Blogs from Tallinn, Estonia, Europe - page 20

Hey hey, well slept most of the flight from Stansted to Tallinn. But coming into land I got an idea of how cold it was going to be due all the snow still on the ground. Tallinn is some 54 degress north of the equator. Going through the whole passport control which is pretty easy with an Australian passport - they nearly roll their eyes thinking - another bloody aussie. We're everywhere. This got proved when I got to the Old Town Hostel (which looks like your nan's house) and meet three aussie's in two hours all from perth. Seriously what are the odds? First night crashed a medieval bar with one of the Perth dudes. They serve no coke, or anything else made after the 14th century. But the food was good and beer even ... read more

I woke in the morning to the tune of three snoring noses, a stuffy cabin, and blaring music. We had attempted to throw a makeshift 'party' in our cabin the night before, and the music selected 6am as the opportune time to begin working. Unable to sleep further, I got dressed and walked to the upper deck to look out over the water. We were about to land. I went to the breakfast buffet- leftovers from last night's meal- and ate. And thought. It was the most 'out of my element' I had felt in a very long time and I had not a clue what to expect from this country whose people had greeted us less than kindly during the night's travel. The city was mysterious to me. Unlike any place I'd been before. The ... read more

(Excerpted from Our Summer in Estonia Amazon.com) Estonia's association as a singing nation began in the city of Tartu, home of Tartu University, in June, 1869. The inspiration for a national song festival came from Johann Voldemar Jannsen, a leader of a movement known as the National Awakening a mid-19th century period, when Estonia's long suppressed people set about discovering and creating a national identity. Jannsen founded the first Estonian newspaper. His name sounds German, because when serfdom was abolished, many Estonians took their Baltic German master's name. who, in Jannsen's case, was Voldemar. Jannsen became inspired by seeing music festivals in Germany and Switzerland, and German choirs in Tallinn. He knew of the Estonian peasant's rich store of folk music. Why not an All-Estonian song festival? At the very first festival, Jannsen's daughter, Lydia Koidula, ... read more

yessum...im writing from estonia! and may i add its pretty nice. i like it a lot. and i was in finland and sweden and when i get back to moscow i will write an entry with more details. but i really wanted to tell everyone that in finland i ate reindeer and today in estonia, tallin i went to a real banya)(sauna) with jaime and it was great. its great for my skin, i dont wanna toot my own horn but my skin is glowing lol. and i saw a lot of naked estonian women who talked to us in the banya. and then jaime whipped me with birch leaves. it was great haha, i hope she doesnt get mad that im writing about it on my blog. anyhoo, stockholm was amazing, i think of all ... read more

i keep forgetting what day it is! very lame! well, it's wednesday, yesterday was tuesday and the last time i wrote one of these was monday, so here's the old 'what i've done since last time' entry. it's been a nice couple of days, so strap in for some cheeriness. arrived in tallinn a little earlier than expected monday night, it must have been about 11pm i think. i decided that the wisest move would be to get a taxi to the hostel and then, as i hadnt slept since sunday morning, sleep my little chops off. so yeah, got into the hostel, checked in, and put stuff in the room. there were quite a few people hanging about in the communal area, so i thought i'd go down and say hello and all that jazz. ... read more