One day in Tallinn

Tallinn, Estonia

9th November 2006

This morning I had to get up early and go to work. I was asked to interview a chap for a PHP role we have. Norris said he didn’t know anything about PHP or how to be constructively objective when gauging someone’s grasp of the English language. The interview lasted about 2 hours and I think it went pretty well.

I originally asked my company if I could work this whole week here in Estonia, that way I could keep some holiday days for next year. They didn’t let me but they gave me the week off with pretty short notice.

The thing about being out here in November is that my friends all work and they work during the day. This means I have to keep myself busy until 7 or 8pm in the evening. Lucky for me, there is lots to do here year round so it hasn’t been that difficult.

After the interview I went over to Club 26 again to so some more swimming and sit in the sauna for a bit. The sauna, for some reason, wouldn’t go above 80C. In Finland, having a sauna at around 80C is ideal, as they like to sit and chat for ages but in Estonia it’s more common to put the temperature up to 100C or so and sweat like a pig. I prefer to sweat like a pig than sit in a sauna all day by myself.

There are 2 saunas that I know of in club 26. One is a public one, which looks at west Tallinn, and there isn’t much to look at, the other one looks at north Tallinn, where you can see the old town and the harbour. For some reason when I come alone I can never get the sauna that can see the old town.

After that, I met with Norris and we went to Estonia Television studios where his friend works. We first went to the canteen to have some lunch. Everything was subsidised and you’ll struggle to find a meal that costs more than £1.50. I ordered my food in Estonian and the lady at the cash register complimented me on my grasp of the language. It was so nice to hear that.

When I’m in Paris and I order food I usually get some nasty comments or ignorant questions thrown my way. When I order something in Estonia, I usually get a round of applause. I think this makes it clear about which language will give the most back for the time that you put into it.

It’s a shame that in English speaking countries, France and parts of Germany, you’re just expected to know the language and if you speak it well, there is nothing special about that, you just should and if you don’t, you’re just an ignorant foreigner. In the Baltics, if you stick your nose out of your back fence, someone will be speaking another language and many people there speak 3 or 4 languages because their economy and lifestyle demands it.

Heiki showed me around ETV studios for about a half hour. It was quiet interesting. It isn’t a tour you can buy as we went to a lot of places where outsiders are generally forbidden. I got to sit at the desk where they broadcast the news 7 times a day and dig around the bunker where they store all the old archive footage.

After the tour, I walked over to Egle’s hair salon. Her mother Anne was having her hair done when I arrived. I had my hair done and had a nice chat with them. I saw these two girls all the time when Egle lived in London so it’s nice to see them again in Tallinn.

After my haircut I went and did some shopping and went back to blue barracuda’s office. Jurgen, one of our Estonian employees, showed me some of his photography he’s been doing. He does it professionally and seems to be quiet successful (that week he was invited to a party thrown by Cosmopolitan magazine) but is now doing it part time and working for us fulltime.

Norris finished up his work around 8pm and we headed back to his place. We cleaned up just in time before Egle, Anne and Henry came by. We had a very nice evening chatting and watching TV.