Tal­linn

Report - Estonia’s Han­sea­tic City Tal­linn

Con­tents

Note: This is tem­po­r­a­ri­ly only an auto­ma­tic trans­la­ti­on.

Estonia’s Han­sea­tic City Tal­linn

In autumn 2012 we stay­ed with 2 col­le­agues in → Esto­nia. A col­le­ague had its ori­gin here and had to lea­ve with the dis­in­te­gra­ti­on of the Soviet Uni­on its home 1990.

We visi­ted some beau­tiful sta­ti­ons in the small coun­try - up to the natio­nal bor­der at the Rus­si­an encla­ve → Kali­nin­grad. We also dro­ve over the Fin­nish sea bus by fer­ry to Hel­sin­ki. Tal­linn, howe­ver, remain­ed very spe­cial to us. It is the only Han­sea­tic city on the Bal­tic Sea that has almost com­ple­te­ly pre­ser­ved its medieval cha­rac­ter and ori­gi­nal, urban core.

Tal­linn - The medieval metro­po­lis in the north-west of Euro­pe
Estland-Reise
Hanse-Flair in Tal­linn

→ Tal­linn is Estonia’s capi­tal and loca­ted direct­ly on the Bal­tic Sea in the Fin­nish Gulf. The city is the only Han­sea­tic city pre­ser­ved in this regi­on in the eas­tern part of the Bal­tic Sea, and has been endo­wed with num­e­rous archi­tec­tu­ral monu­ments dating back to the 14th cen­tu­ry.

At the end of Sep­tem­ber, at the begin­ning of Octo­ber - even befo­re the nights of the win­ter were hard­ly noti­ceable - we visi­ted the city and its coun­try. The ori­gi­nal mixed forests were alre­a­dy dipped in colorful autumn colors. The pla­ne from Ams­ter­dam needs about 2 hours to get the­re.

Chan­ging histo­ry of the city was cha­rac­te­ri­zed by chan­ging guilds. Tallinn’s medieval ambi­ence and archi­tec­tu­re are pro­ba­b­ly best pre­ser­ved among the metro­po­li­tan cities in the Bal­tics. The famous old town has been a world cul­tu­ral heri­ta­ge sin­ce 1997. This is Tallinn’s strength. One is awa­re of this. Many peo­p­le live here.

High tech­no­lo­gy is also loca­ted here. The Sky­pe com­pa­ny Sky­pe has its ori­gin and head­quar­ters in Tal­linn. Edu­ca­ti­on, rese­arch, com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on and infra­struc­tu­re are very much in the pro­cess of being deve­lo­ped and are alre­a­dy at a hig­her level than in the cen­ter of Euro­pe. An exam­p­le of this is a large-area public WLAN net­work (Wi-Fi), not only in Tal­linn.

Tal­linn is some­ti­mes refer­red to as the Sili­con Val­ley of the East. The WTC buil­ding in the cen­ter of Tal­linn is tes­tim­o­ny to Esto­ni­an world open­ness, but also the omi­nous histo­ry of a World Trade Cen­ter in ano­ther part of the world.

As a resi­dent of Tal­linn you do not pay for tram or bus tickets. This is what the many tou­rists from all over the world do. The high­ly fre­quen­ted public trans­port sys­tem thus sub­stan­ti­al­ly reli­e­ves the traf­fic in the city. The­re are sepa­ra­te bus or far-distance bus­ses in the city area, which are blo­cked for other vehic­les.

Good neigh­bor­line­ss is main­tai­ned in Tal­linn with the Fin­nish capi­tal Hel­sin­ki. Every day, the 80 km of sea stret­ches across the Fin­nish sea bus pass seve­ral thousand pro­fes­sio­nal tra­ve­lers, tou­rists, but also alco­hol mes­sen­gers with who­le tra­vel bags full of liqu­or. The fer­ries arri­ve and depart every hour.

The Fin­nish and Esto­ni­an have, tog­e­ther with the Hun­ga­ri­an, a Scprach­ver­band. The­se lan­guages belong to the Finno-Ugric branch of the ura­lic lan­guage fami­ly. The best thing to do is to talk to the young peo­p­le in Eng­lish (who pre­do­mi­na­te­ly con­trol the majo­ri­ty) or the elder­ly in the sou­thern and eas­tern parts of the coun­try in Rus­si­an. In Tal­linn one does not like to hear the Rus­sich.

Also the Ger­man lan­guage is not unknown here. Back­ground is the Ger­man histo­ry of the city.

In Tal­linn, rustic, his­to­ric cel­lar pubs invi­te you to relax. At some restau­rants you can fish your capi­ta­le sal­mon trout yours­elf and get them smo­ked, pre­pared and ser­ved. We like the Esto­ni­an cui­sine. We will not miss the sixty-five Euro bear steak. Only, the Rus­si­an → Sol­jan­ka can not be so here. Saku is a local, very spi­cy, dark, tas­teful beer.

And other­wi­se? Striking are nice, coming peo­p­le ever­y­whe­re. Dif­fe­rent natio­na­li­ties, cul­tures and reli­gi­ons speak and live tog­e­ther. The Soviet past can not be denied eit­her.

Sai­ling har­bor and long bea­ches invi­te visi­tors and visi­tors in the sum­mer. In 1980 the sai­ling com­pe­ti­ti­ons took place at the Olym­pic Games in the Soviet Uni­on.

The coun­try is wide open with much untouch­ed natu­re - in the woods with moo­se and bears - rare­ly a small sett­le­ment. The few motor­ways run along many kilo­me­ters from west to east and north to south. EU funds have made them pos­si­ble. Lar­ge stret­ches of the rou­te are left alo­ne the­re and feel libe­ra­ting as in the end­less expan­ses of Fin­land or Rus­sia.

In the capi­tal, but also in the who­le coun­try, the­re are many wort­hwhile excur­si­on desti­na­ti­ons. See also → Tal­linn - The medieval metro­po­lis in the north east of Euro­pe.

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