Sunday, July 21, 2002 10:25
Location: Computer centre, Hotel Viru, Tallinn, Estonia
Weather: Hazy and warm

[Picking up from yesterday's entry, I was in the process of describing Thursday. This is why I need to keep my diary more up to date.]

We got back to the hotel right on time, but rather hot and sweaty. Rather than join the group hanging around the front doors, we scooted up to our rooms for a quick change of clothes. I gave myself a mini-sponge bath as a refresher but somehow Mary Jo managed a complete bath in nine minutes, which has to be some sort of record. Our respective room-mates (Lanny & Ngaio) hadn't heard about the schedule changes, so they were pretty happy we'd returned to the rooms, and though we were 10-15 minutes late getting down to the buses we weren't the last to arrive... Our group has got dangerously used to everything starting late in Russia.

We trucked downtown to a large restaurant named, I think, Mempono So. (I have a souvenir card from the restaurant but the name is in script and very hard to read.) There was a large room reserved for us, with about 25 tables for four set out. The centre was an open circle, and a stage was set up for a small band, and flanked with speakers. We settled in and had quite a nice meal. During the dinner, there were two alternating entertainments: a quintet of singer/dancers performing traditional songs and dances in the centre of the hall, with accordion, tambourine and wooden clappers on string for accompaniment, and the band, a woman singing Russian songs with a bass player and two synthesizer players, one playing "piano" and the other "percussion". There was free champagne to start, and we ordered (one round of) vodka shots afterwards to keep us going.

Although the entertainment was quite artificial, it was at least energetic and the dancers did a good job of pulling people in from the group to join them. When they finished their final set, the band starting playing waltzes, tangos, etc. and some (but by no means all) of our group jumped up to dance. Lanny, Brian and I were all feeling less than enthusiastic about dancing, but Ngaio managed to get us all up on the floor at least once. Dr. Mike went a little wild, which provided those of us not directly injured by his attentions a fair amount of entertainment. In short, we had a fun evening and retired to the hotel tired and happy.

Friday morning dawned in due course, and we finished packing up and checked out of the Pulkovskaya. We had three buses, with my card-playing gang piling into the largest, a fully double-decker. Once again, though, we'd been short-changed on the air conditioning department and sweated our way as we drove south towards Estonia. The drive was once again pretty dull, though we passed through a couple of interesting towns, providing a brief glimpse at a more representative slice of Russian culture than St. Petersburg's cosmopolitain population: generally older people, dressed more conservatively, and moving much slower. Far fewer signs of the impact of the western world, though still plenty of modern vehicles mixed in with the Ladas and farm tractors.

At the Russian-Estonian border we had five separate stops, each of them quite long: the first, to exit Russia, was made unfortunately exciting by the discovery that Mary Jo's visa had the wrong exit date, and had therefore expired the day before. She payed a 500R fine and was let go without having to complete any paperwork, but was quite distressed by the experience. Thereafter we stopped at a duty-free before crossing an impressive bridge over the river border between the two countries. On the left side of the bridge, two fortresses glowered at each other, the Estonian one sporting a single elegant tall square tower, while the Russian one was more squat but with several round towers of its own. On the far side of the bridge we parked for a while, without much explanation. Eventually we started up again and drove up to the Estonian border crossing, where we waited while the guards checked our entry visas and passports. Finally we stopped on the Estonian side of the border to change some currency before driving on to Tallinn.

On the way I looked for anything to indicate differences between Russia and Estonia, but they were quite subtle. There seemed to be slightly fewer cars on the roads, and rather fewer trees on either side, possibly a sign of a greater density of people. We passed a couple of smoking industrial plants, and a massive artificial hill of coal by a coal mine. The whole area around the mine smelled strongly of tar. There seemed to be almost no young people at all. Further on, as we came into the outskirts of Tallinn, we started seeing some more modern buildings, but there continued to be Stalinist-era block housing estates, and we passed a couple of ruined factories, one obviously destroyed by a massive fire and left an empty shell.

As we approached the centre of Tallinn, though, things started to change. The streets were cleaner and better paved, there were young people again, and the inevitable signs of capitalism -- advertising, MacDonald's -- indicated some recent energy. We pulled up at our hotel, a towering monstrosity built by the Finns (and apparently mostly filled with Finn tourists) and checked in. It was extremely modern and well-equipped, though the rooms were comparatively small. After a shower and change of clothes, we gathered our clique and walked into the old town to find some dinner.

The old town of Tallinn is beautiful, with fresh paint on almost all the buildings, fine cobblestones in the streets and alleys, and elegant churches. We walked up to the market square past dozens of restaurants and bars, and found the market in the process of packing up for the day. On one side of the square, the 12th century town hall sat huge and impressive, with a tall square tower capped by the town flag of blue and white stripes. In the square we sat in one of the six or seven outdoor patios and had a wonderful meal with the best beer of the trip so far.

Once again, I'm not up to date but will have to give up for now: I've taken enough time here, and there's a line up. More later!
posted by Tom at 3:56 AM | link |