Estonia

So this is just a few months late...

After we spent a couple of days in Russia, we got to make our next stop at Tallinn, Estonia. I honestly knew nothing about the country of Estonia before we went, and was thinking this would be my least favorite day. All of us were so surprised by how much we truly loved the little country! It was such an unexpected surprise! The people were so friendly and kind, it was so clean and beautiful, and it was quaint. I would definitely go back! Skype was also invented there...which I thought was really cool. And they get to vote online!!

Estonia is a small country of 1.5 million and 400,000 in their capital city of Tallinn. They finally got their freedom in 1991 for the first time in centuries! They are such a freedom-loving people!

One of the first things we did was walk around beautiful gardens and a public park:



Then we walked to palace that was built by the Romanovs during the time they occupied the country. It was a small palace, as they didn't come often, and it was in the exact same style that we saw in Russia.


Next we went to an outdoor venue where they hold a nation-wide singing festival every 4 or 5 years (I can't remember). It was built in 1969, 100 years after the first festival. The picture doesn't show it, but the ground slopes down quite a bit. The stage area holds up to 30,000 singers and the grassy areas has held as many as 150,000 spectators.


I thought it was so cool that during the Soviet rule the country participated in the singing revolution. I had never heard of it before, as most people probably haven't--which is a shame! On August 23, 1989 2 million people from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined hands to form a 600 km long chain people singing in protest of the Russian occupation! They humans were all shields to protect their borders, but no one was injured or killed and eventually they did get their freedom! Yay to the singing nation!!

They get as many as 250 cruise ships a year along with many ferries between Tallinn and Helsinki (which is only 50 miles away).

I saw this and I thought it was a very cool way to practice cross-country skiing with no snow!

The next time we de-boarded the bus, this abominable snowman gave us popsicles. I guess he's been reformed.

We saw and talked about this tower which is original and part of the wall surrounding Old Town. I wish I could remember how old it was...but it was several centuries old.

We got to go inside this Russian Orthodox church:
A funeral had just ended when were outside. The mourners followed the casket that was draped in flowers. It was quite beautiful, but I didn't take any pictures because I thought that would be rude. All the women had their heads covered and inside the church (you can't take pictures in there) there were tons of candles burning. There were no seats and so everyone had to stand. There was some interesting religious artwork on the walls, including a gruesome pictures of John the Baptist's head on a silver platter.

The crosses are very unique. The top bar represents the sign that hung above Christ on the cross. The diagonal line represents the 2 robbers on either side of Christ- one when to heaven and the other went to hell. I can't remember what the half moon meant, but it is a Russian symbol.

We also toured this white church, don't remember the name, but it was VERY old and all the walls were decorated with the family crests and shields. The richer the family, the larger the shield. An elevated box was in there for royalty to sit in, but it had never been used!


We got to shop around Old Town and we bought "Little Man" some very cute sweaters and hats!

These are a couple shots of the view from Old Town.



I had to go down into a dungeon to get to a very nice public restroom...

Chris was scared...

More of the old wall that was built in the 13th century


The place where the Denmark flag "fell" from God and was established as their national flag.
The very steep cobblestone path from Upper Old Town to Lower Old Town


The large square where the market would come for centuries, but was recently discontinued.


We dined for a late lunch at one of the restaurants on the square. We had salad, bread, chicken with vegetables in an interestingly seasoned sauce ( we couldn't figure out what was in it) and a gelatin type dessert. I have to say my pregnant tummy liked this a whole lot more than the Russian food!


After this we had to hurry to a concert that we were really late too so it was VERY short. They had such interesting instruments, but I didn't take pictures because it was in a church and I think it would have been disrespectful to take pictures :( One of the instruments was played by turning a handle and pressing keys on the box and like a bagpipe it had a couple of drone notes that always played.
The church it was in:

Time to go back to the ship to get ready for the pirates party!!
This Jack Sparrow was AMAZING! He acted, moved, and talked like the real deal! We're kinda lame and didn't bring pirate gear. Some families were decked out head to toe in full costume.

At dinner everyone got Pirates in the Caribbean bandannas and the waiters wore cool outfits (which they did every night).
They were good to us the whole trip (you have the same waiters each night).

I got to dance with many a waiter.



Our fun menus (which if we had known what was on the upper deck at the deck party, we would NOT have come to dinner).

Out at the party they had full turkey legs, a crepe bar, cakes and cheesecakes galore, fruit trays, etc.
Dang...we were way too full to eat any of it.

They had a big dance party...

Chris and Joseph had fun. Sadly, I'd been feeling sick for a little while, so I did not join in. Normally they would have had fireworks as this ship is usually in the Caribbean, but in the Baltic the law says no fireworks!!! Plus it doesn't get dark until after midnight at that time of year, so it was to light anyway.
Our towel monkey...