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