Tallin, Estonia-September 28, 2018

Tallin, Estonia was our next port of call.  Estonia is a small country between Latvia and Russia.  It borders the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland and is about the size of New Hampshire.  It has struggled against Swedish and Russian domination throughout its history.  The country is home to 1.3 million people a quarter of whom are of Russian decent.

Tallin is one of the best preserved medieval towns in all of Scandinavia. The town has a population of 400,000.   It had been deteriorating  during it’s Soviet years, but since it’s independence twenty some years ago many of its buildings have been restored.  There are two parts to the town; the upper town is where the nobility lived and in the lower part lived the merchants.  Much of the town is cobblestoned adding to the medieval feel.

 

 

Estonia’s history is an interesting one.  Being a small nation sandwiched between Russia and Germany simply surviving has been a challenge.  It was a free country after the Russian Revolution from 1920 until 1939 until they fell into the Nazi then Russian regimes.  Singing has been a natural form of expression; the first Estonian Song Festival, just outside of Tallin,  started in 1869 and has been held every year since.

In 1988, 300,000 Estonians come together on the Song Festival Grounds  to sing patriotic song.  On August 23, 1989, which was the 50th anniversary of the pact between Hitler and Stalin, the people of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia held hands to make a human chain that stretched 360 miles from Tallin to Vilnius, Lithuania to make a stand for their freedom.  In February of 1990 the first free parliament elections took place in Estonia and that parliament declared Estonia’s independence.

Freedom has given Tallin a fresh, new spirit and it shows.   Tourism has grown immensely with lots of groups of tourists following the lollipop paddles. What a great way to learn about medieval history by spending time in this beautifully preserved town.