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?