Vinayak Hegde

View Larger Panoramic Version stitched from 6 photos

While moving on from Tallinn, I had two choices of places to visit in Estonia – Tartu and Parnu. Tartu is charming little university inland from Tallinn. The other choice was Parnu – a historical beach-side sea resort and Estonia’s summer capital. I chose to go to Parnu as it would allow me to get to Riga (my next destination in neighboring Latvia) easily. Also during the summer, Tartu would would be pretty much dead silent.

Parnu Breakwaters

Luckily for me, I got a CS host (I stayed in a tent in his backyard as his house was small) in Parnu. During the day I went around Parnu Town and visited the beach. While enquiring tourist bureau in Parnu, I came to know I was apparently the second Indian to visit Parnu that year. Later in the day, JP (my CS host) took me to Parnu Breakwaters. The Parnu breakwaters at the mouth of the Parnu river extend 5kms into the sea from either side of the banks of the river. They were built over 10 – 11 years in the 1800s. As you walk towards the small lighthouses at the end of the backwaters into the sea you can see stones marked with roman numerals (see pic below) marking the years in which certain parts of the breakwaters were completed.

Swamps of Parnu

While chatting with JP, he offered to take me to a swamp nearby. Since I did not rent a car, I had pretty much given any hope of visiting the Baltic Islands or inland swamps so visiting one was a pleasant surprise. Estonia is a flat country with the lowest point being the Baltic sea at 0m and the highest being Suur Munamägi at 318 m. Being a flat country there are a bumber of large swampy areas (such as the Soomaa National Park). It was getting late in the day so we had to rush but we reached just before sunset to catch a glimpse. Many Estonians are nature worshippers and JP was one of them. They believe that the swamps are places of negative energy and people stay away from them. The swamp were really lifeless with only small grass growing on the surface and no life (not even frogs or insects in the water logged areas).

The Kadriorg Palace

The Kadriorg Palace was built by Peter the Great (1672 A.D – 1725A.D) for his empress Katherine. It was inspired by Italian Villas and is a fine example of Baroque Architecture. Today it houses the Art Museum of Estonia. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens. The surrounding area has been a popular tourist area for centuries.

The Song Festival

The All-Estonian Song Festival (Laulupidu) happens in Tallinn once every five years (last held in 2009) and is one of the largest choral events in the world with more than 25,000 people singing together (with an audience of more than 80,000) – for comparison’s sake, the population of Estonia is 1.3 Million. Singing traditional songs passed down generations is an important ingredient of Estonian Culture. The Singing Revolution in which several hundred thousand participated in singing the national anthem on the Song Festival Grounds from 1988 till 1991 was instrumental in mobilizing people for the Estonian Independence movement.

Trivia – Gustav Ernesaks (Photo Below)- a prominent Composer and Choir Leader was the initiator and general leader of the Song Festival for nearly half a century. He composed the Estonian National Anthem. Ironically, he also composed the Anthem of the Estonian SSR.

Maarjamäe War Memorial

The Maarjamäe War Memorial complex is a cement-filled park similar in its imposing style to other large complexes created in the USSR in the 1960s by the Russian Government to honor soldiers killed in World War II.

Tallinn – The Capital of Estonia is where the old meets the new and the new celebrates the old. The Old Town is still very well preserved and has been restored after independence. The Old Town is enclosed on all sides by medieval towers that give it fairytale castle look. The Old Town of Tallinn is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Old Town is more than 1000 years old and traces of settlement more than 5000 years old have been found in the archaeological digs. Tallinn has a rich history ranging from being the northernmost member of the Hanseatic league to the origins of present day Tallinn which was built by the Knights of the Teutonic Order. The Old Town has lots of small delightful restaurants in what seems like a labyrinth of small lanes. I had a shrimp pancake at a one-such small family-run restaurant aptly named “The Kompressor”. There are lot of people catering to the tourists especially from Helsinki and Germany selling everything from Almonds to Cold Drinks.

Walking through the Old Town, you notice the unusual names of streets and landmarks such as Long leg (Pikk jalg), Short leg (Lühike jalg) and Fat Margaret’s Tower. The best views of the Tallinn can be seen from St Olaf’s Church (which was once the world’s tallest church) and Toompea Hill on which the Old Town stands.

Another beautiful attraction in the Old Town in the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral – A Russian Orthodox Church built during the Russification of the country when Estonia was part of the Russian Empire (early 20th century). Ironically, after the Bolshevik Revolution, the USSR became officially non-religious and the church was left to decline. The Church was restored back to it’s former glory after Estonia became independent.

After doing a longish stopover in Helsinki for three and a half days, I took the Linda Line Cruise into Tallin, Estonia – A distance of just 80 kms across the Baltic Sea. While planning the Europe trip, the Baltics were never part of the plan. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were part of the USSR before it disintegrated in 1991. As a young kid I saw this on TV, as the USSR broke into independent states. At that point, I was saddened (Remember Misha – the Russian Kids Magazine ? ) as it probably meant I would not get any of the cheap Russian books that I had grown accustomed to. Over the years, I had been following the news about new-born states as some fell into chaos and dictatorship and some prospered as they broke the shackles of communism and the USSR and adopted free-market policies. This was a great chance to visit them and see for myself. As I started reading about them, I got more and more interested and decided to visit them all for a brief while.

I traveled through the Baltics from the north to south before flying to the North of Norway (Tromso – north of the Arctic Circle). I traveled through the cities of Tallinn and Parnu (Estonia), Riga, Salaspils, Liepaja and Cesis (Latvia) and Vilnius and Trakai (Lithuania). Though the Baltic countries have shared history and close ties they are different in several ways from each other.

Estonia is a confident country that has wholeheartedly adopted new technologies and free market policies. I met several people in Estonia who were planning to start their own businesses or already running them. The adoption of mobile, wireless technologies and Internet was high. Random factoid – The founders of Skype were from Estonia. It also helps that Finland is just across the Baltic seas so there is quite a bit of expertise and investment coming from across the border. Economic activity was buzzing and people were cheerful, friendly and optimistic about the future. They were well informed about the environment – An example was an internet mobilized cleanup of the forests – one of the largest in the world. Also most people were atheists (A survey suggested that Estonia had the highest percentage of atheists). Estonia has just 1.3 million people but for a small country it has achieved a lot in the last 2 decades since independence.

Latvia has the most fabulous (and most populous) capital – Riga – amongst the Baltic states. When I was there, it’s economy was going through a severe recession as the real estate bubble (fueled somewhat by money from the UK) had burst and the GDP had fallen a staggering 20+ percentage points. About half of Latvia’s population lives in Riga – which is also considered as one of the unofficial Capital of the Baltics. Riga is relatively modern. Riga is a photographer’s delight with wonderful architecture – right from the medieval ages to the bland Soviet style buildings to the swanky steel and glass towers of the 21st Century. Some of the local economy is fueled by the tourism from the UK (Notoriously young Britons who come to the Riga for sex and booze). Undeniably, Riga has a dark edgy underside which it tries to hide. However the people are friendly (almost everyone speaks English) though the older generation seems to be somewhat nostalgic (and conflicted) about the Soviet Era.

Lithuania seems more influenced by Eastern Europe (It shares a border with Poland in the South) than the Scandinavian countries. It’s beautiful capital Vilnius is rich in culture but seems more provincial and backward when compared to rest of the Baltics. Vilnius had a sizable population of Jews before World War II and was called Jerusalem of the North. Few people speak English and getting around is not very easy. Like Latvia, Lithuania was in the midst of a severe recession and it was apparent even in the city. I passed several factories that had closed down and a car factory that had it’s huge temporary parking space full of cars as people could no longer afford to buy them. There were dilapidated buildings around the outskirts (Where tourists typically never visit) and people still lived in cramped soviet style apartment blocks. Lithuania is still dependent on Russia for large amount of trade and there is a sizable Russian population in the country which is also represented in Parliament.