Old town within old neighbor

View from Olaviste kirik. 

 Tallinn used to be almost inaccessible. Then Estonia became independent - in the Singing Revolution, you should look it up if you haven't yet, because singing your way to freedom is just way too cool - the Soviet Union fell, and all of a sudden Helsinki had a southern sister city just a boat ride away. 

I'm not an expert on Tallinn, unfortunately. I'd only been there once in my life before our recent trip. From that earlier trip I remember a medieval church that was so high and so close to the road that I imagined it was dark and there were ravens circling the tower and we were probably in a graphic novel... 

Turns out that church wasn't dark, but white-ish, but it is very, very impressive. It is called Olaviste kirik in Estonian, St. Olaf's church in English. In the 12th century the builders wanted to make the highest church in the world, or so the legend goes. 

We climbed the many, many stairs to the tower and looked over the Old Town of Tallinn with its red roofs. Apparently Tallinn's old center was rescued, unlike most capital city centers, because Tallinn went from being very rich to very poor, and in the 19th century there was just no money to straighten and widen the roads and build new, fancy buildings. Our good luck. The Old Town is a marvelous place to stroll, shop, visit churches and museums and eat in nice restaurants. 

Entry to Old Town

Besides the fantastic church (I have no pictures to do justice to the size - it didn't fit into any picture when you stand near it, and if you take one from afar, it doesn't look so intimidating) we visited the former KGB prison, a Guild Hall turned museum, and a Marzipan Room and café. We saw an old friend, SH, from Minnesota times, at the café. We hadn't seen her for seventeen years - she lives normally in Japan and we in the US, but now she's been spending weeks and months in Tallinn with her students. I love that you can meet old friends and still be so happy to see each other. 

 By the way, SH is looking so good! 

The KGB prison was a sobering place. I know what a terrible leader Stalin was, but this really brought it home. He lived longer than Hitler, so he had more time to murder people than Hitler - his body count is way higher. The Estonians paid a high price for just catching his attention. They lost their freedom for decades, and during those decades all those, who thought differently, were too rich, belonged to a minority Stalin disapproved of or had family members of any of the above, were imprisoned, tortured and carted off to prison camps in Siberia. 

Stalin also moved Russian families into Estonia. They have lived there now for a couple of generations, consider Estonia their home and disapprove of the Russian government, but the tension between the Estonian speakers and Russian speakers is still strong. 

 I loved the Guild Hall museum. It used to belong to the Great Guild - guild of married merchants - in Tallinn. The guilds held tons of power. It all hails back to the Hanseatic League, the Medieval trade organization, of which Tallinn was an important member. WTO from a thousand years ago... 

One thing to remember about Old Town in Tallinn is that it's too walkable. You walk until your legs fall off, you don't even consider anything else. We were a bit dead after the trip. Next time we visit, we should spend a bit of time in places that require trams or buses.