Wednesday 18.4.2007

Expeditions in Tartu
On 18th of April we boarded the bus for Tartu, where a lot of useful information about Tallinn, Abja-Paluoja, Tartu and Estonia was given to us.
We arrived to Tartu at 10AM and soon we saw a very interesting thing, the statue of Oscar Wilde and Edward Wilde. One is an Irish writer and the other is an Estonian writer and they share the same surname. We had a lot of fun around that statue.
Next we went to the beautiful main town square with the city hall and the fountain of the two lovers. We also saw the zero point of the town Tartu. The most memorable thing was an art gallery that is leaning to the left.
A while later we went to the Dome hill, where we saw important buildings, such as the Supreme Court, the first observatory in the Russian Empire, the Euro faculty and the most important, the National museum, the former castle and monastery. Nearby was a wooden bridge connecting the hilly surroundings, called the Angel’s bridge. Nearby was also the Devil’s bridge, from the time of the Russian Empire.
There is the park used for relaxing by students and teachers of the University of Tartu in between the two bridges. The guide told us everything about the university, the statues of important people for Estonian history, paths and houses on the Dome Hill. The most interesting path was Slow death.
We also saw the statue of the founder of the university of Tartu, which was our next stop. The University has a Great Hall for concerts and important meetings for the university academics. There was also the university’s most interesting students detention room, where students who misbehaved were held for a period of time, determined by the Honourable Student’s Court. We spent our lunchtime in one of the most interesting pubs, the Gunpowder Pub located under the Dome Hill. With full stomachs we went to the Toy Museum.
The next stop was the Lutheran church, which belonged to the German congregation and was bombarded by their compatriots during the Second World War.
We also had some free time for souvenir hunting. Inside a shopping centre we had a great time on the ice rink. It was the first time for some of us. After the interesting day in Tartu we returned home to our host families in Abja.