May 26 Tallin Day 1

It stopped raining during the night, and there was even a bit of blue sky this morning. I arrived at the bus station early, and had one of those blissful, peaceful moments. I was enjoying a coffee, not a care In the world. A group of middle aged locals were enjoying their beer, it's 8 on a Sunday morning, and we were all listening to "If you're going to San Francisco be sure to put some flowers in your hair". 

As I said a lovely moment.

I saw my first red head. Very stylish hair cut and hair colour. Too bad the stylishness stopped just below her hair line. The rest was 250 pounds of "Mean Mama". Her dress had horizontal stripes, not a good choice, and she was puffing away on a cigarette. At least she wasn't drinking a beer.

There is still more smoking here than in Canada, but it's a lot better than when I came to Europe 30 years ago. All public places are non-smoking, as are hotels and transportation vehicles. Here are a lot fewer cell phones.

The country is quite attractive. Flat, I haven't seen anything as high as the Hamilton mountain in three weeks, but it is clean and green. Once I went north from Riga there weren't as many farms, but a lot more trees. 

The roads are two-lane, but well maintained. One other difference from Canada, at construction sites there are people actually working. What a novel idea.

I arrived in Tallin, and, following the directions found my apartment, without too much trouble. I did luck out, it's on the fourth floor, but there is an elevator. I think it's one of the first ones installed in Tallin. There are some people in Canada who could not fit into this elevator. But it does work.

My location is fantastic, I am right at the edge of the Old Town. Tallin is like a Disney production of a medieval town. About half of the fortified wall, with over twenty towers is still standing. Part of the moat is also still there. It is gorgeous, but it feels as if it was made just for tourists. There are nothing but souvenir stores, restaurants, and high end boutiques.

A great multitude of tourists. I think the only locals all work in restaurants, or the shops.

I decided to walk into the part of town outside the Old Town. A completely different story. The houses are either old wooden houses, or Soviet built apartment buildings. Very few had been kept up, most were quite run down. But I didn't see one tourist.

I find Estonia much more expensive than the other Baltic states, and Poland. While I was in Tartu I checked the price of my mini iPad. It was 150 dollars more here. Gas is about 1.80 dollars per litre. Beer in a restaurant is 5 dollars, quite a difference from Poland, and when you think a teacher makes 12 000 dollars a year, you wonder how they do it.

The weather is supposed to improve tomorrow. Everything looks better in sunshine

Ralf