Eesti 2015

Erasmus+ in Tallinn, Estonia

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In beginning of August, my parents managed to visit me here in Tallinn. I showed them all the famous sights in Tallinn, Old Town with the (pink) Parliament, the residence and workplace of the prime minister, the Kadriorg Park with Zar Peter I castle and the Presidents Mansion. Most of theses places I already described in former posts of my blog. Finally we all swam in the Baltic sea at Pirita Beach. It just was the right temperature. We had a wonderful time together as a family.

Towards the end of their stay, we went with the ferry to Helsinki in Finland. Shahīd, a friend who has been living there for many years, welcomed and spent a great time with us. You can't imagine having a better friend and tourguide! On the pictures you can see the two popular cathedrals: the Helsinki cathedral (white painting, Lutheran church) and the Uspenski Cathedral (red painting, Orthodox church). We mainly walked on the Island-compound Suomenlinna (6 small islands). It was once part of the Swedish crown, build as a fortress to fight off Russian intruders. Luckily that never happend, and it became part of the UNESCO world heritage site. Suomenlinna still serves as a residence for many local people, besides being an attractive toursim sight.

In the end Shahīd invited us to his place for dinner. He prepared self-marinaded Salmon, with an spicy curry sauce, rice, salad and a dessert. We were highly pleased by such a hospitality.

One remark to the ferry ride from Tallinn to Helsinki and back: a lot of (young) drunk people. Alcohol tax and price level in Finland is much higher than in Tallinn. For one beer you pay usually twice in Finland. Due to free movement of goods within Europe, Finish people often just go alcohol shopping in Tallinn.

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Last weekend I was on a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia with a German friend who visited me in Estonia. We went there with bus, it was quite convenient and cheap, although it takes about 6 and a half hours from Tallinn.

Russia is by far the largest country in the world and covers a great part of Europe and Asia. As you know from the media, the public relations are not the best with Western Countries, and Russia still faces some sanctions, mainly economic.

Being not part of the EU and having no special agreement, it’s required to get a visa before you can legally visit. Although it was a bit of a struggle to find out the right places (the Russian embassy here outsourced it which I first didn’t know), the process itself was convenient and fast. It takes about 10 days and costs all together 80 €.

On the way to Russia there were several checkpoints, but as a German who doesn’t look like a terrorist there is no problem. Sad to the prejudices, some Georgian and Bangladesh people who I met in the hostel we stayed, reported a lot of background inquiring and some delays. But the same I experienced when going to the U.S., so nothing special about Russia.

We used the 4 days we had very intensely, visiting most of the well know sights and beautiful areas of Saint Petersburg. I just name a few of them (see the pictures): Leningrad Hero City Obelisk, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, Palace Square, Catherine’s Palace, a typical canal (over 1000 bridges exist) with view on Savior of the Spilled Blood cathedral and one main bridge that connects Nevsky street with one outer district of St. Petersburg.

My overall impression was quite good, I always felt very safe, there was no violence on the streets or embarrassing situations. Unlike expected, it’s also a very clean city. People were friendly to tourists, although the communication is quite tough, since most people (also the younger generation) is not really able to speak English. The hostel staff was fine, but even at some tourism spots we used pictures of Kyrilic-English translations to get what we wanted (usually a certain ticket).

From what I’ve seen Saint Petersburg can really be called the cultural capital of Russia. There are many first class museums (e.g. Heremitage) and buildings of great architecture from different epochs, which gives the city a very unique appearance. They used a lot of gold and marble, and you appear to be very small standing next to the buildings. Some columns remind of Greek stile I have seen on buildings of Akropolis in Athens, others are more of Roman and some of Gothic elements.

The Nightlife is quite pulsing around the main street: Nevsky Prospect. Plenty of bars and nice places to go. Many street musicians play typical Russian (and also Western) music, artists are showing off.

So, I hope I could give you a short overview about one place in Russia that I definitely can recommend going. Best is when you have a local friend who can help a little bit with language. But as said in the beginning, Russia is big, and there might be other places there which are also beautiful, and others that really don’t put a good light on the country.       

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Kiiking is one of Estonia’s popular “extreme sports”. Though not really dangerous due to your feet and hands are attached to the swing. The goal is simple, just try to do at least one full rotation. The key is keeping a steady rhythm of going down when horizontal and raising yourself when being vertical between the bars. You work against gravity then plus add momentum to the rotaton of the swing. The techniques and discipline is very important. Good “kiikers” can do a rotation with very few up and down moves. But it’s very exhausting for your legs and arms (for stabilization). And best is to focus on the swing itself and look on your feet. It’s a great feeling and is very exciting!

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These pictures were taken on the biggest island of Estonia, Saaremaa. I participated in a one weekend excursion that was dedicated to an traditional Estonian Wedding. It was a fake wedding, the groom and the bride, as every other person in this event, were Erasmus students. But the ceremony was as authentic as possible, using traditional Estonian clothes and locations that are used for getting married. The place where the couple said “yes” is a castle ground located in Kuressaare.

The other picture is taken while four Estonians performed traditional folk dancing. They showed us some basic steps, like doing two big circles (men inside and women outside) and then walk in a specific rythm, do a pirouette with a girl, and then change the girl.

On the bottom left I stand in front of the biggest cliff in Saaremaa, Panga cliff, which is about 20m in height. 

The last picture shows a sculpture of Suur Tõll and his wife Piret. After Estonian mythology, he was a giant who ruled and protected Saaremaa, though living as a common farmer. Among his enemies was Vanatühi, the devil of the underworld, which Tõll fought by throwing stones.

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Here are some pictures from a Weekend trip to Sooma, a very calm and beautiful national park in the South West of Estonia. Nature there is quite untouched, and a unique variety of flowers and plants grown. Many swamps are there, for making them accessible for tourist, people built some wooden walkways that are slightly above the ground.

We did also canoeing there. It took many hours to complete the small route, due to there were very few streams that could help you move on. So it all depends on your own manpower. We were three people in one canoe. The last guy does the steering and helps to keep the rhythm of the paddling.

For the night we had some original Estonian, Nordic style wooden buildings were we slept. Almost every small settlement is equipped with a Sauna. Original Finish or Russian type. Finish Saunas are hotter (up to 100 degree). On one picture you can see a traditional “hot tub”, where a fire warms the water in a kind of a barrel. So I took a Sauna and jumped into the cold river afterwards and did this few times in a row. It was perfect J

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As promised, with this post I’m gonna elaborate a bit on something, Estonia is famous for: their ID Card with e-Services leading to e-Estonia. Every Citizen in Estonia has one, and also temporary residents within the EU or outside are eligible for one. As you can see, I’m allowed to stay here for 5 years (and if I’m still there have to renew the card). Working is also no problem, since as a EU citizen I’m legally allowed to work and also become employer in every country of the European Union (another great thing I like).

Coming back to the card, it’s my passport and personal unique online identification based on the date and place where I was born. It combines two important features: secure access of services and providing a digital signature. I won’t go into technical details here, just let me say that the technology is not new. Most student ID cards are build the same way and have a microchip.

But what’s unique here are the structures around the ID card. As of now there exist more than 2500 services, that are offered by the public and private sector. That means for example, you can declare your taxes online. Or you can check speeding tickets, access your health record and do any bank transaction you want... Well, lets say it the other way around: Getting married is the only B2C activity where you physically have to enter an administrative building. Every thing else you can do online, since with this card you are clearly identified online.

The next cool thing is the digital signature. That’s especially important for doing business. When was the last time when you had to sign a paper for a contract? Well, all this unnecessary paperwork is obsolete in Estonia. You can sign those documents online and by law this signature has the same meaning than your real handwriting. This accelerates business a lot and saves rain forrest :) And btw. registering a new business can of course also be done online, as said above.

The card was introduced in 2002, nearly 13 years ago!! Today most people use their mobile phone as a replacement of the ID card. The signature and key can also be stored on your SIM card, so that you don’t need a cardreader anymore. This is called mobileID.

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This is the view from a famous observation point in Old Town of Tallinn. It’s the most beautiful part of the city, concerning the architecture of the buildings and location in general. Because the days are getting warmer and warmer, it’s very nice to walk there, feel a slight breeze and watch the sun set. Estonia geographically lays quite far north in Europe, meaning that the Days in the summer are longer and the nights are shorter than in Germany. During midsummer on June 21st, one day nearly lasts 19 hours! Sun rises on 4 am and sets 11pm. And that gives a feeling that the nights are not totally dark, it’s like if someone forgot to switch off a small lamp somewhere in your room.

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On the upper left picture, you can see the ruins of the Cathedral of Tartu. The part of the building which is still intact, became the Museum of University history. It’s a natural sciences building especially dedicated to kids, where they can experiment, try out, join workshops and get to know themselves and technology better. Upper middle picture is the University front building. Just next to it, you can see a floor with the old library of the University. After being used as a cathedral and before becoming a museum, the university possessed some rooms.

On the lower left, there is the famous “Angels Bridge”. In the middle you can see some nice graffiti, my attention fell on while walking in Tartu. On the right picture there are the vaults of the Jaani (St. John’s) church. The whole church is made out of terracotta and is quite unique in this wider area.

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Tartu, the second largest city of Estonia, is even more popular than Tallinn among students. The university was founded in 1632 by a Swedish King, and is one of the oldest in this area of Europe.

On May 1st a yearly procession of the korporatsioon (student cooperations) took place. They marched through the old town of the city, to the city hall, where the principal (in the middle of the small picture) gave a small speech to the students. A famous symbol is the “kissing students” statue, where two students get close under an umbrella in the rain. Of course there was also an reenactment of this with the students. After the official ceremony, almost every student went out and celebrated in Tartu. So it was a lot of fun.

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On April 28th we, German Erasmus students, participated in an international dinner. It’s organised by the ESN Tallinn student network so that each nation can present their very traditional food and other students can try.

Next to Gugelhupf, Poratoe- and Noodlesalad, Sacher cake I contributed traditional German Bread (some of you have probably assumed that :p). Within a very short time everything was gone. I got much positive feedback - in Estonia there is plenty of bread to choose, but as in the United States, there is rarely typical German “Bauernbrot” with a hard crust available.

Other teams were e.g. from Italy, French, Russia, Poland.. On one picture I am about to get my German flag, Lisa was so kind to draw it next to an Austrian flag (since we had a joint venture with our neighbor country). Next to the meals, every team thought about an activity they could do on the stage. We held a “beer mug competition” - 4 competitors to hold as long as possible the mug filled with 1 liter (ok - just water). Just like king of the hill, the last one wins. One guy from Portugal succeeded! Congratulations

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And here we have Jack! This little dude is the MEKTORY dog. He runs around and visits people in labs from time to time. And he goes crazy after a laserpointer. If you say something in Estonian like “where is the laserpointer” he runs to the managements office and looks for it :)

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What could be this blue thing? Somehow a sledge?? Recently nordic and baltic women entrepreneurs met here and showed their products.

Well it’s a snoller - a combination of a sledge and a stroller. Especially here winters can be very harsh and either a sledge or a stroller can get stuck or hard to maneuver. So why not combining them. 

The other product (upper left) is RailReed which assists woman in weaving. Then there is potato meristem clone which enables a single potato to grow more flowers which lead to more potatoes in the end. The last one is for decoration- Using some 3D shapes for designing the interior of houses.

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Another week rich of events has passed. First of all it started with loosing my wallet on the daily bus ride from Tehnikaülikool to Kosmos. Since you have to “beep”, meaning to validate your ticket in the bus, with my card, I somehow forgot to put my wallet back in my pocket. Well... luckily somebody found it and gave it to the bus driver, so that I could grab it from public transport bus administration. Was very relieved that Estonians seem to be honest (or at least one of them :)) - all my cards (drivers license, ID, VISA etc..) were in my wallet.

Here in MEKTORY very often delegations from all over the world come and visit. So it happend that one day different groups were arriving, Scandinavians and from USA. I had to tell them a little bit about what our e-health lab is doing and about the Estonian-ID card (I will write about that somewhen). The inventions of the lab were shown. Most famous is e.g. a phantom kidney where surgeons can practise how to puncture or do a drainage before the do on the real patient. Testikodus.ee (test at home) is a very convenient service esp. for young people of testing sexually transmitted diseases and get results back online without visiting a doctor.

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The handcraft community is quite big here, this Saturday a huge fair took place. I was told the women here like to wear the dresses seen on the upper left picture during summertime. Well, I haven’t seen them very often yet in Tallinn. Maybe in general there might be a small trend to wear skirts more often than German girls do. 

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A first impression of the Baltic sea. I was told that there are couple of beach sites people go to in the summer. This one looked like a typical beach I’ve seen in Northern Germany. The vegetation is also somewhat similar, but there more swamps.

This friend has the perfect camouflage for this underground...

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Just few more pictures how it looks inside the Mektory building. Interior architecture is really great: Besides the labs there are many nice spots where you can exchange thoughts about your work with other researchers or students. Of course it also has a great conference room, dining (coffee/tea) room and you’ve guessed it: it’s own cafeteria and wardrobe :) 

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What I also recognized being very common here in Estonia: Every public building seems to have its own wardrobe. Whether the national library, administration or university building. Often done by elderly people, they take care of your coats and jackets for free

It’s mandatory by the law here to wear a reflector while walking in the dark. You can get a fine if Politsei (police) catches you without one - since my jacket is totally black I better use it...