The old border control station on the border of Latvia and Estonia; we encountered it after leaving the bus station after travelling north from Latvia and walking around looking for the apartment we had booked for two nights. Today its just a part of the scenery; in the days of the Russian occupation, it was where anyone travelling over the border of Latvia was subjected to an inquisition at the hands of a bunch of uniformed thugs – and when travel anywhere in the Baltic States involved endless bureacracy and form filling.

Today this checkpoint is just a part of the scenery…..

In Estonia the people are Scandinavians who speak an entirely different language to those of the other Baltic States – Latvia and Lithuania – who are Slavs and can understand one another.  In the past, the common language of communication between Estonia and the other Baltic States would have been in Russian; today it is English. 

The town hall and central square in the small town of Otapaa, where we stay for three nights and went walking in the nearby forests. Otapaa means ‘bear’ in Estonian and in the past, the surrounding forests were full of bears. Not so today, though the bear symbol can be seen all around the town in various incarnations. 

The other thing Otapaa is famous for is its flag – which was adopted as the national flag of Estonia….

We made our way slowly north through Estonia. One stop along the way was Piede, the town where the famous Estonian composer Arvo Part grew up (and now lives near the capital Tallin). What we found in Piede was one of the few towns in Estonia with unmistakable remnants from the Russian communist era, starting with the apartment we stayed in for three nights….

Then it was on to Tallin, a sterile modern city albeit with an interesting old centre…

And a few grim architectural reminders of the faceless Russian era…..

Lithuania – Where the Past Stalks the Future

Travels in Latvia