Monday, 11 November 2024

backinthebackinthebackintheUSSR


So - a few days in Tallinn. A fascinating place with a both short and long history. The USSR looms everywhere, buildings and housing in general feels other. I had travelled far away enough from England for the shops to be full of food I had never seen before. Managed a glorious sauna and swam in a still, clear Baltic sea, ate tasty food - mainly smoked - ribs, salmon, elk, bear, deer, cods roe.... alongside some unusual cakes. Drank some of the most powerfully tasting beers infused with pine needles, juniper, and cloud berries. The extraordinary experience that is the old town is like stepping back in time, cycling through it is challenging with cobbles the size of a child's head but you gotta love buildings with hudge gothic text painted on them. A party at the art school, which actually feels like an art school, was unhinged, what a great place to study. Droped into some interesting, challeging  exhibitions.The colours of the Ukrainian flag are everywhere, which is understandable, there is a solidarity which is complicated by history. I have just begun to get my head around some of what Tallinn is about but feel I need to return.