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Lai (Lai)
Broad, wide. One of the oldest streets in Tallinn, with a long list of names to prove it. Initially identified after its salient residents, the nuns: susterstrate (1361), vicus monialium or platea (longa/sancti) monialium, loosely translated as “(holy) enclosed nuns’ (long) high street” (1364-1380), then platea sororum (1480). By the 1600s it was Süsterstraße or Schwestergasse and, in the 18th C (1703), the S switched to C, Cisternstraße, a spelling perhaps influenced by the 17th‑C reforms to the Cistercian movement in La Trappe, France. At some stage, however, contemporary records of Cistern- sonst genandt breitstrasse (Sisters’ - otherwise known as broad street) suggest locals must have become aware of the human side of their angelic nature and that, if nothing else, nuns were still broads...
Krookuse (Krookus)
Crocus. One of the Lilleküla flower-themed streets.
Krüüsli (Krüüsel)
Black guillemot, sometimes known as tystie, Cepphus grylle, is a member of the auk family. The English name seems to come from French Guillaume, or William, while its specific name, grylle, was its local Swedish name in Gotland dialect when Linnaeus finally turned up. Part of the Lilleküla bird-name group of streets. See also Kukulinnu.
