tags: Tallinn Estonia, travel, photography, Europe
Tallinna sadam, Eesti Vabariik (The Port of Tallinn, Estonia).
Image: Ralf Roletschek (Wikipedia) [larger view].
I am SO EXCITED! As if spending three glorious weeks in Helsinki, Finland isn't enough, I will be visiting Eesti Vabariik, or Estonia, tomorrow. I will arise at the buttcrack of dawn and travel by ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, a two hour ride. According to my sources, the ferry has a free wireless connection, although I don't know if there are any outlets available (but it seems reasonable that there would be), so I might be able to publish something for you first thing in the morning (which is the middle of the night for you Americans).
I plan spend most of the day wandering around in Tallinn's famous Old Town, where architecture reigns supreme. I am already charging up all my camera batteries so I will be ready to share the sights of this gorgeous city with you upon my return. Some of the sights that I plan to capture for you is the Alexander Nevsky Russian Cathedral, the Estonia Medieval City Wall and Tower, the Estonian Parliament Building and Tall Herman Tower and (of course!) the medieval pub, Olde Hansa, along with photos of the cobblestone streets and the Old Town itself, but if any of you have suggestions for other sights (where is the Dominican monastery, for example?) that I must see or photographs you'd like me to share with you, please tell me now and I will do my best.
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You're going to love it! I spent a little less than six months in Tallinn a few years ago helping them stand up a national demining office. By far my favorite country in Europe. By all means, make the effort to get a walking tour guide of the old city.
Well. Estonia is nice.
But Estonia and Latvia are the only countries in Europe which host SS (yes, that SS) meetings and marches with full _official_ support.
On the human rights front: 25% of Estonian inhabitants are aliens and not Estonian citizens. And Russian language spoken by 40% (up to almost 90% in certain cities) of inhabitants is not a national language (and government actively represses it).
what a coincidence... rick steves just posted a podcast about estonia a few days/weeks ago, and i listened to it this morning just before seeing this blog's subject... he made it sound like quite the place to visit...
it was also explained why the russians have such a high percentage of the population (described as about 25-30% in his podcast), and why the controversy may just require a bit of time...
Not so relevant to this post, but I recently was directed to a fascinating article in Science mag that I thought might be up your alley ('And then there was one'):
www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;321/5896/1622/DC1
(a full longitudinal study of a Yale Bio PhD class, 26 members, 17 years after entry ... only one--ONE--ended up tenured faculty! A disappearing profession indeed...)