Tallin, Estonia

Tuesday 1 June

In 1990/91 two Rover Scouts from Finland stayed with us for two weeks, they were the same age as our two boys and fitted in like members of the family. In recent years we had lost contact with them, however some months before we left I was able to make contact with one, Spike, the nickname we had given him, only to find he know lives in Luxembourg and he was there two years ago when we visited the city; bother!

Shortly before we left on our trip he contacted us to let us know that he may be able to arrange a business trip to Helsinki and last night he arrived at our hotel at 9:30. Walking to a bar he told us that he had contacted Poppis and he was driving 50 km to join our reunion. We had a lovely night discussing old times and just before we returned to our hotel Poppis presented us with a boxed set of books, one on the North Pole and the other on the South Pole which he had written and also taken the photographs on his unassisted ski trips to both Geographic Poles. He is only the twelfth person in the world to have made the unassisted ski trip to both the poles. It was also his second visit to the North Pole; his first was to the Magnetic North Pole.

This morning we caught the ferry to Tallinn the capital of Estonia and decided that the first thing we would do after checking in to our accommodation would be to mail the 2.85 kg set of books home.

We arrived at the location of our accommodation to find that there was “No Room at the Inn” in fact there was no Inn, the hostel had closed several months ago. There was a TV ad. some years ago that expressed our thoughts – B*****!!!

A five minute walk to the Information Centre where we were directed to the Estonian Booking Service who found us a room in a nearby hostel, the price was similar to the missing one but with the bonus of an en-suite. Now to try to recover our money we previously paid but we’re not very confident.

After posting the book we walked to a supermarket to purchase some food as the hostel has a kitchen we can use, so tonight we had a lamb chop and a large plate of vegetables for dinner. On the cruise meals were served with dainty portions of vegetables that would barely fill a tablespoon so having a generous serve of mixed vegetables was very enjoyable.

Now for the history lesson – Tallinn is the largest city and capital of Estonia and first appeared on a map in 1154 and over the years it appeared to have different names according to who had captured the town.

As an important port for trade between Russia and Scandinavia, it became a target for the expansion of the Teutonic Knights and the Kingdom of Denmark during the period of Northern Crusades in the beginning of the 13th century when Christianity was forcibly imposed on the local population. Danish rule of Tallinn and Northern Estonia started in 1219.

During the Great Northern War, Tallin along with Swedish Estonia and Livonia capitulated to Imperial Russia in 1710, but the local self-government retained their cultural and economical autonomy within Imperial Russia as the Duchy of Estonia, similar to Finland.

On 24 February 1918, the Independence Manifesto was proclaimed in Tallinn, followed by Imperial German occupation and a war of independence with Russia. On 2 February 1920, the peace treaty was signed with Soviet Russia, wherein Russia acknowledged the independence of the Estonian Republic. Tallinn became the capital of an independent Estonia. After WWII started, Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1940, and later occupied by Nazi Germany from 1941–44. After the Nazi retreat in 1944, it was occupied by the USSR again, after annexation into the Soviet Union, Tallinn became the capital of the Estonian SSR.

In August 1991 an independent democratic Estonian state was re-established and a period of quick development to a modern European capital ensued. Tallinn became the capital of an independent country once again on August 20, 1991.

Here endeth the lesson.