On our final day of full travel, the Olympic Quest group ventured across the Baltic Sea to Tallinn, Estonia! The morning started off slowly and many Olympic Quest Adventurers were half asleep as they drowsily shoveled down another Scandic Hotel breakfast. It was important to eat up before our 2 hour ferry ride to the Olympic city of Tallinn, a city that was seemingly swept under the historical carpet during a controversially historic Olympic period. Tallinn hosted the sailing events of the 1980 Olympics, and has a lot of interesting heritage that we were able to experience first hand. The 1980 Olympics were hosted in Moscow, Soviet Union, and were the first Olympics to be hosted in a socialist country, as well as the first to be hosted in an eastern European country in general. To past the time on the ferry ride, most students slept, but the few annoying morning people played cards to pass the time!
*Sorry this image is sideways! We could not figure out how to ROTATE*
The 1980 Olympics were extremely controversial. Hosted by the Soviet Union recently after it had invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the Olympics were to be a proving ground between two of the worlds largest political powers. The United States offered an ultimatum to the Soviet Union, pull troops out of Afghanistan or the United States would pull athletes out of the Olympics. The Soviet Union did not take the ultimatum and did not pull out their forces, in response the United States and 65 other countries boycotted the games.
The ferry ride was a bit bumpy and we had a few casualties of sea sickness but overall spirits were high arriving in Tallinn! Upon arrival, we embarked on a guided bus tour of the city led by two lovely tour guides. Tallinn, which is the largest city in Estonia, is a harbor city with lots of trade and commerce. The name Tallinn literally means “Danish City”.
The bus started our adventure with a scenic drive around the Olympic Village! The village was comprised of the site of the sailing events, the biggest outdoor concert venue in Tallinn, as well as other important landmarks. The tour guides focused primarily on the concert venue. The concert venue was host to the largest musical get-together which sparked Estonia’s freedom movement from Soviet Russia. Estonia would later gain independence from Russia in 1989. According to IOC statutes, “the contests in all sports disciplines must be held either in, or as close as possible to the city which the IOC has chosen.” Moscow was not suitable for sailing competitions so the Olympic Yachting Center in Pirita, Tallinn was created. The community was built from scratch and constructed before the 1980 Olympics, it was picked because of its close proximity and excessive amount of wind. The Portia river is an estuary to the Gulf of Finland at Tallinn Bay. Countries competing in sailing finished with Brazil winning overall medal count, Soviet Union coming in second, and Denmark coming in a close third by one less bronze.
There were only two cities that bid for the 1980 Olympics, Moscow and Los Angeles. The decision of who would host the games was made in 1974 in Vienna, Australia. After the events unfolded in Afghanistan and a majority of countries pulled out of the games, the United States hosted an alternative sporting competition names the Liberty Bell Classic in Philadelphia. The primary television network that was supposed to broadcast the 1980 Olympics was NBC. After the United States decided to boycott the games, NBC pulled out of its deal and instead only replayed highlights and recaps throughout the competition.
Many people have watched the movie Miracle, a tribute to the young men’s hockey Olympic team led by Herb Brooks, but many people don’t know that the 1980 Olympics occurred the games after Lake Placid. The tension between the two super powers of the United States and Soviet Union carried throughout the 1980 Olympics and on to the 1984 Olympics where the protest of the games was reciprocated by the Soviet Union.
After a quick and brief stop for some beautiful photos of the Baltic Sea the group departed for the walking leg of the journey, a tour of the beautiful old town of Tallinn. 
While on the city tour, the group was split into two groups in order to cover more ground and see as much of the city as we could in our limited time in the city. Unfortunately, we were in the same group and can only speak on behalf of one of the tour groups. Our tour guide Evelyn, is a native of Estonia and was very friendly and informative. We started our tour in the Old City. We got off the bus right outside of parliament and the cities largest church, which happened to be a Russian Orthodox Church. Most of the country is Lutheran, however there is still a large percentage of practicing Russian Orthodox. We were able to go inside and take a look around, but we were not allowed to take any pictures. Our guide mentioned that the Russian Orthodox population had spiked in the 17th or 18th century and the Lutheran population had fallen because the Russian Orthodox Church would bribe people with land if they were switch religions. This enticed many people during that time but people have since gravitated back towards Lutheranism.
We continued to explore the city with our guide until we were treated to lunch at “Olde Hansa”, a medieval restaurant. The restaurant was definitely one of the more interesting ones on our trip. The restaurant was dimly lit, with most of the light coming from candles. All of employees wore traditional outfits and the restaurant was decorated with large paintings and tapestries. We were served a traditional meat stew as an appetizer, pork with barley and vegetables for an entree, and cheesecake with saffron pudding for dessert. To contribute to the atmosphere of the medieval restaurant, there was only candle light to eat around. It led to a very interesting meal as many students had to shine flashlights on the food to really get a feel for what was being consumed!
After the meal, students were given three hours to wander the city and create their own adventures, all the while accumulating new goodies to take home with them from the countless gift-shops!
Tallinn was the beautiful end to a beautiful trip! We had an amazing time and can’t wait to bombard you with our endless stories when we get back!
Peace Out Blog,
Will “Cultured European” Jones & Alec “The Man” Overland