Do you want to know the secret?

Last year, when first arrived in Romania, I participated in city tour in Cluj given by a history professor from the University of Babes Bolyai. Cluj is a Romanian city in Transylvania and a nexus of several faiths, peoples, and histories. This particular tour, given in the pouring rain, was rather comprehensive. Throughout the three-hour excursion, our guide would stop at a particular point of interest, name it, and then ask, "Do you want to know the secret?" I think he could detect our exhaustion but knew he could rope us back into the tour with the question because, inevitably, we did want to know. After all, who doesn't want to be in on a secret? The very suggestion is enticing, right? That's what I thought you'd say...

Tartu in October

Oct 6, 2006 - 27 Photos

Today, I will tell you some small secrets about Tartu on this quiet, rainy Sunday afternoon. It has been pouring rain for the last couple of days, so when a few rays of sunshine peeked their way in my window this afternoon, I took to the streets for a good walk in the autumn leaves, camera in hand.

Secret #1: Autumn is undeniably here in all of its gorgeous splendor! The colorful leaves and crisp feel of the air are things of true beauty and wonder.

Secret #2: Culture with a capital "C" offers Estonian insights. In my free time, I have been going to a lot of cultural events in town -- Opera (Mozart, Idemeneo), a jazz/improvisational quartet, and, this weekend, the ballet (A Midsummer Night's Dream). All of these events have been well-attended and extremely accessible in terms of cost. A third row ticket to the opera cost a mere $5 and the ballet less than $4.

This past Saturday, I set out expecting Mendelssohn and a dreamy, fairy-like production. I was only partially right. There were fairies. There was some Mendelssohn. There was also a director ranting in English (and dancing) mid-production about choosing opening music. There was a somewhat inexplicable overweight man wearing a dress and chasing the fairy queen onto the stage (he later fell asleep on the side of the forest with a can of Estonian beer, Saku, in hand). There was a small inset concert on a musical saw. There was a troop of older women wearing fairy wings, sweeping, and singing a song in Estonian, and even I could understand the lyrics -- Head Ööd (Good Night)! Fascinating. I haven't revisited the original Shakespeare for a while, but I don't recognise these elements. I'll just let the events speak for themselves. It was entertaining.

Secret #3: I set out on a rainy walk this afternoon and stumbled across one of Tartu's secret treasures: the University of Tartu Botanical Gardens -- colorful trees, moss-covered stairs and pathways, still-blooming flowers, and strange pieces of artwork placed as though coming up through the carpeted garden floor.

Secret #4: Part of the Struve Geodetic Arc is here in Tartu. I neither fully understand it's purpose nor importance, but I stumbled upon it on my walk this afternoon. For those of you that want to know more of the secret, The Struve Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations constructed by Struve, the German-Russian scientist, to figure out the dimensions of the earth. The arc covers ten countries and over 2,820 km, from Norway to the Black Sea.