Tallin, Estonia

Aaaah, Estonia.










I remember fondly the days when I strolled thy cobbled streets... Seriously, I did have a fun time here. Met some nice people at the hostel, bopped around town for a couple of days, had dinner at a touristy medieval restaurant complete with costumed waiters and "wild boar" on the menu. Hostel-friend Ned asked if the boar was really wild, and we were assured that it most certainly was. Good times.

I'd never really heard much about Estonia as a popular travel destination in the US, but this town is definitely a gem. The medieval old town is incredibly well-preserved, and the city as a whole is modern, stylish, and fairly friendly.

I've been trying to decide how best to talk about the recent history of the next few countries that I visited (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). I knew almost next to nothing about them when I started this trip, and I can't exactly fancy myself an expert based on the information from museums and travel books that I have recently crammed into my brain. But I can't just talk about visiting these countries without referencing their experiences during the last century...so here goes.

August 23, 1939. Visit just about any national museum in Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania, and you'll quickly learn all about this infamous day. That's because on this date, Stalin and Hitler signed a secret agreement known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that divided Europe into areas to be controlled by either Germany or the USSR. Among the USSR's portion were Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and part of Lithuania. When the Soviets came in to set up shop, only Finland was able to fight them off. (Think lots of Finnish ski troopers in white snowsuits in the Winter. Victory: Finland). But in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania the Soviets gained control (although there were resistance fighters in each country). Want to try to resist the Soviet occupation? No problem; they've got a spot reserved for you and your family on the next train to a nice gulag in Siberia.
Next up: World War II. The Nazis invaded, and the Soviets were forced out. The Nazis declared they were "liberating" people from the Soviets. At the end of World Ward II the Soveits "liberated" everybody from the Nazis and were back in control. Many Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians were deported. Many Russians were moved into these countries to work. The Soviet occupation lasted until 1990/91 when the countries were able to reclaim their independence after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
On August 23, 1989, two million Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians joined hands and formed a 600 km human chain that stretched from Tallin to Vilnius (Lithuania) to mark and protest the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. If you're curious about the personality of people in this region, this should give you a pretty good general impression.
Since the fall of communism, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have done a lot to clean up and rebuild (infrastructure and buildings-especially churches-fell into disrepair during the occupation). Estonia seems to be the furthest along, followed by Latvia, then Lithuania (but this is just my personal observation). All have joined the EU, all are definitely worth visiting if you get the chance.

Pictures: top-old town wall (classic red cone roofs) and Eastern Orthodox church
middle-more old wall
bottom- Tallin by night

Helsinki: East meets West (or a least scopes her out from a few blocks away)

Top: Helsinki Lutheran Cathedral-not yer mom's Lutheran Church (unless your mom lives in Helsinki, then maybe it is). In fact, I probably couldn't have guessed that this was a Lutheran church just by glancing at the outside. The statues of Luther and Melancthon in the sanctuary kind of give it away, though.

Next: Uspenski Russian Orthodox Cathedral facing the Lutheran Church in the West. Poetic, no?


Above: Temppeliaukio Lutheran Church. It's not Swedish, Russian, or Art Nouveau. It was built in 1969 by blasting into solid rock and topping the whole thing off with a copper coil roof. It's quite something to see and has really cool acoustics (they like to play a recording of Finlandia in the sanctuary when there's not a visiting choir performing).

Helsinki: Reindeer and Art Nouveau

Well, I opted out of taking a pricey sidetrip to what the Finns call the "official home of Santa" in Lapland, so I'm afraid the only reindeer picture I have is the one above. (Pause for wincing and gasps of horror) Yes, poor Rudolph, it seems as though the Finnish like their reindeer the way the Australians like their kangaroo: well-done. This picture is of a "game fry" stand in the Market Square.

Before this visit I wasn't aware that Helsinki is a fairly young city (as far as European cities go). Apparently the Swedes (Finland was part of Sweden for a looooong time) built a fortress on the harbor in 1746 and then founded the town of Helisinki to supply the fortress. Finland was then part of the Russian Empire in the 1800s, resulting in quite a few Russian-style buildings, and had a period of expansion starting in the mid-1800's, resulting in heaps of Art Nouveau buildings. The photo above is of a typical Helsinki side-street. If you don't care about Art Nouveau or architecture or when Sweden or Russia was in control of x, y, and z, then I'm sure your eyes are already glazed over and I won't bother apologizing for this paragraph.

Sea Legs

I took an overnight cruise to get from Stockholm to Helsinki. Some notable features of this cruise include a huge smorgasbord dinner with approximately 129 different types of herring, lots of Swedes and Finns doing an inhuman amount of onboard Duty Free shopping, and the glorious fact that I had my own cabin (!)
Oh yeah, there was also a sunset...






Above: View out the dining room window and views from the deck

Sveeden

Stockholm is the only city/town that I visited in Sweden, although I did see some countryside from the bus and archipelago from the boat. But, what I saw, I liked. Yeah, I know, that's getting cliched: "I went here; I liked it." Actually, one of the most interesting this about going to Sweden was hearing parts of Scandinavian history told from a Swedish perspective. For instance, Norway was under Danish rule for 400 years until an unfortunate little incident also know as the Napoleonic wars forced the Danes to give up Norway to Sweden. So then Sweden and Norway were "united" for about 90 years until the Norwegians decided they wanted out. To hear Norway tell the story, "Independence Day" was a long time coming. But in a Stockholm museum I was told that Sweden was "shocked" that Norway wanted to break up the "peaceful union of the brother countries."

The Norway/Sweden divorce doesn't really have much to do with my pictures, though. The little picture is of the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. The big, dark picture is of the Vasa. Vasa was a Swedish warship that sank 20 minutes into its 1628 maiden voyage (whoops). It sat on the bottom of Stockholm's harbor for 333 years until the Swedes (with the help of some steele cables and one heck of a Shop Vac) rescued it from the depths and built it a nice museum. Aw, what a nice story.

More Norway

Left to right: Kayakers on the Sogne Fjord (look closely); Viking ship from about 900 AD; Wooden sculpture of Norse god Odin on his trusty steed, Oslo City Hall.

Some day soon...

Hi everyone! Having a little trouble with the pictures again. I promise I have a whole slew of updates to post when the opportunity presents itself. Anyway, I'm still alive, still traveling, currently in Latvia (oh boy!). Currently watching some kind of coup unfold in Thailand on the news (oh dear!).

Norway (the longer version)

I spent a few days in Oslo and also took a "scenic day trip" down the Sogne fjord (see previous post). Incredible, incredible scenery! Scandinavia as a whole has its own vibe/personality that's definitely distinct from the rest of Europe. Norway was no exception; some words that come to mind are: open, bright, clean, friendly, and uff da! I didn't take in any castles, palaces or churches in Oslo (the Royal Palace was closed to visitors and the Oslo Cathedral was closed for repairs). But I did see City Hall, several viking ships, the Norwegian Resistance museum (covering Norway's struggle against the Nazis), and quite a few Munch paintings. I also stayed in a hotel where Norwegian emmigrants used to stay before heading off for the U.S. The irony!

Pictures: Top- Hardangerjokulen Glacier. View from Myrdal, altitude 867 meters
Middle- Kjosfossen waterfall. Legend has it there's a temptress that lives behind the falls who lures men onto the rocks. So the train stops there and when all the tourists are out taking pictures of the waterfall, they pipe in some mystical-sounding music and two Norwegian girls come out and strike temptress-like poses on the rocks. Gotta love it.
Bottom- Mountain village of Flam, population 400

Norway (in a nutshell)

A little cruise down the Sogne Fjord

Royal Copenhagen

When I was walking through the Haderslev museum with Susanne, I made some comment about how a lot of Danish kings seemed to be named Christian. "That's because all Danish kings are required to be named either Christian or Frederik," she said. Yep, it's true. There's a queen on the throne right now, but her son, who is next in line is Frederik. Frederik has an infant son named, you guessed it, Christian. If another son is born, he'll be a Frederik. Way to go Denmark; keeping it simple.
Ok, my preoccupation with the naming practices of the Danish Royal Family doesn't really have a lot to do with Copenhagen. Except I did have a little laugh when the tourguide at Christiansborg Palace pointed to a random painting of a Danish king and said, "Who can guess the name of this king? Go ahead, you have a 50/50 chance."

Pictures: Evening in Tivoli Amusement Park, Canal and harbour tour, Christiansborg Palace

"I sought trains; I found passengers." -Paul Theroux

This post will probably be most interesting to people related to me, but bear with me.

My great-grandpa Krey emmigrated from Denmark during the first World War to avoid being drafted by the German army. After the war, he married my great-grandma and brought her to the U.S. Great-grandma Krey had two brothers. One died in France during WWI (they never found him). The other brother survived the war, stayed in Denmark, and raised a family. And his family still lives there today-many of them in Haderslev, Denmark, the same town where great-grandma Krey was born and grew up. I had never met any of these relatives ...until this trip, when I said, "Here's looking at you, Grandma Krey," and made a little pilgrimage to Haderslev.

So after a (rather long) train ride from the Netherlands, I stepped off the train in Denmark and there were my Danish relatives smiling and waving the Danish flag. And that was probably one of the best parts of my trip so far.

Let me just say how ironic it is to think about my great-grandparents leaving familiar Denmark, coming to the U.S. and trying to learn the language and customs. And now here I am in Denmark, not knowing any Danish, thinking of home back in the U.S.

Luckily for me, I have probably the nicest, most generous relatives in the history of foreign visits, so I ended up getting a little taste of what it's like to feel at home in Denmark.

Pictures
1. Family
(back l-r : Mikael, Soren, Poul Henning. front l-r: Ole, Pernila, Gudrun, Svend, Susanne)
2. Church in Haderslev where great-grandma was baptized, confirmed, and married.
3.Original 18th Century baptismal font at the church.