20 June: HOTEL ESPRIT in Halle is advertised as small three-star with pub/restaurant below. I walk through a small roof top garden to get to unit #7, a small, cozy, bright room with single bed, desk, TV, and well-stocked bookshelf (German, of course). Being on the other side of the deck in what looks like an addition constructed above the restaurant's storage area, gives me added privacy. However, there isn't a phone, fridge or microwave oven as I had in Estonia, and the internet capability it had advertised doesn't exist. "The buildings down the street all have WiFi, but not here; [View Full Entry]

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18 June: I'M STAYING at the Pension "Zum Alten Fährhaus" (Old Ferry House), a guest house and pub/restaurant on the water looking out over Rostock on the other side. Having just one day to see the town, I take a guided walking tour, figuring it's an efficient way of learning about yet another city along the Baltic coast that once belonged to the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages. Our guide is introduced as a retired professor now a member of the local historical society, and I think how lucky our group is to have such an august person showing us [View Full Entry]

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FINAL IMPRESSIONS about Estonia. The other day a lone sea gull approached me when I was eating a sandwich in Tornide väljak (square). The bird seemed a little more reserved than its western cousins -- somewhat like the Estonian people who seldom look you in the eye or acknowledge you, a stranger, in the street. However, in the countryside, when I cycled past a group chatting by a fence or in front of their farmhouse, and raised my hand in greeting, one or two of them would usually give a curt nod in reply. There are many more blondes here than [View Full Entry]

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15 June: TODAY IS MY LAST full day in Estonia. During the past two weeks I have been totally enthralled by this vibrant place which is Tallinn, and also by the serenity of Saaremaa. Sure there are areas that are rather ramshackle with buildings which haven't been deemed worthy of restoration or upkeep and aren't in the best of repair or are falling apart entirely. But I haven't found any slums. Some quarters, such as Kälamaja, north of the city centre, is adjacent to derelict military harbour installations of the Soviet era. But at least one old factory building is now [View Full Entry]

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13 June: Today I'm getting a private tour of this town's most popular theatre company, Tallinna Linnateater (City Theatre). The company's veteran designer is my guide. It's his birthday, yet he spends an hour and a half taking me through some of the 26 (!) buildings surrounding a square that house this company's many venues, social and meeting rooms, library and offices. The main building of this large complex was first mentioned on records of the 17th century when it was first purchased and remodelled by a prominent merchant, but it didn't have its beginnings as a theatre until 1967. [View Full Entry]

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11 June: The return trip to Tallinn, mid-day, is with a different transport company in a Mercedes mini-bus, and the fare is a bit higher, 225 Krooni instead of the previous 205 ($20). Among my fellow passengers are two young backpackers from New Zealand and Australia. I had briefly talked to both women when they, too, disembarked the bus I had travelled on a few days ago. They are staying at hostels, telling me they have a place in "Old Town" for £10 a night. I think, wow, that's the way to go when you travel in pairs and don't mind [View Full Entry]

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10 June: IT'S OVERCAST with winds gusting SSW to force 9 and no let-up forecast for tomorrow. Yachts are tucked in at the docks rather than venturing out into a blustery head sea. I decide on an inland route for my bicycle tour, hoping it will be more sheltered there. I take one of the so-called EuroVelo routes -- a paved road with little traffic that suits me just fine (although, later I veer off to thread my way through farmland on a dusty gravel road). I pass farmsteads with the inevitable old stone buildings utilized as a shed, barn or [View Full Entry]

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9 June: THIS IS A SLEEPY TOWN, quaint and laid back. Not the resort town I expected. I discover a supermarket away from the town square, discretely tucked into a cluster of old buildings, and can't resist buying a smoked herring (prepared the way I used to eat it in my youth) from the fresh fish counter. It tastes even better than I remember -- tender as a rainbow trout. I rent a 24-speed bicycle at Bivarix, a local bicycle shop. Don't ask me why anyone would need that many gears in this flat country! Sure nice, though, to be able [View Full Entry]

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8 June: THE TIME HAS COME for my first break from the cultural journey I am undertaking these six weeks. I'm heading for the island of Saaremaa, a weekend and summer vacation spot for residents of Tallinn. I pack up my belongings, pull the hidden shoulder straps out of the convertible 22-pound carry-on case, attach the smaller backpack and, voila (or whatever the local word is), I'm off on the trolley bus heading for the central bus depot. Only I make a mistake. I end up at the Balti jaam (central train station). A kindly cobbler shop owner tells me to [View Full Entry]

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I HAVE TRAVELLED by trolley bus and tram to the city centre and then walked for miles every street in the enchanted old town of Tallinn. I enjoy stepping off the tiled sidewalks onto the uneven cobblestone streets, imagining that it gets me in touch with my roots in a more immediate way. While there is some residential car traffic, as well as taxis and delivery vans, you can hear them approaching from quite far away, their tires padding across the bumpy pavement; so no danger of getting run over (touch wood... except everything is built out of rock and stone [View Full Entry]

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