Spring break in Estonia

Emailing between Estonia and Germany. April 2007.

Mel:
I am in the Old Town inside the town walls. It is georgous. Lots of shops and bars but you have to look carefully for them because the signs are subtle and don't ruin the scenery at all. I did not have to carry my own bag into the city because the airline lost it. There were stacks of bags around the baggage collection area which they lost yesterday and the staff were walking around with yellow slips the owners filled in with descriptions of the bags. They did not look like they were succeeding with matching many of them up. They said they will look for mine tomorrow. X

Dirk Jan:
Lost your bag, how annoying!!

Mel:
It is 6.30AM and the heavy metal place just closed. It was in a freezing cellar, where everybody huddled in their coats. The 60s music from upstairs was louder than the heavy metal and almost drowned it out. For horrified amusement I think www.heavykaraoke.com would be worth looking at. It was advertised in the heavy metal place.
X

Dirk Jan:
So in Talinn, heavy metal is still somewhat in the developing stages, it seems :-)

Mel:
Would you check, if u can book me a hostel bed in Kuressaare on the island of Saaremaa. The hostel and cabins are probably not open until May but would u check anyway. Maybe there are more hostels by now because my book is around 7 years old. Also would you check if Hotel Mardi same town is on the internet. If so and there are cheap rooms would you book one for me? I need the booking for Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th.

Mel:
I am going to a museum today about what life was like while the Germans and Russians were here. Makes me wish I had visited Estonia, before 1991 but I suppose a person cant get to be everywhere all the time.

Dirk Jan:
Hello :-)
How's the island? Found the hostal OK?
X X X X X X X

Mel:
The island is lovely. I spent most of the day drinking coffee on the main square of the village. It has actually got warm enough to sit outside. Yesterday I had coffee in an old windmill on the way to the guesthouse. The guesthouse is a bit like an appartment. Me and a German guy are the only ones there. He organised it so the times we want to have our showers won't clash. Although I am not sure that level of organisation is required. There is nothing on this island one could be late for because one had to wait 20 mins for the shower.
Breakfast was huge. Pancakes, salad, cheese, bread etc etc. I ate mine and half of the German guys. He told the guesthouse owner not to give him so much tomorrow.
I have a brochure of the island but it does not do the place justice. There are more and bigger pictures of the food on the supermarket shelves and the cafes than of the things tourists would want to see. I suppose they have not got over the old communist days when there were food shortages and think tourists will be greatly relieved to see on the brochure that there is no shortage of food here.

Dirk Jan:
LOL. Come visit our village, we have bread!

Mel:
Everything looks so new. The guesthous furniture the insides of the cafes. I feel like I am the first person to use just about every piece of furniture and every cup etc. Our breakfast is even served on china dishes. Would any ordinary cheap guesthouse in Western Europe go to that much trouble, with the guest breakfast? I think the tourist thing really is just starting. The guesthouse owner takes pictures of every guest and puts them in a special guest album. And we have to mark the globe, with a red pen to show where we are from.

Dirk Jan:
That sounds like starting-up enthusiam alright

Mel:
He has around 15 photos in his album.He showed it to me right away when I arrived. I wonder if I can escape tomorrow morning before he comes along with his camrea. I have been informed that we will be getting pie for breakfast tomorrow along with the salad, cheese, etc etc. That should start the German guy groaning again. He says he usually only has a piece of bread for breakfast.

Dirk Jan:
Heheh. Tell him he should be grateful, 20 years ago he wouldn't even have gotten a piece of bread :p

Mel:
Have to go. The library lady is closing up the new and shiney library so I have to shut down this brand new computer and go back to new guesthouse. I think the guy could have done the guesthouse up more tastefully. But new and shiney was probably his main priority rather than atmospheric.

Mel:
Well, you know how i like to see history happening.
Sometimes a person can see too much of it.
I will stay in the hostel tonight because something very bad is happening outside. There are police and helicopters everywhere. Apparently the government tried to take away some anti faschist monument and there was rioting. Soldiers came and now there are people dead and some in hospital and lots of broken windows on this street. Would u check the news and see if it is over yet?

Dirk Jan:
The Estonian government wanted to move some monument (Statue of a Soviet soldier, commemorating the dead of the second world war).
Guess more people were against it than they anticipated. Despite the protests, the thing has been relocated to an unknown location, it says in the papers. That probably takes away a real focus point for demonstrators. But it doesn't say if there aren't going to be more demonstrations.
Newsblog: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6602171.stm

Mel:
I picked the right time to be out of Taillin. I think most of the trouble happened yesterday here.

Dirk Jan:
Looks like it, indeed.

Mel:
It is looking pretty troubled out there at the moment.
Do you think it will be over by tomorrow?
I was going to go to the museum to get the book I want. Would that be pushing my luck with it being a historical location and all that?
There is a helicopter flying over the hostel right now.

Dirk Jan:
I wonder if people are still roaming the street in droves, protesting against either the moving of the monument or now against the death of the demonstrator. If so, I wouldn't consider it all that smart to go outside.
Could also be that the authorities are just trying to impress people with the heli flying around. Maybe you could ask receptionists or someone else local.

Mel:
It is frightening that there are actually broken windows on this very street. Tourists are taking photos of them. Where was that monument located anyway?

Mel:
I asked the receptionist. She says it is terrible.
I asked her if the government are good. She says she does not think so.
I don't think she can assure me that there will be no more trouble. I dont want to just take her word for it even if she does. I did not see any fighting on my way to the hostel. But there are so many police and helicopters that there probably would not be anyway.

Mel:
That helicopter keeps flying over the hostel.
I hope that does not mean anything bad.

Dirk Jan:
Guess the city center of Talinn isn't so big, so if it cruises over a square that isn't too far away, it looks like flying over your head...

Mel:
Yeah, and the hostel is right in the old town.

Mel:
If I ask the locals they just shake their heads and say it is terrible. I don't think they know.

Dirk Jan:
It sounds like they don't understand the question...

Mel:
Well, I don't want to bug them about it in case they are upset about what is happening.

Dirk Jan:
Read that there weren't even that many demonstrators (couple of hundred only), so now the police is present in force, it probably won't start up again.

Mel:
Why did the police take away the monument anyway?
I thought there is a democratic government now.

Dirk Jan:
Soviet soldier. Offended many people, as Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union for a long long time. The protestors are ethnic Russians, who think it's offensive to move the monument.

Mel:
But leaving it there would offend the Estonians? Like that statue on O'Connell St that the IRA blew up in the 60s.

Dirk Jan:
Yep, I agree. Those ethnic Russians look a bit like the protestants in Northern Ireland in that respect.
Planted there by the occupying state, now demanding to be respected...

Mel:
Would those who dont like the current government in Estonia be the Ethnic Russians? After all it is a democracy and things should be improving? There are some statues in the museum that apparently used to be on the streets. I wonder if that is where this one will end up eventually.

Dirk Jan:
No, they want to move it to a military graveyard.

Mel:
Cant they send it to Russia? That's where a fascist dictator statue belongs in my opinion.
Then it wont cause any more trouble here.
Maybe people will object to it being in a graveyard because it is disrespectful to somebody buried there.

Dirk Jan:
Heh, I started a discussion on my internet forum about my girlfriend who seems to have a talent for being in the midst of revolutions.
I should have known: first reaction was a demand for 'linkage' ie. your picture :D
Told them where to stick it of course LOL

Mel:
No need to exagerate.
I was out of Eastern Europe in 1989 before the revolution. In fact, I go back to Ireland on time to see it broadcast live on television.



Photos from:
http://travel.webshots.com/photo/1446767335047615546MKIqHS
http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/32dbc2/
http://forum.manualfocus.org/viewtopic.php?pid=52786

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