KGB in Estonia

Today we went on a Soviet Tour of Estonia- we went to the Soviet Life Museum and then to the Hotel Viru, which the KGB built to spy on tourists in Soviet times. The tour at the hotel was absolutely fascinating- we learned the ins and outs of KGB monitoring at the hotel. There was however, one anecdote from the tour that made ZERO sense- the hotel employees were not even allowed to talk to the tourists- how the hell did that work? I can't imagine staying in a hotel that was run entirely without speaking to the guests but then again what more would you expect from a government that thinks its cool beans to arrest a baby at 2am for overstaying his welcome for 2 hours.

There were some very interesting stories about the rooms being tapped- when guests would complain to each other that they were out of TP, some lady in a babushka would turn up 5 minutes later with a fresh roll of toilet paper.

As Brett put it- the Soviet government was like a piece of Laffy Taffy candy (the kind of candy that comes with a joke)- the first CLUE (reminds me of the board game) that their way of life was unsustainable should have been that they spent an untold amount of time and money shielding their country folk from other cultures supposedly because they were the BEST. They were also the hardest working- communism bred some real workhorses. You can see it today in their pubs! When my parents visited Russia in Soviet times they couldn't hail a cab with money to save their lives- it wasn't until they held out a stick of gum that a can would stop for them.

What a cool era to live in- one where a piece of gum was LITERALLY chewed for 2 months bc it was such a treat!!!!! If you were ever lucky enough to come across a piece and you were über-generous, you might even let your friend chew for 20 minutes (we learned this today from our tour guide- I'm not joking)!

In fact, as we learned today, the USSR was so F-ing good that they could not even build the hotel we were in today in less than 8 or so years so they had to bring in the Finns to build the dang thing so they could start monitoring foreigners before their god damn regime was over in 1991.

See below for a pic of the gate to the Old Town and Maddox in the secret KGB headquarters on the top floor of the Hotel Viru. As the sign read when we got there: "there is nothing here."
Sure! And the North Korean weightlifting gold medalist we saw tonight didn't take any performance enhancing substances!

One thing I thought was super interesting was that there were no "Soviet Times" museums of any sort in Russia- all there was were nostalgia producing positive Soviet cafes that the era seem more like the 70s in the US. Ample food and drink, etc... All the museums knocking the government at that time were in Latvia and Estonia. Coincidence? I don't think so!

Off to London tomorrow- yippee!!!