The Evils of Public Transportation

Hey there! I've been traveling and exploring so much that I've taken a departure from my original intention for writing this blog...to discuss my thoughts and observations about life here in Estonia. So in deference to myself, I will attempt to write in "pre-eurocultured" Andrew style. If you've become entranced by my travel photos, click back to the orgins of my online universe, my cyber-genisis...i was even funny sometimes :D

So lets talk about public transportation, buses in particular. It is a rule in Estonia that it takes aproximately 2.5 hrs to get anywhere by bus. In the case of traveling from Tallinn (NW corner) to Varska (SE corner), it actually takes about 5hrs. This of course, is 2T, T being time, also equal to 2.5, our basis of comparison. So really, it all comes back to the same thing. Oddly enough, the Estonians aren't lying. It really does take about 2.5 hrs (or T) to get anywhere in this country by bus...well anywhere worth going, unless it's to visit your Estonian grandmother, which I don't have so I digress.

At one point I decided that this was a conspiracy of the buss drivers. Because I had traveled this great country by car (see my road trip back in April) a few times (I have friends with cars too!), I knew how long it had taken to get to certain cities. Then again, my driver had a lead foot, and busses can only travel so fast. Really, it's like trying to fathom obese-people-sex...the science just makes your head hurt.

So resigning myself to 2.5hr long trips, I aquiesed to riding the bus to and from my appointed destinations. I figured I was helping the environment, and being savvy with my money at the same time...hooray! It's kind of an inverse relationship. The less money you spend, the more time it takes to get where you want to go. That's why walking is free. And crawling to places like churches and mosques gets you blessed. It takes 12 hours to get to Moscow by train, and I really don't remember paying much of anything for that, but 12 is not an easy multiple of T, so we'll just forget about it. Hitch-Hiking is also free, and you get to travel by car, but you also run the risk of being killed by the crazzies. Therefore, hitch-hiking doesn't count. These are the fundamental truths by which our existence is organized.

But this is not entirely so! A ferry trip to Helsinki, a mere 60 kilometers costs much more than it would to drive the same distance by bus. And trust me, sitting on a ferry for 3 hours or more is just about as exciting as sitting on a buss for 2.5hrs, there are just more drunk Finns. Therefore, I do not take ferries, they cheat. I came to the conclusion that when crossing bodies of water, it was most cost effective to purchase a plane ticket way in advance, thus finding good prices and reducing travel time substantially.

Now, if you havn't looked at the past few blogs, I've been traveling a lot! This is not always over bodie of water either. I cheat too, but it's okay. So I've gotten used to air travel. It's about 2.5 hours to Prague, and about the same to Berlin. When you fly to Stockholm, you arrive before you left because of the time change! If you fly to Helsinki, you barely have time to get into the air before you're decending again. After this pampering, it has become very difficult to sit on the bus for T time. When you know that in T, or 1/2T you could be in a different country, it makes the journey down the same-old highway and barns seem rather banal and quite longer than it used to.

This malcontentedness has made me really miss my car back in the US. I try to tell myself that by not driving I am saving the ozone. By riding the buss I am slowing the onset of global warming. By not continuing to purchase gas at high prices, I am decreasing the demand for the fossil fuel, thus eventually driving prices lower (There won't be peace in the mid-east for awhile folks, start thinking about going hybrid or something!). But what I really want is to put my foot on an accelorator and get to my destination already! Many would say this is because I'm young and impacient. I would say it's because I'm American...and young and impacient.

I do not know if there is a solution to this dilemma. So far, all I have come up with is a general refusal to travel by bus again. I think this is best.

Photo: http://www.anotherurl.com/travel/east_europe/images/bh_bus.jpg

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

Well, you all know this old saying, and for this blog I plan to enact it's awesome power and relevance. Last week I went to Stockholm for two days. It was fun, it was interesting. The weather was actually perfect (about 68-72F, 21-22C and sunny). Nothing out of the ordinary happened, and all of my travels and connections ran smoothly. So...here are some pictures. That's really all I have to say about the trip. I'll even give you a list of what you're looking at. Enjoy!
1(L). The Royal Palace
2(R). Palacial Estate in the Ridderholm area of Gamla Stan (Old Town Stockholm)
3(R). View of the high rent district in the newer city.
4(L). St. Jacob's Church
5(R). An old parish church reconstructed in Skansen Open-air Museum.
6(L). An old Farmstead reconstructed in Skansen Open-air Museum.
7(R). A view of Gamla Stan (The Old Town) from my boat tour.
8(L). A view of a wealthy residence from my boat tour.

From Peaches to Prague, and everything in between

I was unaware that Laura Branigan was an International Superstar. This is probably because I was born a year after her biggest hit single, "Gloria". I know this work of art as the song that played in my Aunt Cindy's car. Little did I know that it's worldwide popularity has demanded the song's words be sung in what I've counted up to now, 3 languages (English, Estonian, and Czech). I thought I would put a link to her video on this posting, but then decided I did not want something so trashy attatched to my sparklingly stellar narrative. I heard this familiar little diddy upon entering a grocery story in Prague, my latest adventure. This brings me to:

Peaches: Realizing that I neither wanted to visit the ATM again, nor had the energy to find one, I came to the conclusion that it would behoof me to simply purchase my lunch for the next day at a grocery across the street from where I happened to be standing at the time. I figured if I could manage a grocery store in Estonia, the Czech Republic couldn't be too much of a challenge. How wrong I was... After scowering the aisles for about 30 minutes trying to figure out where I could buy something other than bread, I came upon the dairy and produce section. I grabbed a yogurt, and started to check the apples. Then I noticed the juicy peaches looking up at me. Finding two small, but perfectly ripe specimens, I bagged them and looked to see what everyone else was doing. In some Estonian markest you must weigh your own produce and put a priced sticker on them. I did not see a scale or a single person doing this. Next, I found some water, a snicker's bar, and grabbed a croissant from "bread-land" and proceded to the check-out where I stood in line longer than anyone around me (this theme carries into future stories). Finally reaching the register, the woman scanned my items. She said something to me in Czech to which I replied something like, "eehhoohuu". She then confiscated my peaches. It was obviously not the answer she was looking for. Trying to hide my despondency, I gave her money slowly, trying to gesture towards the peaches. I suppose, realizing that I was obviously a moron, she refused to make further eye contact, took my money and the next person in line moved up. I never saw my peaches again...

Prague: Oh yeah...I went to Prague this weekend. It was...nice. No, it was beautiful. Let me explain: Uttering the motto, "I can sleep when I'm dead", I chose to go out with friends to a club the night before flying to Prague at 8am (getting to the bus to the airport at 6.20am). Two hours of sleep later, I hopped the plane and flew to Central Europe. For the first 7 hours of Saturday, I dragged myself through sunny, humid Prague in a slight malais. It was sorely disappointing. Nothing spectacular stood out. I went to the Eastern-Side Old Town. It was cool, but I live in a city which has one of the most spectacularly beautiful Old Towns in all of Europe (or at least I think). At about the time I decided I did not like Prague and wasn't quite sure what I would do for 2 more days, I turned the corner and saw the river, as well as the first photo in this post. I was a changed man. Suddenly I got my second wind, and started taking pictures like it was my job...which it is when I travel. In total, I took between 400 and 500 pictures. Thankfully I scaled them down to 180 which you can see if you want, and you know my e-mail! The next two days flew by, and I ended up absolutley loving my time in "The Paris of the East". I'll let you know how it compares if and when I ever get to Paris.

Petr: In English, this name is spelled Peter. In Estonian, it is Peeter; Czech Petr. I know at least one in each of these languages. This year, I can't escape this name and the people attatched to it.This was my host in Prague's name. For those of you that know the stories behind this name, it's just not fair. For those of you that don't, please don't ask. It's not worth the emotional energy it takes to tell.

Plane/Post-traumatic Stress Syndrome: I love to travel. There are no words to describe my love for this pastime. It is my greatest hobby, one I will continue to pursue until I no longer have the ability or means to do so. I hate planes though. I have such a loathsome repore with planes that I can feel when something bad is about to happen to me, like getting bags searched in Amsterdam, nearly missing the plane to London, nearly getting kicked off my flight home for Christmas, and the ever present, inevitabley choosing the longest line to stand in. On my flight back from Prague, I fell into this last trap 3 times. The first was checking in at the airport. Every teller-person was moving faster than the one I'd chosen. The second was going through customs. Trying to learn from my first mistake, I chose the shortest line. There were 4 lines, and each one around me was moving in lightning speed compared to mine. They have lines for "All passports", and "EU Citizens". The EU one moves really really fast which is why I'll never understand why there are French and British people in my line complaining about how slow it is! Move over!

And then I boarded the plane. After finding my seat, I had a feeling like something was missing. A flight-attendant then came back and asked a man behind me if he would switch with a mother and her infant who had be put into the Emergency Exit line. Of course, I was missing the neverending screams of an infant. Granted, had I been this infant, I'd have screamed the whole time too. Just in the aisle next to my seat, her dad decides to stand her up (I don't think she was more than 3 or 4 months...definatley not standing), and of course she falls down. Now she is this tiny thing staring up at strange legs, faces, and crammed into a dark plane aisle. Her mom then puts the baby into the plane seat while she sets stuff above. The baby of course falls onto the floor again, I think hitting her head on the way. That kid will someday develope an phobia of flight.

The third line disaster came at customs in Estonia. This time I tried to just randomly select a line. Wrong again! I was the LAST person to go through, though I was one of the first off the plane. But as you can see by the last picture, it was all worth it!!!!

Laulupidu!

Yesterday, I attended the 50th Anniversary of The Baltic Students Song and Dance Festival in Tartu, Estonia. It was the 15th Festival of its kind since 1956. Lets have a quick History lesson, shall we?

Tartu held the first Student Song Festival in 1956, also in Tartu. Of course Lithuania and Latvia were invited, but other countries such as Moldovia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia took part as well. Nowadays, the festival is for the three Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The festival is rotated between the three countries. Next time, Lithuania will host. The Song Festival Tradition is crucial to Baltic history and culture, especially that of Estonia. Song Festivals have been tradition here for over 100 yrs, the first song festival being held in 1869 in Tartu. Festivals were held every couple of years, both nationally as well as internationally. Festivals today are held for Mixed Choirs, Men's Choirs, Children's Choirs, Dance, Student Choirs, as well as other arrangments.

Song Festivals were not only of cultural importance, but political importance as well. During the Soviet period, photos of song festivals depicted large communist banners, pictures of Stalin, and other Soviet propoganda. This propoganda had the effect of displaying happiness and prosperity of people under the yolk of Soviet oppression. During this period, repetoire consisted mainly of music in Russian, either by Russian composers, or Estonian's writing in Russian. As the Cold War thawed, however, Estonian national tunes as well as Western "Masterpieces" slowly crept into the mix. The culmination of the political power of Song Festivals occured in 1988, when Estonia had what is reffered to as their "Singing Revolution". During this Festival, hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Tallinn's Song Festival Grounds to make political statements and sing National songs in defiance of their oppressors.

Today, Song Festivals are a celebration of culture, a show of solidarity among the Baltic States and the International community, and a reminder of a dark history with bright hope for the future. Thus ends our quick history lesson :D

So, yesterday, I rode the bus to Tartu so that I could attend this important cultural event. Traditionally, a Song Festival is kicked off by the lighting of the Song Festival Flame (kind of like the Olympics...except there are no medals, no competition, no worldwide broadcasting...you get the idea). After the torch is lit, a procession occurs from the lighting grounds to the Song Festival Arena. In Tallinn, this takes over 3 hrs, in Tartu, less than 1 (thank god!). First in the parade was Latvia. Latvians, stereotypically, as well as geographically fall between their northern "icy and reserved" Estonian neighbors, and their "hot headed and ebulliant" southern Lithuanian neigbors. The Latvian presentation was the most "progromatic" with voice overs, new age music, and dominated by folk tunes.


Next came the Lithuanians. Unlike the Estonians and Latvians, only the Lithuanian dancers wore traditional costumes. The rest donned brightly colored t-shirts and bandanas. Much of the time they seemed to just be running through the streets in a big herd...a lot of youthful, vibrant energy. It kind of felt like watching a highschool choir festival. Their music was largely pop, jazz, and disco influenced, however the dancers kept largely to tradition.

Finally came the Estonians. Their procession was by far the most orderly and organized. I think they had fun making nicely formed squares and parade-like choreography. Their presentation was the most "progressive", incorporating folk tunes, but also arrangements by newer Estonian composers. They even let some of the University students choreograph a dance or two (I wish they hadn't though).

One of the Festival Highlights was Estonia's release of balloons during one of their pieces. The effect was very lovely, and I thankfully moved quick enough to catch it!

I then caught the last bus back to Tallinn, making it a VERY long, but enjoyable day. Below are three videos of the festival. The first is the opening hymn for Gaudeamus (the name of the festival). The second is a short clip of the dancers. Here you can see the traditional costumes better. The third and final video, is of the last group song and dance. This year, over 6,000 people participated, and at least that many came to watch. These things are huge! If you want to know more, contact me, or better yet, come to Estonia and go to your own festival!