{"id":9889,"date":"2014-03-31T12:53:35","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T09:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/balticguide.ee\/?p=9889"},"modified":"2014-03-31T12:53:35","modified_gmt":"2014-03-31T09:53:35","slug":"tallinn-sightseeing-then-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/tallinn-sightseeing-then-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Tallinn Sightseeing: Then & Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tallinn\u2019s historical Old Town is the best\u00a0<\/strong>starting point for some serious sightseeing. There, you will be surrounded by the city\u2019s pulsing centre and many other attractive sites like creative culture centres in abandoned Soviet factories with trendy art galleries, caf\u00e9s and shops. But has Tallinn always offered such a range of sightseeing options? What did tourists do when the factories were still running on full and the Old Town not yet a UNESCO World Heritage Site?<\/p>\n

According to the many Soviet tourist guidebooks, Tallinners were crazy about the city\u2019s green gown. A tourist was supposed to see the flowers, buy flowers, smell flowers \u2013 you name it! The \u201cflower-power\u201d was unavoidable. The same thing could be said about the statues and war memorial sites. They had quite an important task to perform \u2013 teaching tourists about the Soviet Union\u2019s heroes, pride and honour. Another show-off was the so called \u201cnew town\u201d, meaning Tallinn\u2019s suburbs. They were all proudly presented in the guidebooks showing their modern look, amenities and facilities. And, if a tourist needed a drink, they just had to visit any of Tallinn\u2019s famous caf\u00e9s. According to the guidebooks, a visit to a caf\u00e9 is a must and a national custom! Last but not least, no tourist could say no to the Song & Dance Festivals in Estonia. Today, these celebrations and traditions are among the best trademarks of Estonia, and have played an important role in Estonian history. In the guidebooks, the festivals are explained as a national holiday for the USSR, but nowadays it is back to being a celebration for the Republic of Estonia. This year, the Song and Dance Festivals will take places in Tallinn from July 4-6.<\/p>\n

Tomas Alexandersson, otherwise known as The Tallinn Collector runs a website that collects images from Soviet-era guidebooks to Tallinn.<\/em><\/p>\n

TEXT TOMAS ALEXANDERSSON,\u00a0PHOTO INTOURIST POSTCARDS, TALLINN, 1980<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tallinn\u2019s historical Old Town is the best\u00a0starting point for some serious sightseeing. There, you will be surrounded by the city\u2019s … Read more<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":9891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t