In the arrivals hall, I met my guide. I’ve forgotten her name, unfortunately, but I think it was Girta, or something close to this. I was the only member of the tour group, so I was very lucky to have such personalized service! We met the driver of the car, a nice Estonian man who kept making a joke from Police Academy (“Move it!”) and was, I think, slightly offended when I didn’t laugh on the thirtieth time the joke was made.
The tour commenced with about an hour in the car getting a feel for the wider town (city?) of Tallinn and some of the sights. Estonia separated from the Soviet Union in 1988, and had been under Soviet rule for fifty years or so prior to this, and a lot of the tour covered what life was like during this time. We drove past many old wooden buildings, some of which were restored, which had fallen to ruin during the Soviet time, apparently because all property was shared, and people were moved in and out of houses with very little notice. There was very little rent paid, and the consequence was that there was very little incentive to maintain properties properly. Once Estonia broke free, property was returned to the original owners, but few people could afford (and still can not) to restore their properties, so they stand in ruin. Some have been demolished, most are covered in graffiti and are falling apart. Those that have been restored are gorgeous – beautiful Gothic sort of designs, lots of detail in the woodwork. We stopped at Kadriorg, which houses the Estonian Museum of Contemporary Art (or possibly just art in general…) designed by the same person who designed Kiasma in Helsinki. We walked though a minute amount of snow down to the Palace and saw the gorgeous gardens with all of the plants covered for the cold (I can really understand why most people travel in summer, I really missed a lot of things by being out of season). This park is gradually being restored, as Peter the Great (Peter I of Russia) did not complete his plans before he died. The guide was very impressed and continually pointed out the fact that you could see through the park to the sea. I wasn’t so impressed by this.
We then headed to the outdoor music stadium that is sort of like the Myer Music Bowl, but a lot larger (I think). Apparently, a choir of 30,000 can stand on the stage and sing. I have such a terrible sense of space and size, so I cannot tell if this is the case at all… looking at it, it seemed possible, but then 30,000 are so many… In the winter, the amphitheatre grounds are opened up for people to sled down – and there were heaps of kids sledding along, looked like fun!
We then drove through a lot of the new buildings to the old convent that is a very basic ruin. Tall, pointy, triangular stone walls left and not much else. But, this can be seen clearly from all over town. From here, a quick drive through the main part of Tallinn (with a lot of very impressively ugly buildings from the Soviet time). We got dropped off at the gates of old Tallinn and commenced the walking tour. I think we walked for about an hour and a half before lunch. There were many beautiful old buildings, and we went through the ornately decorated Orthodox Church. The old town is made up of two sections – the upper and lower town. I cannot recall who she said lived there during Soviet rule – prior to this, it was divided into different areas for different people, but apparently very few Estonians. Now, foreign groups – mostly embassies and the like, in particular own most of the upper town.
Wages in Estonia are still very low, and cost of living is relatively high. After Soviet rule, there was a strange system put in place to distribute housing to those who had not previously owned property, or those who needed housing. Essentially, for every year each family member had lived in the (mostly) apartments, they were granted a certain amount of square footage. I’m not sure of what happened if you did not have enough to cover the whole apartment, but it basically meant that there was no cost to own your own property. However, the deal was not totally fair as some people had newer, better places than others. Most people live in new Tallinn, as it is very very expensive to live in Old Tallinn and it is generally all tourism now – cafes, souvenir shops, craft and art shops and the like.
I needed a loo stop, and luckily one of the shops was open – I had to pay to use the toilet, but it was so cool – deep under ground, I had to walk through a system of cave/cellar type things to go through to the bathroom. I regret not getting a couple of snaps here – and not putting those damned thermals on. We then continued through the upper town to the lookout which was very spectacular, however really shows how much the harsh revolting architecture of the Soviet rule jars with the beauty of the old town. We walked through a street called Bloody Alley which was called this because it was so narrow that two men on horses or two women with the large dresses of the time could not pass, and regularly duels were fought over who should pass first - eventually, the men had an agreement that they would both compliment the beauty of the other’s wife, proclaiming her to be far more beautiful than their own (whilst neither believed it) and they could pass – and for women, the younger allowed the older to pass. Less blood on the alley then.
There are two paths/streets down to the lower town – the long leg and the short leg (and that is their names in Estonian… too cute!). We took the short leg, I believe, and wandered through the beautiful houses and shops to end up at the St Petersburg Hotel where we had lunch. Most of the year the tour groups have their lunch in a restaurant which serves traditional Estonian fare, however it is closed for renovations. For once, being out of season has worked to my advantage - the hotel is beautiful, and I imagine usually probably out of my price range. However, it was worked into the cost of the tour (which, even though it included ferry, guide and lunch, was maybe a bit pricey, but I personally think it was so, so, so very much worth it). The normal restaurant is owned by the same group who own the St Petersburg Hotel, and so they keep the meals happening in the hotel during renovations to maintain the partnership. The staff were in traditional Russian outfits - I want to say Cossack, but I am not familiar with exactly what that means. The restaurant was very, very ornately decorated, with traditional Russian paintings and sculptures on the walls and every surface, beautiful crockery and cutlery, some just for show, very wow. It was a little odd having a candlelit dinner with the tour guide - I had originally thought she was in her late 60s (but a very sprightly and fit late 60s) but she mentioned that she could retire at 54, so she was clearly a lot younger - life under the soviets was hard. The conversation covered a lot, including the fact that the young people in Estonia really do not comprehend what their own families went through - so many people sent to Siberia and never seen again, and the food shortages and oppression and all of that. It's amazing to think - I know I couldn't really have any concept, or real understanding, of what she had lived through. She told of an English professor at her university (she attended university and during Soviet rule was a translator in a factory - she spoke Estonian, Russian, Finnish, English, and a little German and Italian) who was married to an Estonian poet and whilst they could see the Soviet forces gathering (many Estonians fled to Finland and Sweden around this time) he stayed hoping it would get better, and when the occupation occurred, he could not leave, and so I believe he died without ever seeing his beloved England again. Another topic of conversation was language, as apparently Finnish and Estonian are very similar, although the differences are quite pointed (the word for husband in one is prisoner in the other...).
Lunch was delicious - a beautiful pea soup followed by a chicken schnitzel (well, sort of, not quite, but close) with mashed potato and salad and an absolutely gorgeous cheesecake dessert, only their cheesecake is nothing like ours - far richer and more, actually I don't know how describe it. Amazing, served with beautiful fruit.
After lunch, the guide showed me a few last things, and then left me to wander the old town on my own, having given me a very clear path to the pick up point for the driver who was to taken me to the ferry at eight. I had wondered earlier in the day if I should offer a tip, as in many countries it is expected, but wasn't sure, and as it happened, it would have been most awkward as she disappeared. On my own, I wandered past many of the places that she had recommended, including an old building which now hosts eight female artists creating beautiful clothes, leather goods and all sorts of stuff. I probably wandered for about an hour, it was getting quite dark but was still only about 4:30 or so (lunch was very late in the afternoon). I visited some shops, but bought little because I couldn't get my head around the exchange rate between the Estonian EEK (Kroner - but how cool is the EEK!) and the Euro, so wasn't sure what I was paying. I was absolutely freezing, and decided that enough was enough, and headed to the hotel where I was to be picked up from.
This hotel has a four story shopping centre around it, and whilst I was not in the mood to shop, I did need a new book, and the guide had mentioned to me that there was a good bookshop there. So, I found it, browsed the surprisingly large English language section for a while before eventually settling on Everything is Illuminated by Jonathon Saffran-Foer, which is now one of my favourite books ever. In the hotel foyer, with about an hour and a half until pick-up time, I bought an hour of Internet time and a beer and did a bit of the blog, and then sat and read until the driver arrived. He dropped me off at the ferry and I made him laugh by, instead of saying goodbye saying "Move it, move it!" Ferry ride was very uneventful and very empty, and it was about 11:30 by the time I got back to the accommodation. In the shared area on my floor were two very ugly men watching TV and smoking until all hours, which was a bit annoying. What a long day!
