Monday, August 9, 2010

Somewhere over the rainbow!

While in Estonia, we saw a beautiful full, double rainbow. We think this type of rainbow is called a supernumerary rainbow which is a rare sighting. Living in Ohio most of our lives, we seldom saw full rainbows, but in Estonia (and Seattle) they are frequent.

The video is taken from Tiiu & Guido's 2nd floor terrace. You get a good sense for how wonderful their backyard is as it edges up against the Emajõgi river in Tartu, Estonia.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Talking Heads at KUMU

Although the title of this blog might suggest we saw the music group, Talking Heads, while in Estonia last week, we actually visited the Estonian Art Museum also known as KUMU. In one large room, the museum cleverly exhibits several busts or heads of different people ranging from historical actors to common folks. And the heads are talking! Several voices in the room can be heard as if the heads are talking to you or at least with each other. See the video below.

The museum is new only just opened in 2006. Finnish architect Pekka Vapaavuori designed a beautiful building inside and out. KUMU won the European Museum of the Year Award in 2008. The museum is a must-see if you are in the area.

Look closely at the 'head' at the end of the video. The woman's gaze is powerful. You feel awkward for starting at her, as if she is looking back you.


View of KUMU from outside.
Photo credit to Kaido Haagen.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

What we bring home from Estonia

As most of you know Steven loves most things Estonian. Diane loves it too especially the chocolate! We thought it would be humorous to take a picture of all of the food we brought back from our recent trip to Estonia. If we could there would be much more food in the picture such as Tiiu's tomatoes (for Diane!), herring, sour cream (Estonian sour cream is the best), porridge, smoked fish, blueberries (they are plentiful and much cheaper then in Budapest), Tiiu's fresh dill pickles and the list goes on.

The "Must" bread is Estonia's delicious black bread. We can buy German-style black bread at Aldi in Budapest but it isn't the same. Lots of chocolate! Of course some Estonian vodka. And over 2L of Vana Tallinn which is a yummy liqueur.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010