KALEIDOSCOPE OF MY MEANDERINGS: TALLINN

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

MY TASTE OF THE BALTIC REPUBLICS #2 ~TALLINN (ESTONIA) - MISCELLANEOUS

The Estonians of today are constituted by descendants from invading peoples: Swedes and Danes, Finns and Germans, Poles and Russians, Dutch and Scots. For this reason, Estonians can look quite varied and there is no dominant colour of eye or hair, shape of head or face. Some have brown eyes, others blue, grey or green, hair can be blond or dark.

Estonians are said to wish to be Europeans. However, the label 'former Soviet Union' seems hard to be erased. Does it explain why many people seem to tend to be introverted and rarely smile???

The omnipresent beggars on the city streets are a very unusual picture mainly for people arriving from countries with a good welfare system.

Old cities are fun with their squares which seem to draw people in for eating, drinking, strolling, listening to buskers or as I did one day there - watched a man making massive soap bubbles to the delight of the children. Something I guess modern cities try to emulate with pedestrian only zones but not quite the same atmosphere.

On the same day and at the Main Square, as well, I saw a bride, the groom and members of their wedding party
releasing balloons for good luck...

A visit to the local market is always a must and I didn't miss doing it. For my great surprise, over there I saw on sale black marble slabs headstones!!!

Tallinn, despite being a small city, boasts an urban feel, with numerous restaurants, bars, design shops, malls and galleries, making it a bustling centre that seems to be loved by locals and tourists, as well.

Estonian food, simple and tasty, is greatly influenced by German and Russian cuisines, though there are some authentic meals.

I think I could say that Tallinn is a consumer-friendly city. Shops, and department stores are open seven days a week!!! Favourite gifts and souvenirs range from fun felt hats, hand-knitted woollen wears, amber jewellery to chocolates and hand-painted marzipan.

Did you know the Skype software application was invented by Estonian developers Ahti Heinla and Priit Kaesalu?

Have you ever seen or heard about the knitted life-sized dolls in traditional Estonian costumes that sit outside souvenir shops all over the city? Some of them are rather charming... some are a little bit scary... others look like Lady Gaga...

The slideshow below presents many other different dolls, several aspects of the market (you can see two aged women, hugging kittens that each one had taken for sale), several street scenes, the Peppersack Restaurant House - quite unique and one of Tallinn's most well-known restaurants-, the Wheel Well (once it was the main source of water supply), etc.

~~ Thanks for stopping by ~~

MY TASTE OF THE BALTIC REPUBLICS #1 ~ TALLINN (ESTONIA)

When travelling, I never take a guided excursion but go on an adventure by myself. It's exciting to discover a city or a country on my own, with a map in hand and the excitement for adventure in the heart... my recent trip to and throughout the three Baltic Republics - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - was not an exception.
As soon as I set feet in Tallinn (Estonia) I realized I had arrived in a 'world' a bit different from what I had expected it to be: English language is not widely spoken, written, either, road information, instructions to pay parking charges, etc., all written in the local and Russian languages, only. Many people are not very kind to tourists: you get into a shop, greet the assistant and you are most likely to be ignored. You see cracks and holes in the streets while many buildings, rarely historic ones, show damages that clearly mean the maintenance work is neglected.

Roads are not well paved, making driving a bit tiresome. I got the idea that women are more addicted to smoking than men. Beggars on the streets are not uncommon scenes. The population seems to have a high percentage of aged people, some of these apparently living in poverty. Outside markets, I saw old women selling two or three things such as a pair of used gloves, a necklace and half a dozen of eggs. I didn't see many police men but I noticed there were surveillance cameras strategically located. In fact, you don't feel insecurity at any time of the day or night. Contrarily to what I had seen when I was in Finland some years ago, my eyes never set on drunk walkers.
Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, was the starting and ending point of my circular journey, as I took the recently inaugurated Lisbon-Tallinn route. The old town, a UNESCO world heritage site, is considered to be the best-preserved medieval town in Northern Europe. Within its fortified walls, we see centuries old buildings with their red tile roofs, hidden courtyards and winding cobblestone streets.

The central square and the 14th century Gothic Town Hall

Time-worn cobblestone streets are lined with carts selling paper cones of hot candied almonds and stalls of hand knitted woollen scarves and jumpers; businesses clearly bolstered by the Baltic winds, even on an end of Summer-day.