EuroTrash 2018 - France, Estonia, Croatia, Romania and Bavaria

VPS · Sep 16, 2018

JohnM said:
Late aboard, have an excuse. I'll take 2A - just this time . But I will undo the gauze and squirt the pips from the caviar lemon over the wall into 1A just so @VPS knows I'm here .

Gosh do you know how clumsy I am. Sometimes when I get up I spill my red wine on people near me

but I’ll try hard not to

JohnM · Sep 17, 2018

VPS said:
Gosh do you know how clumsy I am. Sometimes when I get up I spill my red wine on people near me but I’ll try hard not to

Don't you dare spill any of that Grand Cru -

.

VPS · Sep 17, 2018

It’s ok @JohnM I don’t like champagne or any sparkling wine

EestiTiger · Sep 17, 2018

Sadly we only had 24 hours in Bucharest. It was enough time for me to realise what a great place it is and ensure I return with a bit more time up my sleeve.

We stayed in the Grand Hotel Continental which was central to everything and a very nice hotel.

Maybe I have been on this forum too long when I see this and take a picture...

Random bar with umbrellas.

This was inside a beautiful bookshop. I didn't have enough time to have a good look around. Will have to factor this in on my next trip here.

If you do find yourself in Bucharest, I'd highly recommend Casa Doina for a meal on a nice day. A beautiful garden setting, great food and attentive service. It seems to be where the local beautiful people head to for lunch so great for people watching.

EestiTiger · Sep 17, 2018

Of course no visit to Bucharest is complete without seeing the Palace of the Parliament. It is an amazing building despite the dubious history and waste.

Right next door is a new cathedral under construction. It is going to be taller than the palace to be closer to god... The scale of it breaks a lot of records. The locals aren't exactly pleased and would much prefer the money to be spent on hospitals or schools. It seems the lessons of the past haven't been learnt

JohnM · Sep 17, 2018

VPS said:
It’s ok @JohnM I don’t like champagne or any sparkling wine

Mate, it was the red I was referring to! Grand Cru Classe Bordeaux.

Aahh, the scraps they serve in EK F... I'll be re-acquainting myself with same in November...

.

EestiTiger · Sep 18, 2018

As mentioned before, my 'tourist' photos of Tallinn are lacking on account of my many visits here. It is still as enchanting as ever but I just don't pull the camera out as often. Here are some random pics of around the Tallinn for those of you playing along at home.

EestiTiger · Sep 18, 2018

Whilst I was here a new memorial opened honoring the memory of the victims of communism. 20% of the entire population was lost due to Stalin's reign of terror. It was a very sad and moving place.

EestiTiger · Sep 18, 2018

In the restaurant wiki I have documented some of my favourite restaurants in the past. My absolute favourite is called Tuljak. It is just outside of the old town and you'll need a taxi to get there but it is soooo worth it. If you are ever this way - I would suggest having a meal here.

The picture below of 'Cosmic' is a liquor developed in association with the Cosmonaut training centre! I can't imagine NASA ever doing the same...

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GarrettM · Sep 19, 2018

ozmatt said:
Of course no visit to Bucharest is complete without seeing the Palace of the Parliament. It is an amazing building despite the dubious history and waste.

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Right next door is a new cathedral under construction. It is going to be taller than the palace to be closer to god... The scale of it breaks a lot of records. The locals aren't exactly pleased and would much prefer the money to be spent on hospitals or schools. It seems the lessons of the past haven't been learnt

View attachment 136253

We couldn't get in to the Palace on our visit, sadly.

An interesting place is Bucharest.

The communist architecture is crazy, but the older romance stuff is glorious.

Good beer too.

drron · Sep 19, 2018

Really enjoy your Eastern European,Baltic and Balkans experiences. Will have to try and be a bit more adventurous.

EestiTiger · Sep 20, 2018

drron said:
Really enjoy your Eastern European,Baltic and Balkans experiences. Will have to try and be a bit more adventurous.

I do remember one year showing you around some of those TLL sights drron

EestiTiger · Sep 20, 2018

Estonia has a pretty decent train network and the trains are cheap. I decided one day to jump on a train and take it to the end of the line to Valga on the Latvian border. I had a quick look around Valga and then backtracked to Tartu, Estonia's second city.

TIP: It is only 1 Euro more between 2nd and 1st class on the train so always go for 1st! All trains are equipped with free wifi.

Not sure if Alan moonlights as a restaurateur...

EestiTiger · Sep 20, 2018

Despite having been to Tartu on a few occasions I didn't realise they had a fabulous aviation museum a short trip out of town. For a plane nerd it had many cool planes you don't get to see in the usual Australian / UK / USA museums.

EestiTiger · Sep 20, 2018

And a few more...

EestiTiger · Sep 20, 2018

I guess the SAAB Viggen was my favouite as they aren't exactly that common and I loved that thing as a boy. It was also great that you could walk through some of the old Soviet era passenger jets. As school was back that week, I had the whole place to myself. I was the only person there the whole time apart from the lady on the gate.

Cossie · Sep 20, 2018

ozmatt said:
Despite having been to Tartu on a few occasions I didn't realise they had a fabulous aviation museum a short trip out of town. For a plane nerd it had many cool planes you don't get to see in the usual Australian / UK / USA museums.

Didn't realise that, thanks for the info.

Used to see the SAAB Viggen planes flying overhead in formation whilst working in Sweden in the eighties, We always stopped work to look at them.

EestiTiger · Sep 22, 2018

Somewhere else new for me in Tartu was the 'upside down house'. It was pretty hard to get any crazy shots being there on my own for most of the time, but you get the idea

A couple of buildings in the Tartu old town square. The 'leaning house of Tartu' had one side of its foundations build on an old town wall resulting in the lean!

EestiTiger · Sep 22, 2018

The morning after my arrival back in Tallinn we were flying to Croatia on Finnair (TLL-HEL-DBV). Again, another trip to the airport at an ungodly morning hour to catch our flights. A group of seven of us were heading to another friend's boat. This is the fourth time we have had a cruise on the boat.

We were all flying business on the HEL-DBV leg and it despite being internal europe flight, with a good group of friends and a friendly crew, it was great fun.

This is the cute little lounge at TLL airport complete with fake fireplace. One of my Estonian friends tells me each summer, beer is a good breakfast food, so when in Rome...

The business lounge at HEL offered some hot food so I had a more traditional breakfast there of meatballs and a Karelian pie.

EestiTiger · Sep 24, 2018

Upon arrival in Croatia we were met by our captain who came to get us in the van! It is cool to see an Estonian number plate all the way down in Croatia. The day of arrival is a day of leisure and settling in with everyone doing their own thing. I haven't been into the Dubrovnik old town for a few years so a couple of us headed there for drinks and dinner. We must have been there longer than we thought as when we left the streets were the quietest I have ever seen them...