To Haapsalu and Back as Spring Arrives

Tere (hi!). As you can see from the previous entry (but next on the page, the way this blog works), we've been getting out beyond Tallinn a bit. This is largely due to interest in what Barbara has to offer here, in addition to her regular classwork at Tallinn University: the workshops and teaching in Haapsalu (an historic [c. 1279 founding] town on the northwest coast several hours west of here by bus, working with schoolchildren in Tartu (Estonia's second city and heart of its historic university), presentations on dance/movement therapy in Riga (Latvia's capital), about four hours south by bus, a weekend workshop in Helsinki (three hours north by ferry), and participation in a conference in Copenhagen. And most of this happening in our last two months here (it takes a little while for local folks to know Fulbright scholars are here). It appears that life here will only get busier, but it's good to be used well.

In the photo above you see a neighborhood in Haapsalu. I spent part of the time while Barbara was doing her workshops just wandering the area and relaxing (as well as trying out a very friendly and tasty cafe built into the old city wall). The photo to the left is one of the old stone crosses (from local limestone) used as cemetery markers by the Swedes who once lived in large number in the area (most fled early in World War II to Sweden, though some had been farmers and fisherfolk on the shore and nearby islands for centuries) (there's a small Swedish Estonian museum in town).

I also took part in an afternoon workshop the three Fulbright folks presented (one's an expressive arts person, another an art therapist, and Barbara of course is a dance/movement therapist). While we're told that Estonians tend to be quiet, reserved, to avoid eye contact, and so forth--and though this is often the case out on the street--we've been pleasantly surprised to find people friendly, talkative, interesting, and even willing to do "risky" things like going beyond their usual experience in exploring the unknown parts of who they are in the kind of work that Barbara does. Of course, I think it's also (in the workshops) that Barbara's an energetic, engaging, skillful, funny, and sometimes charismatic leader who can bring things out of people who are willing to meet her half way (or even just a third). See the photo above for Barbara working with a group at the art center where the Pippi Longstocking illustrator's works are housed (this may have helped set the mood for playfulness!).

Spring continues to struggle to arrive, and it's actually been warm enough the past few days to walk around town with our jackets unzipped. And the evening light will soon be lasting as long as our energy (o.k., this may be a modest claim: we were returning the other night in a taxi from a wine and cheese get-together at the ambassador's house in Tallinn--Fulbright folks get invited to some of the embassy events--and the 20-somethings were talking about the possible cafes where they could go hear music while we were thinking about our warm bed in our cozy apartment: clearly "beginning of the weekend" versus "end of a long week" viewpoints). The photo above is Haapsalu across the lake in the center of town, the older towers and church spires reflected in the water on the melting ice.

As you can see in the photo at the right, young women in Tallinn can now wear their stiletto heels with more safety than when the snow and ice were so thick (they didn't give up wearing them, it was just more risky--why the pavement wasn't full of fallen women intent on making a fashion statement I could never figure out!). This is the front of our apartment building, with our door on the left, and the entrance to Kathmandu (a Nepal/India/China cafe) to the right, handy when we haven't wanted to venture far when the weather was colder.)

A week ago the Bay of Finland (on which Tallinn is located) was apparently still frozen solid, except for the channels for the ferries to Helsinki and Stockholm. But a walk over the weekend confirmed that the ice is breaking up, another sign that spring is near.

Spring also seems to be bringing me some new opportunities to meet folks here and to be of some use. I was gave a guest lecture to a graduate geography seminar last week about "Masculinity and the Use of Social Space," and also met with half a dozen folks who work with various gender equality organizations (both governmental and non-government organizations), which will likely lead to helping with some workshops. I'm also helping with some planning for "Baltic Pride," the annual gay and lesbian pride celebration which seems to rotate annually among the three Baltic capitals. More on gender issues here in Tallinn in a later posting!

Barbara is handling being 60 pretty well, and I'm trying to set a good example. At the moment the main advantage of being 65 I can give is that, as an official "pensioner" here in Estonia, I can ride all the public transportation systems in town for free (trams, trolleys and busses), which seems very civilized and which I'm enjoying. The flowers Barbara got for her birthday from her department looked quite pretty on the window sill, against a recent late snowstorm outside.

(I've since had to replace them, this time with bundles of spring pussy-willows which older ladies sell out on the town square for half a Euro.)

The last photo for this posting appears to be a stone statue of two lovers. But, who knows? In some ways this place can be a place of myths and legends, and it's possible this is an actual couple who didn't make it into someplace warm before an early snow last fall, and have been frozen in an embrace since then, waiting for the spring thaw. Travel to a new place often involves the realization that things aren't what they at first seem, that there may be deeper meanings at work than one first assumes. Part of what being in one's 60's may involve is the humility and patience to realize those revelations may take some time. Bruce

p.s. Barbara tells me that if you click on any photo in our posts that interest you, you'll see a larger version with more detail. It works!