Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
down cobbled Rahukohtu lane. Government offices and embassies have
moved into the buildings and spruced up the neighborhood. But as you pass
under the yellow Patkuli Vaateplats arch, notice a surviving ramshackle bit
of the 1980s. Just a few years ago, the entire city looked like this.
Belly up to the grand...
Patkuli Viewpoint:
Survey the scene. On the far left, the Neoclassical
facade of the executive branch of Estonia's government enjoys the view.
Below you, a bit of the old moat remains. The
Group
sign marks Tallinn's tiny
train station, and the clutter of stalls behind that is the rustic market. Out on
the water, ferries shuttle to and from Helsinki (just 50 miles away). Beyond
the lower town's medieval wall and towers stands the green spire of St. Olav's
Church, once 98 feet taller and, locals claim, the world's tallest tower in 1492.
Far in the distance is the 985-foot-tall TV tower (much appreciated by Esto-
nians for heroically keeping the people's airwaves open during the harrowing
days when they won independence from the USSR). During Soviet domina-
tion, though, Finnish TV was even more important, as it gave Estonians their
only look at Western lifestyles. Imagine: In the 1980s, many locals had nev-
er seen a banana or pineapple—except on TV. People still talk of the day that
Finland broadcast the soft-porn movie
Emmanuelle
. A historic migration of
Estonians purportedly flocked from the countryside to Tallinn to get within
rabbit-ear'sdistanceofHelsinkiandseeallthatfleshon-screen.TheTVtower
was recently refurbished and opened to visitors.
