New Discoveries In Tallinn

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I didn’t think Tallinn was on our agenda this time, but about a week before my trip, Boris mentioned that he thought I might enjoy an organ concert at Nigulista, and I immediately jumped on this opportunity. Recently, each time we visit Tallinn, we see something new, so I was almost certain that will be the case again.

Usually, we take the earliest boat to Tallinn and return about four in the afternoon, but this time, we tool the late morning boat, and went back at 7:30PM.

Lots of people travel to Tallinn for the weekend, so the terminal was pretty crowded
Still not that many people bought the “late breakfast”, so we were able to get a table at the front of the ferry.
We didn’t eat breakfast at home,a nd combined breakfast and lunch, so we didn’t waste time in Tallinn on any sit down meal
No rain and sunshine, and the air temperature in the 40s

We started walking, and Boris was commenting again, that this is a new part of the city because it was off limits at the Soviet occupation time being too close to the Naval base, and then I saw this sign at the corner:

I had no idea what it was, but it turned out that that’s exactly where we were heading. While I was walking there and taking the pictures, I had no idea about the history of that district, just taken away by the 19th century industrial aesthetics. Boris told me that Rotermann was an industrialist who build these factories and the living quarters around them, and that they became completely abandoned during Soviet occupation, and came back to life in the early 2000s.

Only when I was back home, I looked for more information about the Rotermann Quarter. Here is the most detailed description I found, and I think it’s totally worth reading,

I especially loved the upper floors built on almost each of the old buildings, and how they harmonize with the rest of the architecture.

Being much younger than most of the city, Rotermann gave me some Chicago vibes, and was not at all surprised to see that:

I had to remind myself about my determination to travel back without checked luggage, but I still got a lot of sweets in this store!

This building gives you a glimpse of how the Rotermann Quarter looked before it’s makeover started.

After we lefts Rotermann, we headed towards the Freedom Museum which we didn’t have a chance to check put during our previous visits.

I had a lot of expectations about it, but I was disappointed. I think the problem was that the museum curators relied almost 100% on individual people’s stories. Granted, people’s stories help making history personal, and demonstrate how big historical shifts affect lives of individuals, but when there is nothing except for the stories, the conceptual layer seems completely dissolved. I do not think I learned anything new from this exhibit, which was unfortunate.

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Published by Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

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