helsinki 10 july - maustetytöt

Now things really start winding down in a big way. I feel like I have been away for two years (it's been two weeks today). See selfie below. 

Now I had almost forgotten I had the option of doing this but it bubbled up into my conscious mind on, probably, Thursday that Maustetytöt were playing somewhere in Helsinki on this day. I really wasn't sure where it was happening or what kind of event it was, and as is the wont of the Finns, it seems to be a really IYKYK kind of event, but it transpired ultimately that it was a summer festival (they like those kind of things - the youngs, I mean) at the big iceskating hall area. I managed to crack the cabal and the non-Finnish speakers' cocoon and got a ticket. 

I am tempted to say 'everything else on the bill was shit' but that's actually just a reflex - I wouldn't have a clue. The acts before and after Maustetytöt were definitely both shit, but I thought about it later - I mean if the organisers had one thing I liked on the bill, they probably had some others. But it was a hot, stupid day and I was nervous about being there in the first place and I wasn't in the mood to be overly experimental. So I just went for the one thing. This (above) is getting through security.

Very simple set up, two stages, everyone was at one stage. And I could see Maustetytöt setting up at this stage. They were actually lugging their gear. There were a few old people hanging around at the stage already. They regarded me suspiciously, fair enough.

Soundchecking. We've all done it.

It's not fair to take people's pictures when they haven't said you could, but luckily for me, en osaa puhua suomea so maybe I can basically do whatever I want and no-one can tell me not to. My en osaa puhua suomeaness also saved me when a, presumably, very drunk woman tried to inveigle me and the man standing next to me in some kind of tryst. I saw her putting her hands in his etc and I think she was probably talking to me too but when it came down to it I didn't understand anything she said so I was fairly impervious. I got the sense that he and maybe some other people admired my complete lack of engagement with her, but that might be projecting. They might have guessed I had no idea what was going on, although if I en osaa puhua suomea then what was I doing at a concert by a band that only puhua suomea? Well you may ask. 

The show was really simple, very basic, straightforward, no bells nor whistles. It was mainly hits and it was really, really good in that completely understated, no showpersonship way that I would have expected.  

So I did take a lot of photos but really they're all basically the same! 

They played for precisely an hour and then as soon as they finished someone else came on at the other stage. Whoever they were, they were insanely bad (even if they were meant to be, um, knowing or ironic or something - ?). Weird, weird context. 

I got out fast.

Tell you one weird thing though. I was really concerned I would look like an old creep there, and be like the oldest person there by 200%. But there were plenty of people there older than me - ! Not even joking. 

I don't know how old that friendly woman who I mentioned above might have seemed, I didn't look at her. 

tallinn 10 july

Woke early, took a walk in what I thought was a new direction and I was entirely wrong and just ended up rehashing a lot of the previous evening's terrain. 

There was this new housing development. Not uninteresting, if you have low expectations of what could be interesting. 

More accommodation of old infrastructure. 

Anyway, very quickly I found myself back where we'd been the previous evening, because I had a worse sense of direction than I thought. 

In the spirit of the name I give my blog these days... check out this northern light

That thing's still there. 

And the Linnahall again

A bit of hare action in the distance.

You know who used to live here (below)? Johan Pitka 1872-1944. 

And you know who lives here... this cat. 

Come on, this is an album cover. Or a book cover. It's the cover of something. 

So coming back through the cemetery park, I got some information.

And these are the abovementioned gravestone markers in the bell tower. 

Just before we say goodbye to Tallinn, a couple of shots of the airbnb. It was pretty great. 

I left for Helsinki on the 10:30 ferry (which mysteriously actually left at 10:10...!) and S&F flew back to Hamburg via Cophenhagen later in the day. 

It was great travelling with them. 

last tallinnn night 9 july

Franziska I think particularly but maybe also Steve had persuaded me to visit the Linnahall a few days previously despite my ignorant dismissal... and I was shown to be a dufus, because it was amazing. This time I had suggested visiting the cemetery park near where we were staying (Steve and I had walked past it and observed that it looked like a cemetery though we couldn't quite say why as it had no tombstones, but about 30 seconds' research showed that is precisely what it had been). But Franziska had suggested going a little further afield as well and I knew this would be a good idea even if I didn't know why. 

First of all, just wanted to show you what a few years' exposure to the ice and rain of Tallinn can do to the wooden bits of a building. It's not pretty is it! 

Yet the building itself is amazeballs

Couldn't get a proper picture of it because there was a big fat white van in the way, but you are probably satisfied with Tallinn house pictures by now. 

First, we went past what I later discovered was the cemetery belltower (I'll leave the story of the cemetery park for tomorrow OK). Elegant construction. I am ashamed (?) to say at first I thought it was an aesthetic disguise on something very utilitarian like a sewer duct. 

This is the only cemetery marker I could see in the cemetery (I later discovered I was looking in the wrong place):

This is where we were really headed though. I have no idea what's happening with this building other than what I can see - that it has trees growing in it.

But this is the really amazing thing. It's huge. The sum total of what I know about it is all here. 

And there's the Linnahall off in the not-very-distant distance. 

What do you think this is or was? I just like the way the pixelated waves look. 

We walked back along the waterfront a little. 

New apartments over old infrastructure. And below, back in the cemetery park. 

Steve was pretty interested in this building's balconies and I get it. 

9 july tallinn - 3 or is it 4?

Finland but even moreso Estonia (with its teensy population, many of whom don't actually speak Estonian) has a really impressive print media. How many Estonian vegans are there really, or even vegan-friendly Estonians? I can't imagine. Anyway, there are at least five, who I saw hanging out here. I recommend this place: 

A couple more houses. Don't worry, there are more to come after this: