Back in August I started a new job. About a month in, I was asked to travel to Tallinn, Estonia, to pick up some technical knowledge for a project I was going to work on.

I left SF Saturday, September 17th and returned the following Saturday.

I arrived in the tiny Tallinn airport Sunday evening, took a cab and got into my spectacular Swissotel room in the heart of Tallinn. The view from my room was really beautiful. I could see Sadam Harbor; basically the southern part of the Gulf of Finland, part of the Baltic Sea. This was as far north latitude as I had ever traveled.

	My beautiful room	The view from my room
Tallinn		Old Town from my room

My coworker KC had left me a message to hook up with him. So I showered and we headed downstairs to the lobby to meet him. He had been to Tallinn before (on biz) and graciously and patiently showed me around the joint. We walked into Old Town while there was still a bit of daylight remaining. Instantly, I was reminded of Poland- Krakow in particular- in the layout and architecture of things.

Old Town. Reminded me very much of the streets leading to Old Town Krakow

Old Town main square

The amazing black bread!

We pulled into a pub called Hell Hunt. The European Basketball Championships were about to show on the big screen and prior to that we watched some English Premier League highlights, which was great with me. We each got a dish, but KC ordered what seemed to me to be weird looking black bread with a yogurt sauce on the side and a garlic bulb. I hesitated to try it, but once I did, I could not stop, it was amazing to me!

Midway through the basketball game I was starting to crash so tried making my way back to the hotel. As I got lost about 3/4 of the way there, I was thankfully fortunate enough to find a parked taxi car and asked the driver for walking directions. It was pretty easy to find my way back after that. I went to sleep and woke up fairly normally the next morning.

The office

After an early breakfast and a miscommunication with KC, I ended up getting to the office too early Monday morning. I did appreciate the 80s music videos playing at the front reception area, though, at the office while waiting for KC. KC and I met up and got me all set up and good to go. Eventually, Thierry (with whom I would spend much time during the week) showed up and I learned a lot from him.

In the evening KC and I went to a recommended French restaurant which was quite good. Afterwards KC showed me around Old Town some more as we walked for a good while.

There seemed to be some party going on in Old Town square Tuesday night
		Parliament building		Harju Gate below our feet

On Tuesday, Richard showed up from the UK office and spiced up our level of excitement for the next 3 days. There was good food, good fun and lots of drinking (well, I was watching as opposed to partaking…) through Thursday night with various local coworkers.

KC

Heading to dinner with the gang. They found it weird that I took this random picture. Can’t explain why I like it…

KC, Richard, Aleks, Avo and Thierry

KC, Marco and Richard

Friday morning both Richard and KC took off back to their respective destinations, so I was on my own. I ended up leaving the office a bit earlier in the afternoon to go explore more of Tallinn.

I ended up walking to Kadrioru Park, followed by Sadam Harbor, and just kinda got intentionally lost in downtown walking for miles and miles. Eventually, I settled into a small, nice Turkish restaurant and had dinner. From there went to the local market next door to my hotel for some dessert and checked in for the night.

This seemed very European to me	Kadrioru Park
	Office of the President	Couldn’t figure if this fat bird (Which I saw so many times, all over) was a crow or not
At Sadam Harbor looking towards Old Town

I woke up really early Saturday morning, headed to the airport, and arrived back in SF Saturday late evening.

It was a good trip both personally and professionally. I’m really glad I had a chance to see this part of Europe. Two things I wish would have been different- (1) Tobia coming with me, and (2) taking the ship that goes to Helsinki (2 hours each way; there was simply no time).