I spent the day exploring a bit of nature, and more of Tallinn itself.
First stop, after a significant amount of coffee was consumed, was Jägala Waterfall – the largest waterfall in the country. It’s a small waterfall, but it’s a small country.
The water is brown, which isn’t entirely appealing? But it is because of all of the peat moss in the area.
However, before you get to the waterfall, you get to this beautiful piece of nature.
In drier months, you can actually walk across the top, but the water is too fast right now. It doesn’t look it, but there is actually a very deep pool at the bottom of the waterfall, and every once in a while a tourist gets too cocky, tries to cross, and dies. I did not want to die today, so I just admired from a distance.
Though the water is brown, it is actually safe to drink – there’s no bacteria in it, so things that fall into the water do not decompose. I decided I didn’t want to drink it, just in case the article I read was lying.
Fossils! 500 Million years ago, this was the sea bottom.
And then? A bog. Viru Bog is a very unique spot in Estonia, within the Lahemaa National Park. I’m here in the off-season, and it was amazingly peaceful. If you’ve never been in one (and I hadn’t been, until today), a bog is a type of wetland. Plant material builds up and is waterlogged, creating a weird spongy texture. Among other things, this one had 10 different kinds of peat moss, over 500 different kinds of spiders, and three different kinds of carnivorous plants.
Viru Bog has a floating boardwalk system, so you don’t disturb the nature. There are said to be bog spirits that have lived here for centuries, and mermaids (the mean kind, not the nice kind) but none chose not to make contact with me.
(Also, the bog is full of a plant called Labrador Tea, which causes hallucinations – which may have something to do with the bog spirit sightings?)
Trees don’t grow well in the bog – the ground is too watery for their roots to take hold, and the peat moss absorbs all the nutrients. It’s very common for them to just fall over in a strong wind.
It was a good core workout. The boardwalk is a bit narrow so you have to be careful as people are passing. It’s also pretty slippery from all the moisture, at times sinking beneath the water a bit, and at times at an angle as the “ground” shifts beneath it. It’s about 3.5 miles long.
I was one of the few people out there, and it is a distance from the road, so it is very quiet. To be clear though, it is a terrible place to murder someone because without the right bacteria in the water, the body would not decompose quickly, in case that’s what you were thinking.
The bog pools are deceptive though. In some spots they are close to 15′ deep – but in others, they’re just a shallow puddle. It isn’t illegal to walk directly on the bog, but there are a lot of signs cautioning you against leaving the boardwalk.
After nature, and a break for lunch, I went back into the city and explored some other areas.
I went to Rotterdam Quarter – it’s a much more modern part of the city. The developer bought up all the property in the 90’s, after their freedom from the Soviets (the second time. Estonia actually celebrates two independence days). The buildings were old, and the Soviet’s hadn’t used them (and the Soviets didn’t allow other business – so if they weren’t using them during the occupation, no one was). The developer bought the buildings and started adding pieces/modernizing/etc, but no one came. So then he realized the issue was the Feng Shui (obviously). He hired a Feng Shui specialist, who helped redesign the pathways and some of the buildings, and the area became a huge success.
He’s also big on astrological stuff? Every year he replaces this sculpture to represent the new year.
While in the area, I learned more about sauna culture. One out of every three homes in Estonia includes a sauna. When you’re building a new home, you build the sauna first. Their logic is that you can sleep in the sauna, but you can’t sauna in the bedroom. They also like their saunas at 180 degrees Fahrenheit, or hotter. Water boils at 194. I asked three times because I thought there was an issue with Fahrenheit and Celsius.
Don’t worry though, because the Estonians wear a special hat when they’re in the sauna, to help keep their brain from boiling. For real. There was a study like 20 years ago on brain damage and they were able to trace it back to hot saunas too often and for too long. So now they wear a hat, which I’m sure solves the problem.
Other than the brain thing though, Estonians as very healthy. They use a lot of herbal remedies – a lot of people still forage for their own herbs, and make teas for headaches, blood pressure, etc. Studies have also shown that 30 minutes of Estonian air doubles a body’s ability to fight cancer. Some people also harvest spider webs and use them for bandages, which I found less amazing. They really value their nature though, and it is very accessible. They don’t charge money – not even for parking – for any of their federal parks, because they’re meant for the people, and you can forage freely on any public land.
Next step, the Presidential Palace. It was actually originally built by Peter the Great; at the time, he considered making Tallinn the capital, instead of St. Petersburg.
The President of Estonia now lives there, but it is in the middle of another giant park with a bunch of different gardens, and it is all open to the public.
After that, I went underground. I read about the Bastion Tunnels online, but had decided not to go. But then the hotel gave me a free museum pass, and it seemed a shame to waste.
These are basically tunnels that were built in the late 1600’s, which were meant to allow soldiers to move around without being seen and to store/hide ammunition.
I did not enjoy them. It smelled like a wet basement, which I guess is to be assumed, but I couldn’t breathe through my nose. Then, you go down a LOT of stairs, and basically the only lights are emergency exit lights, so it is pretty creepy. And THEN sometimes water (or something?) drips on you. AND THEN the audio guide tells you that you’ll come to a sealed entry on your left on the tour, but don’t open the door, because EUROPEAN CAVE SPIDERS are back there. I do not know European Cave Spiders look like, and I don’t want to know. And how well sealed is that door, exactly?!? So now I’m walking through dank and dark underground tunnels, waiting for spiders to jump out at me the whole time. I went in towards closing time so maybe that’s why, but I also didn’t run into a single other person which did not help.
I eventually got back to daylight, and I thought I might cry. I smelled some flowers, grabbed a quick dinner, and then back to the hotel. The woman who has been working at the front desk is lovely, and is from Ukraine. I learned today that Estonia is actually full of Ukrainians, from before the war. Salaries are substantially higher in Finland than Estonia, so a lot of Estonians (doctors, engineers, etc) move there for these in-demand careers. So, Ukrainians over the past 15 years have been moving to Estonia for those jobs, since they pay more than they do in Ukraine. (I’m a little concerned about the gap that likely leaves in Ukraine?). More of course have come since the war started.
I check out tomorrow, so it was a bit of an early night.
At today’s closest point, I was about 105 miles from Russia.