Category: Estonia

Merle tried the door of the bar we’d come to on our return to Tallinn. In the middle of the old town, it was a place closed to tourists. The door was clearly locked and there was no intercom. Merle pulled out a card and stuck it in a reader by the door. A click… Continue reading Closed bar

Analie offered to show me how to use a real Estonian sauna. Merle and the boyfriend she’d come to Saaremaa to visit would take one privately later. I followed Analie into the main farmhouse to an area curtained off from the living room. She stripped off and headed into the shower room. In the name… Continue reading Estonian Sauna

After spending all weekend with a group of Estonian girls, I’ve decided that Estonian sounds like Dutch, with all the shaped vowels and plenty of k’s, but with an Italian rhythm. The girls were quite pleased with this description. Although they spent much of the weekend talking Estonian, they took the time to translate key… Continue reading Road Trip

I went to the cinema last night to see ‘Sex and Death’, a collection of short films by Estonians. Merle warned me they’d be surreal, but I still wasn’t quite prepared. The first started with a young man selling ice creams in a street cart. When he didn’t sell enough, his boss said he had… Continue reading Estonian Films

The beautiful Russian Orthodox church stands on the highest point of the upper town, but the Estonians don’t think it’s beautiful. It’s a reminder of the occupation, when Russia decided to ‘save’ them from German occupation, only to create their own. And it’s built on the grave site of the father of one of Estonia’s… Continue reading Waiting for the fall

Merle took me for a walk around the old town, telling me legends, but also her personal history with the Singing Revolution. She’d held hands in the line across the Baltic states looking for independence. More frighteningly, her father and brother had stood on the hill in upper town on the night the Russian army… Continue reading Singing Revolution

A couple of nights ago, we went to a concert in the main square of Tallinn. A Slovenian industrial band called Stroj Machine created their own earthquake through the old town. Eleven people hammered away at 44 gallon drums, keyed compressed air through a ring of flutes, blew tubes of metal welded into trumpets and… Continue reading There’s no Problem

The Danes were losing the battle for Estonia, their knights being held back by Estonian farmers at the place where the wall now stands. They had to get up the hill and into the flag tower which would signify their victory, but they couldn’t break through the defences put up by the locals. They’d all… Continue reading Danish Flag

‘Oh, don’t you know about the legend of the maiden?’ asked a girl in a cream hooded cloak. Merle shook her head with me. She’d told me that the Old Town was divided into the upper section (Danish landowners) and lower section (Estonian and Danish merchants) who didn’t get on. The girl in the cloak… Continue reading Maidens’ Tower

Estonia is far enough north to have a midnight sun and even now, in late May, the city of Tallinn was bathed in light as we landed at 11pm. It’s been a mild winter, according to Merle, but summer hasn’t brought the expected warmth. A northerly wind today gave the city both blue skies and… Continue reading Estonian Summer