Tartu - City of Good Thoughts

The Leaning House on Tartu town square.
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Tartu is called the City of Good Thoughts.  It's a bit unclear to us as to why, but we think it must be because it's a University City. It's lovely here, really chilled out (and a bit chilly).  There are so many sculptures dotted around the city and lots of neo-classical architecture and some soviet stuff (replacing the bombed buildings from the war).  We're especially happy cause it's cheaper than Tallinn, about 10 quid each a night for a hostel and coffee is good and cheap too. Cathal is very happy.  We've walked around but taken it easy in the main - still nursing some skiing injuries.

Bollards!
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Last night we went to an Irish pub called Wilde. It was. Really nice and lively, I've been trying the local beer and can recommend Saku Tume. Cathal did a spot of quality control on half a litre of Guinness. Very restrained. There's a statue outside the pub depicting Oscar Wilde and some Estonian Writer called Eduard Wilde in an imaginary meeting. Apparently the Estonian government gave a copy of the statue to Galway city a year or two ago.

I love the bollards!

Niamh likes these things. Can you tell?
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We went to a gorgeous old church - St John's church which has just been restored. It's make of exposed brick with terracotta statues and figures all around and wooden ceiling and floor. It sounds austere but is actually reallly lovely and cosy. At some point in its history it was plastered over, burned etc so there restoration was a very big job.  It's very lovely now though.

The thing I love most about Tartu and yes I am a complete nerd, is the bollards.  They are made of cement (standard you would say) but in different shapes. There are turtle bollards, puffin ones, clogs and various other species of animal.  It's very pretty and sweet.  All in all I recommend Tartu for just wandering about and chilling out. Although apparently there's a really good club scene here too with great dance music. We've wimped out due to wardrobe and energy constraints.

St John's Church.
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We're off tomorrow to Tallin again, and on the 13th we take an overnight bus to St Petersburg, so we'll arrive there on St. Valentine's day. Ahh.