13th Century meets 21st Century
A short (interminable), overnight (sleepless) bus-ride from St.Petersburg and, voila, we are in the EU. Tallinn, to be precise. So now, I’d like to see a show of hands: who knew that Tallinn was the capital of Estonia? And can anyone point to it on a map (beyond pointing in the vague direction of countries that were once Soviet states?) I suspect that maybe a few people are as ignorant as I was about this country. (The day before we arrived, I asked Marc what language he thought they spoke in Estonia. Neither of us was certain, but now we know it is Estonian.) Luckily, Dave Guerra recommended we visit and now we owe him a beer because his effusions on the beauty of this city were 100% correct.
I won’t blather on about how much we are loving it here, except to say that we spent today bathing on the beach on the Baltic sea and yesterday, we got lost among the medieval buildings, cobblestone streets and myriad posh, little cafes and restaurants.
The most pleasantly surprising element is how Estonia opened their arms to the internet upon their release from the USSR in 1991, and that now, one can scarcely walk a block without finding a WiFi connection. It’s brilliant for us because now we walk with our computer and whenever we stop for espresso or beer (approx. every 20m.), we whip out the computer and log into whereever to surf to our hearts’ content. No other place we’ve seen – U.S., Canada, China, Korea – has a country been so marvelously replete with internet. Love it.
On an unrelated note, we’ve been amused to see signs posted in bars and pubs that say “Large groups and stag parties NOT WELCOME”. Apparently, the lads from the UK take advantage of the cheap flights and come over for stag weekends and tend to make complete fools of themselves (imagine that). Just 10 minutes ago, we saw some poor lout dressed in a nurse’s uniform, complete with wig, drinking a toast with his mates in a pub down the street. Stupid foreigners.