"I want to see the world. I want sunshine and skyscrapers; languages I don't understand; music I've never hear before."
That is a quote from one of my favourite films in recent years - namely, Sunshine on Leith. When I first watched the film I scoffed at how cliché that line was but I've thought about it a bit and found that the truth is that is accurately describes how I feel about traveling. The fact that it is said with a beautiful Scottish accent sends familiar tingles down my spine - a familiarity which makes me long for the unfamiliar. It is with this mindset that I set out on my most recent trip to Europe.
My next seven posts are going to be about each city that I visit, providing small snapshots into an experience that I'm never going to forget. The first stop was Tallinn a little under two weeks ago and it went a little like this...
I've never been much of a 'yes man'. I have lost count of the number of times over the last four or five years when I have missed the chance to do something potentially really exciting. Last year, however, I (eventually) said 'yes' to going to a summer school in Salzburg - lots of you know this already! In my two weeks there I met lots of interesting people, with the Scottish and Estonian groups finding a startling amount of common ground despite the span of continent lying between our borders. We would meet again some day, but I wasn't sure where or when.
Then my friend and I started planning this trip and the first city on the list was the Estonian capital, Tallinn - no questions asked. The four days that we spent in that great city were amazing and here is why.
First off, Tallinn is a beautiful city. The Old Town, where we were based, is something to behold, with the New Town providing a contrast that few places I've ever been before manage to provide. This is a city with a mixed history, but one which today presents itself as forward thinking and vibrant. In this sense, Tallinn is not only attractive because of its looks, but also because of its guile - a capital which provides an apt outward face to a country which I have come to learn a lot about over the last year.
You could be a tourist in Tallinn very easily and enjoy it a lot. Personally I was only a 'tourist' in the true sense for about 30% of my time in Tallinn, because the rest of my stay was absorbed by the wonderful, and indeed touching, hospitality of our friends from Salzburg. The people I was unsure when I would see again, welcomed us into their city and their country with warm smiles and open arms. This is something I will never forget and hope to one day reciprocate if and when they come to Scotland.
So not only is Tallinn a special city in its own right, its people are special as well. I have been looking for a single word to describe my time in Estonia and I believe I might just have found it: special. I had experiences I never could have dreamed of having and saw a different side to a city from its average visitor. I hope to see more of the country one day, with the city of Tartu being of particular personal interest. In other words, I will be back one day Estonia - I will be.
To finish this post, which has told you nothing yet everything about a country and its people, I would like to say thank you again to those friends - both old and new - who made my time in Tallinn so special. During my short stay I was made to feel at home in a country which is in many ways different from my own. I was given (some) sunshine, a few skyscrapers, a language that I (still!) don't understand and music I've never heard before. Mission accomplished Tallinn - tänan väga!
Riga next. Thanks for reading.
Martin
