EstoniaSep 20, 2008
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Tallinn City Gates
Artisans Alley in Old Town Tallinn
Artisan Making Ceramics
Estonia is beautiful. Amazing.
I am staying with Kevin Mason, a missionary here in Tallinn. He has a wonderful family and a great home just out of town. The flight to Estonia was delayed for hours, arrived here in Tallinn well after midnight. I slept until after 10 a.m. this morning . . . a little unusual for me, but my body clock is all messed up. About noon, we headed to town to see the city.
Tallinn sits on the Baltic almost directly south of Helsinki, Finland. Estonia was, of course, part of the Soviet Union, a small Baltic State that declared independence about the same time as its neighbors, Latvia and Lithuania. The people here are not Russian or Slavic, but Scandinavian. They have more in common with Finland and Sweden than neighboring Russia or Poland to the south.
The Estonians are proud of their capitol city. Tallinn is a medieval town with a gorgeous town square. The church buildings are beautiful as well. The major cathedral is Lutheran, but there are also very old Catholic churches, and of course Russian Orthodox churches.
Tonight, I went with Kevin and his four kids to the circus. It was a Ukrainian troupe touring through the area. So, it was all in Russian and none of us could goverim paruski. The circus was more about animals than anything else. AND, who knew, the animal rights activists were out in front of the little circus tent. I couldn't read the sign, but suggested to Kevin's kids that they create their own protest sign saying, "Animals are food, not entertainment." Hyenas, lions, a ton of gators, a 20' python, some cougars, and a couple of baboons. Whew! We could have been eaten alive in a ton of ways.
