Filed under: Travels and trips, Uncategorized | Tags: door, doors, doorway, Estonia, paint, symmetry
To wrap up Estonia posts, a classic theme. Doorways. Only, there were none to photograph., no doors left open halfway to offer an inquisitive flaneur a sneak peak of the interior. But there were lots of beautifully ornamented and painted doors. Closed. Probaby locked.
I would not want to start making any conclusions about the climate or national character (especially since the latte is a highly problematic concept). So let’s just say that there were no half open doors because otherwise it is impossible to admire their symmetry-based beauty.
Filed under: Travels and trips | Tags: beer, Estonia, free, Hansa, Internet, reunion, Tallinn, Wifi
I couldn’t believe my eyes. I looked at the plasticised flier again and yes, the words were still there. The bus was purling on its little less than 200 km route across the hill-less Estonian countryside. I knew Estonia was high on all thing starting with small “e” and I remember old Tartu was covered by a free public Wifi, but this was really something. Well, at least for me. Free Wifi on the express bus, now that’s cool. With my laptop happily in the bunker of the bus, I doze off in a matter of minutes. When I woke up an hour later, the scenery had hardly changed and after admiring the white and green of birch trees for a few minutes and dozed off again, thinking that my boss might have been right (again) when he commented on the dullness of the landscape. When I arrived, hotel receptionist handed me my room key and a Wifi password – which almost seemed obligatory, not complementary feature :)
Typical sight
On the way back, I was better prepared, my laptop again in the trunk (battery issues) but with a neat batch of printed pages and pen in my lap, which soon proved to be a mighty optimistic reading as obligatory nap crisis hit me some forty kilometers North.
Surprisingly, I got a room with a view :)
Actually, having a nap was a clever thing to do since I was meeting with my summer school ex-roommate whom I managed to lure into catching a ferry from Helsinki with a promise of a beer&chat reunion. Like in the Tartu days, the evening flew by and night too, so we soon found ourselves being politely kicked out of the bar and walking the deserted streets of old town back to the hotel.
Raekoja Plats
On the way to my temporary home.
Well, it was 4 in the morning. An unexpected benefit of it was that the picturesque old Hansa league town was empty - one could really admire the space and buildings since the place was not crowded, as it usually is, with hordes of cruise tourists that are hurdled into town and obediently crowd in groups up and down the place. I shot a few pics but forgot to take one with my roommate :(
Raekoja Plats, breakfast time (well, at least for some of us).
After nice slow breakfast (in Tallinn, it sometimes takes ages to get served, and we are talking beard-growing time here) I made one more round of the old streets in search of two places that I didn’t find, with some pleasant discoveries along the way.
No doorways this time, but that is for another post.
While walls hay have ears, it seems that they can have eyes. And very suspicious ones too. KGB remnants?
Now this is a hip place. Ignore the eatery and head for the bar/concert place.
I still had plenty of time as I arrived to the airport and while scribbling a postcard to my poet friend who regularly sends them to me, I mused on design for a while. AirportAnother thing that I like about Estonia is the abundance of hip places – modern, urban, nicely designed places. Tartu in particular, seemed full of them. Attention to details, such as lamps in restaurants, use of textiles and furniture, or glasses and cups in which they serve coffee for that matter. Or airport.
Relaxing before flight. It is not only a hot design piece of furniture, it actually is very very comfy.
Filed under: Travels and trips | Tags: dragons, Estonia, facade, flaneur, scisors, sign, statues, Tartu, theory of photography, window
Of course, not all of my walks were nostalgic and I soon let myself take on my usual post-modern flaneur pose. Old Tartuis picturesque and small, so it is both explorable and manageable. Both of which come in handy if you have a bit less than three days to spend there. And if you need a rest, some of the cafes alone would be worth a trip.
Guardian dragons - old time and new school.
One of the things that struck me again was how green the town is, parks, residential areas lined with trees etc. I’m aware that there are probably parts of town where shadows are not cast by trees but by lines of concrete apartment blocks, but they are not all over the place. What you do see are little signs of decay, an occasional run down building, peeled of facade and similar, but it is not the kind of gloomy decay, not the kind I tried to convey in my post on Senj. It is the one that at least to me promises optimism, possibilities awaiting proper people or better times. But still, promising.
Headed home.
Theoretical writings on photography routinely start off by emphasising that photos are not transparent windows onto reality. They rarely visualise this point.
Estonians appear to have a thing for sculptures. I remember noticing that the first time around. Some are nice, some a bit… hmm…lets just say “specific”.
Polishing of some sculptures is a hand job done on volunteer basis. Of course you noticed which parts are most shiny :) :)
Though I prefer the famous kissing statue, seems such nice and optimistic thing to put on main square.
Filed under: Travels and trips | Tags: ECREA, Estonia, friends, friendship, summer, summer school, Tartu
See you in Tartu? Hmmm. I spent a large part of previous week in a semi-nostalgic mode. The setting has hardly changed. The context was the same. Only the people I hanged out with, were not.
Theme of the day - reflections.
Grasswire oldtimers might recall that two years ago I attended a summer school for doctoral students of communiation in Estonia. This year I returned to the scene of a crime as a lecturer. Which was fun. But a diffrent sort of fun.
Some faces were missed.
As I strolled again through the cobble stone paved streets of Taru I could not help but think about the times we spent there and the deep friendships that were formed within those two weeks. Strange kind of bonds were formed between complete strangers, the ones that make us travel across Europe to attend parties and conferences, or really regret missing an opportunity to be at one of the mini reunions, and spending time on Facebook in between, cheering each other during frequent outbursts of intellectual crisis.
Shadows of the past?
Must admit I’m a bit prone to nostalgia and had cultivated the feeling while strolling but luckily, Tartu has a really small center, the dinner was scheduled for eight and I had a mini reunion planned with my ex roommate in two days.
No, not shadows, shades of the past.
Filed under: Travels and trips | Tags: Adriatic, Croatia, football, mouse, Pirates, Senj, swearing, swearwords, Uskoki
The pirates were nowhere to be seen and apart from fortress, the old town showed it had been through better days. At first, the town looked a bit sleepy, but after a few days, we realised there was perhaps a better word for Senj’s sleepiness.
Numbness. It is not something that looms above the horizon, or depresses you while you are there, but it lingers somewhere in the air, somewhat discretely, and waits to be discovered. The town’s industry collapsed and if it wasn’t for the tourism, it would probably turn into one of those gloomy post-socialism/post-war/post-privatised economy outposts. But it is not. What you can see is that it will not be able to materialise the potential it has, at least not anytime soon. In Senj, the decay that makes little Adriatic towns so picturesque, is stripped of its romanticism like some of its grandest buildings of their facades. No mysteries or charm behind the cracks, just decay.
Odd graffitti
But I don’t really want to ramble on about the men-only clientele of local bars that sits around in the mornings, drinking more than just a coffee before lunch and talks about football scores and football-related glory days stories all morning. If there is something piratish in these modern-day Uskoki, it is the frequency of swearing when they speak. But then again, one should also consider the swear-words they are using.
10:30. Temporary out of office, you know where to find me. Every day.
The most frequent one – and it was one I haven’t heard for a while, was: “Jebo te miš.” Literal translation: “May the mouse fuck you”. There are other variations, such as “Fucked a mouse” (jebo miša). In spite appearances, it is not a strong swearword and is used instead of phrases like “damn”, “I’ll be damned”, that’s terrible” or similar. Or just casually slipped into conversation. Like in “May the mouse fuck you, have you read the article on…”. Not your typical pirate talk, huh?
Filed under: Life in general, Travels and trips | Tags: Adriatic, Croatia, Johny Depp, museum, Pirates, sea, Senj
Back from the former capital of the notorious pirates of the Adriatic. Jack Sparrow? Pha, a pussy to the bandits of Senj. Well, at least if one can trust the jingoistic texts displayed in the local fortress. Though the museum would be advised to model the manequin heads after Johny Depp. Or at least reduce them by a third of their current, unflatering and questionable size. More on this later.
If Senj is known for one thing, it is the strong Northern winds.
Look
If eyes are windows to the soul and windows are eyes of the building, what are the curtains?
Our room with a view.
