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Baltics trip
Day 13 - 28th May - Tartu, Estonia (Part 1)
This day, we headed to Tartu, a university town.
The first time I'd seen a bathtub - let alone a jacuzzi tub - in a hostel. This was next door to our room.
We walked to the bus terminal early in the morning to take in the sights.
???
1954 building with casino
Faces peeking at you from the basement
They were advertising a sex shop. Meh.
We then had a 2+ hour bus ride.
In Tartu we saw a McDonalds by the bus terminal.
nw.t: The first [Baltic] country that's so advanced it has two McDonalds.
?
Town Hall
We got brochures for a walking tour around Tartu, and embarked on it.
Tartu Coat of Arms
Fountain
Crowd around a mechanical bull
Monument to Field Marshall Barclay de Tolly
The brochure was quite good, so I took some pictures of it to narrate the journey
Statue of Two Wildes: depicting a hypothetical conversation between Oscar Wilde and Eduard Wilde (an Estonian writer, naturally). The building behind had a shop founded by yet another Wilde - Peter Ernst.
House where the peace treaty between Russia and Estonia was signed in 1920. Gah.
We took a detour to visit the KGB Cells Museum, which was in a very unassuming house we had trouble finding (presumably how it was when the KGB used it).
"Free admission: repressed persons and persons equalized to them"
We didn't ask if Singaporeans counted.
Dodgy "changes of population" figures. To impress those who didn't look closely, they included as "losses" people "repressed" by the Soviets/Nazis (whatever that means) and "Children remained unborn" (then again this proves that Abstinence is Murder)
"Nationalization of the Brett's cloths store at Tartu"
Churchill's alleged lies to the Baltics: that he'd hand them over to Sweden
Their excuse for why so many Estonians helped by the Germans (>10,000 enlisted): "In reality the destruction of the Republic of Estonia and the repression of the communist regime were the only reasons for enlisting in Hitler's army" (yeah, conveniently ignoring the other occupied countries)
"Binoculars that belonged to brothers Aksel and Arnold Ojaste; they took them apart and both of them used their respective half"
The last 'forest brother' (resistance fighter) was found shot dead in 1980. You must respect their tenacity.
Corridor of KGB Cells Museum
The Prison Cup - who says there's no Welfare in prison?
"Estonian musicians at the Chunaa camp having a buttbreak"
"Straw incrustation" - this seems to be a term unique to former Soviet republics.
"Straw incrustation is now a rare form of folk art; only some craftsmen are still
working in it" - Snippet from Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia / Volodymyr Kubiĭovych, Shevchenko Scientific Society (1971)
Box made of a mined rock.
"Chinese domino" (1953)
All hail Brezhnev
My Slavery Bunk
Isolation cell
Presumably a dedication
The museum was very bad - the narrative hung in mid-air and was not resolved.
""Cornflower" Memorial" commemorating those who died for Estonia from 1990 to 1994.
I like how it concludes: "God save Estonia, our homeland!"
NB: A Google search for "weeping cornflower" (another name for the above) brings up a Hot amateurs site as the last result.
We then walked up to one of the things I had been looking forward to seeing in Tartu:
Struve Geodetic Arc (DORPAT Tartu Observatory. Tartu, Tartu, Estonia): UNESCO World Heritage Site
Since this is one of the more obscure World Heritage sites, I will say something about it: the various points along the Struve Geodetic Arc mark where the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve took measurements to make better maps and determine the size/shape of the earth. At this place, the observatory of the University of Tartu, Struve got his brainwave.
nw.t and I at UNESCO World Heritage plaque
Observatory. We tried going in but it was deserted.
Dilapidated house from the hill
Estonian Anatomical Museum: House of the Dead both literally and figuratively
Bust of F.R. Faehlmann
More blurbs
Angel's Bridge
Devil's Bridge (no, I'm not joking), erected for the 300th Romanov anniversary
Johan Skytte, some guy importantly enough to feature on a huge rubber stamp but not on our walking tour pamphlet.
Quotes:
What's the weeping cornflower? [nw.t: It's a memorial to all who died from 1940 to 1994] Don't they have enough [memorials]?
