Yes, I climbed these stairs...

Yes, I climbed these stairs...

...and yes, it was scary.

These are the stairs that ascend into the medieval city wall in Tallinn, Estonia.  They are very small and steep, with only the stone wall and a rough rope to hold on to.  Those of you who know me know that I am somewhat scared of heights.  But the city wall was so awesome that I couldn't let a little thing like that get in my way.

There are different towers that you can climb further up into from the walkways inside the city wall.  In one of those towers, I came upon some musicians practicing and setting up for a performance to be held at 19:00 that evening.  I decided to come back at that time and see the show.

Now, Estonia is known for its creativity in the world of contemporary compositional music, avant-garde, and jazz.  Since I knew nothing about the performers or what they had planned, there was a large part of me that was getting very excited at the thought that I could be about to witness something completely underground, cutting-edge, and unexpected.  Alas, my lust for the new was not to be so radically fulfilled.  They turned out to be a very sweet little a capella ensemble, who opened the show with a rendition of the classic American pop song "[I'm your] Venus", translated into Estonian.  Nothing earth-shattering, but it was a very enjoyable performance, and I'm still glad I got to experience something serendipitous such as that.