Day 3: Parliament in Pink

A pink Parliament building. Seems like a strange color scheme for a place where the main government meets to deam what is right for good of the country. But that's what it was when it was first built, and that is what it shall remain until someone thinks that a nice teal would represent the place much better. The inside was filled with many triangles and sharp edges of a modernism design, which we were told is the only parliament building that has such a design. But the really cool part of the tour was meeting with Taavi Roivas.

Mr. Roivas has to be the most casual, young, and coolest politician I've met (not that I've met many politicians). He's been in politics for almost 11 years and he's just turned thirty. This means he started it at the ripe age of nineteen and he has a fresh perspective of looking at policies and issues. His iPhone was in prominent view and the moment the meeting ended he started tapping at his screen. He gave us some interesting facts about the tax policies in Estonia and how to make taxes that people can't avoid. He also laid out the plan of how he helped in writing a plan that will raise the birth rate in his already small country. I'm now jealous that Estonians only have to take five minutes to do their tax returns.

Next on the docket was wandering to the KUMU Estonia Art Museum. On the way we went through a park which had sinister signs warning of the squirrel population. I saw no squirrels but did see bright gardens and a decoy art museum and a choir of Estonian women in traditional dress (not the last time, I assure you) and then a very abstract design of KUMU. Parts of it were drappled over a garden spreading out from a steel crescent (slab?) that was the main building. The inside had even more of these doses of abstraction, including free lockers. From classics to pop to modern, all sorts of art were seen as our tour guide practically teleported from room to room while we scampered behind. I also discovered that the taboo of touching paintings can be broken...or can it...I'm really not sure. Kinda went all raccoon-in-headlights when it happened and blanked out, and kept myself from hyperventilation.

After these adventures in KUMU, I went by myself back to the Old Town, where I met with a Estonian local girl who goes to the Estonian Academy of the Arts and her friend visiting from Denmark. I shall insist this was the flavor of culture, since we got tea at a really neat basement cafe with a cozy setting and eight workers somehow contained within a working area filled with java machines and espresso makers. The conversation was decidedly random.

Then came the Dance Festival. In a word, wow. A rotating series of water-like motions spinning over a soccer field, blurring colors of Estonian old dress and the dances to classical jaunts. Over eight thousand people in sequence somehow following what must have been the most extensive choreographic effort I've ever seen and ever shall see until the entire Copper Country decides to break it down.