Head aega, Eestimaa

We saved another trip to Kalma sauna for our last day in Tallinn. We opted for 90 minutes instead of our usual 60 -- we didn't want to rush, nor did we want to anxiously keep our eyes on the clock for the duration our final, celebratory skin-sloughage and salt-flushery (the one snarky reprimand we'd received for steaming 3 minutes overtime a couple of months earlier was fontrum enough). Back home, we tidied up and did the bulk of our packing. There wasn't much new stuff to bring home (not surprising, for such reluctant shoppers as we), though the oddball, oddshaped souvenirs (lamp, telephone, clocks, tin box, tin purse,) required some careful placement, as did the 4.7 (cumulative) litres of various boozes we'd selected to export from the Baltics.

Then it was off to Cafe Pushkin for a plate of their delicious salmon pel'meni and a final mayo-laden, boiled egg, prune, walnut and smoked chicken-filled "salad". We crossed over to Texas Honky-Tonk, an unfortunately-themed resto-bar (lexical proof I'm back in Quebec) in the Old Town, where we raised several pints and shared stories and many laughs with some students and staff from the Baltic Film & Media School. We took our leave at closing time, which the Honky Tonk invariably announces by playing the American national anthem. John, Shawn and I continued our last night's nostalgia tour by descending into Levist Valjas, a notoriously divey open-til-morning joint around the corner -- truly a dank, dripping dungeon of a bar. I botched my last attempt at ordering a "Tõmmu Hiid" in passable Estonian, John deviously nabbed a few more snaps of passed-out, head-on-table patrons, then we piled out into the late-night dusk just as the place was becoming completely overrun by revelers from bars that stay open later than they seem to do in Texas.

White nights season had definitely started to creep in -- though we were tired, we thought it appropriate to say "head aega" (good-bye) to the almost-bright night and to Estonia from the Stroomi Rand -- the stretch of beach not far from our digs on Ristiku street in Pelguranna. We headed back to the neighbourhood, cleared our fridge of whatever remained of beach-worthy reinforcements (beer and... cheese), and started off beachbound at about 3:30 -- the photos above are from about an hour later. Back home by 5-5:30, we caught a few mid-morning Zzzs, just enough to recharge for final prep and exit. Bags were packed, borscht slurped, cupboards emptied, garbage thrown, floors swept, fridge unplugged. Urmas, our friendly landlord, came by to collect the final communal payment, and we were off in a taxi towards the harbor, soon to board Viking Line's "Rosella" afternoon ferry to Helsinki.