We Found Ice Cream!

Here's our group! -minus Graham, John & Thomas

L to R: Jeffrey, Karen, Alex, Whitney, Kate, Cameron, Brandon & Peyton

You can't have a blog without having at least one post about food, and well, this will be our first. Yesterday was very insightful and satisfying to our taste buds. After sleeping in-we didn't have to meet until 10:15 am!-we had a tour of the Estonian Parliament and then a meeting with Taavi Veskimagi. He is a member of Parliament, one of the main specialists on Estonia's financial policies, and a former Minister of Finance. After hearing him speak, it was time to eat. Our tour guide, Anne Mai, took us to a local crepe restaurant, Kompressor, and it was delicious! Even though it was lunchtime, most of us found ourselves getting sweet treats and opting out of the more "salty" items. That place had anything you could imagine- our favorites were: strawberry jelly & ice cream; strawberries, whip cream & cottage cheese, chocolate syrup & bananas.

Doesn't that look so good?! Karen was really excited about it.

After lunch, we walked through Estonia's financial district until we reached the Swedbank corporation. There we met with Wade Stokes (can you tell he was an American), and he informed us about the banking sector's response to the current financial crisis. We were then given a tour of the bank and learned all about their branches. After an hour and a half break to nap & freshen up, we met for dinner at the best Greek Restaurant in town. The picture at the top is the group in front of Artemis, "kreeka taverna". We definitely added it to the top of our favorite places to eat in Estonia. As you can tell from our picture, there weather here hasn't been that great today. It rained all afternoon and into the earlier hours of the evening. This also caused the temperature drop, it's around 10 degrees C, and to us it's freezing! However, this didn't stop us from enjoying another fantastic meal.

Brandon & Peyton got the most traditional Greek entree- Soulvaki Special. A shish kabob, either chicken or beef, covered in oregano. I'm pretty sure they ate every bite. This dish was a follow up to Artemis's special appetizer Salata Horiatiki, which consisted of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers, feta, olive oil & olives. Hungry yet? We were so excited when we found out they ice cream for dessert we had to take a picture with it too. This is the first ice cream place we have found that's still open after we've finished with dinner. Bon appetite!

(Cameron Stallworth)