Exceptional Estonia
Trip Start
Apr 04, 2007
1
58
115
Trip End
Oct 22, 2007
Tallinn,
Estonia
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Gabrielle at the Gates
The hostel turned out to be really really nice. We were staying in an 8 bed dorm but the room was huge! and the whole hostel had been renovated in early 2007 so everything was in spectacular condition and very shiny. The kitchen was in the basement and very small, as well as lacking much in dishes, but not many people seemed to cook down there except us. We spent the rest of our evening looking around Old Town. It was very quiet! We say very few people and visited some gorgeous looking churches and wandered the cobble stone streets. Every so often we'd run into a castle wall or old medieval building. It was a great quiet and sleepy feel to the place. We'd been there about 4 hours and were already loving it.
The next day we headed out fairly early to try and miss any crowds. Turns out that a cruise ship or two had docked the night before and had the same idea. Packs of cruise shippers trekked through the streets, following guides with their signs raised above their heads. They descended on sites like rabid creatures, devouring the scenery like wolves on their prey. Flashing cameras and loud American accents filled the squares and churches. The potential for an invasion seemed imminent. Fortunatly, most packs were fairly easily avoided as long as one hid in a dark corner until the ravonous horde passed and all was quiet once again.
Blessings
Despite dodging these death traps, the churches and streets of old town were beautiful. Amazingly domed churches and cute markets, some containing hawkers dressed in medival attire cheesed up the whole thing but was cool nonetheless. One of the churches was covered in old wooden medival crests along the walls and had burial stones along the floors. It was pretty dark and had a bit of a macabre feel. One of the other churches was full of worshippers and tourists at the back, in which we felt a bit like we were intruding. Then a stop into a random museum which turned out to be an old Dominican Monastery from 1246. The ticket was a gold ring which you hammered yourself creating a stamp in the ring that had the name of the church, name of Dominican in Latin and a few other things.
Dominicans and Dogs
To top off our tourist trek aroud Old Town (the big tourist zone) we got some increadible smelling (and tasting!) Sugared Almonds that were made on a street cart with 4 different kids of sugar and 16 different spices! They were fantastic but obviously a tourist bit, made by girls in medival clothes. Also a children's jousting arena on a lawn... that was weird.
We also paid a visit to the Museum of Occupation, a recently constructed museum dedicated to telling the story of three successive occupations of Estonia, by the Soviets (early 1940s), Nazis (mid-1940s) and Soviets again (late 1940s to 1991). Knowing fairly little about the history of the Baltic region, we were somewhat shocked to realize that Estonia was still under a very repressive Soviet rule until the early 90s, and that our peers had grown up with the daily realities of KGB raids, forced deportations and 'disappearances' of family members to labour camps in Siberia, or worse, while we took for granted the freedoms of growing up in Canada and New Zealand. Seeing Tallinn today as a bustling, modern European city, it is hard to believe that in our lifetime it has undergone such huge changes.
Basement History
We got some great info, from the uber helpful Info center people, about this thing going on called Ollesummer. It is basically Estonia's beer fest but for the whole family! We thought, why not! So we caught a bus out there and it was FANTASTIC!
Unfortunatly we thought it was gonna be a total adult thing with lots of drunks so we left the camera back at the room. Turns out it's full of family fun and had an awesome vibe, but we are totally sans photos.
A few fun facts, Ollesummer had 150 different kids of beer for 25 to 35 Estonian Kroon (about 4-5 NZ dollar), awesome Cider, food from all over the world (hindu, indian, nepalese, chinese, burgers, fries, thai, italian, etc and Cannabis ice tea? ), and all sorts of activities. In the kids area there was the best bouncy castle we've ever seen! It wasn't just a bouncy castle, it was a bouncy obstacle course! There were climbing walls, tunnels, pits, and a giant bouncy forest of bouncy trees! So bouncy! It looked like a riot.
Speaking of bouncy, there was also go go dancing beer girls. Smack dab in the center of the whole area there was a giant tower made to look like a beer can. On top, non stop, were two, scantily clad, blonde girls shaking their thing...s. I think the girls changed from time to time, but for the multiple hours that we were there, there was always two blonde girls up there dancing. Good good family fun! There was also the groups of beer girls wandering around. Our favourite was the pair in what can only be described as 'seductive eskimo style'. Light blue vests lined in faux white fur, faux white fur short shorts and knee high fur boots. Smack on dobs of makeup and you have yourself some beer girls!
There was all sorts of events going on, including some competitions like who can sing a note the longest or hold up a beer keg the longest, as well as constant bands! There were bands everywhere and heaps of stages. One area had a DJ doing his thing along with a mini stage where you would occasionally see a (hopefully highly intoxicated) person ... 'dancing' away. If they weren't really really drunk, I can't begin to speculate what the heck they were trying to do up there... unless it was a seizure. There was also a jazz stage (more Kenny G. style stuff though), a latin type area (more stage dancers there too), and the most popular type of music seemed to be a sort of Estonian Folk music.
Dan in the Downtown
Estonian Folk music is sounded very... sort of Hungarian to us. The band was guitars, drums, accordians and some kind of trombone or clarinet or something. There were a few bands that played this type and their tents were always PACKED! standing room only and full dance floors. Very polka like stuff. One very very popular band of that type resembled what can best be described as the 'Village People on a gay day'. Except they all looked like the sailor.
Our favourite band played on the biggest stage in the area, complete with grand stand seating. It was an older guy in a white jump suit, complete with tamborine, singing 60's and 70's American rock classics in Estonian! Except for the chorus's which were in English. He had a huge band, including back up singer girls! and basically covered the entire 'Forest Gump' soundtrack. We called it quits on him once 'Sloop John B' started. There were literally hundreds and hundreds of people there watching this guy... he was huge.
We headed back to the hostel and met up with an Aussie guy that was staying in our room. Another Aussie guy that he met came in as well and we stayed up chatting for awhile before we hit the sack.
Medival Markets
Next day involved a trip to the movies! a slightly unsuccessful trip to the movies! The theatre was cheap in the day time, so we thought we'd go see Pirates of the Carabean 3. We got about an hour in and the power to the theatre went out. After long times of waiting we finally got told to go get our money back, so we spent the afternoon wandering the antique shops looking at Soviet and Nazi memorabilia and old military gear. We also checked out the uber cheezy medival market! After some cafe time and people watching we headed back to get ready for our early flight the next day and have a late dinner. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Estonia, but it's been an absolute blast!
All our best from Estonia
Dan and Gabrielle
