A Visitor from WVU, or How to Have a Great Time in Tartu

I don't think I mentioned it in my last post, but this weekend Professor Josh Arthurs is visiting Tartu from WVU to assess the progress of the program, give a guest lecture, and meet with us on an official and unofficial basis. So we decided to show him around and enjoy himself after our official lunch. He's a really fun guy so it was a good time. I also got to snap some photos around Tartu that I for some reason hadn't taken before.

We went to dinner at the Georgian Restaurant again (one of my friends' birthday was on Wednesday and we ate there) but I didnt complain because it's actually very good and not unreasonably priced. I sampled the Georgian beer my first time and this time I was able to try a couple Georgian Red Wines, which were incredible. Mom will be pleased to know that I took a photo of the food as well!

Afterwards we went out for drinks and I was able to meet some (slightly) older Estonians who were extremely nice and outgoing. They were in for a reunion of sorts. One of them was the youngest mayor in Estonia, and I was really interested to hear him talk about Estonian small-town politics and hear about his life. Afterwards we went to a nightclub that was basically for Estonians, particularly 25 years and older, called Maasikas (Strawberry). It was kind of a stereotypical European nightclub and played a lot of dance remixes of ABBA and things like that, and I'm usually not a club kind of guy at all. Which is why I was pleasantly surprised that I couldn't help but enjoy myself and had one of the best nights I've had in a long time.  It was a fantastic atmosphere, everyone was having a really great time and it was contagious, not to mention the people I was with. They were fun and I had fun dancing quite badly to music I wouldn't really be interested in in any other circumstances.

Anyway, enough about that. I may fit another entry in soon but before long I will be making my journey to Russia. It's a little bit intimidating but I'm pretty excited. Before I go I will leave you some photos I meant to post earlier and some other ones of interest.

One of my Latvian flatmates wanted to make sure we each did our part.

St. John's Church, a beautiful old Lutheran church where we watched Saul (mentioned in the previous post)

More St. John's

More

And More

Georgian beer. It wasn't too bad, actually.

Gustavus Adolphus, unfortunately the lighting wasn't cooperating.

Gustavus Adolphus, King of the Swedish Empire and founder of the University of Tartu in 1632

Interesting wallpaper in an antique shop

Coins on the doorstep, maybe for luck? Or maybe to irritate people who try and peel them off.

The antique shop. I should have mentioned this in my post but I forgot. It was full of really fascinating antiques including a Waffen SS helmet.

The Evil Mouse-Copter. Kinda reminds me of the thing from An American Tail

Underground is apparently an Estonian biker bar.

The famous "kissing students" statue in the center of Tartu. We learned before that it was Lenin, and before that Hitler. Talk about a history.

The table at our Georgian dinner, the plate is assorted Georgian appetizers that I could not identify but they all actually tasted great

This is Ostri, a kind of tomato-y soup with pork and onion and other spices and the wine the waitress thought would go well with it. It was delicious, the wine was great but a little on the sweet side, which is odd for me to say because I usually don't care for dry reds. But I ended up having the dry red here and it was the best I've ever had.

This was parked on a random street in Tartu. I was thirsty and thought about stealing the can off the top.