Tallinn, Estonia Journal & Photos - Holland America Westerdam - August 1, 2005

We actually got a wake up call this morning and went to get breakfast. Breakfast isn’t a true buffet in the Lido Dining Room. They have stations but all food is served. You can’t just go up and load a plate. I had a ham, cheese and bacon omelet and Matt had a little of everything to narrow down what he wants in the breakfast’s to come.

The boat arrived on time and they let everyone start disembarking about 8:00 AM. We couldn’t pick up our free Tallinn Tourist Card from the visitor center until 9:00 AM in town. The city is a beautiful medieval town. It has lots of neat old churches with narrow, cobblestone streets. Matt was in charge of the map and did a decent job. Watching him orient himself to the streets is a bit painful and I got a good laugh when he said he was having problems because the map did not show the hills and therefore made it harder to read.

We entered town near St. Olaf’s Church and made our way to the Visitor’s Information Center. They had an envelope waiting for me like they had emailed me they would. There were two free 24 hour VIP passes. From the Visitor’s Center we looked for a bank and ended up in the Town Hall. Matt struggled to find the bank and I took pictures. Finally after asking twice he found the bank was in the town center behind an outdoor café. We both exchanged $40.00 and got 497 Estonia Krona that was abbreviated EEK. Banks are definitely a better choice than exchange booths. The exchange booth in town offered on 397 EEK for our $40.00.

We went across the square to the town hall where they had a museum. The museum showed the history of Tallinn and it’s significance in trading in the Baltic’s. They also had the town hall that was still used until a few years ago.

With money in our hand we decided we needed an Estonian Beer. The outdoor café that hid the bank seemed like the logical choice. It was called Turg and we got two A La Coq Lagers for 80 EEK. That was a little more than $3.00 per beer.

After quenching our thirst we headed up the hill to the highest point of town so we could work our way down. We passed St. Nicholas Church, which was closed and went to the Tallinn Cathedral. This was a church that construction began in the 1200’s. The structure began its time as a town hall in 1404. The coolest things about the church were all the family crests that lined the walls. Next we went down the block to the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral an Orthodox church that was consecrated in the 1890’s. This was the first church we saw that had the onion domes atop its roof. Inside the walls were painted a vibrant blue. The weird thing was watching these solemn priests have to deal with all the tourists.


Across the street was Toompea Castle, which we walked around the grounds and found a lot of the city walls that surround Old Tallinn. We also bought some post cards from a Visitor Center employee who had a stand in the park next to Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. We got stamps to mail the postcards but never wrote them in Tallinn to send them. I hastily wrote them when I returned to the ship and put them in the ship’s mail but I doubt they got out in time.

Back to the town square where we found a hidden gem of the Baltic’s. The Beer House Brewery that dated all the way back to 2002 had a happy hour with 15 Eek beers. We sat at a table with a couple of 20 something’s. The guy was from Virginia and the girl who was really cool and Matt fell in love with was an aspiring actress from New York. We had two 0.5-liter beers and a 1.0-liter beer while talking to them. He had been backpacking through Eastern Europe for a month and she had met him in Europe a couple of weeks ago. They were on their way to his sister’s wedding in Stockholm. She was really cool, mocking him for not keeping up with her drinking.

They were leaving to see a puppet show, which we gave them a hard time about but admitted we had seen parts of one in Copenhagen, and got there bill when she realized the waiter had charged them the regular price for beer not our 15 EEK happy hour price. 15 EEK is just a little over $1.00. When we left a little while later he tried the same thing. We asked how much and he told us 240 EEK and we knew it should have only been 120 EEK. He corrected himself and blew his tip. Matt thinks this is all part of the restaurants math to have this happy hour. The cruise people are only in town a day and don’t figure the exchange rate properly. They always give the higher price and hopefully get it 50 percent of the time.

We had about 1 ½ hour until we needed to board the ship. The couple had a map that showed a massage parlor on the way. My back was killing me and we decided to stop. I got a half hour massage by this beautiful blond Estonian girl for 15 Euro. That would have cost us $100 on the ship. She really beat the hell out of me and I could hear Matt getting beat as well. It felt great. I wanted her to keep working on my right lower back the whole time. The weird thing was we were in a small room that had four massage beds separated by hanging cloth. Matt and I were in there about 15 minutes when some gravelly voice Russian sounding guy came in and was just going on and on. Dude, there are other people in here; I don’t want to hear you bitch and whine.

We had about 40 minutes to get to the ship now and headed back. I needed my souvenirs from Tallinn and started running out of town to stop. I just stopped at one but the three girls in there took forever to wrap my trinkets and take my payment. All of a sudden we’re down to 20 minutes and not real sure wear we were. We had an idea but had to study the map to decide we were closer than I expected. I touched the gangway at 4:28 PM and 30 seconds. We were supposed to board at 4:30 PM.

We went to the room and I knew I had things I had to get done. I couldn’t get the modem cable to connect in my room so I had to bring my laptop down to the Internet center and paid for 100 minutes of wifi so I could do my sales report for the office. I came back to the room and dropped off the computer and headed down to the second floor to pick up our passports, which were kept by the cruise line when we checked in.

Since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast I got some pizza and cookies at the Lido Dining Room where I met John and Jill from our table. I assured them we’d be there tonight.

Back to the room and Matt said we had a message. Checking it, it was William Moser who is the leader of the group we are on the tour of St. Petersburg with tomorrow. He was actually only a couple of rooms down our hallway. Anti social Matt was upset someone was coming to our room, especially without Scotch. We set up where we would meet tomorrow and he left. We chilled out until taking showers to go to dinner.

The food was good again although I wish I had picked the meal John had. I had bay shrimp, pea soup and pork chops in barbeque sauce with spinach and potatoes. John and Jill had some Indonesian meal of spicy rice, chicken and pork. I finished with a raspberry sundae. Matt had Thai chicken skewers, gumbo and the pork with a chocolate cake. He found out John was a schoolteacher, like he suspected. He taught chemistry and computers. He has a very dry sense of humor and was impressed Matt ordered a beer and wine at the same time.

I’m back typing this journal and Matt is sleeping. We lose another hour tonight and have to be at the gangway at 7:00 AM. It’s 12:30 AM so I’m going to sleep.

*Port of Tallinn, Estonia (18 Pictures)*	*Niguliste Museum (9 Pictures)*	*Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (21 Pictures)*
*St. Olaf's Church (12 Pictures)*	*Town Hall Square (14 Pictures)*	*Tallinn Cathedral (13 Pictures)*
*Tallinn Miscellaneous (15 Pictures)*	*Town Hall (29 Pictures)*	*Toompea Castle (13 Pictures)*
*Medieval Walls Of Tallinn (10 Pictures)*