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Debra's
Diary ~ June , 2008 Tallinn
has to be the friendliest city we have visited in a long time
- we were greeted at the airport by Mall, our Tourism
official, with a small bouquet of cornflowers and white
daisies, the colours of their national flag. And that
set the tone, really. Estonia is so unashamedly basking
in their identity, it makes you smile. They are so
enthusiastic about showing the visitor who they are and
everything there is to see. Everything is in dual
language - English and Estonian, and then almost as an
afterthought, Russian. They are galloping at an enormous
rate away from Russia; to place as much distance economically,
culturally and nationality-wise as they can - and yet they are
exhibiting the kind of canniness that invented Skype: don't
bury Russia, exploit it. So, there are tours around the
city to show you the remnants of Russian rule; and a simple
glass plaque outside the former KGB HQ, above the bricked-up
basement windows where torture and execution were carried out,
is chilling in its simplicity. Your imagination (and all
the anti-Russian literature you have ever read) does the rest -
very clever.
There
are other signs of cleverness too - the Baltic has been
Estonia's fortune and misfortune, but a spectacularly new and
shiny port complex caters to the country's biggest source of
income, tourism and friendship - ferries from mostly Finland,
but other Scandinavian countries too. 'Tipsy Finns' are a
common sight in Tallinn, especially at the weekend, because
the food is unbelievably good and like the booze, is plentiful
and cheap. Tourism is embraced warmly, and unfortunately
encourages further laziness as everyone speaks English -
well. So well in fact, that young people in medieval
dress are calling out to you to buy roasted almonds in an
almost authentic medieval English accent!
Mall
had organised for us to have a city guide - Giina - and we
explained the route we intended to walk through the city, and
what we wanted to see, over coffee in a charming little cafe
hidden in a courtyard surrounded by artisans' workshops. Giina was
an experienced guide, and provided us with a knowledgeable and
fascinating interview, with insightful asides into life in
Estonia before and after independence. Tallinn has city
walls too, with appealing little red-tiled turret towers
dotted along them, housing museums like Kiek in de Kok and the
Maritime Museum. The old town is divided into the Upper
and the Lower town, and you do have to pass through a gate to
reach the upper town on the hill. It has mostly
government and embassy buildings and the Alexander Nevsky
Russian Orthodox church - which possesses the most impressive
peal of bells that I have ever heard. Nineteen bells
pealed in a complex mathematical pattern that is truly amazing
to hear. The church is unmistakable - looking like a
refugee from Moscow - with ornate exterior and onion domes,
and serves the sizable Russian-speaking population. It
isn't very popular with Estonians, and is one of the youngest
buildings in the old town. Opposite it, perhaps rather
unfortunately, is an 'infamous' toilet - a modern contraption
bearing a passing resemblance to an old jukebox that cost the
Estonian tax-payers 2 million Krune, and apparently, hardly
ever works.
The
lower town seems more fun, and whilst we were there, were
hosting Old Town Days and rather incongruously, a modern
outdoor stage set up in the market square. There were
musical events with choirs and dancers, and other
festival-type activities all week. The whole city was
alive with marquees in parks and participants in national
dress from several countries. We made a special trip to
Katariina Gild because it seemed to embody the
entrepreneurial spirit of this fast-growing nation. The
Gild is run by women, and Pille enthusiastically explained to
us how she and her colleagues stripped out the old, hastily
erected interior facades that the Russians had put up to
discover fantastic medieval architecture beneath. And
this seems to be the trend in Tallinn - released from being
just another outpost in the USSR, they are discovering their
past as they slowly renovate and restore old buildings that
had been neglected or misused under Communism.
You
cannot escape this business of Russian rule; Estonia gained
independence only 17 years ago, and the first few of those
were nervous. The small Museum of Occupation is a real
eye-opener. This had a different feel to Eastern Bloc
satellite countries - this had actually been part of the
Soviet Union. Forced deportation of Estonians and forced
importation of Russians left the country with 40% of its
population Russian, and the stark evidence is exhibited in
this museum. Videos in Engish and Russian play at the
visitor's instigation, showing Estonians talking about their
experiences. Empty suitcases ring the central hall as a
sobering reminder of all those political arrests - echoing the
poignancy of the bronze shoes scattered along the Danube in
Budapest of the lost Jewish deportees. To understand the
Estonians' sense of release, you have to visit this
museum. Estonia was occupied by the Nazis for a couple
of years during WW2, so Hitler gets a mention as well.
Tallinn
is a windy city and once out of the welcome sunshine, the air
is cold, straight off the Baltic. You are further north
than you realise. The trams are packed and rattle their
way to Kadriorg and the beach, but there are plenty of
them. Buses will take you out of the city on a tour to
the Open Air Museum or the Song Festival Grounds. I
found the idea of the Song Festivals intriguing; this is
apparently a singing nation. In fact, they call their
independence the Singing Revolution - under Soviet rule they
were not allowed to have a national anthem, and the festivals
had a heavily Russian bias, but the Estonians slipped in here
and there, their own folk songs which were kept alive by
Finnish radio. 'My Fatherland' has a haunting melody
that the Finns liked as well. It was in the Festival
grounds that 300,000 Estonians (this is not a huge populace)
gathered in 1989 to sing 'My Fatherland' before their
emissaries informed Moscow that they wished to be free.
Mall's by now legendary efficiency had arranged for us to meet
and hear Bonzo, a national pop/folk star, who sang 'My
Fatherland' at the grounds. Knowing all the background,
I found it very moving, and was surreptitiously wiping my eyes
and sniffing hurriedly into my handkerchief as he sang; simply
and unaccompanied.
If
you have the time, and are slightly off-the-wall (like us), go
and find the Maritime Museum's museum ships. Not only is
the walk past the enormous decaying Soviet era Festival Hall
and the boarded-up (only recently vacated) prison, complete
with watch-towers, by the sea fascinating, you pass some of
the original old wooden houses that Tallinn was once famous
for. In the shadow of yet another enormous (they
certainly believed in big) empty hangar-like boatshed that is
a listed building (but they don't know what to do with it) are
the museum ships. Even if you aren't particularly
nautical they are interesting, and it really is the one and
only time anyone will ever get me in a submarine.
In
the swanky new port there is an old restaurant ship, and we
spent our last night having dinner on board, as we had ended
our walking trail at the port. It didn't really get dark
until about 11pm, which rather extends your filming day a bit,
despite attempts to track time to be able to clock-off.
Luckily hunger came to the rescue on that head, but it was
weird walking back to the hotel still wearing sunglasses at
10pm. And the only time it rained was on the
morning of our flight back to the UK.
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Debra at:
grindelwald_prods@lycos.com
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