Here is part two of my trip. After spending the first half of the week in Klaipeda, Lithuania, I spent the morning wandering the streets of Vilnius, then flew to Tallinn, Estonia. The conference was sponsored by the organization “Women of the Harvest,” which exists solely to support North American women serving overseas through Christian ministries. Part of their work is to host conferences all over the world and invite women to get together, network with others in their area, and relax a bit. All 50 women stayed together in a hotel in the center of Tallinn – mornings and evenings were sessions and afternoons were free. Seven women including me attended from Donetsk, and we had a good time exploring Old Town Tallinn and meeting others from throughout Eastern Europe. One highlight was feasting at a medieval restaurant lit only by candles and complete with musicians in traditional garb. Even though the weather was pretty chilly, Old Town was full of tourists, and it was fun to blend in with the foreigners and not stick out so much, for once.
Although we didn’t venture much out of the center of the city, I was impressed by the Western-European feel of Tallinn. The hotel we stayed at was overflowing with other guests and conferences, and the buildings were very well maintained and restored. Everywhere you went people spoke English – my better-traveled colleagues said they encountered more non-native English speakers in Tallinn than they remember when visiting places like Italy or France. In Lithuania the experience was similar. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I could tell a difference in economic stability as compared with Ukraine. Cars, streets, buildings and buses were modern and well-maintained. I saw the familiar Soviet-style high rise apartment buildings, but they seemed to be tidier and holding together much better than their equivalents in Ukraine. All of the Baltic states are now part of the European Union, and it showed me how far Ukraine has yet to go to reach that level of economic improvement.
Laura
