My Ten Dollar Day

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  Tartu, Estonia
Thursday, September 6, 2007

So, you're an Estonian who loves cross-country skiing. Unfortunately, this isn't northern Canada and there's really only snow on the ground five months of the year, if you're lucky, and with global warming, it's more like three. So what are you going to do the other nine months? I'll tell you. Build yourself some rollerskates, but with hinges, so you can lift your heels, like in skiing. Then, construct little parks with shallow hills and paved trails. Grab your second favorite pair of poles (wouldn't want to damage your favorite pair on the asphalt) and a few friends et voila! Skiing in the summer! You don't need Dubai's fake ski resorts, you have roller-skis! Which is what I saw the people of Tartu doing yesterday. They were very into it, too, practicing form, working their way up those hills, going into tucks on the downhill. Rather funny and incomprehensible for someone like me, who had to take cross-country skiing in high school gym and hated it.

I am now in Tartu, the heart and soul of Estonia. Every local who's heard I'm coming here has been excited for me. I think they'd all live here if they could, and I must say I'm very much enjoying this university town. Founded as early as the 6th century AD, Tartu has been passed among greater powers for most of its history. In the mid-1800s, though, it became the centre for the Estonian national revival and in 1920, it was here the peace treaty was signed, granting Estonia independence from Russia.

Consistent with being a university town, none of Tartu's museums open until 11 am, giving me a lazy morning before heading out to explore. First stop was a local grocery, where I grabbed some rolls for breakfast. Turns out they were filled with some sort of onion/cabbage mix, kind of like an Estonian spring roll...Not exactly my choice for breakfast, but at least they were filling.

I headed uphill to Tartu's Toomemagi region (toome means hill), where the city was originally founded, to eat. The area is now a beautiful park with several statues of assorted Estonian luminaries, none whom I'd heard of. There is also a crumbling cathedral, originally built in the 13th century. Part of it houses a museum while the rest is just open to the air. I took a few pictures, but it was really too big for any of them to do it justice.

The next stop on my itinerary was the Estonian National Museum, which Lonely Planet promised me was the country's best. A word to the wise: if you're ever in Tatu and decide to visit this museum, you might find yourself walking down a street in the museum's vicinity, and you might see a building with a plaque saying "Estonian National Museum" with the museum's operating hours listed in three languages, and you might think to yourself "Hmmm...this must be it," and make to go inside...DON'T BE FOOLED! It is not the museum you are seeking. It is an apartment building! (and a nice little lady will try to explain all this to you in Estonian) At the actual museum, nowhere in front does it say "Estonian National Museum" in English, so if you get to a place without a sign, you'll know you're there!

The museum itself entirely lives up to LP's description, giving a very interesting look at peasant life (as interesting as peasants can be) from the start of peasant-ness to the modern day - though nobody really goes by peasant anymore. Some tidbits from my visit: in the days after Christmas, the peasants would play games on the threshing floor lined with straw and the amount of straw left hanging from the ceiling when they were finished was considered an indicator of the success of next year's harvest. Also, on arriving at her new home, a bride's mother-in-law would lay down a blanket for her to walk over on the way to the house, as a sign of accepting her into the family. Additionally, the museum owns over 3000 beer tankards, representative of traditional beer holders across the country.

After the museum, I wandered several of Tartu's beautiful parks, saw it's most famous site, the kissing students fountain, and checked out the old town, which really isn't that old. Like Tallinn, Tartu once had a medieval old town, mostly buildings made of wood within the city walls. However, a great number of these were destroyed in the war with Russia c. 1700, and many others burned in three great fires in the 18th century. In 1795, a law was passed, outlawing any but stone buildings in the old town. (You wonder that it took them three fires to figure this out? They're as bad as congress!) It is still possible to see some wooden buildings, though, and I visited one today in the form of the 19th Century Tartu Citizen's Home Museum. Constructed in 1744, the home is furnished in 1830s style. The museum has booklets in at least five languages detailing the history of Tartu and the house and its owners from construction to the present day. Very interesting, and I totally recommend visiting, if you're ever in town. Being a citizen's home is of importance as, in order to be a citizen, one had to be selected, pay a tax, and take an oath (and probably be male-it didn't say). In general, only skilled guildsmen could become citizens and only Germans could become guildsmen, effectively keeping ethnic Estonians out of any important decision making.

Later in the afternoon, I went for a walk along Tartu's river. There's a gravel path that goes for a ways and then a 5 km trail into the countryside. It's amazing how quickly the town fades away into farmland. It being a beautiful aftenoon, lots of people were out on the trails, jogging, biking, walking dogs, and quite a few people were kayaking and rowing on the river.

After my long walk, I headed into town to find some dinner. Tartu has a thriving restaurant scene and unlike Tallinn, these restaurants are not for the tourists but for the students and wonderfully affordable. I wound up having a pasta dish at a place called Catwalk, walls covered in fashion shots, before heading back to my hostel.

I'm staying at the Hiie Maja (maja meaning hotel or hostel, I believe, and Hiie being the street it's on) It's supposed to operate as a hostel, but seeing as I'm the only one here at the moment, I have a room to myself. Nearest I can tell, it's a student house and they rent out a few beds for beer money, but it's comfortable, clean, quiet, and cheap.

And finally, an explanation of the $10 day. Breakfast was 52 cents and admission to the national museum was 70 cents, as was my afternoon snack. The citizen's home was 42 cents, dinner was $7.85, and there you have it, a ten dollar day. Minus a place to sleep, of course.

Tartu's Prague Factor: I have to give Tartu a higher PF than Tallinn, I just had such a good time here. We'll say 78%. The students make Tartu come alive and the old town feel lived in, and though the old town isn't as big as Tallinn's, or as old, I still found it quite enjoyable. Additionally, Tartu has a river, and a lively one at that. Of course, at 112,000, Tartu is considerably smaller than Prague, but no town can match perfectly and the small size makes it much more managable.

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