Tere!Estonian Fun Fact #7
Many Great Russian Writers have worked and spent holiday time in Estonia. Nobel Prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote his book The Gulag Archipelago in the house of his Estonian friend Arnold Susi near Tartu. Solzhenitsyn and Susi became acquainted when they met in Stalin's prison camps.
I basically spent the last four days exhausting myself to death and playing hide-and-seek with the sun. I really don't know what it is with the sun up here (or my skin for that matter), but I get sunburns on a five-minutes-in-the-sun basis. No worries, I was very (!) responsible and put on sunscreen and managed to tone down the redness! I really don't know if it is due to a more aggressive sun up here in the north (there is no snow north of the wall right now, I can assure you), or because my skin is just fucked up after a long winter until May and about 2 weeks of spring.
Anyways, I'm gonna talk about Sarina's, Marta's and my visit to a marsh here in Tallinn, about my exploration of Narva and about Dora's, Rebecca's and my visit to Rummu, an abandoned prison about one and a half hours by bus out of Tallinn.
Pääsküla rabarada
I really, really like the Estonian language (maybe because I can't speak it). Some of my friends had an Estonian A1 class in Uni and even though they never complained, they also didn't praise the simplicity of the language. But maybe thats because both of them also had Russian classes, and well let's not talk about the simplicity of Russian (basically non-existent). Marta said to me in the very beginning that she finds German very confusing, because you can't see which vowels to pronounce how long. She said it's really easy in Estonian because vowels that are to be pronounced longer or emphasized are just spelled out two times. Pretty convenient. Night in Estonian is: öö. Nightclub therefore is ööklubi (really cute, isn't it?), Nightjob is öötöö.
So now, you kinda know how to read the title of this section! Please try it out loud!
You can also practice with words like Kuu-uurijad töö-ööl jää-äärel (lunar researcher at work on the edge of the ice during the night).
Anyways, Marta, Sarina and I went to a marsh that is 30 minutes by bus out of Tallinn. Public transport is free for Tallinn residents. The infos are all in Estonian, unfortunately, so I can't provide you with any fun facts in this matter. But it was really relaxing and beautiful to walk on a wooden footbridge through the marsh. We also stopped from time to time to dunk our feet into cold water.
Here are some pictures:
Narva
Narva is an Estonian city right at the border to Russia. The Narva-River divides Estonia and Russia and bridge is connecting the two countries. I just read today that 30% of the people living in Estonia are Russians (even though Estonia gained its independence in 1991). Half of these Russians are not really integrated into Estonian society and still listen to and watch Russian (propaganda heavy) radio, TV and media. Russians do not automatically get Estonian citizenship, but have to pass a controversial language test. Therefore, a lot of Russians are forced to have Russian citizenship, or simply have no citizenship and are consequently excluded from voting and other social activities.
Narva - as it is closest to the Russian border - houses a 95% population of Russians. I didn't know that when I planned my trip, but Sarina was quick to tell me that the majority there speaks only Russian and that I'll have fun getting around without knowing the language (thats also why I ended up downloading Duolingo during my busride). Marta explained that Narva was a really beautiful city before the Second World War, but it was heavily bombed first be the Soviet Union, then by the Germans, and then again by the Soviet Union and, therefore, bascially reduced to rubble. I felt that Marta was a bit agitated about the destruction of a city that was once really beautiful and I can understand. I also talked to another Estonian friend, and he told me the same story Marta did: Both of them had to resort to English (!) in their own country, to order a coffee in a restaurant, because the people in Narva mostly can't speak Estonian. It is a constant reminder of a not so distant past.
Patrica, my flatmate, also told me today that there is a project coming along in Tallinn University (that is heavily sponsored and driven) to install and use augmented/virtual reality in Narva, in order to see how the city looked like before it was bombed to ashes. That shows that it is still a hot topic and urgent to Estonians - and I can completely understand that.
I bought my return ticket at the Bus Station in Tallinn (thank god), because even though Estonia is very ahead with technology, I didn't want to risk being stranded in Narva for the night. The bus ride took 3 and a half hours and I was let out in the middle of nowhere, where Google Maps apparently decided to randomly drop a pin named "Narva Bus Station". Just kidding, it is the official bus station, but in contrast to Tallinn's big coach station, Narva has literally one platform. I couldn't even find a ticket office where I could've bought a return ticket.
On the way to the tourist office I walked to the local orthodox church and was very surprised to find it seemingly situated in a car dump (Autofriedhof). No kidding, there was a black fence around the area, inside was garbage, litter and old cars, oh, and a beautiful, red orthodox church. I found only one angle from which it looked good. Around the area was a huge factory building and more Krushchevkas (grey Soviet Housing Buildings). The entries were inscribed in Russian. No Estonian to see.
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I have to admit that I saw mostly grey Soviet Brick Buildings in the city. The entrances aren't even described in Estonian, but in Russian.
Shortly in front of the Tourist Office I met some other Erasmus Students from Germany - seriously, the one time I'm going somewhere on my own I find other Erasmus people. We are everywhere. Afterwards, I payed 50c for a toilet (the only one I allowed myself in Narva), took some maps and started out my quest.
First I took a picture of this beautiful sculpture, which held a huge contrast to the grey, dull Soviet Buildings I saw before:
I also found an obelisk that honors the dead soldiers of the Soviet Army. The inscription is only in Russian and says that the Soviet Union "liberated" Estonia from the Germans, but that in reality the Soviet occupation replaced the German one. Marta told me a couple of times that the Second World War is called the Brothers War in Estonia. Estonia was invaded three times during WWII, first by the Soviet Union in 1939 through the Secret Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact dividing Eastern Europe between Hitler and Stalin, then by the Germans in 1941 and again by the Red Army in 1944. And since both of these regimes are totalitarian, every new takeover was followed by thousands of denunciations, and deportations of Estonian people who had (or had not) worked for the enemy before.
Then I explored the inner courtyard of the Hermann Castle, and stole a first glimpse at the imperious Iwangorod Fortress (only the name gives me chills) on the other side of the river. I also think that I saw a Lenin Statue, but I wasn't brave enough to go nearer and take a picture because some workers smoked and drank right next to it and i didn't want to come over as a weird, disrespecting tourist.
I roamed around the city for a bit, encountering more Soviet Buildings and heard only Russian around me. The town hall is the oldest building in Narva, and to be honest, it looks like it.
I roamed around the city for a bit, encountering more Soviet Buildings and heard only Russian around me. The town hall is the oldest building in Narva, and to be honest, it looks like it.
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| what even is that?? |
I took a shortcut through a meadow to the seaside and walked the "Europe Allee" along the Narva River. Maybe it's just my mind making up things, but I feel that the name "Europe Allee" has an underlying significance. Especially as Narva is - literally - the first frontier to Russia (which has been known to see Estonia as an "entry ticket" into Europe and to breach several peace treaties that established a border between Russia and Estonia by invading), it is another meaningful way of establishing a border that has a bigger impact and serious consequences: the European Border. Invading Estonia actually and figuratively means invading Europe.
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| The European Alley |
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| a good view of some healthy buildings on the Russian side |
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| Iwangorod Fortress |
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| Hermanns Castle on the Left, the border-bridge and Iwangorod Fortress on the Right |
I sat in the shadow of a tree at the beach and enjoyed my lunch with a view of an Estonian Castle, a bridge and a Russian Fortress. A Morrocan guy asked me to take a picture of him in front of the Castle-Bridge-Fortress landscape and we ended up taking a bit. He works in Abu Dhabi and spends his vacation in Northern Europe, enjoyed the "mild weather". Ha ha. He also tried to convince me to come study in Abu Dhabi or Dubai, as they apparently pour a lot of money into scholarships and try to get renown universities to open up new branches. So, he concluded, if I can't study there (which I really should consider!), I can at least conduct a sociological study. And I mean - of course - since you asked, that's gonna be my first priority?
I checked out a Lion Sculpture honoring the Swedish and a Lutheran Church on the way back to the bus station. Oh, and it is also worth mentioning that I chilled in some stinging nettles (Brennnesseln) while waiting for the bus.
All in all, I can say that the Soviet Union is still tangible in Narva. The contrast between the nicely done beach promenade, with seats, water fountains, a kiosk, chess tables etc. could not be further from the wrecked Soviet Housing buildings that are only a 10 minutes walk (or even less) away. The lettering and advertisement is first and foremost in Russian, sometimes even without an Estonian translation underneath (in Tallinn Estonian is first, Russian is second). Even though I really enjoyed strolling on the promenade but I have to say that I was happy to go back to Tallinn.
Rummu
Rummu is a place that has been visited by seemingly every Erasmus-Person out there - except Dora, Rebecca and me. So we finally set out to explore the abandoned prison that is now underwater.
The prison (called Murru) operated until 2012 and housed at times about 1000 inmates, is now open for guided tours. It was originally built in the 1940s by the Soviet Union at a convenient location on the edge of a limestone quarry (Kalkstein Steinbruch). After Estonia regained its independence, the labor prison was abandoned and the limestone mining ended. No one cared about the natural groundwater that seeped into the quarry, which consequently filled up with water. That happened so quickly that some of the mining machines and buildings were swallowed and are nowadays completely covered with water.
Adventure Diving is now offered in the lake, but it is recommended to advanced divers since it is very dangerous. Barbed wire, tree branches, concrete buildings are still laying around underwater and can collapse any moment. Rummu Quarry is situated on private property, but it is open during the summer months to enter for 3€.
When we first exited the bus in the town Rummu, I had a very strange feeling. The town only exists of Khrushchevkas, with wild overgrown green spaces in-between. I also saw some broken down cars slowly being cultivated by plants and bushes. We made our way to the entry of the prison, which was closed.
A lot of our friends went in the last months and all of them climbed over a part of the stone wall that had crumbled. We didn't have to do that as a lady came at 10 and we happily paid 3€ to enter legally and safely. We were alone for about an hour, then other people came to explore or to bath in the sun.
To be honest, the whole place is very surreal. On the one side is this huuuge yellow-brownish hill with furrows (Furchen/Rinnen) all over the place, on the other side is a high concrete wall with barbed wire at the top and in between is a blue-green lake, a yellow beach and a broken down concrete building. Oh and a horrendous smell! Nobody ever mentions smells in blogs and reviews, but - ew - it was really hard to breathe at times! And there is no opportunity for shadow at all. The whole landscape is barren, except for some small bushes sprouting between the furrows. Dora and I ate our lunch while Rebecca swam around the brick building in the water. She later said that she wouldn't want to go diving here because it looks very, very unstable on the other side and you never know when the concrete blocks might come loose.
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| Rebecca made it quite far! |
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| Me chilling a bit at a smelly lake |
Then we found a way into the hills, where we started to climb up to the top. We saw a lot of pictures on the internet and from friends who were standing at a viewpoint of sorts, so we also wanted to go to the top. The climb was scary to be honest. I never thought that I was afraid of heights but maybe I am? We had to climb/walk up this narrow furrow, which was a little bit flatter than those on the outside, but it was still very steep. There were hardly any protruding parts where you could step on and knew that you foot won't sleep and you won't slide downhill towards a broken bone. It was basically holding on to dear life (ok I am exaggerating here) with your hands, placing your feet on gravel and hoping for the best. Going up was easier than going down. However, going up was totally worth it! The view was amazing and we enjoyed every second of it!
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| this is where we had to climb up |
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| everything was worth it for this view |
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| a little sneak peak into the prison on the left |
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| evidence that we made it !! |
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| going down was - fun? |
Going down was another matter, Rebecca climbed first and was at the foot in no time. Rebecca gave us instructions on how to do it (go backwards, weight on the hands less on the feet etc.). Dora turned around on one point because her shoes didn't have enough profile to hold her on the gravel and she managed a few steps, but then she lost control and slid down. I thought my own fate was sealed after that (if there is one person sliding down a climb, it is always me). So I turned around and slowly started down the hill. At one point I didn't know where to put my foot because everything was just steep and gravel, and Rebecca guided my from downstairs. What followed was a short discussion of: "Do not go with the left foot. Yes, right foot. There is a a hole underneath." "Ok. ... Where ???" "Beneath your right foot. Trust me!" "Where? No! I can't see it!" "Yes, trust me!!" "Aaaaah, fuck this shit, I am gonna die." You can probably guess, who said what. Anyways, I am proud to say that I found the step and made it down without any sliding incident. It just took me a while. After us an Estonian Family went up there, barefoot, in bikinis and one of them was pregnant?
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| This is how the platform we stood on ended! |
After that we explored a bit more and eventually headed back to the "town", where we bought some cold Kohuke and waited at the bus station. I thought about the hen-or-egg question: Was the prison here first and were the houses built later, or was the city built first and a random prison was erected later?
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| we awarded ourselves with a Kohuke ! |
We made it back safely!
your Verena 👋
Quelle Fun Fact: "Did you know that there are over 100 exciting, quirry, unique and important reasons to visit Estonia!" by AS Sokotel, 2015
Quelle Estonian Words: https://news.err.ee/115401/the-quirky-side-of-the-estonian-language
Quelle Rummu Facts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rummu_quarry
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