Estonia’s path to independence

Posted on July 19, 2012 by Kathryn

Today was focused on learning about the country's busy history so I went to the Occupation Museum which touches on the German occupation and primary addresses Estonia under the Soviets.

 

The one room museum held countless small artifacts from the country and capital city since the early twentieth century.

 

A secret peep hole used by the Soviets to spy. The looking glass is large enough on one side but virtually invisible on the other side.

 

Statues and busts that were once located throughout the city.

 

The real draw was the series of seven documentaries, each around thirty minutes, featuring interviews and actual footage from events over the past eighty years.

 

Here's an extremely abbreviated version of Estonia's history as I understood it from the documentary series and other artifacts. Any inaccuracies here are my own.

  • After secretly signing the Non-Aggression Pact with Germany in 1939, the Soviets establish a military presence in Estonia under the forcibly imposed Pact of Mutual Assistance.
  • The Soviets occupy Estonia and absorb the nation into the USSR in August 1940.
  • Germany takes Tallinn in August 1941, kicking out the Soviets and beginning their own occupation.
  • In September 1944, the Soviets return to once again occupy Estonia.
  • Estonians face massive waves of deportation, arrests, censorship, and general terror under Stalin.
  • After Stalin's death in 1953, a slightly increased level of economic innovation is tolerated and repression becomes somewhat less harsh.
  • From the mid 1950s to late 1960s, life stabilizes for Estonians.
  • Economic decline and food shortages make life much harder for Estonians from the late 1960s until the late 1980s.
  • Though the KGB remains active, Estonians are generally less fearful of overt violence from the state and begin to protest in the 1980s.
  • Estonians learn of the secret Non-Aggression Pact for the first time in 1987, sparking demonstrations.
  • The Soviets react with violence as Latvians and Lithuanians call for independence. Meanwhile, Estonians spontaneously gather at the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds waving their forbidden national flag for four days in June 1988 to call for their own independence, earning the nickname “The Singing Revolution.” (There's a great documentary called “The Singing Revolution” which paints a much more fascinating and thorough picture of the final years leading to independence.)
  • Estonia holds a referendum where 80% of the population votes in support of independence.
  • Massive rocks and boulders block Tallinn's main streets as the Soviets try to cut off supplies to the capital city in January 1991. The Soviets withdraw peacefully.
  • Yeltsin acknowledges political independence of the Baltic states and Estonia earns full independence on August 20, 1991.

 

Today, one of the huge rocks that once blocked Tallinn's roads sits on a corner in a quiet green park just up the street from the Occupation Museum.

 

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Tallinn, Estonia

Posted on July 16, 2012 by Kathryn

Before I arrived in Estonia, I knew that I knew almost nothing about this country. I knew this is where Skype was invented, that former pro cyclist Jaan Kirsipuu hails from here, and that it was once part of the USSR. After one full day just wandering around Tallinn's Old Town, I am starting to understand just how much I don't know.

 

Estonia is one of those countries that has been passed around between its neighbors like cheap Tupperware. During the last five hundred years, Estonia has been constantly invaded or occupied by Denmark, Poland, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. And when this small country wasn't already occupied or invaded, it seems like it was fighting off would be invaders and occupiers.

 

The city of Tallinn was founded when the nearby hill fort of Iru was abandoned after being the prime defense for locals from the sixth to eleventh centuries. The people relocated to a hill that sat upon a limestone cliff on the Baltic Sea and laid the foundations for Tallinn.

 

One of the oldest standing buildings is a tower called Kiek en de Kök (“peek in the kitchen” in Low German) because from its height, soldiers could see into kitchens across town. At one time, thirty six towers and gate towers existed along the city's wall, of which twenty one survive completely in tact today, plus a few more that have partially survived. The original construction of Kiek en de Kök lasted from 1475-1483 and it reached a height of thirty eight meters. Today the tower stands just shy of fifty meters tall and each of its six floors houses a different exhibit, including weapons, armor, torture devices and, of course, a cafe.

 

Connected to the towers is a series of three underground tunnels built under Swedish occupation. The tunnels were meant to store armor and weapons in the late 1600s but have played many roles over the last several hundred years. One piece of simple technology that stayed with me was a bowl of water sitting on the floor beneath two candles. A soldier was tasked with watching the water. If the water moved at all, it was from the vibrations of an invading army and meant that war was breaking out.

 

One of the times Russia occupied the city, Catherine the Great used the tunnels as a prison. She had a seventy one year old archbishop imprisoned in a closet sized cell in the wall. Except for a small opening where soldiers would give him food, the cell was completely bricked up. After he had survived these dark, damp conditions for four years, Catherine the Great ordered her soldiers to no longer feed the archbishop and he died of starvation.

 

When the Soviets bombed Tallinn in March of 1944, civilians took refuge in the tunnels. The tunnels survived undamaged, but the echoes and reverberations from the relentless bombing must have absolutely terrified the people as they imagined what was happening to their loved ones and city. They left the tunnels to find almost six hundred dead, another six hundred injured, and the city devastated.

 

In the 1980s, punks used the tunnels as a place to meet and listen to music without fear of the police. Even though it was forbidden to go in the tunnels, the police were not interested in chasing teenagers in dark, rat infested tunnels.

 

From the 1990s onward, homeless people moved in the tunnels. The temperature stayed a consistent 8-12 degrees celsius year round, a significant improvement from Tallinn's harsh winters. Each chamber had metal doors separating it from the next. In 2004, thieves entered the tunnels at night and stole every piece of metal. It was only because the homeless got scared and locked one of the last doors that a Soviet ventilation system from the 1950s has been preserved.

 

Above ground, I spent the day exploring the Old Town. I visited the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, a typical Russian style church complete with onion domes. The interior is richly decorated with patterns and designs painted on the walls and pillars, an ornate, gold altar piece, and high arched ceilings.

 

In stark contrast to the glitzy interior of Alexander Nevsky Cathedral is the Cathedral of St. Mary the Virgin. It's also known as Dome Church, which initially confused me as there is in fact no dome here, until I learned dome comes from a corruption of the German word for cathedral. The interior is stark and serious with dark coat of arms type pieces hanging on the austere walls.

 

I visited Fat Margaret, the sixteenth century tower connected to the Great Coast Gate which leads to the port. It's clear enough that the tower is squat and fat, but this makes me wonder how it got the name Margaret and if any of the other towers have names. Steve, perhaps?

 

As I passed by St. Olaf's Church, I noticed people standing at the top of the tower so I headed in, hoping to find a great view of the city. Sixty meters and 258 winding steps later, the entire city of Tallinn lay beneath my feet. I had a clear view of Old Town, the modern city, and the Baltic Sea.

 

Inside, the thirteenth century church is one of the few that allows photos. The interior was plain but elegant.

 

As I stepped back on to the street, I nearly fell over as my eyes tried to find the tip of the spire! Instead, Thanks to the narrow streets, it looked like the building across the street was sneaking up on me.

 

The town square and castle-like town hall.

 

The monument to Estonia's war of independence which lasted fom 1918 to 1920.

 

Toompea Castle is the home of Estonia's parliament.

 

St. Nicholas Cathedral.

 

No shortage of architecture to admire in Tallinn's Old Town.

 

 

 

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Scotland miscellaneous

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Kathryn

A few unorganized recollections of Scotland.

Being so far north, especially in Turriff, the sun didn't set until well after 10:30 pm. This was novel and exciting the first night, but was less appealing just a few hours later when I was up with the sun at 4:00 am. In this photo, it's 4:16 am. (The last time I experienced so much daylight was in Antarctica and there we had heavy duty blinds!)

 

We had great fun using Scottish expressions and phrases we found in the Scottish-English dictionary my cousin bought, including the word “coo” for “cow.” In 1913, a farmer from outside Turriff refused to pay Lloyd George's National Insurance Stamp and the subsequent fine, so the local sheriff impounded one of his cows to be publicly auctioned. On the day of the auction, the town was crowded with spectators and, in the melee, the cow escaped and the farmer was charged with breaching the peace (which was later dropped)! The cow was later recovered and sold in Aberdeen before locals bought it and returned the cow back to its home farm. The cow, with the words, “Free!! Divn't ye wish ye were me,” was then paraded around town before 4,000 people. Today this statue adorns the center of Turriff as a reminder of the famous “Turra Coo.” Leave it to the Scots to get so worked up over a cow.

 

The Turra Coo is a tough act to follow, so it's lucky that the Market Monument is five hundred years old as of 2012. Twice a year farm owners used to gather here to hire farm hands for a term of six months. The monument is slated to be restored this year as it also commemorates when Turriff became an official town.

 

We toured a Whisky distillery in Turriff. The fumes from the mash alone were overpowering. I can now cross Whisky distiller off my list of possible jobs. At the end of the tour, the guide offered to pour everyone a sample. I asked for the tiniest sample possible just to smell. It nearly knocked my socks off! How my grandparents drank this stuff at their daily happy hour I'll never understand!

 

Here my cousin explains how to dress appropriately for walking in rural Scotland.

 

I was really impressed by the Georgian architecture of Edinburgh. The buildings were mostly somber grays and tired browns but there was a surprising amount of variety in the windows, the facades, the brickwork, and other details to make up for the limited color palette.

 

I've already mentioned that we got soaked seeing my grandma's house on Edinburgh. Unfortunately, Scotland is not known for its fabulous weather and while we were in town, the city got a full month's worth of rain in just two days!

 

Since I'm used to staying in budget hostels when I travel, I love to explore proper hotels from to to bottom. Lucky for me, The Scotsman had plenty of floors, unlocked conference rooms, hallways and marble staircases for my cousin and I to check out. We stumbled upon this creepy coffee table in a dimly lit deserted lounge one night and it absolutely weirded us out. You sure don't find furniture like this in hostels.

 

If you haven't seen it yet, there's a hilarious fake iPhone ad featuring a Scotsman talking to Siri on his iPhone 4. Siri can't understand his Scottish accent and Scotish-isms as he asks for a chip patty, a jammy dodger, and a pint. He grows more frustrated and angry by the second, yelling at Siri who rattles off useless responses. Of course, this meant my cousin, who can do a perfect Scottish accent, recited the commercial multiple times a day, sending us into an inevitable fit of hysterics. At the grocery store, she found a packet of Jammie Dodgers and bought it for me as a surprise.

 

This leads me to all of the other foods we tried in Scotland. Other than shortbread, which I absolutely love, everything else was god awful!

 

(Please note that we looked for deep fried Mars bars but couldn't find them anywhere! I also tried repeatedly to persuade my cousin to try haggis but for some reason she stubbornly refused.)

 

And finally, here's the trailer for my family's trip to Scotland, affectionately nicknamed The Ah Jings Tour.

 

 

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More Edinburgh

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Kathryn

Edinburgh Castle is surrounded by a cliff in three sides and the fourth side is reached by climbing uphill and entering a narrow gate. Scottish kings and queens reigned from here in centuries past. The Scottish Crown Jewels are on display, though they haven't been worn in a coronation ceremony for hundreds of years. St. Margaret's Chapel is the oldest building on the castle grounds, dating back to the twelfth century. The WWII Memorial names all Scott's who died in the first and second world wars.

 

It was a typically foggy day, so we didn't have the clearest view of the city from the castle but we did learn the origin of the expression “bang on time.” Historically, many cities fired a cannon or shot a gun at precisely noon every day to alert citizens and vessels of the correct time. Upon hearing the bang, you were then able to be on time.

 

We had hoped to enter Holyrood Palace but as it's still an active royal residence, the Queen's plans to visit Holyrood superseded ours and we had to satisfy ourselves with standing outside the closed gate. Watching a building from behind a gate gets boring pretty quickly so we started to wonder aloud who the people were who confidently strode up to the gate and were allowed in. Gawking also lost its charm, so we carried on our way.

 

The one upside to the Queen being in residence was that she had a garden party the day we arrived in town and everywhere we looked we saw men decked out in their traditional kilts. I thought it was a little rude of the Queen to not invite us but I'm sure it was just an innocent oversight.

 

Every day we walked past St. Giles Cathedral on the Royal Mile at least two or three times, so we finally went inside to check it out. The interior had plenty of lovely statues, stained glass, and ceiling arches.

 

We walked along Prince Street, found Jenner's Department Store, saw the Scott Monument and one or two other spots my mom and aunt recalled from their childhood Scotland trip and our grandparents' stories.

 

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Edinburgh

Posted on July 12, 2012 by Kathryn

With my aunt, cousin, and mom, I boarded the train from Aberdeen to Edinburgh. The ride lasted just a few hours and was scenic. We traveled past cute villages, the shore, and more rolling green hills with low stone walls and sheep (or cattle!) than you can imagine.

 

In Edinburgh, we planned to see more recent family history but we made a quick detour through the Royal Botanic Garden first.

 

From the garden, we walked to the home of my paternal great-grandparents. When my mom and aunt were kids, they came with their parents to Scotland once and stayed here. I've heard my mom and aunt tell stories from that trip: how the front garden was so massive; the phone booth was incredibly far from the house; the field across the street was so big, it took forever to run across. They had to laugh at their own childhood impressions: the front garden was about four paces deep and four paces wide; the phone booth was just on the corner, one house away; the field was no bigger than a soccer pitch. Still, it was great to see where my grandpa grew up and watch my aunt and mom reminisce.

 

It was a good long walk, but we made it to my grandma's house. The weather had been surprisingly cooperative thus far, which meant that the clouds absolutely hammered us with rain as we approached the house. While we had lingered at my grandpa's house, here we snapped a quick photo and looked for the nearest taxi. We were totally drenched and, more importantly, my mom and aunt hadn't spent any time here on their childhood trip to Scotland. It was more to put a place with the stories their mother had told them.

 

Predictably, the downpour stopped just moments before we got in the taxi. We returned to our hotel to change into dry clothes. We were staying at The Scotsman, a gorgeous hotel that had been a newspaper office during my grandparents' youth. My grandma had worked here in the telegraph office during WWII so to us this felt like a more important landmark in her life than her house.

 

That night we went on the City of the Dead walking tour of town where we got a quick overview of the city's history before entering the underground tunnels once populated by Edinburgh's homeless. It was pitch black down there and the dripping water echoed off the stone walls, making it the perfect place for a few choice ghost stories. Most famous is the South Bridge Entity who leaves a calling card in the form of three equally spaced scratches on your body. We survived unscathed (although for the rest of the night my aunt referred to the South Bridge Entity as the South Beach Entity, making me picture a dieter who has finally snapped) and emerged to find Edinburgh shroud in the thickest fog I've ever seen in a city.

 

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Delgatie Castle, Scotland

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Kathryn

It's not every day that you visit your family's former castle so the four of us were really looking forward to it. I scribbled about sixteen pages of notes during our visit, but I'll spare you the minute details and give you the highlights instead.

Delgatie Castle is on the edge of Turriff in northeast Scotland. Construction has taken place over centuries but the oldest structure dates back to about 1049. The main part is from 1579 and significant additions happened in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries.

 

The Hay clan, which has absorbed the Delgatie clan, owned the castle from the early fourteenth century until the late nineteenth century. Captain John Hay was the last owner of the castle. He bought the castle and its 550 acres for £1,800 shortly after his first visit in 1949. At the time, the castle was in such a state of disrepair that architects insisted it was beyond saving. Captain Hay ignored them and began restoring the castle himself. He put in his own touches along the way, like adding his name and his wife's name to the decorative gate outside. Before his death, he set up a charitable trust which today oversees the castle.

 

The castle is a hodgepodge in terms of architecture and the artifacts on display. Most rooms have a written explanation of its items and any interesting features of the room itself. These explanations were all written by Captain Hay. I got the impression he was rather taken with himself so there may be a two paragraph story behind a mounted rhino head or a detailed description of an enormous portrait of him and his wife gifted by the French government but no mention whatsoever of a room's purpose or history. We certainly wondered about some of the glaring gaps in his history. For example, I'm curious to know why my ancestors were apparently quite taken with unicorns.

 

Mary Queen of Scots stayed at the castle in 1562 for three nights after the Battle of Corraiche. While the castle's chapel was being restored, they discovered a portrait of Mary Queen of Scots. It is one of just nine portraits known to exist of her (visible in the photo immediately below on the far right).

 

In 1912, a young girl named Rachel who lived in the castle dreamed there was a skeleton in the wall. Her parents indulged her and dug into a wall, finding a skeleton in a crouched position with pieces of black cloth. It is thought the skeleton is of Joseph Hay, a monk at the time of The Reformation. He refused to flee to France as many others did and stayed at home, thereby allowing his family to continue practicing Catholicism. Upon his death, he could not be buried outside so his family would have had to bury him in the wall. Since his remains were exposed, there were many reports of his ghost haunting the castle until a priest eventually came and preformed an exorcism.

 

During World War II, the military used the castle as a barracks. Men claimed to have seen the ghost of a red headed woman in one particular room. The woman's name was Rohaise and family legend claims she helped defend the castle against the Danes during the Battle of Luncarty in 973. This is an example of a lapse in Captain Hay's history: in the room, Rohaise appears wearing a wedding dress but there is no explanation of why this is.

 

While Captain Hay was busy restoring the castle, he arranged a suite of two room for the Dauphine de Bourbon et les deux Ceciles, thinking it was for the prince and his two sisters (both of whom he must have believed were named Cecile?!). It turns out there were no sisters as the prince's full title was, unusually, Bourbon et les deux Ceciles.

 

Though noticeably worn, the staircase is exceptionally wide at over five feet.

 

We had a cozy lunch in the tea room.

 

The estate once measured 32,500 acres but most of the land has been sold off over time. We didn't see all 550 of the remaining acres but we did explore the grounds and its lovely, small pond with water lilies.

 

 

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The Tower of London

Posted on July 11, 2012 by Kathryn

On one side, my family is Scottish and despite the amount of travel we all do, none of us had been to see our family roots in decades. My mom decided to rectify this and organized a week long trip to London and Scotland for me, my aunt, cousin, and herself.

 

At my request, we went to see the Tower of London. It's one of my favourite London spots: I love its gruesome history! We joined a beefeater's tour and he did not disappoint. He definitely reveled in sharing all the bloody and gory details.

 

We heard about numerous executions, including the tale of James Scott. Legend has it that the executioner botched the job and it took five messy swings of the axe to decapitate poor Scott. As was standard practice at the time, his head was then placed on a pike on Tower Bridge as a warning of the fate awaiting anyone with treasonous leanings who entered London. At this point, someone realized that Scott, though illegitimate, was still in fact royalty and as no portrait of him existed, one was immediately commissioned. His head was sewn back on his body and the artist was given a short time to paint a royal portrait. The beefeater continued to explain that the artist put a large ruffled collar on Scott, though his face had a rather detached look (groan…). The portrait today can be found in the National Portrait Gallery. Or can it? A later trip to the National Portrait Gallery with the sole intent of seeking this portrait revealed the truth: the beefeater's tale was pure myth! There is in fact a portrait of James Scott, Duke of Manmouth and Buccleuch, painted by Jan Van Wyck circa 1675 at the 1673 Seige of Maastricht. Scott is very much alive in this painting and was eventually executed according to the orders of King James II after Scott lead the Manmouth Rebellion of 1685. The portrait that was once believed to be Scott is now thought to have been painted in the 1640s and portrays a very pale, sickly man wearing a fair sized collar on his deathbed. Still, the beefeater told the legend beautifully.

 

We checked out the rest of the sights at the Tower.

Tower Bridge, presently adorned with Olympic rings and not decapitated heads.

 

The Crown Jewels.

 

The first building of the Tower of London, dating back to 1078.

 

The guards.

 

The gate where prisoners were brought to the Tower.

 

 

 

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Special deliveries #3, 4, 5, & 6: Toronto

Posted on July 5, 2012 by Kathryn

Loading my friend’s baby in the car, the three of us drove to the Greek neighborhood of Danforth to deliver my first Toronto-bound Galapagos postcard. I got really excited that someone might be home when I saw people in the yard, but they turned out to be working on the house, so I left the postcard in the mailbox and hopped back in the car.

 

The next postcard brought us to the ritzy neighborhood of Rosedale. We had a great time peeking at the massive homes behind closed gates and shrubbery fences. In fact, this particular house was so large that I actually got kind of lost just looking for the front door! No one was home other than the gardeners, so after peering in the window one last time (both to check for signs of life and out of pure curiosity), I dropped the postcard in the mailbox and headed back to the car.

 

I was feeling optimistic that I might finally get to meet the recipient of one of these postcards face to face with this next one. It was actually a business card so I hoped to catch the guy in his office. Of course, he happened to be out when I arrived but I left the card and my email address with the secretary who was most excited to hear that I had carried her colleague’s business card through nine South American countries and across the United States for four months before bringing it to their downtown office.

 

This last postcard for Toronto took me to an urban apartment building. When I explained why I was there, the doorman seemed to think it was a little odd that a stranger would schlepp someone else’s mail for so long and so far, but he was kind enough to let me in the building and together we maneuvered the postcard into the recipients’ mailbox.

 

That’s the end of my deliveries for Canada!

 

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