Tallinn

So I arrived at the airport, got the baggages, took a right out of the exit and was greeted by Matt, one of my instructors for the trip. As we sat in the taxi, Matt pulled out his i-phone and said 17 in Estonian. We drove through the city, it did not seem much different from a regular suburb of Chicago just a little less crowded... saw the Olympic casino... didnt think much of it then... but apparently it is very huge and popular not just in Estonia but in Latvia too...anyways... we reached the hostel... hauled my suitcase and the bag pack up a set of stairs to the counter... the person at the counter checked my passport and gave me a key... I had to return the key everytime I left the dorm... as the key was shared by my room mate... I didnt really know if I had a room mate till I got to my room and saw the two single beds... Matt didnt know either... but anyways... the beds looked kinda clean... but I used my own bedsheets anyway :P

The hostel, as from the outside, looked dark and dingy... climbers on the walls... untamed yard... with weeds growing all over... the site was not that pretty that night... but it wasnt the worst either....

Eesti Vocab 1 - Aitäh means Thank you (the most used word by our group)

I kept babbling on and on about this as the first impression is an important one...

DAY1
Breakfast in a cafe a little ways away from the hostel... a picture of the chandelier was taken :D

Bread made of rye apparently is the staple food of Estonians with soup of course... bread... sprouted beans... and juice, yogurt, coffee were the most edible items on the table... I was just glad it was there... had like 5 hours of sleep in total during the travel hours... was starving...

Eesti Vocab 2 - Tere means Hello (T in Estonian is pronounced as Th, the closest thing I could think of, in English and त in Hindi, not as ट)

Anne Mai was our Estonian guide for the trip... she took us from the cafe to the European Commission for a meeting with the Head of Commission from Estonia Mr. Tovio Klaar...
I can be spotted without a hint.... the girls sitting in the front are from Michigan Tech... the rest are from San Diego University and other places... the person in the middle is Tovio Klaar.
The next paragraph is going to be about his lecture.. you can totally skip it... but he was the first guy who let us know about the European Union and how Estonia was so proud of becoming a member in 2004....

He gave a nice introduction about Estonian relations with the EU. The headquarters of the EU are at Brussels and that is where the sessions are held and Mr. Klaar was not a big fan of the place. The EU, as stated in the lecture, was formed to basically prevent a war between grance and Germany. Its formation helped disperse the power of resources like coal and steel which are needed to make arms and other things which could have increased the tensions.

The second lecture was in half hour so we were taken straight from there to the University of Tartu campus (Tallinn) rite away. Dr. Andres Kasekamp, a professor pf political science at the University of Tartu and Head of the Foreign Policy Institute, gave the students a nice understanding of the Estonian presence in NATO. Starting with how Estonia became what it is today to an indepth knowledge of the EU, an overall Estonian poltical system was cleared.

An interesting fact about the EU inclusion of Estonia was discussed as well. When a country is about to join the EU the sugar prices rise up, this probably due to the fact that sugar is shared equally among the EU countries. Also the EU decided to keep checks on sugar stocks and fine countries holding big surpluses to prevent companies stocking up on and then selling EU subsidised sugar that was imported before accession. Under the sugar regime—which is essentially a price support system—each member state is allocated two quotas, an “A” quota and a “B” quota. The total A quota equals, in principle, the Community’s annual sugar consumption. The B quota is intended to provide a surplus, so that demand can be met even in the event of crop failure. Any sugar production above the A and B quotas is referred to as “C” sugar, which must be either sold on the world market or stored and used as part of the following year’s A and B quotas. The Council determines what portion of the total A and B quotas will be assigned to each member state. The quotas allocated to each country are then divided among national sugar producers by individual country governments.

Estonia had to pay 72 million dollars as a fine for keeping a surplus stock. Though this fact did not have a lot of affect on the Estonians and their respect for the EU.

Matt took us to Old town to get some food between the lectures...

Estonian urban towns are all divided in to two parts, the Old Town and the Downtown. Old Town is always the cooler one though HA! We saw a Lamborghini and settled at a cafe to have some food.

Chicken Cesar Salad... with bitter lettuce

The view... Russian Orthodox Church in the center... will put up a better view later...

The nice lady who was serving the food that day...

After lunch we went off to the Museum of Occupation which is a privately owned and run institute. The tour guide had a short little story for pretty much all the exhibits in the museum.

The person who took us to tour the museum

A phone-booth from the occupation times

Some prison doors from different times of different Occupations

In short, Estonia was a Swedish kingdom in the middle ages. Later on it was occupied by the Germans in 1941 and the Soviet entered Estonia for the sake of fighting of the Germans.who didnt leave untill 1991 when Gorbachev produced the preistroika and glasnost notions. The different coins, uniforms and everything else can be seen in the museum. Try wiki for more info.

Matt, George and I went to the old town to get some beer while the girls went to the mall, after the museum. Matt took us around to different viewpoints from the Old Town and we had some nice beer at the end of the walk.

Liquor/Beer Count 2 - Saku Orignaal (g pronounced here as in "good", beer - better than Bud Select not as great as Heineken)

Eesti Vocab 3 - Õlu means Beer (A word I used a lot :D)

*I am no beer expert, its all as how I feel it*

The tall tower is the Devil's Church

The tall tower here is the Angel's Church and in the background is the Downtown

The Hare Krishna Hare Rama group in Estonia :D

Sarree! The town square in the background

Did you know that Estonians got their freedom from the Soviet by singing a song. No bloodshed whatsoever. The song festival which started off in 1869 gave the people courage to stand up, paired with Gorbachev's policy they pulled through. Google Song Revolution to learn more :P. Though I will tell you this, that this not the last time you will hear about it here.

A dinner at the Peppersack restaurant gave a perfect ending to the day.

The table, the food, the ambience, the skit put up by the people at the restaurant... Perfect!

I couldnt take a picture of the food, but let me tell you it was delicious. We had chicken on the table as we sat to enjoy the evening. More beer! And I think it was mutton or something of that effect which was served to us. Its hard to recall as I was too engrossed in eating :D
And before I end this post


Liquor/Beer Count 3 - Saku Tume (6.7% alcohol, got a sweeter taste to it)

Eesti Vocab 4 - Tume meansDark (used alot of times in reference to beer haha!)

Mamashri... here is a start!
Slept in my own bedsheets.