Yo dudes.  Another good day! I woke up a little late, but I was up a lot later than I planned, so it’s okay.  I was just falling alseep when a very chatty Australian came in.  Not complaining, we had a very nice chat, just kinda postponed bed time awhile.  Did get up by 9:30 though and went for a run again.  Two for two!  Maybe I take tomorrow off.  Anyhow, first thing I went to this little shack where they book bike tours.  They made it seem like they sell  out all the time, so I went there first thing!  I didn’t want to miss my chance!  OF course, only one other person had signed up, so it wasn’t quite necessary.

The tour didn’t leave until four, so I went to the Tallinn University library to study.  It’s not impossible, but kinda hard and totally distracting to try to work at the hostel.  I went and asked the guys at the front desk if I could study there, and after some discussion they let me, but told me I’d have to pay.  I was a little concerned about that, until they told me the fee to use the library was .32 euros.  Basically, I rented a desk for four hours for fifty cents.  I can deal with that.

Interesting thing I discovered about Tallinn University is that up until like five years ago, it didn’t exist.  There were several smaller universities around town, and around 2005 or so, they decided to all join forces and call themselves Tallinn University.  Quite different from University of Tartu, which was founded by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus in like 1630 something.

Around 3:30 I went and got lunch and a better Estonian dictionary, and took a picture of a store:

We usually shy away from admitting it...

Then I went on the bike tour.  Now some photos.

Observations:

• The Soviets didn’t have a lot of respect for graves apparently.  When they built to one monument with the hands, it was already a graveyard.  They moved all the headstones, but according to the guide, they didn’t bother with moving the bodies.
• The guy whose name I photos is famous for, among other things, writing the definitive version of some Estonian folktale, which tells the story of the “great^n-grandfather” of all Estonians, who was apparently also a murderous drunk.
• The Lenin with wings is actually a mermaid, commemorating a boat that sank off the coast.  During Soviet times, they removed the cross from her hands, and said the empty weird hand was actually pointing to  where the ship sank.  The guide told us she once overheard a child ask an old lady what it was, and the lady replied it was Lenin with wings.  “The first time Lenin was mistaken for an angel.”
• Estonians are  not very stoked about their time under Soviet rule.  They don’t seem to terribly mind previous Russian or Swedish rule, but they’re still pissed about the commies.
• Nearly all the monuments and sculptures we saw were commemorating a tragedy, not a victory or something else nice.  Also, I heard two other stories about graves being missing or bodies misplaced during construction of the various memorials.
• It’s raining now, and time to study vocab.  Oh!  There’s also a video.