Tartu 2024

 Tartu is the European Capital of Culture in 2024. I'd like to say I carefully planned my route and had my finger on the pulse, but it was more a case of browsing though Google Maps and working out a way to loop back from Tallinn.

Tartu University was founded back in 1632, so it's been around a while. Heading up the hill (Toomemägi) from the town square leads to the University of Tartu Museum, now situated in the prominently located Cathedral building. Stretched out over 7 floors, plenty to see. A large pendulum dangles down the spiral staircase, gently oscillating over a map of the world. Favourite room was the Morgenstern Library, as soon as you enter the musty waft of old books hit you square in the face, smells like history!

Combined ticket also grants access to the Observatory Tower on the same hill, with plenty of old telescopes. Highlights how more design was used in the past, rather than just being purely functional, they were ornate with carved wood and brash polishings. Also included was the small Univeristy Art Museum, but that was mostly just plaster-cast replication of sculptures, although it did have a temporary exhibit with some weird VR experiences.

Next day visited the garguantan Estonian National Museum on the outskirts of town. This giant wedge building blends into an old military runway (Raadi), looks unreal. Inside a variety of permanent exhibitions, one focusing on language, another on national history, stretching back in time as you move through it. During life behind the iron counter it showed some ingenuity, such as a homemade lawnmower. Another section was about environment: "In 1982 a large quantity of aircraft fuel was leaked into Lake Raadi. To elminate the pollution, the lake was lit on fire." Hmm, well I guess that's one solution. 

Refueled and rested at the cafe with the daily special, pork with cheese sauce, roasted potatoes and salad, tasty!

Some temporary exhibits with Surrealist painting was weird as you would expect. Another focused on nightlife, then yet another on Bling, which kinda seem like an Estonian Burning Man festival. One clever bit of tech is that all the info boards besides the exhibits used e-ink screens and a tap of your ticket turned it from Estonian to English (or whatever lanaguage is encoded in your ticket), very neat!

Just outside the museum in an upside down house, which is popular with the selfie crew.

Back in town, chaos and pandemonium awaits at AHHAA Science Centre, where nearly everything is interactive. Full of hyperactive dafties, and that's just the adults. There are chairs with pulleys and ropes attached to a pillar, which you can try and pull yourself up. One without a pulley which is impossible! On one side a mini water park with plastic balls flying along tracks and waterspouts. Favourite was a sort of pendulum which the more you pull down, the more it pulls you up. So you hold onto a metal bar and get pulled a few feet back up into the air. 

Headed to a different area for dinner at Aparaat which was a small complex of restaurants/bars, wasn't that busy, but food was more than decent. Finally I found some live music in a big barn with the 'Rockin Lady & Her Rivertown Boys' playing a bit of rockabilly complete with a guy twanging a big double bass.