I left for Tartu, in Estonia, this morning. The bus I travelled in was very fancy. It had WiFi all the way, and there was a free coffee machine on board. The coffee was very good.
Tartu is a university town, and not on the tourist trail. I haven't seen one tour bus.
Estonia is interesting. Although it is one of the Baltic states it is quite different from Lithuanis and Latvia. Culturally, and ethnically it is much closer to Finland, than the other Baltic states.
Estonia suffered the same fate after WWII, it actually suffered more, in terms of population loss, than the other two.
One big difference I noticed quickly is hair colour of the female population. In the other countries I visited the most popular artificial hair colour is red. That's all you see in Poland, Lithuanis and Latvia; and you see lots of those. Not so in Estonia. I haven't see one red head yet, but lots of blondes, not all natural.
I had my usual fun experience arriving in a new city. I don't know what it is, but the number of people who have no clue about their city is amazing. I was once again told to go in the opposite direction, once I got off the bus. That's 20 minutes wasted. Then I did find my street. The number was 117. I started at 1, figuring 117 wouldn't be too far. I was wrong. After walking 3 to 4 minutes I noticed I was at number 5. It took me over half an hour to get to 117. Fortunately my land-lady told me how to get into town by bus. Very simply, once you know how.
I met a young lady, who is a teacher in Tallin. She told me her salary, after 15 years is 9000 Euros. There is no grid. And Estonia is not that cheap. Gas is about 1.80 per litre, and grocery prices are almost the same as Canada.
I did have one other great experience. I attended a choir presentation, at one of the local churches. When I arrived a choir, made up of middle aged women was singing. To be honest I was not impressed.
Luckily I stayed, and the next choir was fantastic. It seemed to me to be a university choir. The voices were great, very clear, and powerful. A neat thing was that the choir members took turns conducting. A great hour of wonderful music.
Tomorrow I get a chance to see the rest of the city.
Ralf
Tartu is a university town, and not on the tourist trail. I haven't seen one tour bus.
Estonia is interesting. Although it is one of the Baltic states it is quite different from Lithuanis and Latvia. Culturally, and ethnically it is much closer to Finland, than the other Baltic states.
Estonia suffered the same fate after WWII, it actually suffered more, in terms of population loss, than the other two.
One big difference I noticed quickly is hair colour of the female population. In the other countries I visited the most popular artificial hair colour is red. That's all you see in Poland, Lithuanis and Latvia; and you see lots of those. Not so in Estonia. I haven't see one red head yet, but lots of blondes, not all natural.
I had my usual fun experience arriving in a new city. I don't know what it is, but the number of people who have no clue about their city is amazing. I was once again told to go in the opposite direction, once I got off the bus. That's 20 minutes wasted. Then I did find my street. The number was 117. I started at 1, figuring 117 wouldn't be too far. I was wrong. After walking 3 to 4 minutes I noticed I was at number 5. It took me over half an hour to get to 117. Fortunately my land-lady told me how to get into town by bus. Very simply, once you know how.
I met a young lady, who is a teacher in Tallin. She told me her salary, after 15 years is 9000 Euros. There is no grid. And Estonia is not that cheap. Gas is about 1.80 per litre, and grocery prices are almost the same as Canada.
I did have one other great experience. I attended a choir presentation, at one of the local churches. When I arrived a choir, made up of middle aged women was singing. To be honest I was not impressed.
Luckily I stayed, and the next choir was fantastic. It seemed to me to be a university choir. The voices were great, very clear, and powerful. A neat thing was that the choir members took turns conducting. A great hour of wonderful music.
Tomorrow I get a chance to see the rest of the city.
Ralf
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