retiredmartin

May 2023.

Only two nights in Tallinn (and Riga and Kaunas) so we needed to make the most of a gorgeous evening where we had the famous Old Town cobbles to ourselves.

454,000 IT literate souls live in Tallinn, but they’re obviously tucked up in bed early as the streets were largely deserted as the clock went past 11.

Timing is important in Tallinn. In October 1996 the entire Estonian team failed to show for a World Cup qualifier.

Full video here. See if you can spot Duncan in the crowd, Estonian GBG in hand.

Now even I wouldn’t be cruel enough to suggest that the Pubmeister has ticked a Guide pub before, though I’m sure that Maltmeister did in Castletown once.

You’ll note that even against zero (0) men the Scots weren’t able to actually score, but I guess a nil-nil away from home is a good result. I’d forgotten that was also the score when the match was replayed 2 days later in Monaco.

Clearly the Scots left a good impression on the locals.

Saltaires on the street, Belhaven and BrewDog in our first pub of the night,

and an actual pub named after the iconic 1986 movie. Sadly the Highlander was closed on Mondays (flippin’ micros) though it opens till 6am at the weekend.

Duncan had kindly sent me a curated list of the local craft bars. What an organised young man he is.

Since his exciting visit in post-Covid (1) 2020, that list had expanded yet further.

Apparently Mikkeller have been cancelled or something, so we couldn’t do that one.

Actually, we couldn’t do very much at all, as hardly anything was open, but the photo opportunities were huge.

That’s the main square. A minute off that, down a darker street, we found the best reviewed beer bar in town.

And then our problems started.