Busy days in Tallinn

Things are like a beehive now in Tallinn...there are practice groups tromping through town all over the place as the go through three days of intense practice for the first dance performance which takes place Friday July 4 at Kalev Stadium. Everyone is practicing in different locations and then they come together to work on the giant group practice....there will be 10,000 dancers this year.

JC and I went to watch some members of the "A" group do a warm up practice before the week practice began...the group is called Soleke and here is a picture of their poster. They have groups from small children through adults and perform everywhere.

This is the actual stadium in which the dance festival will take place:

Some young dancers from a youth group...such sweet girls

and we will be sitting in these seats row 17 and 18...

 There is the group from Portland, Oregon waiting to be called onto the field:

and here they are on the first day, in another playing field Monday morning with all the other members of their dance assignments.

The practice field above is near the old city and right next to this tower which is called Paks Margareeta (which means Fat Margaret). It houses the maritime museum now and has a restaurant and café but in 1529 it was a cannon tower as it is located near the Baltic Sea and is part of the medieval city wall. Can you figure out why the name is "Paks???" It is a pretty portly tower!

On the right you can see the Suur Rannavärav (the Large Coastal Gate) which is one entrance to the old, walled city.

I walked through the gate and onto Pikk Tänav for a walk around the old city yet again.

On this street is a large handcraft store with Estonian folk products and there is an exhibit going on there of folk costumes created by students of folk costume making. I think this is the correct term in English....

Here is a bride's costume from Muhu. The traditional weddings lasted three days and for each day the bride wore a different headdress until she wore this last one which was the most decorated.

 Here is a close up of the re-embroidered stockings:

A man's costume with pewter buttons and knit mittens:

Another headdress with embroidery:

A little girl's outfit

Another woman's outfit...

These costumes are all from different regions...sort of like Portland has an outfit, then Salem does and Eugene etc. Estonia is not quite the size of Oregon but it sure does have a variety of costumes and all of them are just gorgeous!

I went over to the town square which is lined with restaurants, cafés and pubs...

Here is the Tallinn Town Hall which has been here since 1322 (although rebuilt in the 1400's). It has the weather vane of "Vana Toomas" on the top spire. Sorry...hard to see in this photo!

I like this gargoyle downspout on the town hall.

There are some other very neat looking buildings around there that I never tire of looking at.

This is the Viru gate and the flower vendors which line the street just outside the gate...flowers are very important for Estonians and one usually gets a bouquet upon arrival at the airport if you are lucky, like me, to have family who comes to greet you!!

Across the street and through the park you come to this shopping center called Viru Keskus.

It is a very nice center with department stores, a food store downstairs, cafés and of course an Estonian handcraft store. The Estonian version of Made in Oregon I guess. 

Not far away is the Kaubamaja...another large center with the most amazing sock store of Estonian made socks...here I am...so hard to choose!!!

 This is the rug at the entrance...these are all old Estonian design motifs.

Speaking of socks...the flame for the Laulupidu (song festival) is wending its way through Estonia and today it was going through Harku so we went to see it. This fellow was wearing "Bringing the Flame" socks:

There was an orchestra playing (Robert plays the saxophone) as a team of singing Engineers from the Cal Poly of Estonia pedaled along behind the flame to sing in the next town. A horse drawn cart was carrying the President of the engineering school.

the flame on the bike

the singing engineers

matches the socks

The flame has been going throughout the country and at each spot it stops there is some sort of organized event where there is singing...it is really such a lovely way to carry this through the country and give many people a chance to participate in some way! It will light the flame on the tower for the first song performance on July 5th. I'll have some photos then too!!