Ton had made a nice list of places to visit today in Tallinn, so we were off early. The train in from the campground took about 1/2 hour and we both got senior discounts so our round trips were €3.80 each. It was a much more modern train than the one in Lithuania, both quieter and faster between stations.
The Baltic States are my first experience of countries that had been under the direct rule of the Soviet Union. We have traveled in most of the countries that found themselves behind the Iron Curtain after WWII, and they were interesting and the influence of the Soviet Union can be felt. But the Baltic States were actually part of the USSR after WWII.
Of the 3 countries Estonia seems to have moved the farthest away from its Soviet past. A lot of the Soviet era buildings have been removed and replaced with more modern buildings. The concrete block apartments are not as bleak here and the housing in the countryside looks prosperous. Incomes in Estonia are about 20% higher than the other two. Lithuania to me felt the most unchanged. The countryside had a gray feeling with many of the farm houses bare stone or concrete. The apartment blocks look unappealing, and a lot of the old factories are rotting. Having said that Lithuania has the biggest population and the biggest GDP. Lithuania and Latvia have lost population with a lot immigration to other parts of the EU. Estonias population has stayed the same, but it still the smallest of the three.
Tallinn has been a successful port town for hundreds of years and the prosperity shows thru in the old town. It feels a lot like the German cities further west. It’s history roughly parallels Riga’s with the same succession of conquerors, but the people speak a non-slavic language related to Finnish.
Riga and Tallinn seem to have a friendly rivalry with both claiming some of the same accomplishments. Tallinn says they had the first public display of a Christmas Tree, but Riga makes the claim of having the first public display of a decorated Christmas Tree.
There are not as many churches in Tallinn as in Riga, Catholicism was the primary religion in Riga, while here it was Protestant, and of course both cities had sizable Orthodox communities after 200 years of Russian rule.
We enjoyed our self guided tour of Tallinn and ended it by treating ourselves to a lunch at the same restaurant as we had eaten in Riga. The food was equivalent, but it cost more in Tallinn, we really like Lido restaurants and will miss them when we leave Estonia and Latvia.
What is interesting about both cities is that while they are both Baltic Sea towns the sea is not in sight from the old town. Walking around you do not feel the influence of the port in the old town.
