There are some twenty museums scattered about, each presenting tantalizing stories and memorabilia. An imposing Gothic edifice, it has kept watch over the Raekoja plats, or Town Hall Square, the real hub of Tallinn s civic life since 1404. The people of Tallinn still gather on the square to enjoy their cappuccinos prepared with their very own Kalev chocolate. This is the place to buy hand-woven linen towels, bath robes, shirts, and table cloths. Beautifully patterned sweaters, fashioned out of wool or flax, are displayed in careful arrangements, and drawings and etchings of city views hang on home-made display boards.
Prices are competitive and always negotiable.
A ll the architectural and artistic treasures find a fitting counterpoint in the country s rich musical tradition. According to him, music has to be honest, sincere, from the heart. Curiously, it was the singing from the heart, performed at the Tallinn Song Festival in 1988, that patterned the basis for the ensuing peaceful demonstrations. Responding to the distant echoes of the first public expression of Estonian nationalistic awakening in the form of a song festival held in Tartu in 1869, the modern generation gathered by the hundreds of thousands on the same festival grounds to incite that national feeling that had been silent so long. T allinn offers a menu of varieties to please even the most demanding connoisseur of tourism.