Merry Christmas!! Joyeux Noël!!

Merry Christmas and all the best for my readers, their family and friends and everyone in between for who health, joy, good fortune and work will bless them in the coming new year.

My first official Italian ice-cream

     Ah it was a great day for my stomach on Friday.  After participating in some activities with some French learning pupils in a local school, I went shopping and bring the food back home. I had to check my emails and i saw this very good news: Mama Toni's gelato is officially open!! I just send my friend a message and set off for the shop. I drive my bicycle pretty fast for once since I really wanted to get my hands on the new flavours they had to offer. 

     So when I arrived there, I checked directly what's on offer and decided for Belgian Chocolate, Pistaccio and Vanilia. What a treat!! The nice and warm weather invited me to have it on their terrasse while talking to Paul, Toni's husband who help setting the shop, Bas, deputy gelato maker and when I was inside, talking with Toni, my delicious American friend who decided to set this up in Little Pärnu. 

A new italian ice cream shop in Pärnu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello dear readers,

As the summer is arriving fast here in Pärnu, I will need some ice creams. It's impossible for me not to enjoy summer without ice-cream. I have very fond memories of this italian ice-cream shop in Pompei where I went when I was about 12 years old. This is where I had two scoops of melon and kiwi for the time in my life. Since then, I try to have those flavour as much as possible. 

some of the flavours at Mama Toni's gelato

When I arrived in Pärnu, I met an American woman, Toni, who is opening a gelato shop close to the beach of the city. I am waiting anxiously the opening to try them. This joyful moment will be this week on Thursday, May 24th around 7pm. I don't know how many people will beat me at waiting in front of the door but they won't be a lot, trust me on that!!!!!

The weather is a tad too strange

Hello guys,

Some times we said people have nothing to talk about so they just talk about the weather. But here, it's actually a topic of conversation. The past week, it was a bit strange. well, completely strange I should say. At the beginning of the week, the snow had completely melted so we were all very happy about it since it meant the end of the winter time and the coming of better temperatures. Someone forgot to get some snow for Christmas so he decided to give some for Easter. Damn him!! if only he had made it the normal way. I might have been using my bicycle already. I really want to do it as I will be able to do some kind of sports (note to self: get a monthly card for the swimming pool).

So before we got this nice 10cm/3.5inch layer of snow, I went after work to take some pictures of some place in the city, Valikaar (the old fortress remains) and the beach. My tutor told us about an exhibition he would like to do about our views on Estonia. I really like this idea. That's why I decided to start already to take some pics I could include in this exhibition. I need to pay attention about the quality of the pics as it should be printed on A4 paper, hence the need of high quality pics to avoid a pixelisation of the images. I got one I want to include but heh, I won't show it now as I don't want to spoil the fun! ;)

Why not go sledging on Sunday

As part of the student festival, they organised a sledge ride competition on Sunday morning. Since I wanted to go out at least a little, I decided to go there. When I arrived early, I only saw young children with their parents on the hill. It brings back memories when I could do it behind my flat in France a few years ago. Too much nostalgia...When 12.30pm came, I saw some students coming. They brought some cardboard and plastic bag to make it better to sledge on the snow. Of course for everybody and especially for those not participating the competition, beers and redbulls couldn’t be failing. 

One of the guys we followed the day before was there too. He was even more drunk that the previous day at the same time. When everybody was preparing their sledge, he had this curious idea to transform himself in one human sledge. Yup, you read it right. He turned himself into a human sledge. First, he scotch taped some cardboard around him and some plastic bags with the help of his friends. As expected, he couldn’t move much, he felt on the ground several times before arriving to the top. Then, two of his friends sit on his back, him facing the snow and here they go. Unfortunately, they came last among the participants. They should have been first for the creativity of their sledge ride.

Who the f*** brought water today?

Ok, I must tell you first this is not from me. I heard it while I was watching some student events. Last week-end was the local college’s student winter festival. So I decided to go out and check was they would be doing for the football/soccer and ice hockey. I decided to go for the ice hockey since it would be a great idea to see firsthand a sport I thought was popular here.

On Saturday morning, I meet this local student who brought me there. She decided to go through the beach to let me see how their famous summer site was during winter time. I knew there could be ice and snow on the beach but I wouldn’t think some penguins (see this post) needed to go 2 or 3km on the sea to have a decent depth of ice to be able to fish. At first they were the only people we saw so we were wondering if we were going the right direction. 

 the Baltic Sea in Parnu in Winter

After confirmation, we saw some people driving to the place where the beach or should I say snow football was taking place. Like in all student festivals, it was impossible to see some guys already a bit drunk or not yet sober from the opening party of the night before. That when I heard someone saying “who the f*** brought some water?”. My friend was laughing so much when she heard it. It wasn’t surprising from him as he got one beer in his hand and another one in his coat.

We decided to check some of them and we had it right. One of them was absolutely crazy. After they found out a promotion sign with Britney Spear with few clothes on, he offered “her” his coat, his scarf, pink chapka and invited “her” to the blanket he put on the frozen ground. When it was his turn to play, he tried to shoot the ball but couldn’t manage to do it as he felt on the ground before. We had a good time watching him. 

Football/soccer game on a icy and snowy groung

As for the ice-hockey, it was not what I expected. It’s logical they didn’t use normal ice hockey skates. It would have been too dangerous for them and their opponents. They simply played with hockey sticks and tennis balls on the frozen ground, so frozen it was not anymore snow but very much ice. It was when I saw them playing, I really started to feel the cold. It was time for me to go back home and have something nice and warm to drink, to help me warm up.

Welcome to the Penguins!

When we were given a small tour of of the city on Friday afternoon before going shopping for food and necessary things (hurray for a warm pair of shoes), our driver showed us briefly where was the river that flows inside the city. As it was very cold outside, we just saw it from the car window. We saw some people on the icey river and we were told they were fishing. Some people are coming during winter times to the river, make a hole and then fish by -20°c/-4°f with some wind of course. They’re called the penguins by locals as they try to get their fish from the ice. 

As I wanted to do almost like them, walking on the ice, I decided to do it on a better day. I can’t really warmer day as I had to wait for temperatures of around -10°C/14°F. This was done this Thursday morning when I was going to my organisation. I went with the other volunteer walking from the simpliest way possible and it implies going over the river. I told her I would do it and she was a bit scared of falling in the ice. I wouldn’t have done it in France but here, it’s ok as we have around 30/40cm/1.4 feet of ice. If local people are doing it, why not me? After we both arrived on the other side of the river, she was relieved I was ok. I wouldn’t mind though doing it more times…