Steven&co - Estonian tales

Where did he get the pastry?? Find out from this post...

It is snowing a bit today.

See it live on this webcam or admire the result here...

Today marks another of these special days for the Estonians. Not an official holiday, but celebrated everywhere, "vastlapäev" marks the demise of winter and the end of the cold days. Or rather, should mark that - it has been snowing non-stop and I wouldn't particularly like to say that -8 is a comfortable temperature.

The tradition comes from the countryside, where winters were long, dark and full of nothing to do. The February snow, "higher temperatures" and brighter days were very welcome after weeks of gloomy weather, and vastlapäev was a day to look forward to, particularly for the children who could start playing outside a bit more often again.

The main event on vastlapäev nowadays is the eating of “vastlakukkel”, a piece of pastry that is best compared with a dryer version of a “boule de Berlin”, but filled with whipped cream instead of with vanilla pudding. These pastries are only available here around vastlapäev, and sold out within hours. More traditionally is going down a hill by sledge (or by all means possible or impossible, actually). The one that slides the furthest is considered to have the best harvest in the coming season, which of course is celebrated with liberal servings of vodka.

Even more traditional (but less to my taste) is eating pea soup with "feet and ears" (of the pigsy kind), and making toys out of pig bones and a piece of string.

Hoping for warmer days made me think back of Gent, and of how, by the end of March, the street cafés will start to open again. How it will actually be too chilly to fully enjoy it, and how the sun sinks behind the railway bridge next to the station. How we went home after sunset, looking forward for summer and planning what we would do then, knowing that life was returning to the city again... I miss these things a lot. The comfort of sitting and experiencing the city with friends, without talking too much, just thinking the same thoughts.

Being in Estonia is a fantastic experience, but abroad is still abroad... So guys, when the street cafés are open, and the sun is still out around six: treat yourself to a nice cool Duvel (or pea soup, or white Martini, whatever fashion will rule this year), and greet the city in my name!

Pille is at it again…

Steven: “photo in Estonian is with ph, right?
Pille: “yes, but it is without an h… and actually with an f…”
Steven: “sigh…”

As strange as it may be in a country where winter seems to last eternally: we had our first real winter fun this weekend! Two days of playing around in the snow and enjoying sunny winter weather.

Pille went skiing (the cross-country type, also called langlauf, but without tracks), and we all went walking in the snow and threw the occasional snowball.

I also tried the Finnish sledge (basically a chair mounted on a pair of very long ice skates), Joonas pretended to be a snow angel and the family got a bit larger with the addition of a snow-little-girl-with-cap and a snow-soldier-in-the-independence-day-parade.

I hadn’t done any of these things in years, so re-living far away childhood memories made it extra fun!

Tomorrow marks one of these rare Estonian official holidays: independence day ("Aastapäev" in Estonian, which, literally translated, means "year day"). Aastapäev is the national holiday of Estonia; explaining that is more difficult than it seems...

The independence day to be remembered, February 24th, 1918, was just that - one day of independence. Before that, Bolshevists ruled, but they quickly scattered before the Germans, who were still marching strong in the beginning of 1918. Hence the one day: the Germans took over the land almost instantly. If it is of interest to you (and if you remember your history lessons): these events are followed by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the treaty forced upon the Russians by the Germans on March 3rd, 1918. Under the conditions of that treaty, only Saaremaa (the big island in the West) became German whilst the rest of the country became Russian (in the mean time there was some struggle between White-Russians and Bolsheviks, so I might be a bit inaccurate here). In reality however, the Russians retreated much further, leaving the whole of Estonia under German rule.

Of course, as we know the war was coming to a close by then. Less known however is that the armistice of 1918 wasn't followed by disarmament of the Germans in the Baltics. Accomplishing that took some British intervention, which is why the autonomy of Estonia was accepted by Germany only on November 19th, 1918.

There comes the Estonian republic, one would think. Wrong again - by that time the Soviets were on the move again, occupying about 75% of the territory by December 1918. Estonia then - under general Laidoner and with British aid - fought back rather heroically, and managed to kick out the Soviets and the collaborating Latvian Riflemen by the time the new republic could celebrate its first year of independence. The first civil government followed a bit later, somewhere in 1920. So far for our "short history of Estonian independence". There is much more to tell, but this is a blog and not a history book...*

Just that there is also a "re-independence day" which takes place on August 20th, 1991, but which is not celebrated as a national holiday (the day is known though as the day on which the president traditionally opens up his rose garden).

The national holiday in Estonia is quite an event, celebrated with medals, rewards and cake in the offices. The day before, most offices close after lunch; the day itself is e free day here (which is not very common in Estonia, compared to Belgium). With any luck, you might be able to catch a glimpse of the "military parade" that takes place on and around the freedom square (look in the left corner of this image from 9:50 local time onwards).

This year might offer an extra treat: Kristina Smigun (foto: yahoo! news), the best Estonian cross-country skier and winner of two gold medals these winter games, will be racing for gold over 30 kms tomorrow (12:30 local time). Let's see if there is gold to be celebrated this time...


* Just for clarification: Estonia became autonomous once before in March 1917 under the Kerenski regime, but lost it again soon after the Bolsheviks took power during the October revolution. The importance of that short period is that the Estonian "government" managed to send out several diplomatic missions during that time, which later on proved crucial in securing international support for the young republic...

I finally found an Estonian language course - one that actually is taking place (all the other courses were cancelled due to too few participants, or were too low or too high in level, or were impossible because I was travelling, ...).

From now on I am learning that strange language I hear on the trollibus every day.

And I can assure you, it is not easy!

Ah, these wild Saturday nights... For us old folks, it has been a long time past, but apparently babies also go party in the weekend.

This time, the excuse was the first birthday of Meena. So the babies prepared a dancefloor and arranged loud music, and started a party as only they know how.

Mommies and daddies were tolerated, but probably only to assure that there was food on the table. An orgy of milk and cake. Pigs, that's what they are, these youth nowadays...

Just found this great site via Johns blog: Tallinn.info

It hosts a webcam with a nice view of the old town, and a virtual tour of the city containing panoramic pictures which you can drag around in and which allow you to see a site from different angles.

It also has a whole bunch of very nice pictures - you can even change the music using the bottom right menu, really nicely done! Let's hope Gent picks up the idea one day...