Advertisement
Estonia. To be honest, my first exposure to this former Soviet state was 1992’s movie “Encino Man” and Brendan Fraser’s Linkovich "Link" Chomovsky. (Those who recognize “no weeezing the juuuuuice”, take a moment here).
Sure, I knew the high level story of the downfall of the Soviet Union, but not the nitty gritty. Nor do I profess to know everything now. But I do know a lot more about a tiny, resilient country that has been through more shit in the last 100 years than most of our countries can relate to in their entirety.
First impressions of Tallinn, the capital, are probably pretty standard. Its Old Town is so authentically medieval that the cobblestone streets, ubiquitous castle turrets, and never-ending enveloping, protective walls can’t help but feel fake. It’s like the Renaissance Festival on steroids. Compound that with the fact that it’s a major cruise stop, and the hawkers come out in droves, selling anything you could possibly (but most probably don’t) want. For my taste, it was obnoxiously over the top. But then we got away from city centre. And that’s where we met the real Tallinn.
What I found from the rest of the visit
was a place so welcoming, so rich in history, and so excited about building this 21 year old “new” country. This is a place where you can go knock on the Prime Minister’s front door and ask for a tour. Seriously. A place where the standing army numbers 1000. Population is 1.3 million. The navy has three boats. Air force? A local joke. But somehow, and as was personally explained to us, they went from the collapse of communism, to a period of complete anarchy as gangs jockeyed for position in the new power vacuum, to a transitionary stage, and finally to the stability and security they enjoy today. All in 21 years. Impressive, isn’t it?
I could spend the next 1000 words or so telling you about how beautiful this city is, but you’ll see that in the pictures I post when I’m back home. To me, that’s an ancillary bonus. Admiring a collective conquering of adversity is the story here. The young people are proud, but humble, and respectful that it was their parents’ generation that did the leg work. Today, it’s their Estonia to enjoy. They’re happy that it’s a safe place to enjoy (until all
hours of the night), pissed that they joined the Euro party too late last year, and intrigued why any Americans would want to come here.
As much as I would love to come back to this untapped gem on the shores of the Baltic Sea as it is today, I would love to see it prosper and continue along its course; which probably means more tourism and more foreign investment. Along those lines, I don’t know if I’ll ever have a chance to revisit this place, so for that reason, I wanted to encourage anyone thinking about an Eastern European vacation to consider coming here. If you do; get away from Town Hall, explore the perimeter streets, dine in relatively unmarked basement joints, stop by decommissioned Soviet factories and prisons, stroll the cobblestone streets until you’re lost, and go shop in old Russian markets. Just don’t try to bring back a “replica” Kalishnikov. It’s probably real.
(I would be remiss without plugging Tallinn Traveller Tours. They added a fantastic element to the trip. Highly recommended).
Advertisement
Tot: 0.093s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 46; dbt: 0.0657s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb