Friday, July 12, 2013

Tallying Up Tallinn - Estonia

Next, on to Tallinn, Estonia!

Want to read about where we were before in Stockholm, Sweden? Click here for part 1 and here for part 2.

Let's first start with a geography lesson. Can anyone here locate Estonia on a map?


There. Does that help?

Don't feel bad if you didn't know where it was. I read that something like 50% of adults in the United States can't name or locate countries that used to be part of the USSR. That's right, Estonia used to be part of the USSR. The Big Red. 

Tallinn Old City Walls, Estonia

Our time in Estonia was spent in the medieval style old town center of Tallinn. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia. The ancient part of the city is surrounded by the intact walls that fortified the city.

Old Tallinn Estonia

As we walked down this jaunty little street, I kept saying to myself 'I am in the former USSR. I am in the USSR!' Matt and I kept looking at each other with a some disbelief. As children who grew up in the 70's and 80's, we never could have imagined coming to this place. We grew up in a time when the Cold War was hot and was first and foremost on everybody's mind. I tried explaining to my kids how special this really was and how their dad and I watched the fall of communism and the break up of the USSR with disbelief. How the world cheered and America considered themselves the victors of the long stare down and nuclear build up between America and the USSR. I don't think they were as impressed with being here as we were.


After explaining the difference between being a communist and a columnist to Andre, we got on our way.

Hell Hunt Bar Tallinn Estonia

This a famous pub where you can snag a drink or a quick meal. The name Hell Hunt means "Gentle Wolf" in Estonian. That would have to be one really gentle wolf to let a naked lady ride on his back. They speak Estonian here. A language closely related to not Russian, but Finnish.

Old Tallinn Estonia

Tallinn is built on a hill, much like many old cities all over Europe, and it has narrow winding streets that climb between terraced buildings.


This is the Raekoja plats, or old town square of Tallinn. They had a large market set up selling every kind of souvenir you could think of. 

Old Tallinn Estonia

Here are my "main men" in one of the small alley ways that snake around Tallinn. 

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

This is the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. It is an orthodox cathedral built in 1894. Back home in the States, we would have remarked how great this building looks for being over 100 years old. Here in Europe at 100 years old, it seems practically brand new to some of the cathedrals we've seen. Alexander Nevsky is a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. He was born in 1220. 

Old Tallinn Estonia

This is the inside of an Evangelical Lutheran church down the street from the cathedral. Inside hung all these elaborate family crests of families that have lived in the area for hundreds of years.

Old Tallinn Estonia

As we walked around, the city became more and more crowded. When we got to the top of the hill we looked out at the bay and realized that five cruise ships were docked in Tallinn. If each cruise ship holds 3,000 people (conservative estimate) and there were five, that means that 15,000 people were wandering around this small, medieval town. And let me tell you, this town was not intended to hold 15,000 tourists at one time. So we sought out little corners like this above where we could hide out and escape the tourists.

Old Tallinn Estonia

Here is a picture of my new, ultimate pet peeve. The large tour group. They are usually led by someone holding a sign so that the tourists can easily follow the leader. The people in the tour group are wearing stickers on their shirts so they are easily identifiable to other tour groups. It reminds me of a preschool field trip to the zoo. Why do I hate large tour groups? Because they clog sights, the move en masse. Every time we saw a tour group, we turned the other way.

Old Tallinn Estonia

Which was okay because we saw little places like this.

Old Tallinn Estonia

Here is a panoramic view of Tallinn. While walking around the old town, I happened along a time line of Estonia that was in laid in the sidewalk in bronze. It mentioned things like the ice age ended in Estonia, first settlements in Estonia, Tallinn first placed on a map and on and on. Estonia had a bright and proud past it would seem. I then came across the years that Estonia was part of the USSR (1940-1991). Other time periods were given lengthy descriptions. The time Estonia was part of the USSR had a one word description in black, not bronze. The Occupation. I guess that pretty much sums up how the Estonians felt about being annexed against their will into the USSR.

Tallinn Estonia

Even though the old town was well maintained and clean, Estonia's communist past wasn't far away. Up on the hill we were able to see old abandoned Soviet era factories dotting the landscape.

Tallinn Estonia

Estonia has worked hard to leave behind its past and to make its future brighter. Two years ago they left their currency behind and joined the Euro Zone. But even with them joining the Euro and the fact that Estonia has the best economy of any former USSR country, it seems that this whole "Baltic Tourism" thing has kind of blind sided them. What do I mean? Here is what I observed and after all the traveling we have done this year, I feel I can give a pretty good synopsis. 

1- There were souvenir shops everywhere. Every little nook and cranny was crowded with souvenir shops selling amber jewelry, fur hats, wool sweaters, wool hats, wool scarves, linen aprons, pottery, and antlers. They were selling anything and everything that has to do with the Baltic region of Europe.
2- There were only a handful of restaurants set up around the old town square and market. These facts made it so everyone (all 15,000 of us) ended up congregating in one area slightly smaller than a football field.
3- Even with all the souvenir shops, there was no where to buy a drink, or treat, or gelato, or crape anywhere in town but the above mentioned few restaurants.
4- There was one public bathroom in the whole town and that was up on the top of the hill. This made it so people had to find little hidey-holes to pee in every chance they got.

Estonia Flag

Baltic cruises are the "new cool thing" to do I read and Tallinn is a new stop on these cruises. While Tallinn does deserve your time and with Estonia's rich history it is a great stop, they just don't have the "tourism structure" to support the large groups of tourists they are getting. I think that when Tallinn started getting a lot of tourists everyone wanted to cash in. They looked for the quickest and easiest way to make a quick buck, or Euro. Selling souvenirs that won't spoil, that can be kept in the back of your house is the easiest way to make that quick Euro. Selling food or services takes much more time, overhead, and preparation so they just aren't doing it. While we still had time left to tour Tallinn, we really were just done and we headed back to our floating home, the Costa Fortuna, early.

Tallinn Estonia

As we walked back we kept remarking how beautiful Tallinn was, but how unpleasant the crowds were. Andre kept saying that we will just have to go back. 


One bright point was that as we walked back to the ship, we passed a convenience store and we stopped in for some soda. Coke has this new thing in Europe where you can send your name into the company and they will print bottles with your name on it. Here is a sampling of the names that were on our bottles. I don't know if these are real. Is there really someone in Estonia walking around with the name Äss? Or Sõber? My kids had fun rearranging these to make funny sayings. Okay, it wasn't my kids. It was Matt. Matt had fun rearranging these to make funny sayings. 

Next stop on our cruise - RUSSIA! 


PS What did you think of Estonia? Is it somewhere you would like to go?


18 comments:

  1. We just got back from a Baltic cruise and our absolute favorite stop was Tallinn!! So stinkin' adorable! You captured some great photos! Makes me want to go sorting through my own!!

    Thanks so much for linking up with Fresh Face Friday, today!! :)

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  2. Ha! I got a real kick out of those coke bottles! I've only been to Estonia once, to Narva on the border. But Tallinn is on my list since I hear all about it from another expat friend. Too bad about the crowds - boo!

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  3. I found you through the fresh face blog link-up and I'm so glad that I did because your photos are absolutely beautiful!! I have been living in Asia for the past 2 years and I have been yearning to get into central Europe and all you did was fuel that even more. I laughed reading about those coke bottles, that is so funny and I can imagine all the combos you'll come up with. I can't wait to see your photos from Russia!

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  4. Haha I think the only reason why I know where it is is because I taught 8th grade geography! Looks like a blast! I did not know you were LDS too! very neat!!

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  5. I am totally jealpus of you!! I've wanted to go to Tallinn since another blogger lived there for a while a few years ago. She told me about a garlic restaurant that I am DYING to check out!!

    I was disappointed in Ireland... found a list of all the coke bottle names they do and mine was not on it!

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  6. Tallin is definitely on my list of places to go, but I think maybe I'll save that for a nontouristy time like in the fall

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  7. Hi! Stopping by from Fresh Face Friday!

    That is soooo cool. I'd definitely go there! Thanks for sharing!

    Chantal
    www.scatteredseashells.com

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  8. I Love your blog! I just saw it on the blog hop! New Bloglovin follower right here =D
    A Golden State of Mind

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  9. I love your blog! Totally going to start following. I loved seeing your travels through your camera lens- cool Coke bottles!!

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  10. Great article! Tallinn is certainly an interesting city! Thanks for sharing.

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  11. I saw the Coke bottles with names on them in London - thought it was a little creepy, actually.

    Love than Andre thought they were columnists!

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  12. Tallinn is on my list of places I want to see.

    I went to Turks and Caicos shortly after cruises started going there and it hadn't yet discovered the ease of making money through souvenir shops. I wonder now if that's changed there.

    I love what you did with the coke bottles.

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  13. They have the coke bottles with the names on them in France too. It has us all so excited to find our names. It's kind of ridiculous how easily we fall prey to gimmicks. But unfortunately I don't think we'll find any with the names Ass or Sober on them. That would be cool ;)

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  14. Nice overview, thank you! In case someone wants to know the meaning of Coke names: "äss" is estonianized "ace"; "Ilja" is just a Russian male name in Latin characters; "sõber" means "friend". I didn't get it first why these looked funny, but I got it when I removed the extra dots and tildes :)

    So many tourists: yea, those high walls eventually didn't protect us... So Old Town is really invaded.

    My dear dear Tallinn and Old Town -- such a nice place! I always enjoy walking there and watching old buildings, or showing different places to my guests, telling them stories about houses, history, myths...

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your explanation of the names on the Coke bottles. They make much more sense now! Thanks for reading!

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  15. "Äss" means "ace/pro", "sõber" means "friend", "Ilja" is Russian male name and Boss doesn't need explanation I think. :)

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  16. Let's plan for a trip to Tallinn and capture terrific trip moments with our families and friends.
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  17. I enjoyed reading this and looking at the pictures. I was a bit surprised that you complained about all the boat people and you were one of them? Did I miss something?

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