So today I walked around Tallinn all day. I had breakfast in a place recommended in my Hostel. Not bad. Then I walked around an older part of town. I saw some old battleships, a prison (more on this later) and many soviet era buildings. It was a real contrast to the newer section of town I saw on the way from the bus stop, in the a modern clean section of town, to where I am staying in the Old Town, which is touristy and historical. I also walked through the "Russian Market," a weird flea market type place with lots of cheap used clothes and many shops with all sorts of old soviet era stuff from suitcases to pins to military jackets and much much more. Mostly junk, but some neat stuff. Especially glassware and other items that might be useful today. I would definitely shop there for fun once in a while if I lived here.
The upshot of the run down part of town and the russian market was to remind me of this thought I've been having about when governments fail their people. I plan on posting it sometime in the near future.
So the prison. Of course I wandered in from a strange direction and ended up in a small alley that dead ended on the wrong side of the prison with no way to get to the entrance. There I saw a small shrine that said in French and Estonian (ok I assume it was Estonian) something like 'in may 1944, 868 people were deported from this place. in august only 22 of them were still alive.' It was a beautiful sunny peaceful day but for a moment I felt a dark shadow from the past reminding me of all the atrocity that we are capable of and have committed and probably will commit in the future as we seem not to be able to learn the lessons we need to respect everyone and give them a chance. Sorry that seems almost cliched from someone like me, but it's good to be reminded of these things from time to time.
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In reference to my last post, sure enough, Tonya didn't like her picture so I wanted to make it up to her by posting a good picture (to me, that means one without me in it). Also she didn't like my joke about not knowing what a gulag was. So to avoid her actually sending me there, I would like to tell all the world that
a) Tonya knows what a gulag is and
b) If you don't hear from me for a while, someone please contact Tonya and ask her what gulag she sent me to and try to get me out.
The upshot of the run down part of town and the russian market was to remind me of this thought I've been having about when governments fail their people. I plan on posting it sometime in the near future.
So the prison. Of course I wandered in from a strange direction and ended up in a small alley that dead ended on the wrong side of the prison with no way to get to the entrance. There I saw a small shrine that said in French and Estonian (ok I assume it was Estonian) something like 'in may 1944, 868 people were deported from this place. in august only 22 of them were still alive.' It was a beautiful sunny peaceful day but for a moment I felt a dark shadow from the past reminding me of all the atrocity that we are capable of and have committed and probably will commit in the future as we seem not to be able to learn the lessons we need to respect everyone and give them a chance. Sorry that seems almost cliched from someone like me, but it's good to be reminded of these things from time to time.
**************************************************************
In reference to my last post, sure enough, Tonya didn't like her picture so I wanted to make it up to her by posting a good picture (to me, that means one without me in it). Also she didn't like my joke about not knowing what a gulag was. So to avoid her actually sending me there, I would like to tell all the world that
a) Tonya knows what a gulag is and
b) If you don't hear from me for a while, someone please contact Tonya and ask her what gulag she sent me to and try to get me out.
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