i know i have written this before, but i really love tallinn. it is the ultimate anti moscow, it is little, cute and clean. (and after 3 days, boring) i wouldnt want to live there, but i am delighted to go there a couple of times a year and see my friends.
and so i arrived and oliver met me at the airport. tallinn international airport is the only airport in the world i have been to where you can WALK easily from the centre of town to the airport. it takes just under 30 minutes.as it was a sunny and warm day, oliver and i decided to walk. as we approached the new town, i could see that even in the year since i was last here, things have changed enormously, again. Tallinn seems to be constantly advancing, far more so than ant ex-socialist state i have been in. it is also the most high tech place i have been, anywhere in the world. there is wifi EVERYWHERE, and everything from taxes to bus passes are done on line. no one uses money, only cards, in all the shops and markets. you can even use your national ID card to pay for your bus ticket, if you want to. it is far ahead of england now in terms of high tech infrastructure.
we walked through the shiny glass new town to oliver's house so i could see where he lived and meet his little brother, and from there we went to a cafe for drinks. oliver is now working as a journalist in estonia's major daily newspaper and thus he had tone sof opinions of the latest (and TOTALLY stupid) scandal with russia. ever since the statue of the soviet soldier was removed from a random garden to a military cemetary, russians have been up in arms. they get bussed in with tourist visas by nashi (a russian vaguely facist youth organisation) in order to stand in soviet uniforms in the now statue-less garden, where they claim to be serving as "living statues." the locals generally ignore them, and the russian media show up to take pictures...for whose benefit? the whole thing is absurd, butfor oliver it is good for business....such is life.
7 commentaires:
Hi,
I remember being the coldest I ever was in Tallin and having to walk into almost every shop in the street just to keep warm!
But I do have to disagree with your comments about the removal of the Red Army War Memorial. Far from the protestors being 'absurd', they are attempting to protect a monument to anti-fascism.
And they are protecting it from a government hell-bent on antagonising the Russian minority there (a third of whom are denied citizenship in their own country).
Don't forget, this is the country that just five years ago put up a monument to Estonian soldiers who sided with the Nazis - the monument even had a picture on it of a soldier in an Estonian Waffen SS uniform. Thankfully, Parnu city council blocked the monument from going up, but it is indicative of the kind of anti-Russian movement around in Estonia which is happy to glorify its fascist past.
It is vital to remember the crimes of fascism in Europe sixty years ago. It is important that we remember the massive sacrifices made by the peoples of Europe and the world against fascism.
No monumnents to anti-fascism should be removed from anywhere. They should be preserved and honoured for ever.
Hi,
I think you might enjoy this!
(Sorry about the deleted comments....I was trying to get the link to work!)
All the best,
Marcus
thanks for the link.....but i still think cats are superior! the mere fact that they have such a better rep shows their talent for self promotion!
Enregistrer un commentaire