TALLINN
TALLINN
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| More blocks of flats. I can't say how old these are. For all I know they could be post-Soviet. |
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| Another thing that my fans (fans?) would recognize from holiday snaps is the gas station photo. Here is an Estonian gas station. |
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| A very old Estonian house a bit in need of a fix-up and a paint job. |
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| I don't know if this massive amphitheatre has a name, but it was the site of many music festivals in what came to be know as the "Singing Revolution". Estonia is a singing nation. When the Soviet empire was showing signs of cracking, Estonians gathered to sing songs of national pride and give the Soviet regime the little push it needed to topple over. Estonia regained its independence in 1991. |
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| The 1980 Olympic yacht racing was held in Tallinn. This is the facility built for that event. |
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| An old Estonian guy fishing. |
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| I don't know if miniature golf was an exhibition sport in 1980 or what, but there was a course built just next to the harbour. |
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| The walls of the Old City of Tallinn has two towers. On one side is a short and wide tower nicknamed Fat Margaret. This taller, slimmer one is called Tall Herman. |
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| You have to love the Russian Orthodox churches for their architecture. This is the Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Cathedral. |
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| The interior of the cathedral. Again, no photos were supposed to be allowed, but I sneaked one anyway. I just looked like I was reviewing pictures on my digital camera, turned the flash off and snapped one. |
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| While I'm showing unallowed photos, here's another. The Toomkirik is an ancient Lutheran church. There are a lot of coats of arms of merchants and high mucky muck folks on the walls and dead people under the floor like in many other old churches. |
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| From a vista point above the rooftops of Old Tallinn. |
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| Another view from the same spot. You can see the newer part of the city in the distance. |
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| A crooked little street in the Old City. |
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| The green building holds the post office. |
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| They are apparently remodeling the Parliament Building. It is across the street from the Nevsky Cathedral. |
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| A cellar beneath what is now a souvenir shop. It's just very old and I thought it looked interesting. |
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| Maia was the cutest tour guide on the trip. A little heavy on the makeup and the hair could use work, but not bad nonetheless. She is a teacher when she's not dragging tourists around town. |
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| The first thing I did after getting off the coach for independent exploration was to go into this grocery store called Rimi. |
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| An old city gate near an open market area. You can't make it out in this small photo, but on the other side of that was is a nice new McDonalds. |
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| An example of old and new in Tallinn. The Coca-Cola Plaza holds theatres and new shops. Behind it is an old factory complex. I liked the juxtaposition of the two complexes. |
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| A beautiful example of horrible Soviet architecture. This was built as some sort of city hall or something. The locals hate it. |
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| One of the passenger terminals at the port. It is a fairly nice facility. |
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