Harvest

A few pictures taken on Boxing Day harvesting oats. Back on the farm ion Shelford.

Jenko in the header

Brydie Harry and Jared, towing a fieldbin with the ute.

Robert in the new truck, tipping the trailer.

Estonians are the Europes third worst drivers - Forbes

Estonia is the the third most dangerous country in which to drive, according to a recent Forbes report. The even worse skills behind the wheel of their Baltic Brethren leave the Estonians in the bronze medal position. Lithuanians are Europe's worst drivers, and Latvians the second worst. One point to consider is that Forbes used a picture of a car tipped over during the april Bronze soldier riots. It was interesting that The Postimees newspaper concentrated on this fact rather than the fact that Estonians can't drive for shit! I think they need tp get their priorities straight!

Estonian Armed Robbery Gang

For some reason this story really interests me. English police think that there is an Estonian robbery gang, who use budget airlines to fly around the world and launch high value raids. 48 hours later they're back in Estonia. Seems like a good scam to me. Less chance of being caught if you're several hundred kilometres away. However, it seems police have eventually caught up with therm. Read the full story here.

Corruption in Estonian Football

It seems that there could be a few Estonian clubs caught up in the latest football (soccer) betting scandal.

Video - Snow Covered Tallinn

Hail Storm in Tallinn

I was sitting at home today when there was hail storm. At first I thought it was snowing, but the size was just too big. It was making lots of noise as it came down.

Müürsepp Update

Martin Müürsepp, the Estonian basket-baller playing for the Melbourne Tigers has been picked in the NBL All-stars team.

Alcohol in Estonia.

With a high inflation rate in Estonia, prices for most goods are catching up with those that I experienced in Australia. One of the most obvious exceptions is alcohol, which is still pretty cheap thanks to low taxes (though this is set to change in the coming years).
So I was surprised to read about the following bootleg scam in The Baltic Times;

Yet another operation in which criminals have been pumping bootleg alcohol from Russia into Estonia through a hose underneath the Narva River was discovered and shut down on Nov. 12. The Estonian Border Guard said that Russian customs workers in Ivangorod caught a local man red-handed pumping hundreds of liters of alcohol through the hose. The incident is at least the fourth such operation to be shut down since 2004.

Just Imagine if you stumbled across that hose sticking out of the ground. It'd be a great party, till the smuggler found you and your corpse wound up at the bottom of the Narva river!

Estonian Music

2 recently released songs in Estonia.

This one by a group called the Bedwetters recently won the New Sound of Europe prize and the MTV European Video Music Awards.



This second one is possibly the worst song ever recorded. It is by an Estonian weather girl, and it so horrific I can't stop looking at it. Like a car accident!

Article from the Guardian

Good article from the guardian about how stags aren't really that much of a problem in Tallinn.

Playboy Arrives in Estonia.

Anyone who has been in Tallinn recently will probably know that Estonia now has its very own Playboy. There has been an amazing amount of publicity, including glitzy launch parties, TV stories and billboards placed all over town, as seen below. You'll also notice the rubbish bin on the pole on the left, featuring the rabbit logo.
However I'm guessing that someone is very anti Playboy, as they have been slicing up all of the rabbit logos, with the following results! I noticed today that this advertisement has been replaced and the defaced again, so it seems like it is a concerted campaign!


It really made me wonder, who was it who has been sneaking around cutting up Playboy ads? Religious fanatics, rival magazine publishers, the model's ashamed mothers?????
Well whoever it was, their campaign did not stop me exercising my market driven choice, and I headed down to Stockmann (the big department store just down the road) to make my purchase. Of course I only bought it for the articles... Well that excuse kind of falls flat when they're all in Estonian!!!!
All in all the magazine seemed better than I had expected. I would have read a fair few of the articles if they were in English. It seems a bit more like FHM/Ralph than Playboy, though the girls are topless.
In the end though I must confess, at the risk of being seen as a nerd, there are more interesting magazines out there that will win the opportunity cost battle for my hard earned Kroon.
Thanks to Sirli who indulged my weired sense of humour to take pictures of her boyfriend posing with Playboy!

Roof Top Hostel

I enjoyed a few beers the other night on the roof of the Hostel With No Name thanks to Aussie boy Jonathan. This isn't some sort of roof top bar, we just sat and drank stubbies on top of the pitched roof! The attraction was the view, as the hostel is smack bang in the middle of the old town, right next to the town hall square.

St Nicholas Church from the hostel roof

Town Hall, Town Hall Square bottom left

Weather

Yesterday was a disgusting windy day here in Tallinn. Walking down the street today I saw this, and could just imagine the situation when it happened to some poor sod walking down the street.

Anticipate Your Expectations

This poster is on the ferry going to Saremaa, Estonia's biggest Island. I thought that the marketing slogan for this hotel has to be the worst in the world. "Anticipate your expectations"... How can you not anticipate what you are expecting?????!!!

Keep Chickens Under Control

Here's some more graffiti I found on a wall in the old Town on Friday. It's fairly odd! The writing underneath means something like Keep Chickens Under Control. It's a play on words from Keep your hometown tidy (Hoia kodulinn puhas), the slogan which can be found on rubbish bins in Tallinn. In Estonian Kodulind = home bird = chicken.
I've got no idea what the political message behind this one is, makes you think though!



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Now playing: Hard-Fi - Suburban Knights
via FoxyTunes

More Videos for my Website

I've been using Animoto to make small slide-show videos for my website. I figure I might as well post them her as well! I highly recommend Animoto, it's really easy to use and I think it produces some pretty good results.


Estonian Manor House Tour



Communist Estonia Tour

Grand Final

Early Saturday morning I went pulled myself out of bed to head down to Nimeta Bar in Tallinn's Old Town to watch the AFL Grand Final. I wore a Geelong jumper to show my support for the Cats, but also wore a Richmond scarf, just to let everyone know that I'm really a Tigers fan deep down. The pub was full of Cats fans, and obviously the mood was very positive!!! It's the one week of the year in Estonia where it's legitimate to start drinking at 8.30!

M-Voting in Estonia

In March I blogged about how Estonians could cast their votes online at the last National Parliamentary Elections. Well there are now reports that the government is looking to establish a system of M-Voting, whereby people can vote using their mobile phones. Interesting for Australians to consider when their Saturdays are disrupted by having to vote (sometime) later this year. Imagine voting securely in 30 seconds using your phone, at home, in the car or even at the pub!

Rooftop Sunset

I just went up to the top of our building to get a good look at the sunset. Here are a few snaps I got. They're taken at 20:00, just to give you an idea of the shortening days.

Getting Cold in Tallinn

The mecury has been slowly falling over the last month or so here in Tallinn, and it is cold outside even on a sunny day. Our house only has communal heating, which we have to wait to be turned on. As a result it has been getting cold inside, but thankfully the heat came on just a few hours ago! This may not sound like much, but to me it is great, as i wont be freezing cold in my own home. However it also signals that summer has well and truly passed, and the long slide into winter has began!!

We have these radiators which are heated by hot water.

I thought the little snow flake was apt for how the apartment felt when I got home from Viljandi this morning .
However now the heat is on and i have ramped the dial up to 9! I've never been a fan of the cold.
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Now playing: Bloc Party - Like Eating Glass
via FoxyTunes

Estonian Basketballer playing in Melbourne

Martin Muursepp, an Estonian basketballer is playing for the Tigers in Melbourne, and was given this write up in the Age.

Thanks to Jeff for pointing this out.

More Graffiti

Since my second most recent post I've taken a few more pictures of graffiti on Tallinn's walls. Here's two:

1. Not sure what this one means, I just thought it looked interesting.

2. I really like this one, as it is quite subtle but very clever. This is on the wall next to the front door of the building I lived in when I studied in Tallinn 3 years ago. The street was the location for the most dramatic fighting in the April "Bronze Soldier" Riots. The one death, where a Russian rioter was stabbed to death also occurred in this street. I really good commentary on the logic, or lack of it, in rioting!

Also interesting is the police website set up recently to identify the remaining unknown rioters. People are supposed to go to the site and look at the pictures, and then tell the police if they know the people.


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Now playing: My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade
via FoxyTunes

Tallinn Video

I was playing around with a web-based slide show tool and I used some photos of Tallinn just as a practice. I was going to delete this however I figured that I might as well leave it up, as I have nothing more interesting to blog about!!!!

Graffiti

I have no idea of the graffiti artist or his story, but someone keeps painting variations of hats and faces around Tallinn, mainly in the old town. When Pricey was visiting earlier in the year he became obsessed with spotting each one and looking at the different variations. I just found this one on a wall near my house while walking home from a tour this morning, though without the face. I dedicate it to Pricey!

Estonia article in the Economist

The Economist has published a really interesting article about the abuse hurled at Estonia by Russians and Russian Estonians. It sums the situation up extremely well, which is quite rare in the international media. It Basically outlines how calling Estonians Nazis or saying that Estonia has an apartheid system is just crazy.

Padise

Today I did a test run tour to a place called Padise. The reason for going there is its monastery, or at least the ruins of the monastery. I used two Norwegian guys as my test subjects, and the good news is they enjoyed it, so I think I will add it to my tours from now on. Unfortunately I was stuck with just my camera phone again, but here are the pictures anyway.

Monastery Tower

The Monastery was once used as a manor house, until it was struck by lightning and burned down. The owners built the new one you can see in the picture below, viewed from the tower.
Window

External View

Courtyard

External View

Internal View (or what would have been internal!)

Tower

Viljandi Folk Festival

I've just returned from the Vilhjandi Folk Music Festival. I only had my camera with me, so here are some very poor quality pictures.



The view of Viljandi Castle from Sirli's Grandfather's Summer House. The music festival is held amongst the ruins of the castle.

Greek Music played by an Estonian Band.

Spanish Folk Music

Sirli and I

My Birthday

I've been pretty slac in posting here of late, and I just realise that I didn't put anything up about my Birthday. Sirli threw a surprise party for me the night before my actual birthday. I have to admit that I had no idea!!

Pictures here

Guests

Last week James, Fitzy, Adam and Terhi came to Tallinn. The picture below is from when we hired a mini bus and drove to Paldiski. On the weekend we hired a car and Fitzy, Adam, Sirli and I drove through Southern Estonia and onto Riga. Driving to Riga was a very scary experience. The number of times other drivers overtake on blind corners is amazing! Driving in Tallinn seems like a piece of cake now.

More Pictures here.

Jaanipäev

This weekend is one of the most festive in Estonia, as the whole country celebrates the Summer Solstice. Saturday was Võidupüha, or Victory Day, which commemorates victory over the Germans after WWI, and today is Jaanipäev, or St John's Day. However the most important aspect of the whole weekend is St Johns Evening (Jaaniõhtu). I experienced my first Jaani Evening at Rocca Al Mare open air museum, with Sirli and her parents. The museum has a collection of original farm houses for Estonia's history, and yesterday evening it had 4 Jaanipäev celebrations; from Czarist times, First Republic Times (1930's), Soviet Time and Today. The idea was to show how Jäänipäev was celebrated in each period.

People all over Estonia have parties, and light bonfires which they then jump over to bring them good luck. It's a tradition which as roots all the way back to Estonia's pagan past.

Melbourne Shooting in the Estonian News

The shooting which happened in Melbourne today has made news here in Estonia. I saw it first in Estonian (not understanding much) and when I checked The Age it was obviously a big story given the amount of coverage.

Estonian T-Shirt

I just saw this on Amazon. Interesting!

House Update

Sirli and I moved most of our stuff to the new apartment today. I know many readers of this blog (both of you) will be surprised that we still haven't moved, but we have basically been waiting for the kitchen, which will FINALLY be installed on Wednesday. With a bit of luck we will probably spend our first night there tomorrow or Monday night. A big thanks must go to Susie and Sven for helping us move, especially to Sven for giving us the benefit of his handyman skills and constructing our new wardrobe. I shall update our protracted moving situation as we go!

Tanel Padar at Pirita Klooster

I have just returned from watching Estonia's most popular band Tanel Padar and The Sun in concert at Pitita Convent, a great setting. However the weather didn't really cooperate, and it rained for the second half. A little you tube video of one of their songs remixed is below for your enjoyment!

Lahemaa Pics

I just put all the pictures from the trip I did to Lahemaa on Flickr. I didn't select any out, so it's a bit of a mission looking through them, but If you're bored take a look.

Lahemaa Trip

I did a trip to day for my business today, to Lahemaa, a national park on the north coast of Estonia. This is the type of stuff I'm taking people to see outside of Tallinn.















Saha Chapel, 15th Century.















Cist graves from the bronze age. People were buried above ground because the limestone bedrock is so close to the surface, making it hard to dig.



















Jõelähtme Church, history from the 14th century.

Maardu Manor House















Coastal scenery in Lahemaa National Park.