Strange and Wonderful

Today is the first day I have had completely off in two weeks.

I'm not complaining, just tired.

Last night after work though, instead of going home and going to bed, I went out to dinner with a group of women from the Embassy.

We have done this several times now...we are trying to make it a regular event where we invite all of the women in the embassy...employees, spouses, FSNs. I think especially for the women with children, it is a nice break from the usual. And for me, it is just a lot of fun to get out with some really strong, smart, interesting women, or as one of my friends from the Embassy calls us, "an informal group of fairly odd women."

We had dinner in the Old City at an Italian place with pretty decent food and a waiter with a command of at least Estonian, English, Spanish and Italian. Plus they had prosciutto and melon, which made me really happy.

After dinner, we went to Shimo, a little bar run by an Egyptian man who has lived here 10 years. The others drank shots named "The Smurf" (which apparently tastes like toothpaste...why would you drink that?), "Apple Pie" (vodka, apple juice and cinnamon) and "the Estonian flag" (blue curacao, coffee, and cream I think). The Old City was still hopping when I left at midnight, filled with women in devil's horns or bridal veils carrying signs in Russian. I have no idea what that was about.

I decided last night that I would take Noostie for a walk through the Old City today...and so we did. We explored for about an hour and a half, a map tucked safely in my back pocket in case we got lost. We prowled down some back alleys with shops that are much more interesting than those on the larger streets.


There were still a fair number of tourists today, including tons of French folks, but I found that with dog in tow, the usual street vendors and restaurant staff didn't call out to me like they usually do. Perhaps it was that I was alone and with a dog, and so less likely to be simply a tourist.

I even caught one tourist taking our picture as we cut through Raekoja Plats.


What a strange and wonderful place I live in.