Tallinn – 9th August 2017

Terre from Estonia!!

We left Russia for the Baltic States in the early morning and it took about an hour to get through the border control. We were once more in the EU and back on the Euro. I’d looked at pics of Tallinn and the old Town looked sick. It reminded me of Dubrovnik but with trees. The old wall and the red roofs all set in the centre of town provided a juxtaposition to the modern buildings that ringed it.

Grace gave us an inspiring talk about the history of the country on the bus ride in and she actually said that Estonia is a real contrast between the old and the new.

It is a new country as it only gained it’s independence in 1993 but its roots are much older. Both Germany and Russia have occupied here and it is known as one of the Baltic States.

Now, listen to how cool this place is…

They basically have no religion but cutting edge technology. Skype was started in Estonia and fast internet access for one and all is considered a BASIC HUMAN RIGHT! About 13% of the 1.3 million residents are Lutheran and there are a few Catholics, but the rest are Pagans. They live in harmony with the seasons, eat seasonal organic produce and protect their land with a fiery passion. The people were sick and tired of being under the control of one regime or another and they looked to their Viking roots and basically said religion can fuck off!! Most of the churches are now museums full of local art!! My new fucking heroes!! They do celebrate Christmas however as they love the concept of Saint Nickolas (who lives in Finland – just next door.) giving them pressies every year. So cool!

The biggest night of the year for Estonians is Midsummer – June 23rd. They all leave the city to head into the dark forests. They load up on food and booze and build thousands of 3-4 metre high bonfires. These are lit and they eat, sing, dance, and basically get loose with all their friends and family…sounds like Lovey’s house. Go the Pagans!!

Also, they all have saunas in their houses and when it’s -20 Degrees outside in winter, they invite friends around to eat, drink beer and have a sweat in the svitz. Rockin’

The coolest fact that I learnt was about the biggest turning point in their life called “The Singing Revolution.” They have annual concerts where they sing traditional folk music and one year (about 1993 I guess) they all sang this traditional folk song and it moved the entire nation so much and their feelings of national pride were so high that they all decided to tell the U.S.S.R. to fuck off!! They became a member of the EU and not one drop of blood was spilt…

I cannot tell you enough how much these facts have inspired me to love this nation. Let me take you through this again, just for slow learners:

Estonia has:

1. Heritage buildings in a cobblestoned Old Town

2. Nature Worship

3. No Religion

4. Internet access as a human right

5. Saunas

6. Cheap beer

7. Rustic meat-based food

8. Singing as a national pastime

9. Eastern bloc hotties!!!

We did a walking tour with our guide Janicka who also runs The Epic Bar Crawl Tallinn. She took us all around great buildings, we had a traditional dinner (pork and sauerkraut for me – plus herbal beer and liqueur shots) at a cool restaurant in the Old Town called Peppersack. We then headed out for the bar crawl with our mate from Ecuador, Jose’ (the big fella was turning 28.)

We started the proceedings at a bar called The Red Emperor and lo and behold there was an Open Mic night on…Well that was that…Jen and I were up and ripping into “Royals” and “House of the Rising Sun.” I even got to play this dudes sweet-ass orange Telecaster…drool.

The local beer was called Saku and I tried a bottle or two of the Cherry Flavour…WOW!! I’ll be hunting out Dan Murphy’s when I get home to try and score some of this ambrosia.

Anyway the night was large and messy and we stumbled home sometime in the early morning…

I know I always say – this town was my favourites – but man I loved Tallinn. I would friggin’ move here tomorrow if I could. It ticks all of my boxes.

Ohh…our hotel was right near the port and people do booze runs to Estonia as it is so cheap compared to Scando. Each critter is allowed to take home 110 litres of beer 90 litres of wine and 30 litres of spirits!! There are bottle shops right near the port who make up trolley packs for these guys to take home and entrepreneurs from Sweden and Norway hire kids to go bring it back!! – God this country rocks!! – Sorry can’t say God – he don’t live here, 😉

Peace

Sedgestonia

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Tallin – one of the best cities on the planet!