(pictures better viewed on the blog not the email)
Travel, obviously, takes you somewhere you haven’t been. It forces you to figure out how to get somewhere, where to stay, how to shop and how to work those weird tumbler washing machines with instructions in another language. New experiences, doing routines differently.
Much of the joy of travel comes from surprise; seeing , tasting, feeling something you have not before. But, as we travel more, some of the newness loses it’s freshness, In Europe, every city has a square, a cathedral which is somehow the biggest/tallest/voluminous Gothic/Baroque/Medieval cathedral in all of Europe, a walled old town with cutesy-touristy- windy streets. There’s always a fortress, castle or church (or all 3) at the highest point plus somewhere a Roman ruin. Always a Roman ruin. And all of these are truly magnificent, interesting and we love them, but it can become repetitive.
On this round of travel, our travel complacency was upended starting with Sarajevo, https://chosenfugue.xyz/2026/03/27/history-repeats-itself/ and now amplified in Tallinn, Estonia. Off the plane, and it immediately felt unique, refreshing. What was different? There was this ineffable calm. The air had a mellowness, a gestalt we haven’t felt elsewhere.
We walked from the Tallinn airport 3 km to the old town where we stayed. Through pedestrian tunnels under the freeway, along a main thoroughfare, an old Soviet military cemetery, residential and commercial areas. Everywhere there were sidewalks, many places there were sidewalks AND bike paths.
We just kept snapping pictures of buildings. Old and new, each had very distinct personalities. This was not a cookie-cutter European city.
The old town was not just for tourists, sure, there were plenty of souvenir stores, but there were regular shops, government buildings and consulates.
While we were presented with our usual challenges of eating, we were able to find all that we needed (pea soup substitute for Nick’s mushy peas), experience new tastes (Sejlanka-sour soup) and a new favorite food (kohuke).
Not only were the buildings distinct, so was the terrain. Very flat. We bussed out to the Viru Bog trail to walk a plank path through a 3 mile stretch of a bog and a forest. Even got to see some bog frogs.
Estonia shares its entire eastern border with Russia and Russia has sought to master Estonia over the centuries. Historically, Sweden ruled until the mid 1500’s followed by Russia. Estonia gained independence with the end of WWI and the fall of the Russian Tzar. The new Estonia sought neutrality during WW2 but Hitler ignored that, signed a pact to give Estonia to Russia in 1939, but when Russia entered the war, Estonia became a battleground between Germany and Russia, with Russia attacking both Estonians and Germans. At the end of WW2, Estonia was given to the Russians.
The continued anger and disgust with Russia was apparent at the Maarjamae Memorial. We reached it after a long walk through the city.
At Maarjamae is the memorial for he Victims of Communism, the many Estonians who were imprisoned, exiled to Siberia, deported or killed during the years of Soviet occupation, 1940-1991. https://estonianworld.com/life/25-march-victims-soviet-deportations-remembered-estonia/
Who were those Estonians who were deported, imprisoned or killed ? Anyone who fought for or encouraged Estonian independence, anyone who promoted Estonian culture; that included military, politicians, writers, artists, intellectuals and their spouses and their children (a lot of children).
So, yet again another “new” country formed after 1989, trying to recapture its identity after decades of Soviet attempts to cross-out Estonian culture and replace it with Russian.
So maybe that feeling in the air is a huge sigh, a release from occupation.
Scandinavian and Baltic people are known for their stoicism and quiet reserved manner. We were on a local bus for an hour and it was silent (even though it was filled with teenagers just out of school) with the bus driver calmly waiting for you to sit down before driving off.
Scandinavian and Baltic people are also always scoring high for personal happiness. And, somehow that came across just walking around. An unpretentious chill vibe throughout. Refreshingly weird. We loved it.
Chosen Fugue 