May 2023.
Not sure if I mentioned it before, but Mrs RM has a wall chart (made in Ukraine) with little badges showing all the places she’s been in the world.
Yes, she’s hoping to tick the world. You can’t imagine what it’s like being married to a ticker, folks.
My own attempts to complete the 2023 Beer Guide (not that I am) have been hit hard by Mrs RM’s cold focus on complete Europe. With trips to Greece, North Macedonia and Kosovo already this year, we turn our attention to the Baltics.
Yes, a viable plan to tick Estonia, Latvia (repeat, ugh) and Lithuania in six (6) nights via a straight looking bus journey.
We’ll gloss over that third visit to Luton Airport in 2023, suffice to say there’s still no cask, and head straight to Tallinn.
Looks lovely, doesn’t it ? 12 minutes bus ride (£1.50) from the tiny airport, hand luggage dumped in our quaint apartment in a lane called “Sauna“,
we figured we’d time for one exploratory beer in the closest bar, oddly called “Drink” (it’s Estonian for Drink).
The sort of modern one room bar that dominates almost every European city these days, full of young folk 15 minutes before the alleged closing time, one polite but disinterested barperson reading their book, a familiar soundtrack.
Is there a Pat Benatar renaissance ?
Anyhow, a Scottish heavy beer list.
But what’s this ?
Hand pumps ? CAMRA says that’s real ale, I think. Even if it’s cider.
I had the sole Estonian beer, inevitably a sour from Pohjala and took a punt on the Farmhouse. Perhaps it’s popular ? Or kept on for weeks on a cask breather. 12 euros the two half litres. Is that more expensive than you’d have guessed ?
Still, it did the trick, and the cider convinced me it was “real”, whatever “real” means. I think this photo says quite a lot.
Still only 11pm, and a gorgeous night; let’s take a look at the historic centre.
Wow.
retiredmartin 
That’s a pristine city center. Was that red bed easy to sleep on?
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Did it by train in 2000 and on from Vilnius to Minsk. The cross-border links are very on/off though and we were probably quite lucky to find everything actually working.
No tick yet for Mongolia?
Ian
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Waiting for the Bass supplies to reach Ulaanbaatar before we book.
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Now I see why the “a” broke on the keypad of a previous phone of yours, what with the Netherlands and all that, Martin.
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Th ” ” is a bit sticky on my laptop at th momnt so goodnss knows what to xpct.
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Hahaha!
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Tallinn is certainly lovely, and possibly more so when it’s covered in a blanket of snow, as it was in February 2009.
I’d like to visit the other two Baltic States, and we were scheduled to do so on a cruise last year – scuppered sadly by that modern day Hitler, Vladimir Putin.
Still got a few other European countries to tick off the list, not that I’m completing the continent, mind you! 😀
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Highly recommend Riga and the Lithuanian cities, Paul. Luckily we managed to visit St Petersburg in 2011 on a cruise; I think with that option being closed the ships are stopping at the other Baltic ports now.
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Thanks, Martin. Still gutted at missing St Petersburg, but nowhere near as much as the Ukrainians must have been feeling for the last 15 months. 😢
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Still need Moldova
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I thought that was a fictional country from “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”.
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Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is fiction?
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No no no, Andy. Chitty is a true story, but they had to film it in a fictional country for tax reasons.
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I keep reading this as Tal-y-Llyn.
But it doesn’t quite look like the Welsh language there.
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What’s the pub at Tal-y-Llyn ? Sounds familiar.
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According to the WhatPub site the nearest two, at a mile, are the Old Ford Inn and the Black Cock Inn but I don’t think I’ve been to either of them.
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