Wednesday, December 10, 2008

"You know, you can't please all the people all the time... and last night, all those people were at my show." - Mitch Hedberg

***

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.


?


NAMBLA Statue Isa ja Poeg, Father and Son (1977), depicting the author (sic) and his 1.5-year old son Kristjan. Ironically it was unveiled on Children's Protection Day: June 1, 2004


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 KubiÄ­ovych, 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]?
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