It is almost the summer solstice and there is barely any darkness at night. It is wonderful and disorienting at the same time. At 7 in the evening, the sun blazes high above the horizon. By 11 the sky is a deep purple-blue. It gets slightly darker, but then by 2 am it is light again. As I type this it is almost 11 pm and the sky is still light- you could easily read a book without any additional help. We are getting used to waking up with this brightness and then turning over to go back to sleep but it is sometimes hard to do. Plus, an unfortunate downside of these ‘white nights’ is that many foreigners take the opportunity to drink and party non-stop. Sometime our outside door bell buzzes (very obnoxiously) at 3 am. The huge number of drinking camera-toting foreigners also makes walking through the old town (Vanalinn) a crowded ordeal, although it is relatively easy to find other less crowded areas outside the main tourist area.
Much has been happening and we are filling our last few weeks/days here by going thought our ‘things we want to make sure we do before we leave’ list.
First, my department organized the first ever Creativity and Healing conference in Estonia and it was a huge privilege to participate. Plus it was loads of fun to be part of a gathering with art, dance, movement, and music presentations by students and professionals from health care, education and the arts. It was also a wonderful time to present my work and have time to get to know other European colleagues better. Not to mention a great after-party. (Estonians do a great job of celebrating when the work is done….we even got to try some Ukrainian champagne.)
 |
| snacks for the conference-lavender of course |
A few days later, we were on our way to Parnu, a sweet and incredibly beautiful town on the Baltic Sea coast, for a few days. We also took a short day trip to Kihnu, an island off the coast of Estonia that is considered a world heritage site because of its continued practice of an older, more traditional life style. Our last big Estonian excursion was preceded and overlapped with a conference on Equal Rights focusing on LGBTQ equality in Estonia. (One thing we have noticed here is that communication is sparse and often at the last minute. We found out about this conference 3 days before it started, so it was too late to change our plans to go to Parnu.) The conference was part of Baltic Pride celebrations and the opening talks were so interesting that I actually ran to the bus station to change our bus tickets to a later time, so we could stay longer that day. But more of that later…
First the Parnu roadtrip:
 |
| Church in Parnu |
We had actually been to Parnu a few times already but only as a brief pause in the bus station to other parts of the Baltics. This time, we descended, grabbed our packs and walked off….into the old town. (wowie zowie…life can be so exciting at times) Parnu is a beautifully restored old coastal town, filled with ornate wood buildings, sleek 2-3 story Scandinavian and art deco apartments and houses interspersed with a few soviet decaying concrete block monstrosities. There were also lots of parks, statues, public art and fountains. Although we arrived in the late afternoon, it was so light we had plenty of time to wander and explore.
 |
| no title needed??? |
 |
| Beach at Parnu...notice the far off people...wading |
After leaving our things at our ‘homey’ B and B (our landlady did a good job as a substitute mom), we passed small churches topped by tall, complicated turquoise towers and kids careening around on dirt bikes and skateboards. We wandered into the ‘fancy neighborhood’ and walked down a luxuriant street filled with large opulent houses. This led to a grass covered sand dune, behind which was a topless ‘women’s beach’ filled with mothers, grandmothers and small children enjoying the long evening light lying in the sand. (Bruce remained behind the sand dune for this part of our walk) The beach itself was calm and, in fact, the coast is so gradual and shallow you actually have to wade out a long distance to be able to swim, or even find water that goes higher than mid-calf.
 |
| Bikes and kids at the ferry |
The next morning we woke up early for the 2.5-hour ferry to Kihnu, the island that is supposed to be the most traditional place in Estonia (well, not counting the Seto people in the southeast.) Our landlord drove us to the ferry landing (because-according to ‘mom’ his wife- it is apparently impossible for non-Parnuvians to find it on their own). At the ferry, we joined several groups of older school kids with bikes who were having an overnight camping trip to Kihnu and were joining us on the small ferry. With a short toot, we headed out toward to blue horizon..… putting past several small islands until we arrived at a small, tree covered expanse of land. We landed and as the kids biked off in one direction, we started walking in the other. We walked past small farms behind earth mounded root cellars and small kitchen gardens, fruit trees and lots of colorful flowers growing out of stone walls.
 |
| Woods on Kihnu...smell the pine needles ? |
We walked past stands of thin tall red-barked pine trees with the sun dappling the branches. Then, fields of green surrounded by yellow buttercups and purple lilac bushes. It was amazingly idyllic and made more perfect by the absence of any sounds beyond birds, waves and the wind in the trees.
We stopped at one of local Russian Churches (which the caretaker re-opened for us.) and also stopped in the local museum, which had a photo exhibit of the older women inhabitants of the island. The women of Kihnu are known for always wearing skirts of traditional hand-woven fabric (striped and brightly colored), being strong and often riding on old-style motorcycles with side-cars. The exhibit was powerful and beautiful.
 |
| Photo exhibit of Kihnu women |
 |
| Farm house on Kihnu |
 |
| Farm field on Kihnu |
After walking around and through the island a bit (it is very small), we took an even smaller ferry to a nearby town on the mainland – Munalaid. (The ferries only go back and forth a few times each day, so we opted to got to a different town and bus back to Parnu, rather than leave one hour after we had arrived on the first ferry).
 |
| Cemetery on Kihnu... |
This ferry was even smaller, and we passed smaller island islands each with it’s own farm. There was a local bus that connected with the ferry’s arrival and soon we were back in Parnu, having a wonderful Chinese dinner and then walking d down to the beach to put our feet in the water as we listen to ‘Country Roads’ being sung in Russian at a beach bar. The next day we explored Parnu a bit more, got together with the department secretary from school and hopped a bus back to Tallinn.
Remember the Baltic Pride events we had to abandon to go to Parnu? Well, they continued without us. Baltic Pride is a somewhat miraculous event, considering that being ‘out’ was life-threateningly dangerous in most of the post-soviet countries until only a few years ago. As a result, Baltic Pride rotates between the three capital cities (Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn) every three years. This year Baltic Pride included an art exhibit of some powerfully moving documentary films, an outdoor event/semi-parade and the conference, which was intended to open a conversation about increased rights for LGBTQ folks in Estonia. To quote another American who was there, in the Baltics- LGBTQ issues are at an earlier stage than in the US (about 20 years earlier). So showing up and being visible was an huge act of courage for most of the folks who attended. (Not to say we have it all solved in the US, but they have a lot further to go in the Baltics.)
 |
| Reading- "I want a president..." on Vabaduse Valjak (notice cute guy upper left corner) |
The primary reason we returned after only a few days in Parnu is that we wanted to join a public reading/performance of a ‘I want a dyke for president…’ by Zoe Leonard (1992), on Vabduse Valjak.. We joined will a range of people from many different countries and we read the piece in English, Estonian and Russian for an hour….after which, tired and hoarse-voiced, we toddled home to bed.
With only a few days left in Estonia, our days are filled with packing, figuring out what we will mail home and trying to find ways to say good-by. I am typing this on our own personal ‘celebrate the white nights’ observation. Meaning we watched a British mystery show on TV until after midnight…just to see if it ever got dark.......IT DIDN’T!!! and cars kept zooming down the road outside until significantly after we went to bed. So, with slightly bleary eyes- I will now post this.
No comments:
Post a Comment