before i tell you about what i'm going to tell you about before i tell you about today, i should warn you that this is another long post.
before i tell you about my today, let me tell you about my yesteryesternight, when i had a great discussion. after i finished writing my blog update for the night (August 18th), i decided to write some postcards and send them off. i ended up in the lounge, talking to a Finnish guy from Helsinki for a short period. he wasn't very helpful, but i progressed to talking to two brits from brighton by the names of Robin and Kristina. Robin is a record producer and i, unfortunately, forgot what Kristina does. they are both very intelligent individuals and they were in Latvia (Riga) in part because Robin's father (and his extended family on that side) are from Latvia.
i related to you two nights ago about the soviet occupation in Latvia, what i neglected to mention was the wartime aspects of being a Latvian. whereas the Soviet's occupied Latvia in 1941, a resistance movement had already started. and then the Germans broke their non-aggression pact with the USSR and attacked the Baltic countries. in order to help "liberate" Latvia, many Latvians joined the Germans in the fight against the Soviets. as the Soviets retreated, all of the men they had forced into conscription in the Soviet army were forced to withdraw into the USSR as well. the Germans quickly pushed the Soviets out of the Baltic countries, since the Soviets were not prepared to fight a defensive battle and a lot of Latvians celebrated because they thought they would regain independence - it was liberation.
this, of course, was not to be. the Germans continued in much the same way as the Soviets, albeit they were less cruel to the average (non-Jewish) Latvian, since they were more particular with their persecution. so, many Latvians were in the German army. when the War turned against Germany and they were forced to fight against the Soviets again, many people fighting on BOTH sides were Latvian since the Soviets were advancing using the Latvian men they had forced into conscription. this meant that brothers were fighting brothers, friends fighting friends, etc.
so, Robin's father fought on one side and his father's brother fought on the other. they both survived, but being that Robin's father was fighting for the Germans and they were withdrawn to Germany "to defend Berlin" (which they avoided by running for the American line and surrendering instead), he ended up living in Western Europe. he had the opportunity to return to Latvia (and some Soviets certainly tried), but he knew that he would definitely be sent to a gulag if he did return, if not executed. so he chose to live in exile in one of the countries that offered it to him and he chose England.
anyway, again, just as meeting the young Venezuelan on the Auschwitz trip made my experience more personal, meeting Robin was enlightening and a personalizing experience for me. plus, he and Kristina were more helpful than the Finn about suggesting good places to go and see in Finland.
last night, i talked to a German from Chemnitz. he told me that the general German attitude towards the war is indifference because they are bombarded with reminders of it in their early education and every day in the media. German youth, so he said, is disconnecting from the experience because the politicians and the media are trying to instill guilt where there should be none - after all, modern youth or even middle-aged people were not responsible, let alone born, for the atrocities of WWII. anyway, that was another interesting discussion.
and finally, i can talk about today. i woke up late-ish because i needed to move hostels and be at the other one by noon. which meant that wandering around with my big travel bag would be necessary, if i were to leave before 11:30ish. so i opted to take my time this morning. not to mention that, due to all indoor museums being closed today because it's a holiday, my options for what to do today were somewhat limited.
quick note about the holiday, on August 20th 1991, Estonia declared independence (again) from the Soviet Union. for once, instead of reinforcing the communist leadership, the weakening USSR admitted defeat and a few days later recognized Estonia as an independent country. so, today is the day when Estonians celebrate their reestablishment of independence.
after dumping my stuff at my new place (a b&b) and checking my e-mail quickly to see if anybody else had requested a postcard (not so, although the offer is still out there), i bussed back into Old Town. i thought that i would do a combo walking tour today - half Soviet, half other random buildings of interest including a gorgeous palace a little ways out of the Old Town in a large park.
so, i started by going to the War memorial statue near Old Town. the memorial is insubstantial really, but it is Soviet-era architecture and originally it was dedicated to "the Russians who died in WWII". after independence, and the backlash against the Soviet mentality, the monument was changed to say that it's for everybody who died fighting in WWII. however, it still has a very Soviet hammer and sickle emblem embedded above the statue's head.
again, i've taken photos of all this and i'll post them when i get back to Praha and organize them.
i proceeded to walk to the next Soviet building. Riga and Warsaw both have monsterous "wedding-cake" Stalinist buildings that were the tallest buildings in their respective towns when they were built. Tallinn, luckily, escaped the trend but it got a residential monstrosity instead. irony of ironies, it's now a casino.
from there, i walked a long walk to Kadriorg park ("Kadri" is "Catherine" in Estonian) where Kadriorg Palace is. the palace is large and pink and has some carefully manicured gardens behind it - on the other side of the gardens, however, lies another building. but i'm getting ahead of myself.
the little history you need to know: why is it "Catherine"? Piotr the Great, the "Great" Russian tsar, ordered this palace be built in honor of his wife... that's right, Catherine. the thing that's surprising is that the palace looks like it belongs in France. it was built in the early 1700's and, lo and behold, it was designed by an Italian, so the Western European feeling is understandable by that. i can forsee a major Hollywood film production being filmed here (since it's cheaper) wherein the Palace substitutes for a French one; if this hasn't happened already, that is.
before the Palace was finished, however, Peter stayed in a small cabin which is located just up the road from the palace. so after walking around the grounds of Kadriorg Palace, i walked up to the cottage to take a look. as i did, i passed by the building at the opposite end of the gardens...
it's now the Presidential Palace. whaddaya know. at this point, i began to get really curious about the enormous crowds of people in the park. i imagined before i got there that, being a holiday the park would be slightly crowded. but i realized when i got there that it was very crowded, instead.
another minor detail about the gardens behind the palace, there are two levels to the garden which essentially makes it two different gardens - one for Kadriorg Palace and one for the Presidential Palace. the Presidential gardens were blocked off by gates at the top of the stairs connecting the two gardens when i got there and there were crowds gathering around them, listening to somebody singing inside the garden... or so i thought.
so i walked the short distance past the Presidential Palace to Peter's cottage. it is a suprisingly humble cottage and it is tiny. not what you would expect for a tsar.
after seeing the exterior of the cottage, i had nowhere to go but back. but this time as i passed the Presidential Palace, the garden in back had been opened and the public was flooding in en masse. so i went in.
the crowd gathered around the back door to the palace (and around the beautiful fountain also in the garden). it was at the back door that some microphones and a piano had been set up. so, it turns out, the singer before was just testing the mics. and then people started coming out of the house, ushered over to one side of the crowd. then a very unassuming man with his stout wife walked out of the palace and everybody stood up and clapped. it was the President of Estonia, Arnold Rüütel.
a choir filled in behind him as he shook hands with the other people who had emerged from the Palace. the choir sang a song and then the President gave a speech in honor of independence - i only caught the word "August", but one can imagine, considering the holiday, what the speech was about. after him, the choir sang a few more songs and i felt that i had seen enough. (by the way, the Estonian Presidency is a mostly representative position, similar to that of the royalty in England, with little actual political function.) i didn't actually hobnob with the President, but i was darn close!
needing coffee, i headed for an old bakery/sweet shop that was started in the 1800's and is known for its marzipan. so i had some coffee and a piece of marzipan before...
i walked back to town and continued my architectural tour.
i followed some Hare Krishnas for a short time on my way to the next stop: the Cat Well, where the locals used to throw animals, mostly stray cats, as sacrifices in order to keep the water pure and drinkable. it's now boarded up, but that must've been a weird superstition to start, nonetheless maintain.
after the Cat Well, i headed for the shore where the Soviets erected what is best described, as the "Tallinn in Your Pocket" guide so accurately explains, as a combination of a parking garage and a flattened Mayan pyramid. it was indeed a fantastic structure made of much concrete (hence Soviet architecture) and it has a great view of the Baltic Sea and the surrounding coastline. it is, however, falling apart because the city is understandably reluctant to refurbish it. i stayed there for a good while, looking at the sea and marvelling at the young boys swimming beneath the helipad in a small sea encolosure, complete with fountains.
next, i continued back into Old Town to swing by the former KGB prison. similar to Vilnius, it was housed in a beautiful old building which completely heightens the effect of seeing its bricked-up basement windows.
i then went to see another Soviet architectural highlight, the former officers' club. the building was built for Soviet officers' extracurricular use, but does not conform to my usual idea of a soviet building, outside of the hammer and sickle way up on the top of the building.
then it was dinner time, so i headed into Old Town only to realize that i didn't want to eat in Old Town. i had passed a place with a significant chicken-dish selection. so that's where i went.
after dinner, i walked back into Old Town to take care of a few errands. and then headed for the bus back to my somewhat removed-from-center b&b, which i missed by two minutes and hence spent 25 minutes waiting for. i returned a little early because i knew i had a long update to write, not to mention that i was in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and it was getting dark and cold.
and that brings me to now, when i'm making more than good on my promise to write a more substantial update than yesterday. tomorrow, i will actually go into some museums before i catch a ferry to Helsinki and hunt down my hostel there.
yee ha!
Posted by iain at August 20, 2005 10:40 PM