Back to Tallinn

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Last night was very pleasant, even if I was completely knackered due to my exploits the previous night. Maarit was very understanding and pointed out that it was Sunday and that her friends weren’t around for going out anyhow!

Today we walked through Tartu on the way to the bus station. We visited Barclay square, where the Soviets rounded up all their political prisoners and transported them in cattle trucks to the gulag, or worse. We passed the music school from which was emanating classical music being practiced. We listened to that as we hid under a bridge to shelter from a shower.

Soon it was time to leave Tartu and head back to Tallinn; Maarit had tomorrow’s return to university to prepare for and I had to get some more R & R in before Russia! I can’t thank Maarit enough for putting me up and helping me with less than helpful lost baggage personnel on the phone! It was good to meet with an old school friend on her home turf and it was great to have met her family too.

My best memory of Maarit from school was when we were the management representing a ‘Young Enterprise’ company. We had to make our ‘annual report’ to the judges of the competition. Needless to say, our company had a very lax attitude towards the whole business side of things but was extremely successful - even though our importing of Cantonese goods might have been considered slightly dubious by the authorities. The other groups were waiting outside the judging room and had prepared immaculate presentations and were going over their lines at the last minute while, I seem to remember, we nipped out round the back for a fag. We jokingly told Maarit, who was our ‘finance director’, that she should answer any question in the style of Manuel from Fawlty Towers with either: “I learn English from a book”, or “I know nothing”. We got in front of the judges and we managed to bull shit our way through a few questions about the business when it came to Maarit’s turn. A particularly sour looking old crow of a judge asked, peering over her spectacles: “So, as the finance director of S********e Enterprises, could you tell us your forecasted R.O.C.E. for this financial year?”…

My God - Maarit bloody well said it… I nearly died.

Needless to say we were the only company not to get a prize (I think they even gave another company a prize for “best effort” despite the fact they failed abysmally), but whatever, we made the most money by a long way and still got the NVQs! It is sobering to think that was five years ago…

I owe a big thank you to Maarit and her family. I really enjoyed your hospitality and it was great to see Tartu from local’s perspective.

Anyway, back to the times at hand… The journey back to Tallinn was as easy as the trip down and I soon found myself arguing with a taxi driver about where my hostel was and as to why he was driving in a giant circle. I gave him a piece of my mind in Russian and he soon found a more direct route! Apparently the mayor of Tallinn had had a crack down on taxi drivers trying to diddle tourists by posing as one himself! Fair play to the guy.

Part of my reason for visiting Tallinn was an old Michael Palin travelogue programme called “Pole to Pole” during which he stopped off in Tallinn. This was during the last months of the Soviet times and the place seemed completely different. When Palin visited the old town, he found some locals singing revolutionary songs in the main square and lots of military around the place. These days, although few locals still live in the old town, it is thriving with restaurants, bars and tourist shops. While I was sad to see that the old town seems to have become somewhat of a tourist centre as opposed to the living town Palin had visited not so long ago, the locals know that tourism is a major factor in Tallinn’s economy and it seems that they accept it this way.

That evening I went out with a few guys from the hostel to a couple of local bars (Hell's hunt, which has very nice home-brew and Nimyets, or “No-name bar”.) I got chatting to Adrian, who turned out to also be Travis from Neighbours! He had been living in Poland and seemed to be pretty fluent and was starting a degree in Russian. I also visited a local’s bar that was hidden away, but kind of got the feeling that this was their patch - which of course it was. I had a reasonably early one, in anticipation of tomorrow’s expedition.

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Comments

[Charlie]

failed abysmally
hey - that was my Young Enterprise Company and we didn't have a person helping us. And we had the best presentation. I still have a dodgy belt I bought off you lot.

[Bobsie]

Glad to know our products had longevity! And perhaps "abismal" is a bit harsh. I take it back (ish) :p