Blogs from Tallinn, Estonia, Europe - page 25

Work finished so this is a short text entry. Today was spent looking around Tallinn and its immediate area. Some of the group went down to the habour, some went to an open air village to see how Estonian dwellings have changed over the ages. I have brought together the pictures staff took during the day and a few from the previous evening. Need to get to bed early tonight as we have to be up at 3.30am to start our journey home. My opologies for any type errors, my proof readers are elsewhere.... read more

Today centred around a field trip organised for those children from a local school who had performed well in lessons, exams and in behaviour across the year. So luckily we were met once again by a bright blue clear sky. On the minibus and drove travelled for half an hour to meet the coach with the pupils. These pupils were aged from 11 to 17. Keping it brief - we went to a forest area to show us the damage done by recent forest fires. We then went on to a very interesting visit of a small vilage school. We all thought it was idyllic (See the photo of the back of the school). The school has 9 staff and wait for it......30 pupils. Admittedly they are trying to recruit more pupils. Onwards to a large ... read more

Some more pics.... read more

Carol says - A lovely late start this morning saw us traipsing round the cobbled streets of Tallinn in our sensible flat shoes looking at the very many and wonderful sights in the company of a history undergraduate from Denmark. City walls are amazing as the pictures show. Tallinn was bathed in sunlight and overrun with Americans from the cruise ships in the harbour. We errm were guests of the local education authority for an informative session on the education system. Like all countries Estonia has its problems as far as its education is concerned: 25% of the schools are Russian speaking as a legacy of Estonia's time as part of the Soviet Union. This is proving to perpetuate the divide between the ethnic Estonians and the Russians. Moving out of the medieval old town into ... read more

Well. here goes. We arrived in Estonia today, with my incredible driving keeping us safe. The Lativans seem to think that a 2 lane road can be straddled by 4 cars with 2 overtaking at once no problems. I am super car nervous after our car greif in Germany. Who has bollards that come up from the ground under your car to stop you continueing into a restricted zone??? Why not just have a good sign and a lowering barrier, why something that will destroy your radiator?? anyhow we got lucky, a new one(2nd hand) was fitted that night and we were on our way again. German mechanics, i can't fault their dedication. Back to Tallinn though. We had no real help from the supposed information, but got a room in an old soviet block outside ... read more