My Travel Adventures

Contrary to the gloomy predictions of the weather forecast, today was a lovely day. I began the morning at Freedom Square, where I took pictures of the column to the 1918-1920 War of Independence. Using the symbolism of this location, a large banner of Ukraine’s and Estonia’s flags hangs from the large building at the northern end of the square. Somewhat to the detriment of the message, the building houses Tallinn’s Department of Transportation and has a rating of 2.2 stars on Google Maps.

It is a strange time to be in the Baltics, as the normality of everyday life belies the concerning headlines in international relations. Just yesterday, for example, I read that Russia has been stirring up trouble at the border with Estonia by removing demarcation buoys from the Narva River. What complicates matters even further is that due to the USSR’s Russification policies, about a fifth of Estonia’s current population is ethnically Russian. This makes it difficult to gauge how much of the Russian I hear around here is being spoken by Russian emigres, refugees from Eastern Ukraine, or locals.