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[FLIGHT 5] [SUNDAY] [DOCUMENTS] [STAFF] [SPONSORS] [FIRST PAGE] |
| Walking tour in Tartu It was raining and windy when we woke up on Friday morning. Task for the first part of the day: travel to Laagri where our familiar headquarters for flights over Keila was in Hotel Salzburg, formerly known as Peoleo.On the way Valdur gave me a one-hour guided tour through Toomemägi park and the Old Town of Tartu. Tartu is one of oldest towns in Scandinavia and the Baltic states, and the cultural center of Estonia for centuries; University of Tartu was founded in 1632. |
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| TARTU OBSERVATORIUM ON TOOMEMÄGI. |
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| ANGEL'S BRIDGE
ON TOOMEMÄGI. THERE IS ONE FOR THE DEVIL, TOO. |
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| TARTU UNIVERSITY MAIN BUILDING FROM 1799. ARCHITECT: JOHAN WILHELM KRAUSE. BIGGER. |
Seeing the noble main building reminded me of two men whose Alma Mater this university was: my esteemed professors Alo Raun and Felix Oinas at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, where I spent memorable two years as teaching assistant of Finnish language in 1968-70. Raun and Oinas were very original fellows, and in spite of the great difference in our ages I would like to say that they were my friends. That is how they live in my memory, anyway. I believe they would not object. Alo and Felix were not the only notable personalities in the Department of Uralic and Altaic Studies. One of the other was Thubten Jigme Norbu, the eldest brother of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. Norbu was the last person to fare us well when my wife and I left Bloomington. He had already written wishes for good life on my copy of his autobiography. Our life has been good. |
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| UNIVERSITY AS PAINTED ON THE WALL OF A NEARBY BUILDING. BIGGER. |
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| FACULTY GRINS FROM THE BLIND WINDOWS OF ANOTHER BUILDING,
PERMANENTLY. BIGGER. |
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| PERFORMER PREPARES IN FRONT OF TARTU TOWN HALL, BUILT IN
1786. BIGGER, NOT SAME. |
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MY SECOND ENCOUNTER THIS SUMMER
WITH BARCLAY DE TOLLY. THE FIRST
WAS IN RUSSIA. HIS GRAVE IS IN JÕGEVESTE, SOUTH ESTONIA, NOT FAR FROM TARTU. |
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| AFTERNOON THUNDER CLOUDS NEAR LAAGRI. VERY MUCH THE SAME AS
DURING KEILA-VILJANDI CUP IN 2003. |