Haapsalu is on the other side of the bridge. Trains used to move under the bridge...... People know Haapsalu that there are The White Lady, Chaikovsky’s bench and a beach that cannot be found because of the club–rush. Around The White Lady a castle is built with a tower and a church. On the beach an old mudcure hospital and spa hall stand. That’s about all an average Estonian knows about Haapsalu.
I can assure you that all this is correct. The White Lady is the only wellknown ghost in Estonia, she has been innocent for 500 years now and that shows enviable patience. Chaikovsky’s bench is probably fictitious, but it’s a fiction made of stone and it stands sure. Club–rush is no fiction, it’s reality. It is possible to pass by them, one just has to ask local people, they know the way. Positive example: even if one doesn’t find the beach, one can wander through tiny crooked streets and feel pure pleasure of a small town’s cosy sleepiness. Negative example: one can go astray.
Good that there’s a nice number of pubs and inns in Haapsalu nowadays where a weary wanderer can rest his (or her) feet. And bum. These establishments make of this town a resort town, and Haapsalu is such a lovely pocket resort. Good for escaping the capital city’s rush an being a nobody for a while. Being oneself, that is. Haapsalu is for persons, not people.
Well. Of course there is a railway station in Haapsalu with its awfully long and awfully old covered platform. If we built another 98 kilometres and 784 meters of that platform, we wouldn’t need a train no more. Could walk over to Tallinn at the other end of the platform.....
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