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View from Oleviste Church
30 Krooni ($3) and 257 steps to the tower, but the view was worth it. 5 June:
THIS HAS BEEN A STRANGE DAY. At the tourist information centre I ask where I may find out about my grandparents' residence from the 1920s to '40s. They direct me to the Ministry of the Interior. I'm not admitted to see anyone in person, but the security officer in the lobby gives me a number and points to a wall phone. The woman on the other end speaks English in a halting Russian accent. She keeps asking, "Why do you want to know where your mother lived?" Don't these people have any mothers to understand my motive? Or are they afraid this foreigner will lay claim to his ancestral properties? It has happened in the past with many refugees and their children returning. Come to think of it, I could be a wealthy landowner if the buildings appropriated by the Bolsheviks are indeed returned to the original owners and their heirs.
As I am trying to explain to this bureaucrat that I just want to stand in front of my mother's old residence to reconnect with my past, I have a strange emotion come over me, wondering if my grandparents had once been in this building so many
Northwest part of Old Town
City wall with fortification towers. Further south (left), the former moat extends into Toompark. years ago to register the birth of their youngest child. The same thought occurs again when I step into Oleviste Kirik (St. Olav's Church) not far from the ministry offices. Did they perhaps attend services here?
In the afternoon I take a guided walking tour to learn about places I probably wouldn't find any other way. You often see a gaggle of tourists clustering around their guides, stopping at this cloister or that palace, a town gate here and guild house there, getting a condensed history in German or English or Albanian for all I know. I choose a tour offered by City Bike, a funky little shop on Uus (New) Street. It so happens that I am the only registrant that afternoon, and so I have my guide, a young woman who also works at the company's hostel, all to myself and can ask all the questions my little heart desires. As we walk I become more and more aware that this city is part of my heritage -- especially as we round Toompea Castle at the very top of the old town and I am able to touch the outer rock walls of Pikk Hermann (Tall Hermann's
Oleviste Kirik and fortification towers
The latter were constructed by the Danish occupants of Tallinn in the 13th century. The red tile roofs were added later during the rule of the German knights. Tower), a landmark my mother never ceased to point out to me on countless pictures.
On this trip I had brought some small photocopies of pictures from my mother's old photo albums. Two of them are of a couple of apartment buildings her family apparently owned. When I show them to my guide, she suggests that the architectural style of one of them looks like some of the houses on Uus Street, and why don't I explore on my own later on. After more than two hours of a scheduled one-and-a-half hour tour, we head back to the bike shop at the north end of the old town. As we turn the last corner, she asks to see the pictures again, then points, "That one looks like it." Well, blow me down! There it is -- almost next to the bike shop! Everything matches: the windows, lintels, gate... everything! I could just hug her... well, I do! And I remember that my mother indeed mentioned "New Street" to the forgetful ears of a little boy growing up far from the place of her own youth. That afternoon I stop a woman leaving the building, and ask her who owns
Pews inside Oliviste church
I keep wondering if my grandparents worshipped here. it. "The residents do," is her reply. So I suppose it is now a condominium.
Later that day I also go on a guided 15-km bicycle tour to the outskirts of Tallinn. We pass the harbour (with a capacity of up to five cruise ships and ferries the size of our largest BC Ferries with destinations such as Helsinki and Stockholm) and stop at landmarks such as Kadriorg Palace, which is the Estonian president's residence, the song festival grounds (featured in the documentary film "The Singing Revolution" -- singingrevolution.com), and Pirita harbour and beach, site of the 1980 Moscow Olympics yacht races. The wide boulevard from the city centre to this recreational area is fringed by a paved bicycle, skating and foot path, much of it along the water's edge. People walk for miles here, just for the fun of it, and preferably in the company of friends.
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Normand
non-member comment
Amazing, some things don't change
It's amazing to see the 1936 verses the 2008 photo. Amazing that some things stay the same in every way.