Estonia

Happy December! Also known as the month when I catch up on all my travel writing.

As sad as I was to leave the natural beauty of Scandinavia behind, I was very excited to venture back to the Baltic Region to the country of Estonia. Actually, historically Estonia was influenced by Nordic traditions, occupied by Sweden for decades, and its language most closely resembles Finnish, so it is very Scandinavian in some ways itself.

A few fun facts about Estonia:

-Estonia’s population is 1.3 million (which is less than the population of Philadelphia)

-Almost 50% of Estonia is forest

-Estonia was the first country to use online political voting

-Estonia created Skype (Thank you, Estonia!) and hotmail

-Estonia has the largest collection of folk songs in the world. Once every five years holds a Song and Dance Festival and even fought for freedom from the Soviets through song 

-Estonia has the highest number of meteorite craters per land area in the world

-Estonia’s capital city, Tallinn, is home to the most magical old town.

And I mean the most magical. I spent my day in Tallinn wandering the cobblestone streets through the medieval markets and buildings that laced this tiny but beautiful town. I can’t imagine what it looks like in the snow! (Though google images has convinced me a trip back in January is a must).

After a day of oohing and aahing at the beauty of Tallinn, I alighted a bus to Tartu, home of two good Estonian friends I met in Voronezh and was immediately welcomed with hugs and homemade cake. Tartu boasts the country’s oldest university and is a quaint but lively university town and in that university a library holding Russian maps I was very interested in examining. Here are a few pictures from around town.

Downtown Tartu

Ruins of an old church

A statue of students kissing- it is a student city after all

This sculpture from 1999 designed by sculptor Tiiu Kirsipuu, is of Oscar Wilde and the Estonian writer Eduard Vilde. Since the writers were contemporaries, Kirsipuu makes a humorous connection in an imaginary meeting between the two. An exact replica of this statue is now in Galway, Ireland as well (I saw it there last week! But I’m getting ahead of myself…).

After burying my head in books and maps for a few days, I came up for air on yet another bus East to Johvi, through the Estonian countryside, past abandoned bus stops and tiny houses and big, impressive lakes. I got off the bus in Johvi and, at first had no idea where to go. But then I spotted a nun hurrying to a bus stop  in the cold and immediately assumed she was going to my destination -- Puhtitsa Convent, the only convent not closed during the Soviet Period. I decided to spend the night at the convent and met two lovely girls, one from Russia and one from Ukraine, both students in Tartu. We walked the grounds of the monastery together in the freezing cold, attended services accompanied by lovely women choirs, and ate meals with the other women (and the old grumpy cat) staying in the guesthouse.

During dinner, as soon as there was news that an American girl was around, the questions I got daily in Voronezh came flooding in.

You’re American? And Orthodox? No, you must mean Catholic. We are Orthodox here. Do you have husband? Twenty three and no husband? If you are from New York why in the world did you live in Voronezh? But seriously, isn’t my nephew handsome?

  The girls I met earlier had heard of Jordanville and assured the babushki that I was in fact Orthodox, but I don’t think they could hear my friends’ explanation over their boasting of their eligible bachelor sons and nephews and grandsons. The overbearing but well-meaning babushka concern, the heavy food with lots of unnecessary mayo, the obligatory tea after every meal- everything was reminiscent of my last year in Voronezh. The two girls saw me to my bus stop and waved white kerchiefs at me as the bus pulled out, taking me away from the serene calmness of the convent and back to Tartu which, by comparison, felt bustling and crowded. Although thankfully upon my arrival I visited my friend Renata's apartment where I drank tea and heard all about her Siberian adventures.

I was staying with my dear friend Maarja Liisa and upon my return I found her on the floor of the apartment living room. She immediately cried out “I lost a cat!”. Apparently over the weekend, her aunt had dropped off three wild kittens with Maarja Liisa, who vehemently despises all things feline. One of them had escaped and as Maarja Liisa was chasing it she said it “vanished into thin air". We scoured her small apartment all night searching and searching and finally went to bed. I was a little skeptical that this third kitten even existed. The next day a second kitten had disappeared. We searched strange places- the fridge, behind the stove, in the microwave- I think we were both going crazy. A few days later, as we were eating pasta with tuna, our very, very hungry kittens came out of a pipe and meowed plaintively, eyeing our tuna. They had crawled through a pipe in the bathroom that connects to the wall behind the kitchen stove! Maarja Liisa wrestled with them for a few minutes but finally got them in their cage.

Overall, Estonia was a brief, but rich adventure of beautiful cobblestones, wide-eyed kittens, colorful Russian maps, and good conversation with friends. What more can one ask for?

Norway in a [Rainy] Nutshell

Before reaching my next research destination, I took a very quick side trip to Norway. This was bad because there is so much to see in this country of Vikings and fjords, but good because Norway is so incredibly expensive that no budget backpacker could afford more than a weekend. I left sunny Stockholm (the only time I saw it not raining!) on a train to Oslo, where I was greeted with torrents of rain. I was beginning to worry that a trend was developing. However, I later discovered it had snowed the night before, so I suppose it could have been much worse… Nevertheless, I wandered the Oslo’s small city center, which had such charm to it. I meandered my way down to the harbor take in all the boats and the fortress nearby.

Oslo Opera- one of the coolest buildings in the city

With limited time in Norway, I was most eager to get out of the city and into nature. I hopped on a train to Myrdal, passing through fjords, some replete with vibrant fall foliage and others steeped in a few feet of snow. Every time our train was about to emerge from a tunnel, I tried to forecast what I would encounter weather-wise on the other side.

From Myrdal, I boarded the Flam Railway, a tourist train, that whisked me to Flam via some of the most spectacular views I have ever seen. Even though the ride was less than an hour, we quickly went from 860 meters above sea level to close to 0 in Flam. We passed through tunnels, waterfalls, and mountainous passes, with the occasional cottage visible only because of the small smoke stack emerging from its chimney. Arguably the most impressive segment of this journey was the ferry from Flam to Gudvangen. Unfortunately, it rained downpoured the entire three hour trip, but the fjords we passed through were so spectacular I couldn’t have cared less. I was so in awe of the beauty of the Norwegian countryside that I spent most of the journey perched on top of the boat just gaping at the landscape around me, disregarding the fact that I was getting soaked to the bone.

My last stop in Norway was Bergen, a picturesque city on the west coast of Norway surrounded by seven mountains and home to the composer Edvard Grieg.

 A girl from Lithuania, Inga, hosted me for the night and was kind enough to show me around the town and explain what life in Norway was like for her family who emigrated from Lithuania to Norway in 2011 when the Lithuanian economy was failing. When she arrived, she knew no Norwegian and just a little English. But now has learned the languages and is looking for jobs where she can utilize her economics degree. Although we had met mere hours before, we spent most of the day wandering Bergen together, discussing myriad of subjects.

Inga and I with our troll boyfriend

 I left on the train back to Oslo that evening with two sandwiches packed by her lovely mother and a sudden gratitude for the fact that I was traveling by myself-allowing me to meet such interesting, hospitable, and kind people.