Ben Haines

You asked about sleepers, and the one I took from Vilnius to Tallinn was a standard sleeper of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a 4-berth compartment sold for 2-berth use, and in fact I had it to myself. This coach was a spanking new issue, made perhaps the year before, and it acknowledged change by having a simple water boiler for perpetual service of tea and coffee, not the splendid brass samovar of old. Clearly that was asll the innovation they thought we customers could stand, so I had the traditional lace curtains on the window, and Azerbaijani carpet on the floor.<BR><BR>We drew into Tallinn about six in the morning, I took a taxi, used an ATM, and drove up to the noblemen’s hill and to the restaurant with guest rooms where I was to stay. Trouble: nobody there, and opening time at noon. So I asked a grandmotherly souvenir seller (she sells Communist badges for sixty US cents each) to use her mobile phone for a taxi, and drove down to the old town, where I indulged in a 12 US dollar breakfast with all the trimmings, bought an elastoplast (bandaid) for a sore toe at a fifteenth century –pharmacy, and walked ten minutes to the edge of the old town, where I took an hour’s bus tour of the outer city, including a stop to walk into the great folksong festival arena. You asked about song in Estonia: here year by year they sang of freedom, and the Russians felt it unsafe to stop them. In summer 1991, when people of the Baltic states formed a human chain from Tallinn to Vilnius they stood there along the road singing. There followed an hour’s walking tour of the gothic old town. Then to the museum of the history of Tallinn, well set out, with explanations in Estonian and English. That was my last museum of my stay, as I had (deliberately) landed at mid-summer, a national holiday. From where Id left my bag at the posh hotel with a 12 dollar breakfast to my restaurant and rooms was 300 meters, straight up a set of gothic stairs, so I felt too mean to use a taxi, and started walking, suitcase, walking stick, and all. At the foot of the stone stairs a man aged about 45 asked whether he could carry my case for me. He looked fit, he meant it, and I said yes. We chatted about the Estonian economy as he laboured up the stairs, and at the top he said “This is my house. I am the German Ambassador. Won’t you come in ?”. Our talk had reached a particularly interesting point, and what could I say but yes ? A manservant let us in, we sat in the sun, he offered coffee which I declined (there are limits even to my intrusion), and he introduced his wife. The most striking thing he said in quite a talk was that he did not think he was, the word I used, “helping” Estonia into the European Union, but “working together” with them. I said I’d been all night on a train and needed my bed. He said so did they: his wife and he had spent the four hours of darkness at a song festival, which they had enjoyed but left them short on sleep.<BR><BR>I went to my room, slept, popped out for supper, and slept a blissfully deep night.<BR><BR>Ben Haines, in Riga

Judy

Sorry I missed this one before posting on "Tallinn 11".<BR><BR>It was very touching to read about the 2 million human chains singing for freedom. Among all the violence,perhaps there is still hope yet.<BR><BR>Could you share the discussion about their economy? From what I read,they seem doing quite well?<BR><BR>US$12 for breakfast??!! I heard it's getting expensive to travel in Baltic Regions,but not that steep! What shall be the budget for a comfortable B&B?<BR>

Ben Haines

<BR>They are doing very well indeed, but I forgot to ask how they make their money.<BR><BR>Normal breakfast in a caf&eacute;, with an omlette, is 3 or 4 US dollars. My room in the Toompea restaurant cost me forty dollars a night. The place I blued 12 dollars was at the top end.<BR><BR>Ben Haines<BR>

ttt

topping, for fans of Ben<BR>

topper

to the top