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One Foot Out the Door

Category Archives: Estonia

2015 Goes Out with a … Whimper

31 Thursday Dec 2015

Posted by lexklein in Colombia, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Jordan, Mexico, Russia, Travel - General

≈ 34 Comments

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Colombia, Estonia, Finland, Israel, Jordan, Lennon Wall, Mexico, Prague, Russia, travel sickness

The sun is going down on a great year of travel, but the latest trip – Colombia in this final week of the year – has ended with five sick people. Was it the eggs we ate yesterday morning? The ceviche the night before? A parasite in the tap water? No matter – we are all down for the count to various degrees, and my Colombia posts will have to wait for the New Year.

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I managed to get my feet out the door to seven other countries this year, and ranged far and wide throughout the U.S. as well. I started off in the freezing cold with Russia, Estonia, and Finland in January, warmed up in Israel, Jordan, and Mexico during the summer, and finished 2015 broiling under the Colombian sun in high-altitude Bogotá and steamy Cartagena. It was a perfect mix of trips – some solo jaunts, various two-person combos, and a few family gatherings.

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My final photo of the year shows a thrill I got this summer when son A and his friends gave a shout out to my blog on the Lennon Wall in Prague. I haven’t been able to find a way to use it, but I love the bright pink background and the five minutes of fame I got before someone no doubt painted over it.

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Happy trails, voyages, or whatever you might wish for in 2016!

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Walls

14 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by lexklein in China, Croatia, Estonia, Montenegro, Tibet

≈ 17 Comments

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Lhasa, Sinicization, Tibet, walled cities, walls

In recent weeks, I had been planning a post about the walled cities I’ve visited and was busy digging up photos of Dubrovnik, Xi’an, Kotor, Tallinn, and others. These (often) medieval towns have a historical charm that makes for both an interesting visit and great photos.

Kotor, Montenegro
Kotor, Montenegro
Tallinn, Estonia
Tallinn, Estonia
Xi'an, China
Xi’an, China
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Dubrovnik, Croatia

But the Weekly Photo Challenge went further, asking us for an image of a wall that reveals something about its place or about me.

I knew my wall photo had to be from Lhasa, Tibet, to reveal something about me. Visitors to my blog can see that I’ve traveled a good deal, but no trip has meant as much to me as my two visits to Tibet, especially Lhasa. For years, I had an inexplicable and deep-rooted captivation with Tibet in general. It started with reading Lost Horizon, The Snow Leopard, and Into Thin Air, and continued with Seven Years in Tibet and a growing fascination with Lhasa in particular. As I read about the young Dalai Lama’s years in the Potala Palace looming high above the city, this building and its forbidding walls came to symbolize for me the mystery and inaccessibility of this kingdom on the roof of the world. I vowed to see it someday before it was ruined by tourists (of which I would paradoxically be one, of course!).

Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet

Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet

Now I look at the mighty walls that surround the Potala Palace and hope that they can metaphorically hold off the onslaught of Sinicization that is rapidly overtaking Tibet as the Han Chinese flock to the city as tourists, residents, and government officials. The city’s face is changing, and the traditional Tibetan quarter shrinks yearly. I see this imposing wall as a last bulwark against the overbearing Chinese assault and their attempt to control this proud civilization.

Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet

Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet

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A Tantalizing Side Trip

18 Sunday Jan 2015

Posted by lexklein in Estonia

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

Estonia, Hanseatic League, Tallinn, walled cities

Tallinn, Estonia seems to be a new darling in the travel world, and I felt compelled to add it to our itinerary when visiting St Petersburg, Russia this month. Like another popular walled city, Dubrovnik, the Old Town of Tallinn has something of a Disney-esque, fairy-tale quality at first glance. In spite of a few kitschy, historically-garbed locals and an overabundance of souvenir shops with near-identical merchandise, Tallinn lives up to its accolades.

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There are hundreds of perfect little shops, charming cobblestone streets, and dozens of appealing restaurant and lodging options, all concentrated in a small, very walkable area. And luckily, there is also some interesting history behind this picture-perfect façade. On the shores of the Baltic Sea, the Old Town started as a medieval trading city (then called Reval) in the 13th century and developed as a center of the Hanseatic League, a group of European trading cities.

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Today, the stone walls and buildings are remarkably well preserved, and Tallinn’s Old Town is deservedly a UNESCO World Heritage Site. An upper town, called Toompea, sits above the Old Town on a limestone hill; now as in the past, this part of the city houses the administrative center of the city and country. The capital city’s current Parliament building is part of the original town castle here, and the impressive Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, among other structures, graces the hill overlooking the Old Town.



We were glad we jumped on a bus to see some other parts of Estonia’s capital. We passed first through City Center, which was not particularly noteworthy but offered a view of more modern-day Tallinn. A sizable chunk of the city’s inhabitants lives east of the city in a bedroom community called Lasnamäe; here there are very large, bland apartment blocks, many built in the ‘70s to the ‘90s, all anchored in a grim, multi-layered limestone shelf.

Circling back to town, we passed through Kadriorg, a beautiful old neighborhood of colorful wood villas dating back to the 19th century. Kadriorg Palace is yet another palace built for Catherine I of Russia by her husband Peter the Great; this one served as a summer retreat for the royal family and with its natural parkland and many museums, the Kadriorg area remains one of the wealthiest and most picturesque parts of Tallinn today. The Kalamaja neighborhood likewise features quaint painted wood buildings, but here in this gentrifying former fisherman’s area, the overall feel is shabby-chic, fun, and artsy. Home to many students, this part of town contains a number of hipster cafes and bars and is also an easy getaway from the throngs in Old Town.



Tallinn offers a tantalizing array of narrow, twisting streets, medieval towers and walls from which to view the city’s colorful rooftops, details like heavy wood doors and iron adornments, a vibrant Christmas market in the main town square, lively coffee shops and bars, a sparkling ice skating rink near the center of town, and dining options from upscale to simple local eateries.

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Two days is plenty to take in all the city has to offer, but it definitely merits more than the day-tour stopover many people make it from Helsinki. If your travels take you to either St Petersburg or Helsinki, consider hopping a train or bus (6-7 hours from St Petersburg) or a ferry (2 hours from Helsinki) to this appealing old-world city.

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I’m a restless, world-wandering, language-loving, book-devouring traveler trying to straddle the threshold between a traditional, stable family life and a free-spirited, irresistible urge to roam. I’m sure I won’t have a travel story every time I add to this blog, but I’ve got a lot! I’m a pretty happy camper (literally), but there is some angst as well as excitement in always having one foot out the door. Come along for the trip as I take the second step …

WHERE I’M GOING

Southeast Asia – March 2023

Dolomites, Italy – July 2023

France – September 2023

 

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Today we’re off to Marsaxlokk, a small, traditional fishing village in Malta. These brightly painted Maltese boats are called “luzzus,” and I couldn’t get enough of them!
Day 1 in Malta is all water and walls.
FINALLY made it out of the U.S. for the first time in 2 years. 😀🌴☀️
Road trip final stop: Grand Teton National Park. We may have saved the best for last. The Tetons startled us every single time we rounded a bend and saw them jutting up from the sagebrush. The park gave us these amazing peaks, wildflowers, horses, huge skies filled with every kind of cloud, and our own cozy little national park cabin. We’ll be back here for sure! #grandtetonnationalpark #tetons #wyoming #roadtrip #hiking #horses #cabins
Road trip stop 8: Yellowstone National Park. The north and northeast sections blew me away - full of wildlife and lemon-lime fields under dreamy skies. The western parts had their moments; the geothermal features were better than expected, but the traffic even worse than anticipated. All of the crowds were for Old Faithful, probably my last-place pick for things to see in the park. #yellowstonenationalpark #montana #wyoming #roadtrip #wideopenspaces #nationalparks #oldfaithful
Road trip stop 7: Beartooth Highway - deserving of a post all of its own. We drove east out of Bozeman, over two hours out of our way, to catch the start of the Beartooth Highway in Red Lodge, MT, and drive its full length back west to arrive at Yellowstone’s NE entrance. This exhilarating, eye-popping road covers 68 miles of US Route 212 from Red Lodge to Cooke City/Silver Gate and crosses Beartooth Pass at almost 11,000 feet. Worth the wide detour and the zillions of photo stops along the way … at least I thought so! #beartoothhighway #beartoothpass #montana #yellowstonenationalpark #roadtrip #detour

Recent Posts

  • Maltese Memories
  • Taking a Leap
  • On Repeat
  • On the Road Again
  • Road Trip to the Border

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Follow me on Instagram too!

Today we’re off to Marsaxlokk, a small, traditional fishing village in Malta. These brightly painted Maltese boats are called “luzzus,” and I couldn’t get enough of them!
Day 1 in Malta is all water and walls.
FINALLY made it out of the U.S. for the first time in 2 years. 😀🌴☀️
Road trip final stop: Grand Teton National Park. We may have saved the best for last. The Tetons startled us every single time we rounded a bend and saw them jutting up from the sagebrush. The park gave us these amazing peaks, wildflowers, horses, huge skies filled with every kind of cloud, and our own cozy little national park cabin. We’ll be back here for sure! #grandtetonnationalpark #tetons #wyoming #roadtrip #hiking #horses #cabins

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