The Estonian Experience

And so it became that I started a blog as a part of my new strategy to strengthen my online presence. Actually I’m personally against involvements in online communities such as blogs, My Space and Face Book because they are too time consuming. I mean, if there is not enough time to have a life in the real world, there is certainly no time for a virtual life.

But I give in because this blog will be an opportunity for me to stay in touch with old friends at home and new friends in Tallinn. It also seems suitable that I start my new blog now after this eventful summer which has seen a lot of changes for me personally with the movement from Århus to Copenhagen, the journey to China, and now the stay in Estonia for the next six months working as an intern at the Royal Danish Embassy.

Tallinn is fantastic, but my first impression was a mixed experience. When I landed in the airport last Tuesday with a jetlag from China it was very cold and windy, and I had been told that Estonian summers were hot and sunny. The two interns, Rosa and Rune, whose positions we were taking over picked me and my fellow intern Laura up in one of the embassy’s cars and drove us to our new apartment. Build in the Soviet era, the drap functionalism and worn down interior and exterior of this concrete silo will warm the hearth and moist the eye of any remaining fans of communism. But it’s situated a five minutes walk from the embassy and ten minutes from the centre of Tallinn. Sweet.

But as I said, Tallinn is fantastic. This city centre is an almost intact hanseatic merchant town from the middle ages, complete with a city wall, picturesque gothic towers, red tile roofs, steep and twisting alleyways with cobbled stone pavings which is lined with cosy and cheap bars, cafes and restaurants. Denmark may be called a fairytale country, but enchanting Tallinn is the real fairytale city. It feels centuries older than Copenhagen. The tourist economy is evident everywhere, but because of the Estonian Statue Crisis and the rising prices there are not so many tourists as there used to be. A good thing for me and a very bad thing for Tallinn and Estonia.

The embassy is still in holiday mode, so half of my colleagues including the ambassador are still on leave. But the rest of the employees seems nice, and the work interesting, although it’s all very new. The expat diplomat network also seems very good; I have already met people from the Norwegian, Swedish, British, French, Italian, American, and Russian embassies. So until now the Estonian Experience has been great!

Sunset and cocktails at Radisson hotel