I arrived in Tallinn, the ferry docking in the early afternoon which gave me a little bit of time to check out the UNESCO world heritage listed Old Town, before finding my way to my hosts’ house, about 2km from the city centre.
The Old Town was fantastic, and probably the best view of it was from the ferry when coming into the harbour. It sits perched on a hill, the medieval centre split over two levels, and many fabulous towers and church spires pricking the sky. I would have stayed a bit longer but the cobblestone streets were horrendous on my fully loaded touring bicycle. I had plenty of time to pop back the next day to see it again, so it was time to dump my bags and figure out how I was going to spend the evening.
A short distance from the old town, my GPS leads me down a couple of streets that could nearly have doubled for the western set at Warner Bros movie world. The houses were completely different to anything I’d yet seen in my travels, double story homes made primarily from wood, built somewhere in the last 100 years or so. The streets were paved but were a pothole minefield, and the yards of houses, though very green with trees, were also very dusty. Although Estonia didn’t exactly ring ‘soviet’ (concrete, high-rise, graffiti, etc) I did finally feel like I was in Eastern Europe for the first time. And I loved it!
I rocked up at the house and rode straight past it, then when I checked the address, the funny house on the corner of Koida Road, with kids playing on a swingset out the front, was indeed the address I was looking for. There was a big sign up on the roof, though I didn’t really understand what it was saying, I did make out that the name of the place was Seltsimaja, and I had overshot it originally thinking that it was some kind of unusual shop or childcare centre or something. My GPS hadn’t lied, this was where I was staying.
So I wheeled my bike around the side of the house and found a large gate which gave entrance to a good-sized, dusty backyard. There were several gardens planted with newly planted crops around the edges, old bicycles and bits of bicycles scattered everywhere, and several people sat on old lounge chairs and sofas, in a circle around a table in the centre of the yard, near the backdoor to the house. They were having a beer, playing chess, fixing bikes and listening to music whilst shooting the breeze. It reminded me almost of a small youth hostel and I immediately felt at home.
It wasn’t hard to find Louise, since she was sitting on one of the lounges drinking a bottle of Sherwood cider. I finally understood why she had been so indifferent to what time I would arrive, or if I should call or email first, assuming she might be working during the day. But it was always going to work out; there were people around the house pretty much all the time, and Louise was at work, in a sense, contributing her time doing tasks around the house.
I was introduced to Erko, an authentic Estonian bloke, about my age witha mop of blonde hair and an awesome style about him. Like most people in Tallinn, most of his clothes looked like they had come from the local branch of St Vinnies, and everyone seemed to own a favourite, floppy, colourful suit jacket and a contrasting t-shirt and cap. The ladies wrapped themselves up in these sensational dresses which dripped with an old-style. I loved it, and I’ve already decided that the first chance I have to stop off at a clothes market or a cheap op-shop in a remote eastern European town, I’m gonna suss out some similar threads for my own wardrobe. (How to get them back to Sydney is another matter…)
Erko gave me the grand tour of the house, and everyone that came after me that I met during the stay, also got the same tour, with just as much enthusiasm and vigour as what he showed when he was explaining the purpose of the house to me. Basically, the house had stood empty and unoccupied, and I was thinking that they must all be squatters, though that was not the case. Two years ago, Erko took out the lease and decided to turn it into a ‘Community House’, or and open house. Anyone can come and go, and arrange to stay in the house for free in the attic, which is basically decked out with a dozen matresses and piles of sheets, and is essentially couch-surfing central. However there are four permanent residents that live in the other bedrooms of the house, and they split the rent between them which keeps the house running.
When we walked in the backdoor, the first thing you see are a blackboard with the three ‘house rules’ spelled out, and a large sheet of butcher’s paper that has on it the names of all the ‘guests’ that are staying in the house, what nationality they are and when they are expected to arrive. The guests are generally couch-surfers, warm showers cyclists and people who have heard about the place from friends. Seeing my name printed firmly across the list made me feel instantly at home.
I followed Erko around as he showed me the showers, toilets, the attic where I’d be sleeping, and then the ‘restaurant’ and kitchen. The restaurant is not exactly that in a sense, but it’s the room where people might eat if they weren’t able to eat outside, and it’s used for events that the house hosts such as parties, indoor community activities, live music and album launches, poetry readings and other live performances. The kitchen is decked out better than most hostel communal kitchens, and every night somebody who is staying in the house will cook enough food for everyone who wants to eat dinner. You throw in a couple of Estonian kroons (the currency) to cover the cost. Generally it’s vegan food, and I ate dinner at the house on both nights and it was delicious and plentiful. In the fridge was a selection of Ale e Coq, a local Estonian beer and Sherwood cider. You could buy a beer for 20 kroons on an honesty system. It was astonishingly cheap – equivalent of about AUD $1.50 per pint of beer, or UK 69 pence. You could get it a little bit cheaper still in the supermarket, but it was good to drink the supplies at the house as any profit went back into keeping the house running.
Finally Erko explained to me the meaning of the area. The suburb name translated into English equalled ‘New World’. And that is what the house had become fondly known as to many of the visitors. And so it was that I fell into the crowd, gradually meeting the housemates and all the regular people that stopped by. There was Erko and Louise (Louise is an Aussie from Adelaide), who met when Erko was travelling around Australia one time. Tormo (with an emphasis on the rolling ‘r’) was the regular bike mechanic who opened up a full on bicycle workshop in the cellar of the house. The bicycles lying around were his work and he restored, repaired and then sold bikes to make a modest profit, again which went back to the house budget. Along with myself, there were three German couch-surfers staying in the house at the same time, before heading to a music festival on one of the islands north of Tallinn in a few days time.
But the most interesting characters I would meet, gradually revealed themselves over the course of the evening. The first was Johno, who I first though was also from Estonia as he had a very similar dress sense to Erko, but it turns out he was actually from London himself. I was sitting around the table on one of the lounges having my first beer for the night, when Johno rolled into the yard on an old Amsterdam-style bicycle, wearing his trademark purple t-shirt and cap, and a colourful old suit jacket. He had two colourful touring bags across the back of his bike, and an enormous silver tuba slung across his back.
Erko and Louise and the other housemates greeted him fondly, surprised to see him. Johno had just returned unannounced after heading out on a short-ish bicycle tour in the forests of Russia. For the record, he did not carry the tuba all the way around Russia on his bike… yes I did check! Johno was basically a one-man band. During my stay at the house I found out that he could play a multitude of instruments including the tuba, guitar and clarinet, and probably a lot of other brass as well. He was part of a two-man band with another girl, and I even came across them unexpectedly in the Old Town the next day. They were busking for a bit of cash and entertaining the diners in the tourist areas. I immediately liked Johno and I hope to one day meet him again. Definitely an interesting fellow.
Not long after I met Johno, I was having my second beer of the evening when into the yard rolled a couple of cars and out jumped about 7 blokes. Again, all of them had a distinct style about them and I found each of them quite interesting. They were a Finnish band (the name escapes me right now) and they also turned up unexpectedly to crash at the house. Turns out they were playing a gig in Tallinn tonight, and before too long, anyone in the house who wanted to attend the gig very quickly found themselves on the guest list to the door of the bar in the centre of the Old Town, and we followed them into town about an hour later to watch the gig. It was fantastic music, something like a cross between The Cat Empire and Machine Gun Fellatio. It was a smallish crowd that watched them, but we enjoyed it thoroughly, with the bar on happy hour(s) prices until midnight. I recall their final encore number was called ‘Nobody in here gonna get them pussy tonight’. It was hilarious!
I was given a grand tour of the Old Town by Erko and Louise. I followed them into town on a bit of ‘business’ as they tried to acquire some free carpet for a children’s room they were building in the house. The next day they did manage to get hold of a fabulous offcut that had the pattern of a city layout that could be used as a playmat for toy matchbox cars. The project was keeping the housemates busy renovating for a few weeks and was nearly finished when I arrived.
The offer was on the table to stay longer if I wanted, and everyone agreed that one night was a relatively short stay in the house. I jumped on the internet and found a cheap bus that would save me two days cycling towards Riga, so I booked it and stayed an extra night. I’m glad I did because it was such an intersting place.
The third and final character that I met was – I think – called Ulco (with an emphasis on the rolling ‘L’). He turned up unnanounced as we were having drinks in the twilight of the second night, quite merrily drunk and melancholy, and sporting a black sense of humour. I found him with Erko discussing plans to construct something, but the conversation was initially in Estonian and I couldn’t understand it. Then Louise or somebody was looking over their shoulder and finally we all figured it out. Ulco had sketches to construct a coffin, a blue one. I couldnt resist and I asked him why he was building a coffin, and it was his coffin. I said “are you planning on dying anytime soon?”
“One day I will die” he said with an unforgetable, cheeky smile. I found the whole situation hilarious, and then he started flirting with the gorgeous blone Estonian housemate Catalina, who had obviously been shirking his every approach for a long time, it was also hilarious to watch. We had a beer, everyone else had a smoke and we joked for a short time, and it was bliss.
I had to buy beer from the shop on the second night because the Finnish boys in the band had drunk the fridge dry the previous evening, and the next beer delivery wasn’t until the next day. But it gave me a chance to try no less than 6 different Estonian beers.
And so was my time in the New World. It was amazing and I’d love to go back one day, and I’ve been assured that I’m most welcome. One day 😉
Estonia is an amazing place. The costumes and clothing that people wear every day are colourful and amazing. The city is a fantastic medieval centre, yet the New Town area is as modern as you could wish for with shopping malls and all the ammenities you need. I even found a Boost Juice! The beer is awesome, the girls are gorgeous, the people are wonderful and friendly, the countryside beautiful and the best part is, everything is so cheap! The currency, kroons, is like playing with Monopoly money and is hande to you in think wads everytime you get change. My wallet was bulging with the colourful notes. I love Estonia and though I’m sad to be leaving so quickly, I also look forward to seeing if the next few countries I visit are similar.
Next stop Riga, Latvia!
