Tartu - European Culture Capital in 2024

The day started with an early breakfast, packing up our things and driving back to Latvia. As it's only a 40min de-route, we decided to stop in Tartu, the second biggest city of Estonia and a university/student city.
When we arrived there however, it didn't seem lively at all. Everything was kinda quiet and calm, no young people, only a few tourists around. Having grown up in Göttingen and living in Oxford for months, I'm used to student cities, and Tartu didn't seem like one at all. But hey, can't expect a full city with only 100k citizens...
Tartu is one of three European Culture Capitals of 2024 (the other two being Bødo in Norway and Bad Ischl in Austria). This award was founded in 1985 by the French and Greek ministers for culture to get European countries to feel closer and to support the cities culturally longtime (the last part cannot always be seen... Exhibit Maribor in Slovenia 2023).
As the first and nowadays best university of Estonia was and still is in Tartu, there is a long list of cultural highlights to be found.
For example the Kissing Students fountain in front of the beautiful pink town hall who display open love and affection to support the acceptance of every race, gender, beliefs, etc.
Or the Cathedral of Tartu which has been destroyed in the 16th century. As we've learned that Estonians aren't particularly religious, it's no wonder that nobody thought to rebuild this beautiful dome. Instead, they recycled the building to part of the University in early 19th century. Nowadays, it's a museum for the university and holds lots of precious books and furniture of the 19th century.
There's also the old Observatory which bone chamber and morgue were used by medical students of the Anatomicum in the past century.
And if you're a little Monk like me, you'll have lots of fun with the Art Museum at the main square which leans to one side just like the tower of Pisa. I can't even look at that. Apparently, the leaning is caused by the building’s uneven ground surface. The whole of Tartu oldtown is built on the soggy bank of the River Emajõe, therefore the foundations are mostly laid on logs. Due to the decreasing level of groundwater, one side of the building has sunk over hundreds of years. According to legend, the building has deviated even more after the bombing of the nearby Stonebridge (Kivisild) in the Second World War. In the 1980s extensive restorations were realised by Polish builders, thanks to which the sinking has suspended. The “Leaning House” is under 5,8 degrees, which is greater than the Pisa tower. So... Whenever you wanna do the famous picture but it's too crowded in Italy - there's plenty of room in Estonia.
We strolled around for quite some time, but we quickly had enough of all the culture and especially the sun, and so, we went to buy some very specific things in one of the many coops around.
One thing we had in mind, was the little Estonian cheesecake called Kohuke which Kadri recommended yesterday. Luckily, we found it and bought some to eat right away. I chose the normal vanilla and a berry one. And dear Lord, it was absolutely delicious! I'm a total sweet tooth and so I know lots of different kinds of sweets. But this cheesecake... I could bathe in them. I would have bought the whole stock of the supermarket, but unfortunately, these little things have to be refrigerated and that we could not guarantee. Maybe I can order them from home in bulk...
Happily stuffed, we drove towards Latvia now and we're surprised when, yet again, the "border" was as much as a SMS of our providers that were back in Latvia. We were driving through the town of Valga (Estonia) / Valka (Latvia) which is right at the Estonian-Latvian border. Both cities have been one big city until the 1920s. Under the Russian occupation, there were no border controls and everything was fine. But when both countries declared their independence in 1991, they couldn't decide which country the city parts should belong to, so they devided them into Estonian (north of the river Pedel) and Latvian (south of the river). What's the first thing that you do, when gained freedom? Exactly, diminish it by building border controls, right in the middle of the cities in that regard. Now, pedestrians and drivers had to cross country borders, when they wanted to get to their family, friends or work. And the dumbest thing was, that the drivers' border control was stationed outside both of the two cities. This story is as insane as the East and West Berlin story. Sadly, I came across this weird story when we've already arrived in our next hotel, 1h away from the (nowadays non-existent) border. Next time I'm here, I'll definitely make a stop to hear the stories of individual citizens there, who've lived in that crazy circumstances.Okumaya devam et