Blog
Offers a commented visual diary of our research field-trips – in a triangle between Vienna (A) Tallinn (EST) and Russe (BG)
Signage
What a sign at the Tallinn Harbor area! Illustrating various rhythms of traffic flow. Makes one think about the encounter of all those travellers on the ferry boat. read more
Tracing a Vendor
After mapping a vendors path, we were tracing at least one of his routes which led us to a car rental in the Tondi-area in the west of Tallinn. The next stage of his route would lead us to one of the so called „Wolka Kasolka“ – a wholesales market in the outskirts of... read more
Anthromob
A room full of anthropologist dedicating their research to mobility issues at the EASA Conference in Tallinn, where we’re going to present our research project on Sunday. And we’ll show up at some venues with our vehicle! about the Anthromob... read more
Talking and Mapping
Collecting narratives about the paths of the actors encountering at ‚Russian Market‘ and simultaneously mapping them. Since we ourselves are not capable to speak either Estonian nor Russian our partner Tarmo Pikner is supporting... read more
Russian Market
Getting started at the first site/ node of interest – the „JAAMA TURG“, the fenced market close to Tallinn’s main railway station. It was established in early 1990s for Estonians with Russian background and Russian post-Peristrojka immigrants, which is currently endangered of being redesigned and gentrified. look the map Like in Sofia there are already some young scholars, activists, and urban designers committed in „saving“ the market from investors plans – we had already met one of them, an anthropologist from Spain, who studied 1 year in Russia before moving to Tallinn, to make his PHD about the... read more
Display
Preparing for our first Workshop respectively gathering of information at the market close to the Tallinn Railway Station and at one of the ferry terminals in the harbor... read more
Tallinn Harbor
What an intriguing area – where different sorts of mobility streams come to halt and interfere! The harbor, where large ferry boats and cruise ships are spoiling the city with several 1000 of tourists, most of them purchasing enormous amount of alcohol in large supermarkets in the harbor area before getting back on their boats. The harbor and the hotels are largely benefiting from the different price level between Finland and Estonia. If these levels would get more balanced the harbor would get into serious trouble. The very same ferry boats are also used by large trucks, that transport goods from Finland to Europe and vice versa. Since here Tarmo had also arranged a meeting with the Real Estate Manager of the port authority, we now have access to very good photographs, plans, and statistics about the... read more
Linnalabor
First lecture – some hours after arriving in Tallinn – thankfully hosted by Linnalabor! read more
Euro Oil
The network of gas stations seems less dense as expected. Filling the tank the last until we reach Tallinn… read more
Towed!
While starting the car in Mustvee – after a short brake – we recognized a strange sound of the engine. After calling our mechanic back home, we contacted the Austrian Automobile Club. They sent a towing-truck driven by a friendly but rather reticent Russian speaking guy, who towed us 60km back to a Ford workshop in... read more
Nation
In some countries it is mandatory to indicate the car’s nationality. Since we’ve forgotten to purchase an „A“ at home in Vienna we had to... read more
Contraflow!
… a convoy of Russian car-transporters on Estonian territory, packed with brand new Mercedes Benz SUV’s. There must be a hub or a port where they are loaded. read more
Road Museum
Displaying the history of the construction of roads from ancient times to the present.
read more
Stop!
What a fancy system – operated by a private company on behalf of the EU administration. For crossing the Estonian/ Russian border at Luhamaa one has to draw a number and park the car at the waiting area. In the meanwhile one can also use the facilities inside the terminal – having coffee and watching the truckers getting their customs documents processed.... read more
Ruins of Separation
After we recognized that we crossed the border between Lithuania and Latvia we immediately made a U-turn to take a closer look at the abandoned terminal. We were wondering how long these border station was in... read more
Latvian Woods
Tiny Stop along the E77 leading straight to Russia – very hostile and the best coffee since approx.... read more
Marijampole
The very famous marktet for second-hand cars in Lithuania and close to the Polish border and on the corridor from Minsk (BY) to Kaliningrad. There is very famous eponymic book by the historian Karl Schlögel. He in one of the books‘ essays describes the role of this market. But we were out of luck and it seems that we got there exactly on the wrong time-slot – hardly anybody was there! So we missed the ‚real‘ experience. Or it is just an indicator that the market got more formalized and the informal vendors managed to build up businesses. But probably they nowadays might have been replaced by professional car... read more