According to Alice and Luba, some nights at least, Russian-Estonians feel a little less welcome at the gay spots in the Old Town. They feel more appreciated at another place less than a fifteen-minute walk away. It’s in the guidebooks, but you’d never find it unless you know where to look: beyond a gated fence, across a parking lock beyond a door beneath the reddish light at the center-right.... Inside there’s a bar, a dance floor and a glassed-in smoking room. Everyone’s friendly.

June 23 is Võidupüha, or Victory Day, which celebrates Battle of Võnnu where the Estonians triumphed over the Germans in 1919. It has come to represent the country’s long struggle for independence over foreign hegemony. That evening also begins the twin holidays of Jaaniõhtu (St. John’s Eve) and Jaanipäev (St. John’s Day, on the 24th), a twinned holiday second only to Christmas in significance.

Sergei reports from Tallinn:

Not far from the gates to the Old Town in central Tallinn (pronounced like “talent”). Sergei, who looks a little like a young Christian Slater and who sometimes hangs out here with his friends says she is also sometimes referred to as “Green Girl,” or “The Statue of Liberty” and “Greenie,” and is kind of like the Hachiko of Tallinn, a well-known place to rendezvous. After Michael Jackson’s death some of his fans gathered there. Sergei reports:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_h8cI4BmoI