2024 Europe Trip: Tasting Menu Reviews, Pt. 1 - Budapest

Salt

1.) Amouse Bouches

The first three bites put into perspective quickly what Salt was all about - pushing the envelope with how they build their bites. On the whole, Salt wasn't the best place I went to, but probably the one that most resembled my favorite tasting menus overall. The best bite was the beef tartare tart with flowers, but the most out-there and representative was probably their bushel of herbs with a housemade sauce. Interesting start.

2.) Grease bread cracker, pancetta, flowers and dehydrated pickles

This was the first foray into pickled ingredients, which would become a recurring thread at Salt (fits the "Salt" name, I guess), and taht added the perfect element of tartness to this luxurious two bites. The pancetta itself was also excellent, more candy sweet than salty.

3.) Cabbage Pasta Tart

No idea why this was called "pasta" in retrospect, but the bite itself was great with teh cabbage turned cream being effortlessly umami tasting. I forget know what the little spices were on the top but they added a lovely touch as well.

4.) Hen of the Woods mushroom with chicken miso, picked ramps and capers

Honestly, this might have been my favorite dish of the night. These more exquisite mushrooms, turned into the protein star of a dish, are so wonderfully fulfilling. The pickled ramps were excellent as well and the miso sauce was straight out of Japan. Just excellent stuff.

5.) Stewed asparagus with cheese foam and woodruff powder

I would say, on the whole a lot of the places on this trip had a lot of foams and whatnot, generally all served tableside and covering what prior was more beautiful. Sometimes the foams didn't add much. Not the case here as the cheese flavor was excellent. This was also my first foray into white asparagus, which was a throughline across the entire trip.

6.) Potato cake with wild flowers and garlic, and a potato soup

The soup didn't really do much (though it was tasty) but the potato cake with wild flowers, herbs, garlic was just fantastic. The cake was so soft, chewy and tasty. A few small bites, no meat (as you can see, a bit of a theme here) and a nice last starter. As an aside, this is the first course during the blackout, which is why the pictures are a bit darker.

7.) "Gin and Tonic"

Served at teh chef's table, I don';t quite remember the whole story other than the base was liquid nitrogen apple, with various fixings on top that gave the taste sensation of a gin adn tonic, which it certainly did.

8.) Bread Course with fermented duck hearts and livers

Many of the tasting menus had great bread courses, which is an underrated way to really pump your place up. Here, it was amazing. The bread itself was glorious, but serving it with fermented duck heart and liver - essentially spreadable pate like consistency, with a brown sauce below, was just amazing. I could've had this as a main.

9.) Scallop paper, bay leaf cream, kohlrabi and crispy broccoli

Probably one that looked slightly better than it tasted, but the idea behind it was fascinating. There was chopped up and pressed scallop at the bottom (similar to a star dish I had at Borago), with a great bay leaf cream, but the large, thinly sliced kohlarbi was something far prettier than it tasted. On the whole not their best, but one of the best looking.

10.) Hungarian porridge with root of blue cheese and sour cream

This tasted fantastic, but honestly don't remember at this point what exactly the porridge was. I think it was obliquely rice based? Weird transition coming between seemingly the two mains, but Salt if nothing else kept you on your feet. Tasted amazing.

11.) Pork Neck with beet root and hay jus

I don't know what hay jus is, but it tasted just unbelievable. This was a wow dish, with my only quibble being I do wish the pork neck piece was slightly bigger. But this is why I do love a place like Salt. For their true main dish, their primary main, they went with a tertiery cut of pork, though cooked so damn well. It was just confident, brilliant cooking in a plate.

12.) Sorrel Ice Cream Sandwhich

Forgetting now what the main part of the ice cream sandwhich, but the sorrel and other herbs were amazing. I guess Hungary has some amazing herbs native to the country, and each dish featured this in some way or the other, maybe never as prominent here (granted, I guess the bouquet amouse was...). This was just such a fun bite.

13.) Hungarian Rice Pudding

They went low school traditional here, which was certainly and interesting choice. It tasted amazing, though. Reminded me of an Indian dessert I've had over the years. I do really love that Salt mixed uber-tweezery presentation on some dishes with just simple looking, brilliantly tasting other dishes.

14.) Petit Fours

Sadly, I didnt write these down in detail. I will say that uniformly there were some excellent petit fours in this series of tasting menus. Here, my favorite was probably the mochi ball (bottom) and the paper dish (top). Just a great way to end this meal. Salt on the whole was excellent. Likely will end up 3rd or 4th on the list of restaurants I went to, but that speaks more of the top two than anything else.

Laurel

1.) Snacks

Five part snacks - quite a start. The best was probably honestly the walnut and duck terrine cake (last photo) or the smoked pickled broccoli and pork (first). But honestly all five were great and perfectly, pungently, Hungarian. Not sure it gets apparent until some of the first few proper courses but Laurel goes more on the elevating traditional dishes rather than the avant garde ness of Salt, and for that I do love the contrast.

2.) Bread Course with pumpkin seed butter

Forgot to snipe a photo of the bread, but it was amazing. The sourdough in Hungary was brilliant, here being a darker cooked bread, burnt in the right places. The pumpkin seed butter was beautiful. Simple, but beautiful.

3.) Smoked sturgeon with dill, sunchoke and cucumber veloute

Traditional, not overly tweezery, perfect taste. This is the type of dish that personified Laurel. It wasn't the best dish (mostly because most were unreal) but this dish personified the elevated food they would hit course after course after course. The sturgeon was perfectly smoked and dill became a running throughline of the various restaurants as well - a nice preview for Finland where dill was seemingly in everything.

4.) Hungarian water buffalo with dehydrated egg yolk

I don't know if a Hungarian water buffalo is any different than let's say, "AfricaN' water buffalo, but I don't care. This dish was ridiculously good. The water buffalo was in tartare form, under this dehydrated, shaved egg yolk, which may sound disgusting but tasted better than any egg yolk I've ever had. Just a brilliant dish.

5.) Burned cherry tomatoes with kohlrabi, raspberry and paprika water

Ok, so I don't like raw tomatoes. These were technically burned and de-peeled, but the dish was effectively raw tomatoes. And yet... not only could I stomach it, and it tasted amazing. Granted, it was the rest of the dish that made it, the best bit being this slightly gelatinized paprika water thing. No idea how that is made, but it worked super well.

6.) Catfish Paprikash

Ok, I lied. This is the dish taht best described and personified Laurel. Paprikash is as traditional and standard a Hungarian dish as you can get. But this was turning that into an artform. Every element just perfect, from the velvety paprikash, to the crepe like topper. The catfish was also cooked just brilliantly (hidden in view, underneath the crepe). This was perfection.

7.) Veal with tastes of cauliflower

Ok, I lied again. This was teh best dish. The veal was perfect. The herbs were perfect. The cauliflowers, both in little broiled and charred florets and puree form, were great accompaniments. The herbs in the just were perfect. Everything was just perfect. This is a dish also I could probably take an attempt at, but not do justice in any real way. Perfection, again.   

8.) Chammomile and Rhubarb with Goat Yogurt

Honestly. this was somewhat forgettable, mostly because of the brilliance of the dish before it and the one after. Not that it wasn't tasty. The rhubarb sauce was excellent, and the goat yogurt perfect, but on the whole was more forgettable than the brilliance of nearly everything else.

9.) Raspberry and Semolina smoked whipped tarte with mousse

I can't describe how well this tasted. Granted, that may apply to most things - I'm no professional food critic when it comes to describing food. The semolina smoked wipped tarte was amazing. The tarte itself was so soft yet held its form. The raspberry ball at the time was a perfect topper. The dust didn't overpower. It was all so magical.

10.) Petit Fours (Threes)

Once again, didn't really write what specifically they were but they were all tasty but a bit unmemorable. On the whole Laurel's set of desserts weren't the greatest, but every dish prior, and the amazing second dessert, probably pull it up to being my 2nd favorite stop of the trip. I will say the raspberry macaron was lovely, as was from my memory whatever that thing on the right was. Just wish I wrote them down!

2024 Europe Trip: Day 12-13 - Helsinki to Home

Day 12 - Noodling around in Nuuskio

I think I mentioned this buried deep within one of the prior one of these, but Helsinki is basically shut down on Monday for all practical tourist purposes. Basically every museum or site is closed (other than like open air spaces). Many restaurants are closed. I think many cities will similarly have a bunch of places that close Monday but it seems almost by design here. For that purpose, I always had earmarked that today was a day for a day trip. I chose a hiking/nature focused one, heading northwards to the Nuuskio National Park that sits about 50 minutes north of Helsinki. I passed up some other cities and towns, which were a bit further but maybe more exciting. Anyway, not wanting to relitigate - realistically what I should have done way back when is try to plan the trip to make today (Monday, Memorial Day) the travel day, and start the trip a day earlier. But alas, by the time I found out about this weird Monday aversion, there were no Lufthansa mileage tickets available.

So, with that weird preamble out of the way, I started my day with, basically lunch. It was an early lunch - 11:30 or so - which made sense given I was going to spend a large portion of the day hiking trails in Nuuksio Park, and aside from a semi-ok buffet restaurant at the main lodge there (review on the place were hilariously volatile), there isn't much food up there. One of the things that was open on Monday, was the Old Market Hall (who they choose to close on Sunday). I tried a different stand this time for the salmon soup - probably a tastier broth and better seasoned, but salmon a bit overcooked relative to the one from Saturday. Also grabbed a roseberry smoked salmon bread and a reindeer tasting set. All in all a nice quick run through of Finnish cuisine.

Nuuksio Park is reachable by public transport, the last bit being a bus from Espoo, a city northwest or Helsinki, and either bus or commuter train to Espoo. However, I had some random Uber credit that I had earned that made the Uber from the Old Market Hall to Nuuksio be just 30 euros, for a 45 min ride - cutting the time duration of my trek in half. I grabbed it, much to the evantual annoyance of the uber driver who clearly had never been to Nuuksio, and was super confused what was happening. He eventually realized I wan't out of my mind when we raeched out destination in Nuuksio Park, at the Haltia Nature Center, essentially what serves as the park's Welcome center.

The park is quite large, mostly in hills and mountains that serve as ski slopes and cross country skiing areas during the winter, and hiking trails with some lodges strewn about in the summer. The Haltia is at the starting point (where teh bus stop is), and features that buffet restaurant (with some grab and go, which was great to get water), a store, some exhibits about the nature of hte space, etc.. It's a really fashionable, sharp building, and probably a better set-up welcome center than similar places you would find in the US.

The trials of Nuuksio are many and well marked with color-coded signage that pops up basically ever 0.4 km or so on each trail - thsi was super helpful in an area with no real network connection. I probably passed over the trial I should've done (a 5km one) to do two smaller ones (about 4km total), without ever really considering longer ones (there are ones that are 10+ km). The nature is beautiful, with sturdy conifer and fir trees everywhere, streams taht pop out from here to there, interesting grass and moss growths, a few lookouts. The lookouts are important since there isn't much long distance visibility aside from those spots, but they do give you great views of the main lake that is below the Haltia center (and had a bunch of people canoeing and kayaking and what not). Sadly I didn't really come into contact with any fauna apart from a few birds, but still it was a lovely, calm two hours that was super well needed after overeating the way I have for 11 days.

After that hike I went back to the Haltia, a bit earlier than expected so ventured down towards the lake. My only hesitation would be knowing I have the trek back up to make, but it was worth it to dip a toe into the lake for a little bit - so clear the water, so calm it all was. It probably is a bit odd to come all the way to a Nordic country and mainly stay within city limits, so I truly am glad I did this half-day trip out to Nuuksio National Park. Especially as it got me to take public transport back, which might be the one cheap thing in Finland - as it was 4.40 EUR for both the bus and commuter rail from Nuuksio to Espoo and Espoo to Helsinki Central.

Next were a series of lasts, all in a vaccuum fun, but a bit sad as well. I truly did enjoy this trip and while the intensity of the tourism kept thing moving without me able to get too depressed. First was the last dinner at Kuurnu, another nice Ravintola that kept it cooking with a quick 3-course meal. Traditional ingredients, traditional good cooking - from a whitefish starter to a really well cooked peppercorn steak with white asparagus as the main. Then came the last night out, a great end at Gate A21, meeting some great tourists, many of them at teh start of their trips on a Monday, always tough, but that is the circle of life of vacationing people. In the end, Europe has some great places - Helsinki, Tallinn, Budapest may not be prime on that list, but as good, if not as random, a trio as anything.

2024 Europe Trip: Day 11 - Helsinki

Day 11 - The Other Half of the Helsinki

I've expressed in my last two or three trip diairies that involved Cape Town the weird sensation of being a tourist on a Sunday with more holiday the next day, while the rest of the city gets the Sunday blues. I was worried if that would happen to me. The weirdest part of that about Cape Town is that it is a massive tourist city, so while the locals may get sleepy on Sunday's, I remain surprsied just how quiet it gets on Sunday's. Budapest certainly wasn't this last Sunday, with the ruin pubs being a place that offered the perfect level of Sunday environment (being that I fully understand why say EDM clubs may stick to a Thu-Sat schedule). We'll have to see where Helsinki lands, but at least during the day it wasn't sleepy in the least.

Helsinki proper probably has three days of tourism, and I think I crossed out about everything on teh list (with the idea of going to Nuuksio National Park tomorrow). We started the day with venturing out to a different part of Helsinki, though of course, Helsinki is walkable enough that I could have easily gone there in past had I wanted. The first spot was the Sinebrychoff Art Museum, housed in the mansion that the Sinebrychoff family used to live in. Who is this family? Well, mostly a random wealthy landowning German/Finnish family, but in their time they comandeered a good art collection, which has been expanded upon to the museum that sits today.

The museum had effectively three parts - the first being the first floor and half-floor of the basement, with a special exhibit entitled "To Water and Waves" which was a series of art, mostly paintings, around water. This part was primarily Finnish artists, which is in stark contrast to the rest of the museum, and was an interesting view, especially how slowly water scenes became a more and more common part of the national artwork. 

The second part was a trip through four or five rooms that have teh same furniture and look of what it was at the peak of the Sinebrychoff's family largesse, along with dozens upon dozens of mainly portraits. The one knock on this part of it was they didn't have any placards or anything to explain who painted what and who it was in the portraits. The final part was a more traditional art museum style space showcasing European art from 1300 - 1800 that made its way into the family collection. No huge names, but impressive lenght of time to have a collection encompass. Overall, it was a nice little museum - which generally seems to describe the museum experience in Helsinki quite well. I'll say this - get the Museum Pass as it is far more cost effective than paying entrance fees that individually are fairly expensive.

From there, I walked over the waterfront, which in this part of Helsinki is a bit more full on cargo port, so it wasn't notably pretty or anything. It did have what I had scoped out as my lunch option for the day, which was a burger and fries at Morton's. May seem a bit boring (and to some degree it is) but Morton's is elevated burger, and even more elevated fries, with incredibly kitschy naming and signage and what-not. The burger had this amazingly cooked onion and raspberry jam, and a great mustard, and the fries were seasoned beautifully, mostly with dill. Morton's was great, even if it wasn't maybe the most inspired option.

Post lunch, I headed back towards central Helsinki, first going to the Senate Square. Mainly it was to visit a shop (Okra Store) that has ceramics and other handicrafts, and it is then a 5-min walk to the waterfront housing the ferry to Suomenlinna Island, but also because I was hoping to give the Helsinki Cathedral inside another try, but this time I came when they were doing a Sunday service, so once again I can only leave imagingin what the inside may look like. Okra was a nice store, but I did find most things wildly overpriced, with the only saving grace a medium size platter was 21 Euro.

The next trip was my visit to Suomenlinna Island. The ferry is easy enough to get a ticket to, a reasonable queue and a dependable 15-min cadence, with the ride from one end to another being consistently 15 min - a truly well oiled machine. From teh ferry out, you can get a better sense of the Helsinki skyline - msotly a few towers from churces and then rows of buildings. Nothing too crazy, but still I would say more built than a Tallinn. The ride was lovely, with teh cool Baltic-sea breeze cutting through the 72-degree day (about 15 degrees hotter than what it normally is this time of year). 

Suomenlinna island is really a series of 2-3 islands with narrow channels running between them. The entire area is walkable arounjd the perimeter within an hour, with some trails cutting through the middle as well. The main island where the ferry takes off from has some restaurants, cafes, buildings (the main lighthouse/tower) and a few of the garrisons that remain - there are six in all spread out across the island. The one downside is that with little exception there isn't much tree cover, so on a sunny day like today you get baked a bit. In the few makeshift beach areas many were taking full advantage fof this, but again for me as someone who packed thinking it was going to be a good 10-15 degrees cooler, this was rough. In the end though, a traipsing 90-minute or so walk through Suomenlinna was as good a use of the afternoon as anything else.

Back on the mainland, after another super pleasant ferry ride (seriously, like clockwork the ferry leaves every 15 minutes, as it is like a 13-minute ride between the two stops), I was back on the mainland, grabbing a quick classic salmon soup for sustenance, and then off to the final museum, and to some degree last touristy activity in Helsinki proper, with a stop at the Museum of Design, which was smaller than I expected, but certainly interesting. The bottom two floors highlighting a lot of Finland's contribution to design over the years, from having teh designer who invented/popularized the orb chair, to the Fiskars Scissors company, to Nokia and Angry Birds, to the Mekkimoko print, fashion company that is everpresent across Finland. The third floor was probably too conceptual for my taste, but did include a nice exhibit of a designer making 10 different style of chair. Overall, the design museum was a nice, if small space - something that to be honest describes all the Finland museums pretty well.

After a brief run to Kaisla for a couple brews (a nice, large beer hall with 24 beers on tap) and R&R at the AirBNB, I headed back downtown for my last full night of the trip. Why do I say this? Well, my flight on Tuesday morning is at 6:20 AM, so I probably need to be back home by midnight to get any sort of sleep tomorrow night. But tonight, and especially since my itinerary for tomorrow is somewhat small, is the key focus. Of course, it happens to be Sunday, but as we'll get to that wasn't as much an inhibitor here.

Dinner was at Ravintola Sarrota, which is traditional Finnish cuisine place in the shadows of Senate Square and the Helsinki Cathedral. The menu is classic Finnish food served well and that is what I got, first with their Classic Finnish Starter platter, and then Reindeer steak & sausage with elderberry. The platter was a little dabble of three fish starters - fried herring, a whitefish in mustard and then smoked salmon, then three veggies - a baked small potato, leek & dill salad, and a mushroom slaw, and then three meats - a blood sausage, beef tartare and lamb aspic (basically gelatinized lamb). It was all excellent. Mostly one to two bites for each of the nine things I mentioned, but adding up to a solid starter. The main was great as well, with thinly cut reindeer steaks, a reindeer sausage, a polenta type thing, and then the elderberry and reindeer jus. Great dish, great meal, in a great setting.

For after dinner, the plan was to start first at Liberty and Death, a third time there for me. It was fairly empty - first because most people were sitting outside until the 11pm outside curfew, and then because I guess it was Sunday. They close at 1am, I left at 12:15am as the only person, though as I walked out I pass a group of three walking in. The cocktails are excellent, if expensive (14 EUR a pop), but that seems to be par for the course in Finland.

After Liberty or Death was a combination let's go back and forth game between two spots next to each other, one being Gate A21, which I went to on the similarly quiet Tuesday, and the other Bar Loose, which is next door. Bar Loose is Rock and Roll themed, and while they didn't have live music tonight, played just the best playlist of rock music. They had a good beer selection and a good crowd, but after a beer from there I wanted a bit sharper drinks to round out the night, so I ewnt the 50 feet right towards Gate A21, which was great. It was fairly empty that Tuesday. It was quite packed today. Not as much as when I quickly went there on Friday, but you would be hard pressed to believe it was a Sunday, even at the point in time when I left at 2:20am (they close at 4:30am). They also have quite good cocktails, and it food the mood really well for my last truly late night activity, with a DJ playing great music (though more for background, no real space to dance) and a great Sunday night in Helsinki. For that alone, this place is rising up my list slowly.

2024 Europe Trip: Day 10 - Helsinki

Day 10 - Helsinki in Partial

I'll say this right off the bat - I prefer Tallinn to Helsinki. I probably prefer Budapest to Helsinki as well. This may change over the next 48 hours, and I should note this is not to say Helsinki is not lovely. It is. Everything I've done or gone to so far in Helsinki has been very good. I want to start off by saying that because I think it is important to make it clear that I don't just blindly love everything I do in these trips and think each place is better than the last. It sometimes comes across that I glow about everything, love everything. Generally I think there is truth to this in as much as I do a lot of research and prep into the places I go and what I do when I'm there. Also I think my expectations were a bit lessened for Budapest and Tallinn. Not as much for Helsinki.

Helsinki provide a wild-card in my planning in that the town seemingly shuts down completely on Mondays. Most restaurants are closed, nearly all the sites are. Some are closed on Sunday too so had to be selective on what I did today vs. what I left for tomorrow. Mentally kept Monday as a day to explore Espoo (a town about 30 min outside Helsinki) and a National Forest near it. But anyway, back to today in Helsinki.

I did a lot of walking, and saw a lot of things, but started it with a trip down to the main area of the city. It is a fairly small city for having 1m+ people, where you go from the more exurb that my AirBNB is and within five minutes you're basically at the edge of the city. A more enterprising person would've jsut done the 45 minute walk that I took a 10 min uber for. It dropped me off the the Esplinade, a thin but long park in the city that cuts it in half somewhat (north/south) and leads up to the waterfront. The waterfront itself has a nice collection of buildings, port stuff, a ferris wheel, and the looming, beautiful Umpenski cathedral (my first tourism stop) in the back. It is no V&A Waterfront, but it is far prettier than I gave it initial credit for on my quick walk on Tuesday.

The Umpenski is a good place to start, a nicely ornate Orthodox church up a moderate hill, provide a great view of the waterfront, the rows of buildings behind it, and Helsinki at large. the cathedral itself is stunning, though sadly I couldn't take photos insider for the simple and fair reason that there was a baptism going on in the building. They did let us in one door to at least marvel at the mosaic work on the columns and ceilings, but it would have to be something that remains in the eye.

From there, I walked about 10 minutes over to the Senate Square, a large square with the Helsinki Cathedral up a flight of 20 or stairs imposing over the square on one side. Both Cathedrals are Finish Orthodox churches, though I do like the contrast of the Umpenski being brown and this one white, great opposites in their position among the main sites of Finnish Orthodoxy. Also here in cooperation not contrast, the Helsinki Cathedral was holding a wedding, and so was closed to the public for a 2hour stretch that of course overlapped with my time there. No issue though, because it gave me more time to take in the wild stuff going on in the square.

In a perfect show of the expansive influence of American culture, Helsinki was having a "Yankee Car Show" in the main square, with it being filled with about eight rows of 20 or so each of classic old cars, and I mean some true bangers - old Corvette's, old Mustangs, old Pontiacs, all different colors. It was beautiful. There was also a band playing country music on the side, with a giant American flag behind them - I assume them to be from America. It was quite a scene, though sadly no hot dog stands or something like that.

No worries though, because lunch was next at the Old Market Hall in the waterfront, a fairly normal looking brown hall building from the outside, with a series of 12 or so restaurants, eateries and grociery shops on the inside. It was a panoply of Finnish products, with me scooping up to eat a smoked salmon, roe and dill on bread, a classic finnish salmon soup (so good) and a minced bear (yes, bear) on bread with juniper berries. Also got a couple things to go, but 50/50 on if I can actually take them into my country, so let's see on those.

Post lunch, with ominous skies overhead (a potential afternoon T-Storm looming, but whether it comes or not, something that should clear out by night), I took mostly to the indoors, first to two art museums, each of which near another impressive open square. Helsinki does not have the ornateness or neo-gothic ness of the architecture of a Budapest, nor anything like old town in Tallinn it's modernist design sensibilities probably disallowing it from those things, but it does have a whole lot of large open squares. The one outside the first museum I went to sits Helsinki's main train station and square aroudn that.

The museum was the Ateneum, which while there is a National Art Museum, the Ateneum is basically Helsinki's main art museum. It was perfectly sized, with some nice exhibits - primarily the entire top floor given up the the works and life of Eero Jarnefelt, their proclaimed greatest Finnish artist. His work was quite good, finding a lot of decent similarities to the works of some of the Canadian artists I've really grown to enjoy over my various trips to Art museums in the Toronto area. The other floors had more varied art, but all more traditional with littel modernist. One exhibit was interesting where it showed a few instances of Finnish disciples or students of famous international painters and their take at painting in those styles - incouding one instance of someone trying to recreate the look of Paul Cezanne. 

The second museum, near a large open air park and event space, was the Kiasma, a modern art museum which definitely leaned heavily into what it means to have modern art. Some of the exhibits took it to the extreme, as in the top level which was given to showcase the art of a local finnish girl, who mixed some actually interesting concepts with also having one part having two actors just sit on the groudn glumly whimpering. Other floors were probably higher in hit rate - including a really whimsical one by a Japanese/Finnish artist who for instance turned his bout with Syphillis into the inspiration for a fake theme part full of posters and artwork about the "Journey with Syphillis". The Kiasma was whimsical and fun, didn't take a whole lot of time, and brought me to an interesting part very much still in the city walls.

The last tourism stop of the day was the Temppeliaukio Church, which is a lutheran church built into a rocky hill. You would think this is on a cliff or far away, but it is literally in another one of the cities many squares, just I presume it was a square built around this church. The inside is the hollowed out portion of this rocky hill, with organ, altar and all built into the rocks - it is quite airy and hard to believe that right around you outside is a fully city square.

From there, I meandered my way 20 minutes down back towards the main part of the city, past the large Kammpi Shopping Mall - where I did stop to grab a cappucino, to SalamaNation, an odd sounding name for the taproom of Salama Brewing, which was fantastic. All three stops on this trip have been places with strong beer cultures, and Salama was no different - a place where I decided to grab a few to take home as well.

The final fancy dinner of the tour (man do I have a lot of dinners to still chronicle) was at Finnjavel, which was briefly featured in teh Somebody Feed Phil episode on Helsinki (of where to some degree the inspiration to come to Finland was born). Finnjavel, like NOA in Tallinn, has both a a-la-carte area and a tasting menu area, here the tasting menu being in a dimly lit side room. Of course, this being Finland, the dim lighting isn't too impactful when it is sunny until 10pm. The meal was incredible, a bit more traditional and delicate than Gron the day before. My quick ranking of the tasting menu's would probably be: Noa, Salt, Finnjavel, Laurel, Gron but ask me in a week and I'll probably have a different view.

Post dinner, I tried to go to Trilby & Chadwick, a speakeasy near the Helsinki Cathedral, but the line was too long that I left and went back to old mainstay (e.g. I went there on Tuesday) Liberty & Death. Anyways, Trilby & Chadwick is open on Monday and I can't imagine they'll be too crowded then. Liberty & Daath was quite full, where they sat me at what they turned into a makeshift communal table (the real lsit is probably 6 people), which was nice because it gave ready-made interaction opportunities.

From there, headed back over the the area with Post and Kaiku - Post being not as full as the day before, and Kaiku more full, but weirder in that they were playing what I can only describe as african beats and music. It was great, it got people moving (me included), but was also a bit funny given the racial make-up of the crowd. No need to worry though, on the whole both were harmlessly pleasant. I was always picturing a more boisterous and/or aggressive EDM scene here, but from what I gathered speaking to a couple folks there, places like this are far more popular in the non-Summer months, where it gets dark early and is too cold to do much other than head inside as dance the cold away. I came during a relative hot streak, so unsurprisingly many locals are finding alternative things to do. But for me, it was just about perfect.

2024 Europe Trip: Day 9 - Tallinn to Helsinki

Day 9 - Transiting the Baltic Sea

This is another transit day - less so than teh first time I headed to Helsinki, though both will result in similar experiences in the Finnish capital. That day, the flight in Helsinki landed at 5:30pm. Here, the ferry arrives at 6:30pm. Other than dinner and experiencing Helsinki nightlife, these are not Helsinki days. That said, while on Tuesday, I had spent the day flying on Lufthansa on cramped planes getting nothing to show for it, at least here I got a proper half a day or so in Tallinn and another lovely 2hr ferry ride.

There wasn't too much planned for my last few hours in Tallinn other to just enjoy the hell out of it, leading up to a lunch at Restaurant Rado in the heart of old town. Early on, I ambled over to the old town, much like I would have say done in Cape Town, meandering over to the waterfront. I decided to stop by the Natural History Museum, which is housed in a small three-story house, so calling it a museum is a bit of a stretch. Sadly, the signage was only in Estonian, but seeing all the various fauna that live in Estonian forests was cool. The lover of animal cuteness in me got a kick out of especially how in almost every case if they showed a adult-sized animal, they would have a few babies of that animal there as well.

Anyway, after that quick stop and a traipse through the Town Hall Square in old town to grab an iced coffee and soak in life for a few minutes, I headed slightly north to the Tellaviski neighborhood. I had been there in a sense the day before, to go to Vaat Brewing, but avoided its main attractions, which are large food and art collectives.

The food one is housed under the roof of the old train station (the new one sits across the street), which has three different areas. The one in the middle is a standard grocery store, though seemingly a bit more upmarket. The one to the Eastern side was a farmers market (basically tons of stalls selling produce) and then a series of small half-a-trailer sized specialty stores/food stalls. The Western side then had more food stalls. It was truly wonderful, if the only sad parts being (1) I wouldn;t be able to take any of the gourments meats say home, and (2) the food stalls were largely other ethnic cuisine - including magically a half-trailer selling food from Cape Town!

The other main attraction is a 3x3 block area (pedestrian only in teh middle) called Tellavitski Creative City (at least that's the translated name). It has two buildings that have arts and crafts boutiques on ground level, including a really nice ceramics store that I perused for way too long, and then galleries on the upper floors (most closed). Around the back were other boutiques, music spaces, restaurants, cafe's and then a couple Padel courts (can't wait for a few months from now when Padel, the more exclusive  version of pickleball, lands in America full time). It's a great little space, maybe feels in a way more like soemthing you find in American cities, but a lot of this arts collective stuff originated in the Nordics anyway so I was all for it.

After further meandering around the old town, and a few more souvenir shops (wanting to get a few more local, touristy wares) I settled down for lunch at Rado, which is on a corner of two alleys in the old town. I took this chance to sit outside, which was lovely with some cloud cover for the first time in my days in Tallinn, giving some relief on what have been unusually warm days in Tallinn.

Rado comes up with a menu of 5 starter and main options that can shift day to day - though from what I looked up its usually cycling through the same 25 or so in the rolodex. Either way, a novel approach adn the food was pristine, with a charred cauliflower with Estonian cheese and dill sauce (excellent) and a brillaintly cooked picanha with an estonian wine sauce. Despite being steak, it was cooked so well and light. On the whole, a lovely way to end my time in Tallinn.

From there, I took a more circuitous route back to my AirBNB to pick up my bags and head over to the ferry terminal (a 15 minute walk from the AirBNB), a bit sad to be leaving. Actually very sad, though some of that is probably also getting to the point where I do start to see the end of the trip approaching. I don't think this will be last trip to Tallinn, but then again I can't remember the last place I went to where I was pretty sure I wouldn't ever be back (probably say Takayama). Tallinn exceeded every expectation. As did the return trip on the Megastar, which even had a guy playing piano live to add to the experience.

Dinner was at Gron, a veg-forward (with some fish and poultry) tasting menu spot that was fantastic. So far, with one more to go tomorrow at Finnjavel, I'm not sure how I would stack the relative tasting menus up, but Gron is right up there - stunningly my favorite dish might have been a tomato tart, which given my normal hatred for tomato's is shocking enough.

Post dinner, I ambled my way down a few blocks to the more buzzier area of Helsinki. I shouldn't be surprised, but it was staggering how much more busy and full they were than the prior Tuesday. Again, makes complete sense, but it was nice to see Helsinki so alive. My first stop was a beer bar that was a bit too close to a pub in that their selection was more standard ales and pilseners. Not awful, still had a good chat with the barman and a few people there, but it was a pit stop before a return to Gate A21. The place had a great vibe, with tons of people sitting outside and inside, a DJ playing fairly inoffensive house music behind, and some good cocktails.

The final stop was what I was picturing when coming to Helsinki, and worked magically well. There are clubs all over the city, but a bit further afield (though in reality still within a 10-min drive of downtown) is a building area with a back courtyard that holds something of 3-4 different clubs, more in my variety. I hopped back and forth between two of them - Post Bar, a more my style EDM place with fog, dark lights, no photos, quick bar, and Kaiku, which is probably more reknowned but was a bit tamer in music than I wanted. Still was nice to hop back and forth, going across the 300 or so feet between them. There was also a halal-style cart in the middle too open till 4am which was a great touch - especially since this area is a bit far afield to any brick and morter spots.

In the end, it was a nice evening across a great meal, good beer and cocktails, and very good techno music and experiences. Helsinki tourism proper will begin tomorrow, but for another evening/night in Finland's capital, it is living up to expectations.

2024 Europe Trip: Day 8 - Tallinn

Day 8 - Ye Olde Tallinn

I'm just going to say it, Tallinn is amazing. Moving past the primary European capitals / tourism centers, I think I haven't enjoyed a European city this much since Krakow, and this honestly might be better. Now, it is not a giant city, so I don't think I short-changed it with my 2.25 day visit (noon on Wednesday through 4pm on Friday). What also hit home hard to me is when I got myself out the door by 10:45am today, it was only about 90 minutes earlier than the boat arrived into Tallinn yesterday - in all reality, Wednesday was a full day in Tallinn.

Today was going to be centered around the historical heart of Tallinn, its large old town and various points bordering it. After spending my first day in all places but Old Town (aside from lunch and late night), today would be almost the opposite. And as I learned through my meandering, this is for good reason. The day started with my walking into and then through the old town, entering through the Viru Gate, getting a brief glimpse of their main town square, before I ventured up a slight hill to an elevated part of the old town containing two notable churches and two equally notable lookout sites.

The first church is the Alexander Nivisky Church, a Russian Orthodox church with many spires and minarets on the outside, and a cavernous main hall inside. Sadly, they didn't let you take photos inside, but it was quite a regal place. The second church was the St. Mary's Cathedral, a catholic church but same idea of not being able to take pictures inside. Not sure why that was an SOP for the first two places. Where you could take photos, though was the lookout taht overlooked the old town, with its red tile roofs and four or five towers with spires - along with the more modern parts of Tallinn behind it. From this view, Tallinn is just stunning. Even teh red tile roofs, which are fairly standard in Europe across a lot of places (notably so Spain or Portugal), are a bit unique here, with they being more varied in shape, size, height across the entire old town.

Back at ground level in the old town I went to lunch at Restaurant Retesaevu 16 (the name being the street address) which is a lovely restaurant in old town serving up modern takes on classic Estonian dishes, bordering between fancy and traditional. Their bread as a start was lovely, but even better was their duck fillet starter with chicken pate, and eggplant and thin ham-like slices of duck breast. Their main of a pan fried flounder with artichokes, carrots and a green sauce was great as well - the flounder being cooked just perfectly. Retaskaevu was a great, great lunch, and the place had a constant stream of new people coming in as well.

From there I decided to go try a third church, this one more a museum that did allow photos! It was St. Nicholas Church and Museum, the inside being an open hall showcasing old art from all various versions of the cathedral, first built in 1344, the best bit being a triptych from the 1500s, or a carved Jesus on teh Cross with Mary from teh 1400s. The other part of the museum was the use of their tower, with small exhibits on teh 2nd and 3rd floors (the bells of the church & the church's collection of silver objects) and then an observatory deck on the 4th floor, about 200 feet up. From there the city again just looked pristine. It was nice enough that St. Nicholas allowed use of photos but it also delivered on that.

From there I took a quick detour outside the old town, past the impressive Freedom Square (befixed with a building that had both the Estonian and Ukrainian flag draped over it - despite a lot of Russian being spoken throuhgout Estonia, they are very much anti-Putin and pro-Ukraine as a country, for obvious reasons. Continuing that thought was my next stop, the Museum of Occupations and Freedom, which detail the fate of the Estonian people starting with World War II and the takeover by Germany, through their history under Soviet Rule. 

The museum was super informative and modern, with an audio guide that had some sort of GPS sensor that would switch automatically to the next bit based on when you walkeIt d into a new room. How they did it was interesting too, as each of the 5-6 rooms had a ~10min talk delivered by the audio guide, while you walk around and see some exhibits. Some of the audio guide was hearing people who had to flee Estonia, or people who had to rebuild lives when the Soviets finally left in 1991. What was actually quite interesting was this was maybe the fairest portrayal of Soviet occupation, as they were quick to mention that the living conditions weren't awful, at least in the final 15 years of occupation. But just there was no real freedom and everything controlled. 

Heading to happier things, I went back into Old Town and finally meandered my way to the Town Hall Square, the large old town square at its heart. It is gorgeous, with the Town Hall building and Tower giving some heft, pastel colored buildings on each side, adn a large open space with sculptured and creative seating arrangements. I will say I was a bit dismayed by the restaurant options in the main square being fairly touristy / staid, but honestly that's probably true of any main square. My comparison point earlier on was Krakow, which has its own similar main square in its old town, Rynek Glowny, which in my memory I see as a better version, but I do wonder how that may have changed in the 10 years since I first went.

What I do love though about the Tallinn old town is how picturesque all the streets are within it - all the offshoots from the main square, and then buttressed by craft shops and cafes littering smaller alleys. This gave me my first time doing some souvenir shopping, picking up some random wares that probably aren't needed in truth. It's hard to avoid getting pulled in though when the setting is so majestic - the ceramic shop had their ceramic art studio just there in the background with a person working, and everything.

My final stop within the old town (for now, I'll be back for dinner + night) was more by happenstance but super fulfilling. There are a handful of random museums on specific topics littered around the old town. The Natural History one is probably teh most well known, but was closed by the time I get there at 5:05. Instead, I walked one alley over to the Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design. I think I noted yesterday that after half days in Finland and Tallinn, I am fully on board with Scandinavia being the design center of the world. This museum was excellently curated, with a floor dedicated to the more "Applied" part, with a series of exhibits on Estonian furniture, flat-ware, ceramics, radiators, etc. The second floor dedicated to the more design aspects, with sculpture, textiles, glassware, etc. It was all very beautiful, and quite easy to take in within 40 minutes or so. It was definitely a bit out of place in a way, a museum highlighting the modern sensibilities of Estonia deep within the old town.

The final pre-dinner stop (and where you can maybe tell by my verb tense usage) was at the Vaat Brewing Taproom, in the Telleviski neighborhood. Telleviski more broadly is known as the artsy neighborhood in town - think Portland warehouses with art galleries, craft shops, breweries, etc. And Vaat was the best reviewed of the four or five breweries in that neighborhood. It was a small spot but had some great beer on tap and some pretty cans of which I took a couple to take home.

Dinner was more rustic, intentionally so, at Restaurant Olde Hansa, a large mainstay within Old Town. The place is Medieval themed, from the get-up of waiters, the menu, the decorations, the music played every now and then. It wasn't like a Medieval times - there was no jousting or what not, but just great theme covering up also amazing food. The chef started at Michelin star places and wanted this not to just be a gimmick, and that worked out really well.

For a starter, I got the Olden Meat Platter, which ended up being a fantastic charcuterie. It had colked smoked deer with horseradish, beef tonge jelly, and a duck liver pate with onion jam. All cooked amazingly and presented well. You do get a quick view that the chef really does care that the food is good. That remained for the mains, which was a triplette of game medallions, in this case inner deerk, outer deer and bear. All three were excellently cooked medium rare and seasoned well, though I'll admit I had a fairly hard time discerning the different tastes between them. Overall, Olde Hansa is such a uniquely fun place with far better food than you would expect given location (center of old town) and concept, but it works really well.

By the end of the meal, it was close to 10:30 and the sun was finally starting to set, so I decided after taking some final photos in old town, to head underground to a speakeasay sitting just outside the old town walls. Whisper Sister's only real "hidden" element is being in the back door of a closed store - but if you call their phone number they'll open the door for you. Anyway, the place itself was whimsical, mystical and really nice. Their cocktails weren't the zaniest but just really well made and crafted. A great spot to spend a couple hours and take it all in - and I will say Tallinn is a strong economy, but these areas it still is priced below Western Europe, with cocktails at 11 - 13 EUR.

The final stop was Koht, which was as fun a vibe and brilliant a place as the night before. If I could describe my perfect late night drink spot, it might be Koht. Hidden in a back alley with cool decor. Knowledge barmen serving great beer, a wonderful mix of 12 tap options and endless supply of bottle options. People (including I) would go up to them almost as if it was one of those cocktail places where you describe your likes or moods and they pick something for you. Also they played a mix of 70s-90s rock, which hit perfectly as well. Truly, a "no notes" type place - much like Tallinn is as a city.

2024 Europe Trip: Day 6-7 - Travel to Talinn

Day 6 - Travel and Trawling

The day part of the day was a write-off to travelling from Budapest to Helsinki. As the Finnair plane I spotted as my Lufthansa plane pulled out of the gate can attest to, there is a direct option. I though had miles to use up, which meant i had to basically write off the day taking a 1-stop through Frankfurt, starting with a flight that left at 11:15, and ending with a flight landing in Helsinki at 17:30. I don't even want to bother looking up how much time I could have saved taking the direct flight.

Anyway, there is some utility in a quieter day to spread out in the trip, to reset a bit. Lighter on the wallet (you know aside from the flight...), the stomach, the legs, etc. I was still getting to Helsinki early enough for a dinner and night out, and some ability to get a first sense of what that city is about. Maybe it is combining this with the ferry tomorrow morning (10:20 - 12:20) to Talinn that almost makes this compound, but whatever - think of it as a day long journey from Budapest to Talinn, with a 15 hour stop in Helsinki in the middle for fun.

Pretty useless writing about Lufthansa on these inter-Europe flights. It's the same staid service of free water, followed by paid everything else, and then free chocolate. I slept for most of the first flight and about half the second one. Not that I was super tired, especially for the second flight I was hopeful, ready with a book, to be more productive. But somehow put me on these shorter flights and I'll fall asleep super quick every time.

Anyway, before I knew it we were landing in Helsinki, the land of the never setting sun (my name). The drive from Helsinki airport to my hotel, was around 30 minutes and allowed me to get a sense of the modernist architecture, greenery, and just pleasantness of the Helsinki and the Finnish countryisde. 

Dinner gave more of the same, at Ravintola Muru (Ravintola being Finnish for "restuarant"), a mom and pop run 4-course prix fixe menu restaurant that just serves Finnish ingredients, Finnish cuisine. The first dish was a white asparagus (seems to be quite popular in this part of the world) with smoked whitefish mousse and roe, and the main a delicious reindeer fillet with parsnips and dill. Just a brilliant dish the fillet was. The restaurant as a whole was lovely, but of course the most fun part was it being basically daytime outside by the time the meal ended at 10:15. 

Helsinki isn't the northernmost I've been - Anchorage beats it out by a scant one degree latitude. I went there a bit closer to teh summer equinox, so that is definitely the most "continuous sunlight" I've had - but this was close. It was very much not night at 10:15, and still fairly bright on the Western half view by midnight when I walked from one cocktail spot (Liberty or Death) to another (Gate A21). The cocktail spots themselves were different and quite nice. Liberty or Death was a classic darkly lit room with a long bar, mix of spins on classics and their own concoctions. Definitely a place I could see myself returning to. 

Gate A21 is more a later night (open to 4:30am daily) but happens to serve good, whimsical cocktails and craft beer, with good music and not as much rambunctiossness as you would expect. It wasn't full at all but classy enough taht I already know where I'll be Sunday night come 1:30am when the rest of the city is shutting down. Gate A21, or the Karaoke Bar (same hours) I walked by on the way to a pizza/kebab shop, which closes at 3am, serves alcohol, and was buzzing. The last glimpses of light were going away as I ventured back to my hotel at 1:45 to call it a night on this brief respite in Helsinki before the trip continues proper tomorrow.

Day 7 - Taking My Talents to Talinn

As I write this, in the stunning, large, expanse of 24 taps that is the Pohjala Brewery & Taproom, and tell you I don't think a city has left a better first impression all the way around as Talinn. Let's backtrack though as the day started with me oversleeping (the classic "put the alarm off but deciding to sleep just five more min" routine) which led to a scrambled ambling over to the ferry to go to Talinn. Calling the Tallink Line's MyStar a "ferry" is probably not fair to it. It's more a mini cruise ship. There are three decks for passengers (2.5 I guess, as the 0.5 is the top deck which is partially closed). In that space, you have three private (for purchase) "club" spaces, a buffet restaurant, a grab and go restaurant (with good food options), a Burger King, three different bars, a starbucks and even cabins (though admittedly I have no idea who would book a cabin). Everything is pristine, and well maintained. It was the best, quickest, two hours of ferry I've ever had.

Exiting the ship on the Talinn side, I was almost immediately smacked in the face by two thoughts. First, "Holy Cow, I'm in effing Estonia!" and second, main this place is gorgeous and modern. Granted, Helsinki may prove to be very much the same when I explore it in more detail, but Helsinki is also a bit larger. The ferry port was deep into the port of Helsinki. Here, the ferry terminal dumps you out basically near two glass facade shopping complexes, and behind it a bit in the distance the assortment of spires that emanate from Talinn's old town. In love in two seconds.

The drive to my AirBNB only continued the joy, everything so bright, so clean, so stylish. I haven't been to either of probably the two main go-to Nordic / Baltic destinations, of Copenhagen and Stockholm, but after half a day in Helsinki, and one drive in Talinn, I am fully on board with this part of the world being the design capital for sure.

My first stop was a late lunch at the Pub Kompressor, which is a pancake bar, meaning the Dutch (and I guess Estonian?...) Pankoekken type of pancake, the slightly thicker than a crepe thing. That's all the really serve - a set of about 10 savory and 10 sweet, sadly too big to reasonably order one of each. I got a smoked ham and brie pancake, which was cooked perfectly with the brie the right level of gooeyness and the ham sliced into little strips to add to it. The restaurant was located in the Old Town, which I wasn't planning on visiting today (though some of my night spots are in it...), but the walk on the edge of it to there got me exicted on what is to come. A proper cobblestone, with bright alleyways and open squares. Again, just perfect to what you would want it to be.

My first tourism stop was a bit afield at the large Kadriorg Park, which houses multiple museums inside its lush grounds. The name, and frankly most of the first museum, is tied to its old Russian ties back when Talinn was a summer home for the Tsar. The park is lovely. But the real reason to come were the two museums. The first is housed in the building that was the summer home, so the building itself is a bit of a museum - but the Kadriorg Art Gallery doubles as a European fine art museum. They had one exhibit about Spanish art through 1800 - 1920 which was interesting, and the rest were room upon room of art, some from collections from the palace at the time, to others representing German and Russian art. The grandestr place though might have been the main hall in the second floor with sculptures and painted ceilings as well.

A five minute walk through the park is the KUMU - the main art museum for Estonia, showcasign 100% Estonian art, though this includes Soviet & Russian art from present day Estonia locations. On the walk over you pass, randomly but 100% seriously the President's palace. Now, Estonia is a Parliamentary Republic, so the President is basically a figurehead, but still it was cool and a bit shocking for that to just be there in the middle of the park, with fairly minimal security.

Anyway, for the KUMU, it was beautiful - one of the best collections of local art I can remember. Well designed, not overwhelming in size, but a beautifully moden building all the same. It's hard honestly to say what the best part was. To pick a few, the building is half moon shaped, and so in each corner is an open ceiling up three floors, one side has a wall of portraits of various Russian and German rulers (both controlled this land at various points before Estonian Independence), and the other a room of 100 busts. Next maybe was a series of modernist paintings done in a culture clash with their Soviet Socialist rule until they regained independence in 1991. On the whole, the KUMU was a fascinating experience.

The last of my day of museums was far nearer to the city, but the heavy traffic near the old town had my uber driver take me by the scenic route, back towards the port area, to the final stop of the Leesudam Museum. This was an interesting one that depending on your interests may not be worth it, but as a converted sea-plane hanger turned into a maritime & aviation museum, it was a blast for me. 

The hanger is fully open, with a large suspended in air submarine in the middle, and a catwalk on an upper floor that takes you walking past a series of ships and bouys (way bigger than I thought). The ships were a combination of early "ice-ships" that in olden times people used in winter, and then sailing boats, many used by Estonian sailors to win Olympic medals. For the ice ships, tt was scary how primitive those were. From there the catwalk area ends with you being able to go into teh submarine. It was commissioned in the 1930s so it was fairly narrow, incredible claustrophobic, but cool all the same. The ground floor was a series of further maritime and aviation exhibits, the coolest of which is where they let you go sit in a life-size version of seaplane and fly in a flight simulator. I was terrible, though it was certainly fun. On the whole the Leesudam was well worth it.

From there, I went on a walk past a couple just developed portside housing and business complexes, both pristine in their modernity, to the brewery referenced above, where Pohjala pairs 24 of their beers on tap with, oddly, a Texan BBQ menu. I wasa  bit hungry (in retrospect, I probably could've done both the savory and sweet crepe!) so I got a sausage which was great (the "Osaka BBQ Sauce" the best part), and a hazy IPA and Porter, my standard two-fer when juding a place's beer, and Pohjala hit it ouf the park. Talinn, and more broadly Estonia, is a place that I know cares about its beer - my parents realized this on their visit year more than a decade ago, when I'm sure to some degree their craft beer revolution was fairly nascent, so I wasn't surprised at how good the beer was, more about the set-up and modernity of the place. 

Finally came dinner, at a place called NOA Chef's Hall. To be accurate, the whole complex is called NOA, situated about a 20 minute drive along the coast across the bay from downtown Talinn, prominent in the very much daylight at 8pm. There's a NOA a-la-carte restaurant, but NOA Chef's Hall is an 8/9 course meal behind a false door that brings you into something special. As always, will go through course by course at a later date, but know it was a special, special meal. I've very much underrated Estonia in general coming in, and nothing makes that more pronounced than places like this one.

Night in Talinn was lovely as well. It was a Wednesday, so still a relatively quiet night but I geuss here relatively quiet means the perfect crowd size, first at a top notch cocktail spot named Sigmund Freud Bar, and then at Koht. For Sigmund Freud, their conceit is their signature cocktail list is split across four different notable emotional states that Freud espoused. Not sure I buy it, but the drinks were fantastic - really smooth, quite strong and strange combinations that worked well. It was actually fairly light crowd when I got there at 11:00, but when leaving at 12:45, ahead of their stated closing time of 1am, the place was far more crowded and I hadn't heard any sense of a last call.

Koht is about a 8-min walk away through the middle of old town, which given there was still some sunlight peaking through was quite a sight. Very excited for my time tomorrow exploring it in more detail. Anyway, Koht was perfect - built into an old building, with narrow ceilings, it is just a bar with an old seemingly German or Russian women with an encyclopaedic knowledge of beer, serving up drinks. They have great craft draft and bottle options, plus all standard cocktails, and a crowd that was just loving life, a mix of 50/50 locals to foreigners - locals identifiable through each of them knowing the bartender and some of the other barflys well. Just a great place to end a great first half day in Talinn.

2024 Europe Trip: Day 5 - Budapest

Day 5 - The Last of Budapest

I've often written about in these trip diaries how I have a crippling issue of starting to long for things way too quickly. The second any trip hits its back half I start getting sad and nostalgic. Nothing frames this better than me writing this feeling slightly depressed that my time in Budapest is coming to an end. Now, more than half the trip remains. To some degree, today was the first day start to finish that I've missed work for. Two fascinating new places, new countries (!), await me. I shouldn't feel this way. But maybe that just speaks to how much I've come to really like this city.

Where it will stand when I update my Top-60 cities list in a couple weeks is to be seen. Hell, let's not get ahead of myself, as either Talinn or Helsinki could top it - if either do however, that would be impressive, as Budapest has so much going for it. And I say this as someone who got messed up by the fact that today si some sort of public holiday. Google Maps had warned me of this for a while, so it isn't Budapests' fault at all. Most things stayed open, and potentially some things were open later yesterday than they otherwise would've been, but what it meant for me was that both the cities main food markets, which I earmarked for lunch today, were closed. 

Anyway, the day didn't start that way, but amid some early morning rain, I went next door and did the one thing I almost never do - have breakfast. My AirBNB host had recommended to me a few spots nearby, including Aran Bakery. There's always a line there, and even today there was a bit of a line, but for their cinnamon roll, it was well worth it.

After was my multiple times aborted attempts to get lunch. I had earmarked today as a day to go to either one of the two food halls within Budapest. Everything indicated they were open on Mondays, while closed on Sundays. All good. Except today happens to be that weird public holiday, so both were closed. And I mean locked door, dark inside, closed, without any signage or anything indicating there to be a reason for this (beyond it again being a public holiday). There were multiple other clearly foreigners who like me arrived and left confused. Calling an audible, I ended up having lunch at a local bistro that had decent reviews, a stones throw from the Food Hall on the Buda side of the river. It ended up being a perfectly nice meal, in pleasant outdoor weather, with a goulash soup as a starter, and a deer fillet strogonoff as the main. It was probably a bit too heavy for a lunch, but it was also about 2:30pm so I was quite hungry.

From there I went on a 30-minute stroll from the restaurant, further north on the Buda side, crossing over the gold painted Margit bridge, and over towards the glistening, giant Parliament building. The only thing that requires a tour during my time in Budapest (granted, maybe some other stuff would'v e if I came in true tourist season). The tour was set for 4pm, with me arriving early getting to get some good shots of the building from the outside. It is hard to somewhat put the Parliament Building into words. It is modeled off of the British Parliament building, but in a lighter stone and with far less around it making it even more prominent to Budapest's river front. On the outside, it is beautiful. On the inside, it was equally so.

The tour is 45 minutes long, led by an audio guide that the tour leader controls offering it across seemingly 20 or so languages. It goes into a lot of detail about the history of the building, the architect, the national competition to become said architect, the legacy of each of the rulers that have statues in their great hall, and so much more. In a sense, it is fairly quick - about five stops, 45 minutes, but you don't feel that way with all the information you are given. Tons of photo opportunities in their Grand Entrance stairwell, their long corridors and of their parliament hall - helps that when the building was built Hungary had a bicameral setup but overtime reduced to just one house of parliament, so the second hall is always empty. 

The only sad part is their Great Dome, which is indeed great, holds the royal crown and scepter (and a few others goodies) that date themselves back to the 1000s. Because of that they are over cautious, fairly so, about exposing them. No one can take photos in teh great hall, and the 200-light chandelier looming overhead gets about 10 of its lights put on. All in all though, the Parliament tour is a must do.

Similarly so is the St. Stephen's Basilica, about a 10 minute walk away. St. Stephen is actually the first ruler of Hungary, beatified soon after his death, and his namesake Basilica is incredible, really. It is quite nice from the outside, but the inside is just gorgeous - gold panels, statue work, painting, a giant organ, and in a key difference to basically every famous European church, more of an oblong oval / circle set-up than the normal cross with a long hall. This gives the space way more air, more vantage points, more of all it. When I was there, they had an organist and singer, not sure if tehy were practicing or what not, but it added a great energy to the place as well.

The final bit of tourism in Budapest also was the final meal and while the meal wasn't great (though not bad) the tourism aspect more than made up for it. My parents have long told me of this night cruise we took down the Danube, and how beautiful it all was, and that it was a must do, so I did. They were right. The cruise was two hours long, with a 7:30 board time, 8:00 sail time and 10:00 return. Like a metronome this all worked perfectly. The food again isn't really amazing - though from all the various night cruises I looked up it seems like it never is great. I'll give them this though, the main of a duck confit leg with spaetzle and a brown sauce was excellent. As was the dessert of a mousse, albeit very small. Their starter of a veal goulash soup was a bit small and tough as well. Anyway though, you don;'t come here for that.

You don't necessarily come here for the performances either, but they had a 4-piece band and singers and dancers that were all quite good. The cruise also smartly does it so other than some backing strings there isn't much going on in the first 70% which is sailing down a more active part of the Danube and while mostt of the meal is getting served. But once we get past the Parliament building Northwards you quickly leave the city center and it is in this darker area where there is little to see outside, that they focus most of the performances.

Anyway, as mentioned you don't come for that. You come for the sights, and they are stunning. First the boat heads South already starting at a fairly south point (across from the Citadel), going past some fancy river-front offices and a couple bridges before turning abck around for a long Northward sail, which times up perfectly with the floodlights coming in as you get near the Buda Castle. From there to the Parliament building it is one stunning view after another. It was truly something amazing. It isn't the most packed riverfront, but if anythign that elevates it a bit as each of the main sites have great prominence in the night - from the Buda Castle complex, to teh St. Matias Church complex, to the early buildings and churces on teh Pest side, to finally, of course, the Parliament Building. From this angle this is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, truly.

I was still thinking about these things as I went through my post-dinner routine of a couple beers at Hopaholic, running into people coming there for a Budapest Beer Week (of course that week just starting as I leave), to a couple cocktails at Warm Up, who sadly were closing an hour early due to the Public Holiday. That probably was a good thing, as it gave me a bit more time before I needed to go back to get any sort of reasonable sleep before tomorrow's travel, and I went back to the Ruin Bar, which was nowhere near as crowded as the day before, but still a good amount of people, of life, and an absolutely fantastic music guy in the side bar.

He made it clear he was "not a DJ", as basically he had a machine that palyed a backing beat and he would add to it live layering in keyboard and guitar. It was amazing, it was mesmerizing. There was a crowd of say 20-50 during the hour I stayed encircling him and just soaking it all in. While standing there taking it in, feeling a lot of joy for being just in the moment, I had a sudden thought of outside of that moment but connected to it. I went to the Ruin Bars four times, twice for pre-dinner drinks, twice for end of the night when nothing else good was open on Sunday, Monday. It was graet in every iteration. I do think this was one of the best places I've been that are (1) very popular and (2) could easily be overrun and trashy. Now, it isn't a "clean" place (the bathroom was a warzone), but it had a great energy and vibe. If someone just writes on paper "bar made out of abandoned buildings in Budapest in the heart of the Party district" you probably would think of something over-commercialized, but instead there remained a neat undergroudnness to it.

As I wrap my time in Budapest, in some ways that describes the entirety of the city. I honestly don't think I've had a better time in a European city since going to Krakow ten whole years ago (my first trip as a working man). Now, part of it is as I laid out on my first entry in this diary, that I just haven't done as much European travel. And to be fair the European travel I've done has generally all been very good, and I defintiely enjoyed Granada and San Sebastian, but I also had incredibly high expectations for those places. For whatever reason, Budapest was more of a test - similar in a way to Santiago. I had faint memories of liking it, but every day just made it grow more and more prominent in my mind. I definitely am sad to leave, though I to some degree can't wait to see what Finland and Estonia have to offer.