2695 Trip Tale: Tallinn, Estonia

The five of us went through customs and boarded the hydrofoil for Tallinn, about a two hour trip (it's about 4.5 hours by ferry). The waves were high and it was really bumpy, but with the help of a motion pill and keeping my eyes shut the whole trip, I kept my breakfast. Not so the pretty young Swedish girl next to my husband.

Little Estonia (at least its major city) has created a miracle in only 15 years of freedom from the Soviets. We were blown away by the restoration of its "old town," and the vibrancy of its newer areas. I'm sure it's going through some of the growing pains that countries experience as they transform themselves from totalitarian to democratic regimes, but compared to what we were to see in Russia the following week, it is really a transformation.

Riitta had been there under the old regime and she could hardly believe it. Old Town is now colorful gold, pink and blue buildings with red tile roofs and lovingly restored old Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox churches open for tourists and worshippers. It was like a German city without the hordes of Japanese tourists.

We docked at a huge decaying concrete "ice palace" built during the Soviet era. This ?? is on top--sort of looks like a Russian bear, but up close seems to be an ethnic-asian person inside a fish or animal skin.

Although not as crowded as other European cities, driving is a bit dicey because before freedom 15 years ago, no one had automobiles--so it's sort of new to them.

We skipped lunch in the pricey market place (for tourists) and Tomi led us to a lovely local restaurant with great food and reasonable prices, called H.H. Rüütel.

Lower left of this photo shows some unrestored and crumbling buildings--what the whole town used to look like.


Tallinn, Estonia
Estonians
USSR