TALLINN, ESTONIA
We were up early for the walk to the Viking Ferry Terminal in Helsinki. Gradually the terminal filled up and then 15 minutes before ten we all crowded onto the huge ferry with multiple dining rooms, a duty free shopping area, a bar with a live band, everything warm inside with plenty of tables. We were at a table with a huge window from which we could see Helsinki as we left it with a number of small islands, often with a house or two, in the long exit to the Baltic. The sea was flat.
When we arrived in Tallinn, three hours later, after crossing the Baltic, the sidewalks had less gravel than in Helsinki and the walkways were slippery. It was a short walk to our Airbnb, which was more of a hotel of individual Airbnb’s, each with a lower room with a fold out couch and a small bathroom under an upstairs loft with a double bed. There was a small compact kitchen area. But no one would live here, it is a hotel of Airbnb’s down a long corridor with a doorman downstairs managing the whole place.
We only had one day in Tallinn so we immediately walked into the old medieval city which started a few blocks over. It is a beautiful old town with marvelous old buildings and many churches. Even on a windy day below freezing there appeared to be a great number of tourists wandering around just as we were. Old Tallinn is build on a hill with a wall around it and a steep drop off on one side, easy to defend, but hard to walk up the steep hill to a view out over the city. According to my Apple Watch we walked 5.6 miles and much of it uphill. By the end of the circle and constant photographing I was so tuckered out that I lost interest in Tallinn completely and could only dream of bed. Susie and Todd found some ready made potatoes and meat balls in a grocery store and heated them up. By 8 p.m. I was asleep and by 4:30 the next morning I was up and processing photographs, having regained my interest in Tallinn.
I have to confess that except for deciding to explore beyond Helsinki with a stop in Tallinn and a bus ride through Estonia I had never thought of Estonia, except as an exotic name and knew absolutely nothing about Estonia, not the currency, not the language they spoke, not the religious affiliation. I was and am, as I ride down the coast in a luxury bus to Riga, Latvia, about which I also no nothing, the ignorant American. But in one day, after a marvelous English breakfast of black blood pudding, a hash brown patty, a fried tomato, two fried eggs on garlic toast, bacon and sausage and a tram ride through Tallinn which we never figured out how to pay for, am under the impression that Estonia is a very modern, hip, clean and very civilized place, which Ukraine, just down the road, before Putin began blowing it up must have been also which makes the suffering in Ukraine, which the Estonians are very much aware of with memorials everywhere condemning Russia’s invasion, even more palpable.
Some Americans may dismiss the relevance of the attack on Ukraine to themselves, but the Estonians, having lived through Russian occupation, are terribly concerned and feel this is a fight for even their survival and democracy’s survival.
These photographs show what they are willing to fight for and have finally woken me up.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 