Rimi is a grocery store chain popular in the Baltics. I fell in LOVE with it when I first arrived in Riga, and especially in love with their premade turkey and pepper sandwiches. They made perfect lunches. However, I have found that the Rimi stores in the different Baltic countries carry different types of sandwiches. On my first day in Estonia, I decided to try out a Kebab sandwich, but something didn’t taste quite right. Expiration date was still far off but I ended up with a little bit of a stomach bug which led me to having a more quiet weekend in. This aside, I still somehow managed to get some fun drinking experiences under my belt with the “flaming Tallinn” and an old favorite “hot wine”.

Tallinn has the most amazing Old Town of the Baltic countries - super medieval to the core. On my first night in town, some of us from the hostel went out to dinner at the Peppersack - a restaurant that even has a sword fight show in the evening. This was where I experienced the “flaming Tallinn” drink served by a young girl looking like she was on her way to a Renaissance festival.

The drink is composed of one part vana tallin alcohol and one part vana tallin cream. They then proceed to light the drink on fire followed by you quickly slurping it down through a straw, just before it catches fire and melts.

Dan, a fellow Illinois resident, attacking the flaming Tallinn!

On another day while walking around Tallinn with my new pal, Sam, we happened upon “Tallinn’s oldest hot wine bar”. Well funny thing was that we were just talking about the deliciousness of a nice mulled wine on a cold day, so of course we made our way to the bar and oldered a few. I first had a nice hot wine back in Poland and it immediately became a favorite. This stop off was just what we needed after hours of walking in the cold!

More fun to come! I am currently in or on my way to Tartu, Estonia - Estonia’s college party town. This should be interesting