Trip to Tallinn!

Me in front of the Pink Estonian Parliament
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First off, I apologize for having taken so long to update my travel blog. I have so many new trips to add, and I keep getting even further behind because my problem is that I keep taking new trips! I really haven’t had a whole two weeks of class here yet; however, when I’m home I am still extremely busy with school work. It’s a really crazy pattern that we all are having trouble adjusting to… vacation… college… vacation… college… Not to mention the many different languages that we encounter and the exchange rates that we’ve had to learn for so many different currencies. One great thing about Estonia that it was much cheaper than Germany!

Taylor and me in front of the cathedral in Upper Old Town
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So about my trip… we traveled to Estonia on my 20^th birthday J We took a plane from Berlin and arrived in Tallinn around dinner time. It was raining at the airport, but once we got to the hotel it was snowing. After checking in and changing clothes, we got together a group of about 16 people to go find dinner. We thought it would be relatively easy because it wasn’t that difficult to find downtown and it was only a 10 minute walk. Yet, as soon as we opened the door we saw the blizzard that had started during the hour that it took to check in. Okay, it wasn’t really a blizzard, but it was the most snow that I’d seen on this continent and it was continuing to pour down…. Does snow pour?

Dinner for Pete's birthday
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Without being able to see much in front of our faces, we trudged out onto the street and finally made it to a square that I had recognized from our trip before. On the way there we had passed a really pretty little ice skating rink that I really wanted to try out, but there wasn’t really ever enough time to. Plus, I can go ice skating anywhere J So in the square, there were about five restaurants, and we knew that they had to be relatively more expensive because they were in such a central location. We eventually found one that was decently priced and managed to squeeze all 16 of us in. I can’t quite remember what I ate, its been a while now (sorry mom, I know that’s disappointing), but I know it was good and I enjoyed being with such a big group of my new IES friends J The bill however, was a bit difficult, because the ATM had given us each a single 1,000 Estonian Krooni bill (about €63 or $97) so of course the restaurant couldn’t change all 16 of them. We ended up having one person pay and everyone paying him later, but it was a funny situation.

ice skating rink
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The next day in Tallinn, we heard two professors’ lectures at Tallinn University, one of whom was actually Canadian. Below I made some commentary on the issues they discussed. Afterwards, we did a “City as Text” for Tallinn, which is when we all divide into groups of about 6 and we each have different scavenger hunt-like lists. My group’s assignment was the Lower Old Town (which actually used to be a completely separate town from the Upper Old Town, but eventually the two merged). We ended up kind of just wandering around and found the Estonian Parliament, the Town Hall, and quite a few other neat buildings. We wandered into a few of the tourists stores, as well, which sold amber jewelry and of course the classic Russian nesting dolls.

The old town wall
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After everyone does their tour we all regroup and show each other pictures of what our tours were, and the tours had been organized by a history expert that IES hired. During our presentations she got mad because we couldn’t find some things and started making references to us as stupid Americans, like “Oh well you’re Americans, you wouldn’t know that, or you wouldn’t have noticed that.” It was really interesting. Our advisors were as surprised as us and we all had a good laugh at her after it was all over with. Hopefully next semester’s Tallinn tour won’t be as abrasive! I was elected to our Student Council of six members so I’ll make sure they get someone else, lol.

Playing in the snow
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The lectures and tour were on my friend from school Pete Smith’s 20^th birthday, so we made a reservation at one of the fun places to eat just after our tours finished. I tried to make one for the restaurant that Laura and Mom and I ate at when we visited, but it was full, so we just went to a similar one across the street. The waitresses and waiters were dressed up in medieval clothes and everyone tried Honey Beer from goblets. I had really good lamb with some sort of wild rice and sauce, and it was soooo good! That night we decided to try Tallinnian nightlife and found a three story club called Hollywood that was really fun with good music. We’ve found that a lot of places that don’t play pure House/Techno music play a lot of club remixes of American songs, which is kind of cool and different. I definitely get homesick for listening to American music on the radio in Dori!!

another snow picture :)
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The next day had actually really good weather (no precipitation and clear skies) so Taylor and I decided to go shopping. We both had been on searches for black boots with no heels and had literally gone into every store in Freiburg looking for them, but hadn’t found anything. In Tallinn, however, we both got lucky and the exchange rate made our purchases even more worth it J. A lot of us had a relaxing rest of the day, and that night was the superbowl so a lot of people went out and watched the superbowl starting at midnight and I think everyone got home around 4 or 5 when we had to leave at 7. Oh what Americans will do for their football!

The Bronze Soldier State before it was moved
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So that about summarizes our three days in Tallinn, below is a short critical analysis if you’re interested in the social, economic, or political aspects of Estonia.

Tallinn, Estonia: My Trip Analysis

Unlike Berlin, Tallinn had quite a small city atmosphere, which was not unlike that of Freiburg with an old town section and also contemporary sprawling suburbs. I was surprised a number of times by the culture and people in Tallinn, and this led to me having a much different experience than my previous visit in 2003. My first surprise was the extent of technology that our hotel and the rest of the city use. We learned later through the speakers that the amount of technology in Estonia was initiated by an effort to catch up to EU standards with hopes of joining the Union. Inflation was also a real problem in Estonia, and the speakers mentioned the country’s effort to control it so that it may switch to the common currency of the Euro. Both of these examples prove that the EU affects individual states just as states influence it.

Old Haus: the medieval market place where Laura, Mom, and I ate the last time we were in Tallinn
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I was also intrigued by how much the city uses its history and culture as an industry for its tourism industry. This industry brings much wealth to Tallinn, as displayed by the designer handbags carried by women and the only SUVs that I have seen thus far in Europe, and I was a bit taken aback when our speakers mentioned how rural and poor the rest of Estonia is. This poverty is largely a result of relying on a small primarily agrarian economy.

The wealth disparity was not the only divide within the population of Estonia. The demographic of educated people contains only people who are less than thirty years old; because they were the first generation to benefit from the improved education system that Estonia began just after becoming independent.

Social Tensions

Finally, I was most interested in the Russian and Estonian ethnic conflicts that occur daily on both micro and macro levels. Prejudice and resentment about past Soviet occupation spurns everything from daily discrimination between common people of Estonian and Russian “ethnicity” to official and governmental prejudice. An example of such prejudice is the citizenship tests that demand that applicant be proficient in the extremely difficult Estonian language. The ethnic and socioeconomic division in politics that Dr. Kalav spoke about at the University of Tallinn even further demonstrates the division between the “ethnicities.” For example, the Russian elites form one political party, but this party has an extremely small group of supporters. As a result, this party is rather ineffective and the “serious Russian politicians who actually want something done” tend to join the catch all parties and attract many Russians of lower socioeconomic status.

The Bronze Soldier

The Bronze Soldier incident was also a perfect representation of ethnic tensions. The Bronze Soldier is the nickname for the statue that formerly stood in front of the public library in Tallinn, not far from our hotel. This monument was constructed after World War II to honor the Soviet liberators of Tallinn from the Nazis. Along with the statue were the graves of several unidentified Soviet soldiers. In April of 2007, this statue was relocated to the Defense Forces Cemetary of Tallinn.

Although the monument was simply relocated, miscommunication and misinterpretation caused escalated conflict between the Russophones and ethnic Estonians. Russophones were angry at the Estonian government that the monument had been torn down (though this was untrue) and Estonians were supporting its removal because the monument had represented the time of Soviet occupation and repression.

The initial reactions of the people were two nights of riots in Tallinn and the besieging of the Estonian embassy in Moscow for a week. The Russian government even took action and imposed several sanctions on Estonia. This action drew the attention of the European Union as one of its newest member states was in trouble. The EU accordingly has had to make Baltic security regarding Russia more of a pressing issue and currently plans to incorporate it in plans for a Common Foreign Security Policy, if such a policy is ever possible. This situation perfectly exemplifies the concept of “spillover,” which is the process by which a given action, related to a specific goal, creates a situation in which the original goal can be assured only by taking further actions, which in turn create a further condition and a need for more action. In other words, because the Baltic States have security issues with Russia and the EU is interested in maintaining Baltic security, the EU must now always consider Russian threat into its security policies.