Day 2 - Tallinn

Sunday, 11/23 -

I don't know. If I had a crystal ball, I might not have included Tallinn if there was any prior knowledge of what would be in store for me. The second day of my trip was mostly a dud due to the severe icy blizzard that pounded the city for the entire day. I can handle snow but not wind slamming into me at who knows how many miles-a-minute. At times, I had to brace myself against the wind so that it didn't pick me up and carry me off someplace.

When I wasn't freezing to death, I was trying to take some photos that didn't come out blurry due to icy snow pelting the camera lens. The added bonus of souvenir shopping and visiting museums was that I could also use it as an opportunity to fight hypothermia from setting in. I did manage to visit the Museum of Occupation which documents Estonia's occupation by the former Soviet Union. Most things were closed due the the inclement weather, but I did get to step inside the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral for a look around.

How I longed to be back in that sauna, warm and without a care in the world!

At dusk, I lazed around in a café for a bit, drinking hot chocolate before searching for St. Catherine Passage. I stepped inside a souvenir shop to be met by a woman who had the most unfortunate job of dressing like an Estonian peasant girl in order to look some part. I saw this at Olde Hansa as well. How demeaning! I never understood the jobs with the period dress requirement. After leaving the cafe and bundling up, my bra came undone after leaving and it was proving unbearable by now. So, since there was no one in the store or around, I explained the situation and asked if I could use the restroom to fix my problem. The woman replied that she did not have a public restroom but I was free to fix my bra right there as there was no one in sight.

There I was, arms reaching behind me, up the back of my sweater to re-hook my bra, all while apologizing over and over. Peasant girl assured me that it has happened to her and that she completely understood. I then pictured her in serf dress addressing a modern undergarment problem and had to refrain from laughing. Thankfully, I bought something or else that would have been even more embarrassing to walk out empty handed after displaying such a personal problem.

After eating a large dinner in the town square, I had no recourse but to go back to the hotel. I'm happy to have picked this hotel because they were very accommodating considering I had already checked out that morning. The front desk arranged a cab to the bus station and told me to sit by the fireplace and warm up. What I did see of the city was nothing but beauty. It reminded me much of Bruges, medieval and frozen in time. I came to love what I could experience and hope to go back and tour Estonia as a whole.

If there was one interesting thing I got out of Estonia it was the experience of going through both Estonian and Russian immigration at the borders of Narva and Ivangorod.

The bus ride through Estonia to St. Petersburg was slow going due to the bad weather. There are no street lights on the highway; you can only really see what is illuminated by the headlights on the bus. I could make out that this route passed mostly through countryside with a few farms popping up every so often. Once we pulled into Narva, Estonia, there was a considerable wait while immigration officials got on the bus, took all of our passports, and went back to the office to process all of our information and search the bus. This lasted about an hour until the official got back on the bus and handed our passports back to us. The bus drove through a security zone for about a quarter mile until it reached Ivangorod, Russia. Then, the fun began!

While it was a harmless procedure, immigration in Ivangorod, for an American, was quite fearful. I think more so for me considering I knew absolutely no Russian and my first impressions were so...Soviet. There were two other Americans on the bus and we all just followed the other passenger's queues on what to do. That included getting our coats on, taking all of our belongings off the bus, and heading into a classic Soviet style building to go through Russian immigration. First off, I have never seen so much green in my lifetime, different shades of the color too. Green building, green walls, green trim, and green passport control booths. The only other color was red as in red line for declaring customs, red for stop don't do this or don't do that. Otherwise, if you had nothing to declare, you went through, you guessed it, the green line.

There was a long wait, and I decided to use the filthy restroom while I could as there was no bathroom on the bus. Processing was easy and the immigration officials were gruff but nice. My passport was stamped, the suitcase put through the x-ray machine, and I was done and processed. There was a point where I wanted to take a picture, on the sly of course, of the outside of the immigration center. I decided against it. Maybe that was a good idea.

The bus passed through several more security checkpoints before moving on towards St. Petersburg. I couldn't believe I was finally in Russia!