Day 7 Tuesday, Aug 1 Tallinn, Estonia
Posted by Max Dunn Fri, 04 Aug 2006 11:39:00 GMT
(Suzanne) Today we reached our first port of call—Tallinn, Estonia. After 2 days at sea, we were excited to get on land. We ended up buying Tallinn City Tour tickets at the end of the pier from these 2 girls who didn’t look over 16 years old and spoke very good English. It was an hour long tour that took you around the city with a pre-recorded voice that told you about it’s sights and history. The best thing about it is that it had various stops so you can get on and off whenever you want. Great, we thought…we can get off on the first stop and find an Internet cafe to retrieve our mail, etc and then continue on the tour. On top of that, the kids won’t have to walk so much. Happy kids make very happy parents.
We made it to our first destination, a bookstore with a tiny cafe tucked away in the back corner of the second floor. We retrieved our email while the kids played on another computer. By the time we were done, the kids were getting a little hungry so we thought we’d go to McDonald’s for a quick bite to go (knowing that they would actually eat there). Unfortunately that’s what everybody else’s thoughts were. We didn’t have much time before catching the last tour bus so we went down the road to Hesberger. Big mistake…the lines were still long and they spoke almost no English. Max kept trying to tell the guy “plain, plain, plain, hamburger” because that’s how Claire likes it, and “plain, plain, plain cheeseburger” for Maxie.
Well, after all that, as we were walking toward the bustop, we saw the last bus pass by. That was our transportation back to the boat, and our last hope of seeing the city WITHOUT walking (remember, we had the kids with us). Looking at Max’s face, I knew we were doomed. Once we got to the bustop, we let the kids sit and eat their hamburgers. “Oooooooooooo, what’s in this?” was Maxie’s first reaction. He actually opened up what was supposed to be Claire’s plain, plain, plain hamburger and got a hamburger with some special sauce that looked kind of like mayonnaise. “Oooooooooooooo, what’s in this?” was Claire’s reaction when she opened what was supposed to be Maxie’s and got one with the works. One ended up getting half eaten (around the special sauce) and the other one got dumped. So much for feeding the kids. Luckily we had some Balance Bars to refuel them…
Since we missed the rest of our tour (that was an expensive tour to the first stop), we decided that our feet were made for walking (actually, we had no choice) and started to head into Old Town. I wasn’t ready to surrender after a few mishaps and I was determined to see part of the city and expose the kids to another culture. To make things easier, I made a deal with Claire and told her that I would piggy-back her as much as my legs could take.
Old Town was nice. It was what I would call a typical European town with colored storybook buildings built along narrow cobblestone streets. It is built on a hill, so there was a lot of trekking up and down. With my backpack and Claire, I got a pretty good workout—I was probably carrying an extra 50 lbs or so. So I would carry her a little and then she would walk a little. By the time we got to the top where the square is, the kids were tired so Max decided to lead us home (by foot). Let me tell you, it wasn’t the most pleasant trek that we had with the kids because Claire was whining continuously. And unfortunately our trek back to the ship was not by way of the market where Claire found a scarf that she wanted to buy (she grew more weary after Maxie bought a box of chocolate as his souvenir – someone said Estonia makes good chocolates) so we walked back near the bus that we missed (much to Maxie’s dismay) to find her dream scarf.
We finally made it back to the ship after a long trek. Everybody was happy – Maxie got his chocolate, Claire got her dream scarf, and we didn’t have to hear the kids whine anymore. So Tallinn with the kids was definitely an experience, one that I’m sure definitely built a lot of character in each of us. I have to admit, though, that the kids were real troopers.
Dinner was nice again. Actually, all of the meals have been nice and even the snacks in between. We’ve been getting our daily dose of smoked salmon, etc for breakfast. Lunch, well, is lunch—normal stuff. Their homemade ice cream, sherbet and sorbets can’t be missed. And although I actually exercised this morning before our trek, I’ve probably eaten enough that this morning burned off only about 1% of the calories that I’ve consumed. But if I factor in all of the walking that I do on and off the ship then I don’t feel as guilty.