Tallinn, Estonia

Today was our second port day, in Tallinn, Estonia.  We had zero expectations for the city, because for real, who knows anything about Estonia?  I have developed a “cruise cold,” which seems to just consist of sinus pressure, a stuffy nose, and a cough.  I largely feel pretty good, but sound miserable (so I’m tons of fun to share a somewhat small stateroom with, I’m sure).  Also, for anyone who has ever shared a hotel room with me on a trip, the “wake up in the middle of the night and talk about incoherent things loudly” phase has begun.  Last night I had what seems to have been a conversation of decent length with Troy about thread, and the fact that someone else was taking care of having it.  At like… 3:00 AM.  As I said, TONS OF FUN to share a cabin with.  Anyway, to Tallinn.

We didn’t dock in Tallinn until 10:30, which meant that morning trivia was still on.  We actually didn’t do as well (16/21) on this one, despite Mike and Ivy being trivia wizards.  Questions we got wrong included:

o   How many wings does a flea have?

o   How many eyes does a spider have?

o   Composer whose death ended the Baroque period?

Trivia this time was with Mark, who is our Activities Director.  We had a lovely conversation about how not-crowded everything on the ship is, despite the fact that there are more than 2000 passengers and 160+ children on board.  I mentioned that the only place I’ve really seen tons of people are in the buffet restaurant.  Mark just kinda rolled his eyes and acknowledged that yes, all of humanity is in fact at the buffet.  I like that our cruise personnel have good senses of humor.

We chose to do a scenic discovery tour of Tallinn, which started with a bus ride through some of the suburbs, where our guide gave us a lot of general information about the City and Estonia.  We stopped a few times.  The first time was at the site of a major music festival that happens every 5 years.  It involves choirs from all over Estonia, and is either attended or participated in by more than a quarter of the total population (1.3 M).

We then went to the upper city, which seemed to be built entirely out of limestone (as is the country).  It was cool that there were very visible areas of expansion and different time periods.  For example, anything with a red roof pretty much defined the “Old Town,” which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Then, in the suburbs, it was very clear what was soviet-era housing and what was newer.  We toured several churches and learned about the Estonia Parliament.  Apparently, at the ripe old age of 27, I am pretty poised to become the President of Estonia (he’s 28).  The Prime Minister is 32.  Now you may be saying, hold on Catherine – you’re not Estonian.  If you were, you’d probably have known something about Estonia.  Well, correct.  But the President of Estonia is from New Jersey.  The president of Latvia is from Toronto, and the president of Lithuania is from Chicago.  So… if water and wastewater consulting doesn’t work out, Tallinn was lovely, and seems very progressive.  I say that because apparently the Prime Minister has a child with his girlfriend (they’ve been together for 5 years) and that’s not even a thing.  Apparently, the tabloids just make a joke out of it and tease him about a big proposal.

Overall, we were both really impressed by our tour guide and the tour in general.  It was a good overview, and he was very good about pacing.  Andres was pretty interesting, and had a very musical voice.  In Estonian, it’s pretty much all long vowels, and we all had single-ear earphones, which, if you weren’t actually looking at Andres made it seem as if Dracula was narrating our tour.  Coolest thing ever.

We got back to the ship mid-afternoon, grabbed lunch, and did some reading.  I’m now through The Art Forger, The Wheel of Time, The Disappearing Spoon, and the first of the Dresden Files.  Next up is Trash, by Andy Mulligan.

We lose another hour tonight, so tomorrow morning will likely be brutal, especially with a head cold.  That said, I did get an antihistamine that seems to be working like a charm J

Saint Petersburg tomorrow!!

Trivia answers: None (trick question), 8, Bach