PokerGrinder Europe 2

I honestly didn’t even think of that… Baltimore in January. Oops

Quote: gordonm888

Outstanding trip report. The anecdotes about questionable food and Leor's medical care expenses were enough to prevent me from wanting to adopt your lifestyle and adventures.
link to original post

1 yr of travel medical insurance = $120
https://www.geobluetravelinsurance.com/products/multi-trip/trekker-5-overview.cfm

i have it but have not needed it so no idea how easy it is to get them to pay

I’ve paid a lot for travel insurance over the years and I’m happy to say I’ve gotten zero value out of it.

Quote: PokerGrinder

I’ve paid a lot for travel insurance over the years and I’m happy to say I’ve gotten zero value out of it.
link to original post

I have never taken travel insurance. For years have taken two or three big trips a year. Have easily saved in the tens of thousands of dollars.
I also never take the added rental car insurances that can cost $10+ per day. That’s thousands more I’ve saved.
One similar thing I have been doing is letting cruise/tour company book my airfare. If that part ends up being a problem they take care of it.

I never take trip or rental car insurance I was talking about travel health insurance.

My flight landed in Tallinn, Estonia and I grabbed an Uber to the hotel I was staying at. I stayed at Fat Margaret’s hostel which only has private rooms so they refer to it as a hotel/hostel. I googled Fat Margaret and apparently it’s a tower that now houses the maritime museum but I couldn’t find anything about why they use that name.

Once I got to the hostel and settled in it was around 9 pm so I figured I’d go play poker at the casino. I stopped at a small casino on the way to the big one to find a very small slots only spot. They did have a promo running where I could buy €25 of free play for €1 so I played that off and headed on my way. When I got to the main casino I found out that they were currently running the biggest poker series of the year in the Baltics. The series is called the kings of Tallinn and brings a lot of people in from Helsinki which is just a short ferry from Tallinn. They had 10+ games running and I was able to get a seat in the 5/5 game immediately. The game was full of pros but there was a drunk business guy from Tartu and a local both giving away money. I ended up getting crushed in the game for about €5600. I did make a poor pay off to one of the pros on a river for €440 that almost immediately I realized was the incorrect play but other than that I’m happy with the way I played. I had a very mediocre carbonara at the casino for dinner before heading back to my room to sleep around 5 am and lick my wounds. Luckily since that day I’m up around €5000 so the loss is almost gone.

My finger had been sore for a few days and the next day had swelled up like it did when I used to bite my nails except that I don’t anymore. I’m not sure what caused it but it was very painful. I had nothing in my luggage to stab it and drain it so I walked to a pharmacy to ask if they had a needle or anything sharp, the woman looked at me like I was nuts and shook her head. I checked the whole grocery store to try and find anything to poke it but had no luck. On my way to Patkuli Viewing Platform I found a market and decided to walk through it to look for a poking device. I wasn’t having any luck until I saw what looked like a thick sewing needle in the locksmiths store window. I asked him to sell me one and he did very confused. I grabbed a napkin and headed to a picnic table outside to drain my finger. The weird needle thing did the job well enough and the pressure was relieved. I had to do it two more times over the next couple of days but the finger healed nicely, no amputation necessary.

I headed to climb the 157 stairs up to Toompea hill. On my way I met a woman waiting with her puppy for her kids to get off school (I assume). We chatted for a few minutes while I played with the dog who was very friendly and kept chewing on my hand. Her kids came and we parted ways. I walked up the stairs and took a few pictures of the city while it rained.



Alexander Nevsky Cathredral


I walked around until I ended up in town hall square where they had a bunch of overpriced restaurants for the tourists.



I wasn’t willing to pay the prices until I walked past one building and the smell pulled me in. The restaurant was called the Third Dragon which is an old style tavern with Landladies. The woman are dressed in old style clothes and speak from the time period as well. The small two room restaurant is very small but a very cute idea.





After watching someone else order I knew what I wanted. I had the ox rib which was enormous and a moose meat pastry with a beer. The beer was mediocre but the food was amazing. The rib had so much flavour but between the bone, the fork and knife and the wood slab (no plate) it was on it took a while to eat. I couldn’t use my hands to pick it up cause the bone was so hot.

I’m not sure what the sticks were for.


The moose pastry was also very tasty. The experience was €30 but worth it. I walked back to the hostel and called it a night.

Tallinn was a nice change of pace from the insane heat that I had been dealing with for 7 weeks. Tallinn was between 8-15 degrees everyday which was nice minus the rain. I missed wearing comfy sweats and hoodies. Hot weather is nice but there is something to be said for not being sweaty at all times. I woke up the second day in Tallinn with a scratchy throat that took 10 days to turn into a little cough and then about 4 days after that into a bad cough. I thought maybe I had escaped Leor’s sickness but he might have gotten me yet. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get better cause being sick sucks.

My last day in Tallinn I went to the Bastion Tunnels. It was €12 for the tunnels and the towers but I should have saved the money on the towers cause they were a waste of time. The tunnels however were very cool and they use the tunnels to describe the history of the tunnels and how they were used throughout their history. The tunnels were a bomb shelter, homeless people’s homes and punk teen hangout among other things. The tunnels were quite cold until I got to the portion that housed the carved stone museum. They have a door and that portion of the tunnels are temperature controlled for the artifacts. For some reason the exit to the tunnels are closed so when you reach the end their is a sign to turn around and walk back the way that you came to leave.





The ceilings of the doorways kept getting shorter.


This is the view from the tower window.


Oh I almost forgot! I woke up and went straight to the tunnels without eating (dumb) and was really hungry when I got there. They had coated crunchy peanuts in two flavours, one was blue cheese. I decided how bad could they be? I got them, walked into the tunnels munching on my blue cheese peanuts and they were actually really good! I was very impressed especially since when I travel I tend to try weird snacks and they are usually terrible.

The bus from Tallinn to Tartu, Estonia was 2.5 hours and very comfortable. The provider Lux Express has comfy seats with wifi and a tv screen on the back of every seat. Not that I drink coffee but there is free coffee and tea in the middle of the bus. The best part was the feature where you can move your seat away from the window seat by about 9 inches into the isle, such a smart feature to make the ride more comfortable for everyone. We got to Tartu and I found out they don’t have Uber but something called Bolt. I tried to sign up for an account but they need to send an SMS and my e-sim doesn’t have a phone number. I tried to use my friend’s number but they weren’t accepting the number he is using in Asia right now. I ended up paying $1.50 to the Talkatone app so that I could receive a text with the code. Once that worked I added my credit card and then my bank wanted to verify me as well but they have my Canadian phone number so there was no way around that one. I thought I was screwed but then I realized that they accept cash and I was off! Uber/Bolt in the Baltics is really cheap compared to North America and the locals say it’s expensive compared to the old prices.

I checked into my hostel and took a nap after the early morning bus ride. That night I went out walking on the town to nowhere in particular. I stopped into this pub for dinner where they were having a live band at 9 and there was an entry fee. I told them I just wanted dinner so they said as long as I was gone in the next 90 minutes I didn’t have to pay it. I was in and out in less than 40 so that was no issue. I ordered a local dish that said mashed potatoes with meat and onions. What showed up was a bread bowl, hollowed out with about 800 potatoes mashed up, tiny pieces of meat that I didn’t notice until halfway through, a huge helping of sour cream and lots of crispy onion on top. A very weird dish but I mean what could be bad about mashed potatoes and bread?



I made a stop at two casinos, one was just a slot casino and the other had a poker tournament going and 4 table games. The only game that was open was Russian Poker which is easily the most popular game in the Baltics. They used the same chips as the casino in Tallinn so I didn’t collect one.

My second day in Tartu I did all the touristy stuff. I walked to this neighbourhood called Supilinn where they have old wooden houses and all the street names are types of soup. I had to translate the street signs but they had names like bean, pea, celery and so on. Technically they were vegetable names not soup since the street name didn’t have soup in it. The houses went one of two ways, beautiful well kept up wooden houses with lots of colour or a shed looking house that is probably haunted and has dead bodies in it. The weirdest part is both types of houses were on each street, I can’t imagine spending time and money to keep up your house and living beside a rotting disaster.



The shed area behind the house was much worse.


I then went in search of food while playing Pokémon Go community day. I walked towards the Town Hall to find food, as that would have the most options. Tartu is an art and university town so the town square was mostly university kids. I went into this restaurant and ordered an another Estonian dish of potatoes with crispy cheese and bacon with onions. I was thinking it would be a few onions but the dish was FULL of onions and red pepper and I don’t like either. I spent about ten minutes picking them out before I ate it. The food was good but again how do you screw up mashed potatoes with bacon and cheese? I then got chocolate cheesecake for desert which was one of the best cheesecakes I’ve ever had. I thought about getting a second piece but didn’t as I figured I’d be nauseas.
Town hall square literally has a giant square.


The next few stops weren’t anything impressive, an old broken church, the angels bridge, devils bridge and finally small theatre building. They say that if you make a wish the first time you cross the angels bridge your wish will come true. I didn’t cross it so I will never know. Tartu had some amazing graffiti spread throughout the town which isn’t surprising since it’s an art university city.

Overall Estonia was a cute country, nothing spectacular (especially the food) but it was an enjoyable 5 days.

Travel is life!

PokerGrinder,

I always enjoy traveling vicariously through your trip reports. Observations like this make your posts a joy to read:

"The houses went one of two ways, beautiful well kept up wooden houses with lots of colour or a shed looking house that is probably haunted and has dead bodies in it."

I laughed so loud my cat jumped off of my lap with a backwards glance of disdain.

Dog Hand

Quote: DogHand

PokerGrinder,

I always enjoy traveling vicariously through your trip reports. Observations like this make your posts a joy to read:

"The houses went one of two ways, beautiful well kept up wooden houses with lots of colour or a shed looking house that is probably haunted and has dead bodies in it."

I laughed so loud my cat jumped off of my lap with a backwards glance of disdain.

Dog Hand
link to original post

Well I am glad you and some others seem to enjoy my travel writing. I’ve always been surprised people enjoy it as to me it’s just me yammering on for a bunch of paragraphs lol.

Your stories and photos remind me that I gotta travel to more different and unusual places!