Explorations and National Day

It is Friday evening..Shabbat, and we are finishing dinner in our apartment(On the menu: paella surprise...made with local  produce and canned goods from Latvia and other places east of us, and yummy apple dumplings with apples from Poland.  One of my fun challenges is cooking with local options and sometimes mystery food...because I can not speak Estonian, Latvian or read Cyrilic.)  We have a fire in the fireplace and are watching BBC news report on the natural and human violence that is occurring in so many other places of this world.  The frigid temps of the past few days (-3/-4 degrees F) are supposedly softening a bit tomorrow....so its time for a blog entry and photos. 

We have been exploring and also enjoying the inspirational celebrations that are part of Estonian Freedom Day (the actual day was yesterday..Feb. 24th).  Before details of the day itself, a brief synopsis of other adventures and discoveries:

main sactuary from the women's section

Bruce in front of the main entrance

This week, we visited the Tallinn synaogogue and we were treated to a wonderful private tour of the museum, complete with an in depth history of the Estonian Jewish community accompanied by photos, documents and personal stories. Our guide was quite knowledgable, and was an amazingly good English speaker. (We used Hebrew as a fall back for words he didn't know, since he had lived for several years in Israel.) We hope to return for services and Purim (costumes are supposed to be something Chinese...an interesting idea...) A few photos of the synagogue are above. Hopefully you can see, that it is a beautiful modern building. It was designed by non-Jewish Finlanders, and details include   wooden carved screens of the tree of life as a design throughout the building and large windows showing the sky and trees. 

Food and coffee-wise, we are starting to find places that feel like 'ours'.  A local coffee cafe called Mamo, that has free wifi, good coffee, windows to view the street and quite delicious, inexpensive dishes- like curry on rice, soups and salads. The other people we see there seem to be local workers, students and couples who come to grab a short bite in the middle of  their busy schedules. (Estonian seem to be proud of the fact that they are overwhelmingly busy all the time. The consistent unstated assumption from most people I meet, is that no one else in the world is as busy as Estoninans.) 

Inside the National Library

Bruce and Artwork

Stained Glass at the Library

From our apartment or Mamo and a 10 minute walk in the other direction is the National Library. It is a vast fort-like edifice with books in many languages (including English...woo hoo).  The building is filled with sculpture, photos and paintings as well as a beautiful stain glass window above the entrance.

We happened to visit in the later afternoon and arrived in time for a free choral concert in one of the library performance halls (next to the ever present kovik/coffee house) and we join a group of mainly older women, dressed in stylish dresses and a few men, to listen to an amazing girls' choir singing a mix of folks, traditional and international songs. We started with everyone standing and singing the national anthem and the rest of the concert included wonderful singing, choreography and songs that included bird calls and another with witch-like shrieks and cries as the singers swooped across the stage like birds of prey. The choir leader was an older woman who conducted with vigor, wagged her finger at the audience when we didn't sing loudly enough and at at times, joined the audience as her 'girls' sang away in front of us.  It might sound corny but the singing was amazingly wonderful and the pride of song and love of music was overwhelmingly beautiful. 

Soldiers at Parade rest

Ceremonies for Freedom Day 

The next morning was the actual DAY OF CELEBRATION. We chose to NOT get up for the sunrise flag raising and service, (in part because the event was outside and the temperature was hovering around -4 F.) We did make it later for the parade, joining many other Estonians gathered in the frigid temperature to view the festivities. The crowd was an amazing mix, small children waving small Estonian flags, women in fur coats with matching  fur hats, old men with red noses and teary eyes, plus a smattering of foreigners...all trying to keep our footing with frozen feet on the piles of snow and trying to stay warm in the cold temperatures.

Fur and Khaki...check out the guns 

Soldiers and more soldiers (officers too)

tanks on parade !!

Estonians watching the parade

The parade itself was basically a huge military show. Earlier, as I had walked back to Vabaduse Valjak to meet Bruce from a morning rehearsal, it was a strange juxtaposition to see the old town filled with khaki colored tanks and military vehicles.  The young soldiers nearby were smiling and chatting with friends and family and photos while tall medieval towers stood in  the background, a reminder of earlier military battles.  

The parade was quite inspiring, and we got to see it several times again that evening on TV. 

Tanks in the old town

It has been an interesting week for different views on the military. I am aware that as an American who grew up during the Vietnam war times, I have a somewhat disparaging view of warfare and soldiers.  I also know that for some Americans, often those who are poor or who have fewer possibilities and job options, the army provides an opportunity to have a better life, better education and a living income. But, I still tend to look down my nose a bit at the military.  

However, this week, I am also seeing the army in a different role. Watching the news unfold in Egypt and now Libya as well as other parts of the Middle East I am seeing a different side of the military.  In the Middle East these days, soldiers are often the primary peace keepers in battles between dictators and the people of the country.  The parade in Estonia is another example.  Here people celebrated Estonian's recently acquired liberation with military flair. (toward the end of the parade two helicopters and then two fighter jets flew overhead. The crowds shivered and cheered in awe and appreciation. I wondered if their air force was comprised of these 4 vehicles.)  Watching the young men and a few women soldiers parade past me, mere feet from where I stood, the soldiers seems eminently human and courageously willing to defend their country from invasion.  It was quite a different view from my views of soldiers when I was a young adult.  What are the differences between a valid show of pride and empowerment and a show of power that is more abusive and violent. And who gets to decide which is which.  Later, I was talking with a young Estonian playwright who also questioned the value of celebrating freedom with a military show, but she ruefully concluded that the military show was acceptable and had a place in her Estonian day of freedom.  These seem like important questions, especially as I watch the news in the quiet, introverted part of the world.  Ones for which I dont know that I have many answers.  

Nagemiste !!!! (apologies for funky formatting this time around...the blog site is being a bit hard to manage)

Ancient clock in Old Town