Day Eleven - Tallinn

Officially, there is a few less than 500,000 people living in Tallinn, most of whom are Estonians. Russians (about a third) are the biggest national minority, followed by Belorussians, Ukrainians and Finns making a total of 6% when combined. Estonian and Russian are the most common languages, not surprising when you consider the Russians imported 500,000 people into Estonia during their reign, English is also widely spoken by most Estonians. Geographically, Tallinn is situated in the northern coast of Estonia, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland. It is the closest capital city to capitals of Finland (Helsinki, 80km); Latvia (Riga, 315km) and Sweden (Stockholm, 380km). Hence its importance in the history of the wars across the Baltic Sea region.

Today we spent some time sightseeing taking two tourbus trips around the city. One into the Suburbs and the other the real touristy round the old town and city. We also visited the KGB Museum at the Hotel Viru.

In 1972, and there were still two decades or so until the fall of Communism and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Any hotel that was appropriate for foreign visitors also had to be appropriate for the KGB...The museum tells the story of more than just one hotel and the KGB: it is a treasure trove of stories of two different worlds - one which existed mostly on paper, of happy Soviet citizens living in friendship and never wanting for anything, led by a wise, all-powerful group of men in a place where there were never any accidents or catastrophes; and the other the real world, which was a very different and a much tougher place to live in, where staff were not allowed to have any foreign currency, and if caught it would result in three years in prison.

Below some photos from today's activities. We are camping at Pirita Marina camp site, built for the 1980 Olympic Games, which although held in Moscow, the sailing events were in Tallinn. We are overlooking the Baltic sea, and the sun is shining but going down, and it wont get dark until at least 11.30pm, off to have wine and food.

Tallinn old town

the KGB Museum at the Viru Hotel

 

New scary KGB Director at the Hotel Viru

Fat Margret's Tower so called after the queen of Norway who first constructed the walls around Tallinn

The roof of the Russian designed concert hall - left to decay - they don't appear to like the Russians

The old Olympic village where we are camping

Squinting in the sun, our day eleven selfie, taken in front of one of the Olympic Buildings