Tallinn Autumn Trip: Part 1

Light Magic, 1944 Memorial & Emergency Dental Detour

While I’ve loved these past three summer months nesting here at Tamme in Jaagupi – population 92 – it was time for an excursion last week to Estonia’s capital: Tallinn. Thanks to a week of perfect late summer weather, we racked up a dance card of multiple (diverse!) experiences.

Tallinn is a little over a two hour drive (about 200 kilometers/125 miles) from us, basically the same “big city driving distance” as Chicago was from the farm in Wisconsin. As it is a little too long for yours truly for a driving day trip, gratitude to a friend who generously let us stay at his condo near Kadriorg Park in Tallinn to enable us to linger and enjoy the urban fall flavors.

Per usual with John and my travel, the trip had multiple goals of work, social, new experiences, fun highlighted with a dash of serendipity. This late September trip also was good timing to visit with Liam before his semester at Tal Tech University kicked into a busier zone.

The weather (and a borrowed bike along with a great deal five-day unlimited use public transit pass for 11 Euros/12 US Dollars) fueled John with lots of photography opportunities. A new venture of mine in partnership with the US Embassy in Tallinn and the women’s studies department at the University of Tallinn to connect Soil Sisters, rural women entrepreneurs, between Estonia and the States, prompted several super helpful in-person meetings; more on that project to come!

Also, per usual at this harvest time of year, we travel with boxes of produce to share and eat along the way. Even with us planting our first Estonian garden in late June, the abundant summer sun brought in an overload of zucchini, tomatoes and cucumbers that we loaded into the new Prius. 

Speaking of abundance, it was such a multiple-experience, eclectic, entertaining trip that I need to break this down into multiple highlight posts, starting with:

1. Kadriorg Light festival

Kadriog Palace aglow in candlight

Our initial reason to head to Tallinn at this time rooted in a neighbor’s recommendation to see the “Valgus kõnnib,” the annual “Light Walks” at Kadriorg Park, conveniently right where we were staying. Originally a summer manor home of Peter the Great in 1718, today Kadriog Park is a green oasis of 70 hectares (170 acres) of trails and gardens in the heart of urban Tallinn.

With the days quickly growing darker (we gain a couple minutes of darkness daily, so you can really feel the seasonal change here at 58 parallel north latitude) but the weather still mild, Estonia comes out to celebrate with communities hosting various “light” festivals.

Wow. Absolutely wow. The Kadriorg Lights event blew us away:  it was like taking the concept of Christmas twinkly lights, adding lasers and fire and music and theater performances and a hefty dose of creativity, and then inviting the whole city to wander in awe.  And come they did, especially as all three nights had perfect still mild evening weather.

A cool glowing planet display, with John (of course!) protecting the Earth

Here’s a longer video of the segment of the light show at the iconic swan pond (which I watched three times! Who knew a pond in Estonia would trump the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas!

2. 1944 Great Migration Memorial

A serendipitous – and definitely unplanned – plot addition to our move to Estonia in 2024 is this year marks the 80^th anniversary of the Great Migration happening in the fall of 1944, when over 70,000 Estonians left their homeland just as the Soviet Union was taking over and closing borders, including my family, as 10% of the population quickly disappeared.

There are many inspiring efforts underway to both document and honor this part of Estonian history. My dad, who was twenty at the time, along with our family was part of this migration, ending up in a Displaced Persons (DP) camp run by the Americans in Germany and, eventually, immigrating to the US.

Because this year marks the 80^th anniversary, there was a number of events memorializing this event, including a ceremony on September 19 at Freedom Square in Tallinn I attended. Every year on this day at 5:45 pm, all the church bells in Estonia simultaneously ring to honor those who had to leave.

3. Tooth Emergency

Oh, the dear Universe has such a sense of humor! 

As we were driving to Tallinn, I seriously had this random thought of, “Oh, we should really find a dentist and see how that process works.”  I even wrote it on my every-present to-do list to follow-up on after this trip.

Pick any category of life abroad now – from health care to managing finances to really any topic – and John and I have been trying to keep as best we can to keep a little ahead of the game. It’s always easier to research and understand something calmly before you’re in crisis, no? 

But let’s just say the Universe had other plans as a few days after we arrived in Tallinn, I felt my lower back tooth crack (while eating a piece of bread – no exciting story there!).

While the Universe chuckled and reminded me who is really in control here (not me!), I was grateful to be in Tallinn for this first health care encounter as statistically my odds of finding an English speaking dentist were higher. Fortunately, this tooth issue wasn’t painful, just  needing to be fixed asap.

Currently, I’m under a private health care insurance policy here in Estonia, an intermediary step as I research longer-term options within the more robust governmental Estonian health care system, Tervisekasse. 

My current health care policy is through Salu, a newer Estonian start-up (Estonia leads Europe in unicorns per capita) as I really loved their innovative approach as an affordable alternative to primary health care, focusing on immediate virtual connection with doctors (English-speaking in this case – a need of mine and many others), with 90% of issues resolved virtually.

A quick email exchange with Salu and I had an appointment at a private clinic, Confido Medical Centre.  With all of these new experiences abroad, I’m learning to be open to new ways and approaches. And quite often, like with the dental incident, I’m pleasantly surprised with how efficient and well I won’t use the word “enjoyable” with the dentist but you know what I mean!

Two key initial differences in my first health care experience out of the States:

·      Efficiency

I’m so used to always having that “consult” initial dentist appointment where they just assess what’s wrong, and then you have to come back again for the actual work. In this case, it was obvious my tooth was cracked and needed to be fixed and within five minutes and a round of x-rays the dentist was working in my mouth.

·      Affordable cost & price transparency

The whole procedure (it was pretty cracked and damaged, resulting in an hour of work and a new filling) cost what I thought was a very reasonable 172 Euros, about 189 US dollars. In my situation with coverage via Salu (which costs me 60 Euros/66 US dollars a month), the whole procedure was covered as I have up to 300 Euros dental coverage.

I am impressed with the transparency how most medical clinics like these have all their prices on their website. Never have I had that experience in the US to know exactly what something would cost before walking into a doctor’s office.

Stay tune for another Tallinn trip adventure report.

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