WARNING! - non jewellery post following

Yesterday I discovered Stockmann. It's a huge (by Tallinn standards) department store. It's kind of like Target but better quality. Or perhaps more like Myer but cheaper.



Right now they have a big sale on and so there's stuff everywhere and lots of yellow plastic sheeting!



And of course there are lots of people too



which leads me to the point of this post.

I don't seem to be able to negotiate being a pedestrian in Tallinn. I am always conscious of walking on the right side of the footpath (which still feels alien) but I seem to have to dodge people all the time. I don't seem to be able to 'weave' smoothly and I'm constantly being bumped by people . Maybe this is how things happen here? Anyway, it's bad on the footpath so it's even worse in shops, particularly department stores and more particularly department stores with sales.

You can see from the above photos that there aren't that many people there, no more than Myer on a Friday night or Flinders Lane at lunchtime, and the aisles are of a reasonable size but at each step I was thwarted from a smooth passage by people just standing, people walking 4 abreast or people walking and suddenly stopping or turning. The thing is that this happens in Myer too but I can't seem to avoid it here like I can there.

It also seems that pedestrians have very few rights here. When crossing a side road at the entrance to a main road, it seems that cars will not stop for you, even if you've already started to cross before they appear. Parking on footpaths is mandatory and when a car is driving along the footpath (as happened to me yesterday) they don't have to drive slowly and pedestrians have to give way to them!

I just needed to get that off my chest.