The boys were kind enough to take pictures of their day in Tallinn before Maddie and I arrived. I’ve just now had a chance to actually get the pics and review. Wanted to include them since they went out of their way to take them!
For anyone considering the Baltics you should definitely include Tallinn on your list. Clean, friendly, reasonable city…and beautiful too!
We hope to be back!
Is it weird that I’m curious about what drugs are available over the counter basically everywhere we go? I’d love to just browse the shelves but someone is always quick to come up and ask what I need.
Maddie woke up with a sore throat so we popped in for some lozenges of some sort. I could have gotten some generic Lamisil just in case I ever have nail fungus but I didn’t.
I was also able to buy Sudafed over the counter without signing my life away. I did however pay much more than the Costco prices.
First random post Tallinn entry.
There were so many beautiful architectural doors. It reminded me a little bit of being in Paris.
We have what I was told was a 7 hour drive to Vilnius for our next stop so after a quick trip at the wall we started to make our way back towards the car. The plan was to grab lunch to eat on the road.
We decided on burgers for lunch. Maddie chose a filet of fish from McDonalds. Logan wanted to try Hesburger for something different. i decided to live on the edge and get their waffle burger. It was interesting.
Hesburger was the wrong decision as it took almost 30 mins to get our food.
Letting Greg plan this part of the trip was possibly also a bad decision based on how long his phone says it’s actually going to take for us to get there.
Wish me luck…
We made it to the wall for a quick tour before we head out of town. The grounds were very pretty.
It feels as though this city is undergoing a transformation. In some places the architecture is very old and sometimes directly across the street it’s modern and new. It seems like they have tried to preserve the old buildings and add new stuff on top where possible.
Next stop…grocery store. The guys had gone here yesterday. It was basically like department, grocery, liquor and pharmacy stores combined.
Is it odd that one of my favorite things to do is check out the potato chip flavors? I wasn’t disappointed with these. Some top picks are Caviar, Iberian Ham, Fried Egg, and Sparkling Wine. Why are US chips so boring?
I decided on some party animals for the drive.
And we are back outside on our walk.
At this point I’m not really sure how to organize any of my thoughts or pics so just be prepared for a random schmattering of pics.
Logan was looking for spicy chips and landed on these Doritos. They were well…interesting.
Headed the few blocks to drop off the bags.
Tallinn is a beautiful city.
Greg found the safest spot to park. Away from a possibly crumbling building.
Now that we have off loaded our stuff we can really start exploring!
Meeting time for breakfast was decided upon last night at 8:30. Brooks was the first kid up I think, followed by Logan and then Maddie. Logan came to our room to shower, it’s so weird he didn’t want to shower in his bathroom on his toilet.
Greg attempted to make coffee (his usual routine) but instead we ended up with two lukewarm cups. So lukewarm in fact that I didn’t even notice when Greg spilled it down my back as he bent over to hand me mine.
This happened approximately 90 seconds after I told Greg that I hadn’t brought any of the right clothes and felt like I had limited options. Annnd there’s one shirt out of commission until we have a washing machine.
Brooks had come to our room to not wake Maddie and Logan was out of the shower. Time to head toward breakfast to meet Maddie. It’s always interesting to see what’s served in other countries.
Not the best we have ever had but it’s at least something to get our day started.
We only have a few hours in town before we make our long drive to Vilnius. The boys are going to show us much of what they saw yesterday and Logan is hoping to able to go on the city wall.
We head back to our rooms to pack up. We will take our luggage to the car while we explore.
Logan pressed the elevator button because he said he just wanted to see if it was nice but he wasn’t going to take it.
The door opened and he said it’s pretty nice. I guess I will take it.
Maddie and I landed around 9:30pm. We were hungry again since we had really only had one “real” meal if you can call those sandwiches that.
The boys had spent the day exploring Tallinn, unfortunately mostly in the pouring rain, and had a good feel for the city. They were also really impressed with the city.
Greg offered to stop and getting Maddie and I something to eat. I had told him it wasn’t necessary but he pulled into an area where there was a Burger King open and I wasn’t going to really fight him on it.
There was an amazing flower stand across from Burger King. Why don’t we have anything like this in the states? I’m sure Greg would randomly bring me flowers home all the time if so.
Greg and the boys had staked out a place to park the van overnight since the roads around the hotel were so tiny. We parked and made our way to the hotel down charming streets.
We have three rooms at this hotel. One for me and Greg, and then two tiny rooms with bunk beds. Greg was so happy to get three rooms with free Breakfast for 267.00.
The security at the hotel is non existent though. The hotel keys are easily wiped if placed near a phone. Twice they needed to go get new kids and both times they just gave them replacement keys without asking any questions.
So here I sit on the bed eating Burger King at 10:30pm at night. I don’t know what I was thinking. It’s still light outside, the flower shops were still open, people were out and about. I should have come here and gone straight to bed! Oh well, I’m sure I will sleep better with this chicken sandwich and onion rings…right?
That was maybe the most bizarre flight I’ve ever been on. We experienced the normal holding queue before boarding the flight that is typical here as well as the walk to the tarmac to board.
Upon boarding we were instructed to find our seats but not to buckle due to safety purposes because they were refilling the fuel. This was repeated a few times. Finally it was time for takeoff. I’d already started shopping. They had the normal bum bum cream and perfumes but also some cute gifts for kids. I almost bought the planes for Brooks but resisted due to the weight of my bags.
There was an article about the Paris Olympics and other sports you could do in Paris so I decided to see what I could plan for our trip there. Found one!
Also learned that Wizz Air is one of the most environmentally friendly airlines, well before Maddie and I brought our giant Oakley’s on but still, we are our part for the environment!
Ok now for the weird parts of the flight. A lady sitting in row one obviously knew someone from the back of the plane. They stood and talked in the bulkhead for a good 20 mins before they decided to just stand by the exit door and talk for another 30mins. There was literally no flight attendants around or anyone watching them.
There were also giant lines that would form for the bathroom in the front.
Before the beverage service started one lady walked up to interrupt the flight attendants. She was there for a long time and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Once she left with several perfume bottles I assume she just wanted to make sure she got her shopping done.
Despite the congregating around the flight deck door and the chatting at the exit forever they seemingly took some safety things serious. In addition to the seat belts they essentially wouldn’t let you use phones during the safety briefing to make sure you were paying attention. Which is fine but then the big stuff no one cares about. I guess those are just US rules but it just feels so weird.
We safely landed in Tallinn!!
Customs was super easy. We walked right up with no wait and aside from the fact that I hadn’t yet signed my new Passport (which wasn’t caught in Wales) we were through in just a minute or two.
Greg and the boys had ubered to the airport to meet us. We are picking up a car for the rest of our time here. And by car I mean van.
Time to head to the hotel!
TheBakersErasTour 