I made it to a former Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR)! I had been here to Tallínn once before, but that was almost exactly 25 years ago, and much has changed since those early years of freedom from the communist yoke. And even back then I was writing about my travels and making bad puns. Some things never change… I know most readers have heard (probably multiple times) the story of our ferry misadventures from Tallínn back to Stockholm in 1999, but if not, check out the nauseating tale of the Ferry Godmother.
I took a ferry again to get from Stockholm to Tallínn on the current trip, and boy, what a difference 25 years makes! It really was more of a cruise this time, with multiple restaurants, bars, and even a two-floor performance venue (and of course there’s a disco too). The entertainment quality had gone from stoic and dull to as engaging as anything I’d expect on a night on the town in the US.
By the way, the other ferry Tallink previously utilized to travel between Tallínn and Stockholm is currently leveraged as a refugee center for Ukrainians displaced after the Russian invasion. It’s moored in the Tallínn port. During a tour of a KGB spy center in the city, I met and chatted in English with a Ukrainian family visiting Tallínn from Gothenburg, Sweden. The father had managed to find good work, and their daughter now speaks Swedish (but not English yet). They said that living in Sweden is okay, but of course they didn’t choose to leave home. So many stories like this…
In fact, during the ferry journey, I chatted with a Swedish lady whose parents had fled Estonia in 1944 before the Soviet army arrived. They knew from earlier experience that they would be in trouble if they stayed. I hadn’t known before, but tens of thousands of Estonians left their country in that time and settled in Sweden. Russia has been causing refugee crises for many generations. And Sweden has been kindly taking people in. Not that Sweden has always been the nice guy in the neighborhood. It was Russia (Peter the Great) who kicked Sweden out of Estonia in 1721, as the Swedes had been conquerors as well. The current time period where the Estonians are controlling their own destinies (since 1991) is fairly unusual.
In this new world, the Estonian-Swedish lady on the ferry to Tallínn told me that she has a son who used to work for huge YouTube sensations PewDiePie and Mr Beast on their video efforts, and she said that her son also created the gaming side of the Mr Beast business, taking it from 0 to 10 million subscribers. As of this writing, Mr Beast has the most popular English-language YouTube channel in the world. Her son was one of the first few people on the Mr Beast team, so he started in the early years. He lived in North Carolina (where Mr Beast is based) for some years doing this work, but eventually decided that Eastern NC wasn’t for him, and he quit and moved to Estonia in August 2023. He now lives in Tallínn’s old town in a former monastery, where he owns the entire second floor, haha. I guess he made a lot of money! He’s creating some new gaming solution now that I didn’t get details on. The lady continually referred to Mr Beast as “Jimmy” — I guess she’s on a nickname-basis with him. Fascinating, eh?
To give you a sense of the Baltic Sea region and where the ferry traveled, below is a map (from Stockholm’s Vasa Museum) of the area, and it’s a fancy representation that includes all the major cities I plan to visit during these travels before Prague. I’ve numbered each city, with Stockholm being 1, and now after the ferry ride, Tallínn is number 2 (it was formerly called Reval by Baltic Germans who mostly ran things back then). Even Warsaw (#6) is rendered on the map.
As you can see, Tallínn is located at about the same latitude as Stockholm, so I had guessed that they’d have approximately the same weather and temperatures. Boy, was I wrong!! Stockholm benefits from the last remnants of the Gulf Stream, bringing in a bit of warmer air to temper the Arctic cold pushing down from up north, but by the time one crosses the Baltic Sea to Estonia, that effect is greatly diminished, making Tallínn normally colder than Stockholm, and as of this writing, much colder! -4 Fahrenheit (-20 Celsius) and windy is not a good combo. Ships were even getting trapped in ice while out to sea!
Side note #1: Celsius (the scientist) was Swedish! Side note #2: Tallínn was for a short time a strong contender for a destination for Sofia to attend university, but I’m now glad that didn’t pan out. Mainly because while I feel that Czechia should be safe from Russian invasion, one cannot be sure about Estonia, alas. Plus, Sofia would have hated this level of cold!
Estonians have many reasons to distrust the Russian government. Here are some reminders:
If there’s an advantage to the legacy Russian presence, it’s that in the Russian Orthodox calendar, Christmas is on January 7, with much celebrating on January 6, Christmas Eve. This means that the Christmas markets were open through January 7. We had already missed the Stockholm markets by arriving on December 24!
Today’s DadGPT joke: Why did the budget-conscious ice rink manager only hire frugal employees?
Because he wanted staff who were natural “cheap skates”!
Today’s Estonian insight: Apparently one can’t be too cool for school in Tallínn, because in Estonia, school is kool!
Today’s funny video: Speaking of school:
Major Meander 
That was a crazy Ferry Godmother story from 25 years ago, Scott. Even wilder than tales of my ex-mother-in law!
Haha, dare I ask?!