Estonia

While my mom and brother were here we decided to take a trip to Tallin, Estonia. It is only about a 4 hour drive. We stayed in an apartment close to old town. It worked out really nice, except for the unexpected fee for slightly scraping the paint off the door while getting our stroller in the apartment. Yes, very ridiculous - not staying there again! Old Town Tallin is really beautiful. After arriving we walked around the town, found a place to eat dinner, walked around some more and found a beautiful overlook of the city.

The next day we took the advice of a good Estonian friend of mine, and went to a small town by the coast called Haapsalu. I am so glad we took her advice because it was so worth it! First we visited the town's castle. It is from the "15th century and has been the battle scene of wars and was conquered by the Swedes and Russians. It was blown up in 1715 by the Tsar Peter I in order to prevent its use as a stronghold." The coolest thing about this castle was how they tried to show you what the castle would have been like back in the day. They had these really scary looking manikins dressed up.

The school room was pretty freaky with those paintings on the wall. Lincoln and Sawyer even got in trouble and had to kneel on hard corn for a while. And the weird man in the back?????
Up one of the towers they had the hospital. This is where they tried out all sorts of weird types of healings, including letting you bleed like my brother is doing here.

In the old mote of the the castle they build this really awesome playground. I think this is my favorite castle I have been to.

One of the coolest things about this castle was the ghost story they had about the White Lady: "It is said that on a moonlight night in August one can see a lady´s figure in one of these windows of the Dome church. The story tells that the lady who was the dean´s lover, challenged the destiny and stepped over the castle´s threshold. The punishment was very severe - she was buried alive in the walls of the castle! And thus she appears there once in a year." It is really freaky in the castle, you can go downstairs in the dungeons and they have a room for the two lovers with manikins dressed as these guys. Ryan took us down and totally freaked us out.

The train station in Haapsalu is just beautiful. It is said that the Russian Tsar wanted it built to be able to travel to Happsalu easier. They have some famous spas here. And russians Love the SPA. It was built in 1905 and closed in 1995.