Tallinn
This picture is by the park that we most often would take the kids to, to play on the playground, play tag and take pictures. It was right around the corner from the B&B we were staying in. I wish we had more pictures of what the streets and buildings looked like, but the kids usually had the camera and when we had the camera, we were usually taking pictures of the kids. I think one of the kids even took this picture. In fact, I know they did. They like to hold down the button so it does the rapid fire shots (3 per second), so there were about 12 duplicates of this picture. LOL
Where we were staying was called the "Old Town" of Tallinn. It was all old buildings and cobblestone streets. The view out our window was out the front of the building, where 5 or 6 streets intersect.
In Estonia, one thing we realized after awhile is that pedestrians in a crosswalk REALLY DO always have the right of way. You step into the street on a crosswalk and everyone SLAMS on their brakes to let you cross. Of course you look to be sure, but they always stop.
People are generally very polite. We didn't hear a horn honk all week, except for the cars pulling over and honking to alert someone indoors to come out and get in the car.
When I said everything is very clean, I mean CLEAN! We made a game of finding trash on the street. We rarely would see a receipt or something like that on the ground, and that was about it. And there are no trash cans. Only little tiny ones attached to an occasional bench, but no giant monstrosities on the corners like you see in most cities.
For money, we got Euros at the airport thinking those would be good anywhere. But in Estonia, you can only pay with credit cards and Estonian Kroons (EEK). The kroons were easy to compare to USD, they are just one decimal off from USD value basically. 100 kroons is like 10 dollars. We didn't know that, though, when we went to the ATM and withdrew 5000 kroons. The kids went "Whooooaaaa!" No wonder they thought we were rich and were surprised when we didn't buy them something they asked for!
There are no overweight or unattractive people. Well, I shouldn't say that. There are the tourists. They're ugly sometimes. Oh, and all the really overweight women - they are in the hot tubs and shamelessly naked in the locker room at the indoor water park/gym. We saw them nowhere else! Aside from that, everyone is usually extremely attractive, not just not ugly. LOL
There is alcohol for sale EVERYWHERE. It really is often cheaper than water.
And as for water... When you order water in a restaurant it is always bottled and it's usually like 3 or 4 dollars. And unless you specify, you will always get carbonated water. You have to order it "still."
Everything is pretty expensive. Clothes, food, soft drinks, gas. It's $8 a gallon for gas. The first night we were there, without the kids, and before we knew how much the money was, we spent $50 at some stupid bar and grill for two really terrible sandwiches and a bottle of water. YUCK! The food at the grocery store isn't that expensive, though. So we started going there and making sandwiches and things at the hotel.
Nearly everyone in restaurants, stores, and behind any counter speaks all three languages: Estonian, Russian, and English. We ran into more trouble with people not speaking Russian for the kids rather than not speaking English for us. There is much more prejudice against Russians than there is against Americans. We had to leave one restaurant because there was no Russian menu - only Estonian and English, which meant the kids had no way of telling us what they would like to eat. And the waitress was rude to the kids when they asked if there was a Russian menu.
There are phone booths everywhere.
The buses are attached to wires that run along above the street, so they stay in the same lane all the time. I have no idea what that's for exactly.
There are a lot of McDonald's, and they are exactly like the ones here except the menu is in three languages.
The water park (Kalev Water Spa) was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, and we are jealous that we don't have a place like that here. It's a big gym, an Olympic size pool, several hot tubs in different temperatures, different types of bubbles and flows, etc., kid pools, and 4 or 5 enclosed flume slides. We went there two days in a row because it was so much fun for all of us! It wasn't crowded and we don't know how many times the kids must've gone there, but they showed us how to do everything (how to work the lockers that open and lock with your electric wristband, etc.). They swim really well, too.
More later, I'm still thinking of things to say about the town. :) Check back for more paragraphs.
^^^
The only other thing I could think of, still in my exhaustion (mostly mental), is that there are no dogs. Of all the times in the park and in public, we saw two dogs. OK, three if you count the Pomeranian sticking out of a purple leather bag, carried by a woman dressed in a purple suede mini-dress with thigh-high purple suede boots and giant sunglasses. But I think she actually stepped out of a fashion magazine, so she doesn't count.
Where we were staying was called the "Old Town" of Tallinn. It was all old buildings and cobblestone streets. The view out our window was out the front of the building, where 5 or 6 streets intersect.
In Estonia, one thing we realized after awhile is that pedestrians in a crosswalk REALLY DO always have the right of way. You step into the street on a crosswalk and everyone SLAMS on their brakes to let you cross. Of course you look to be sure, but they always stop.
People are generally very polite. We didn't hear a horn honk all week, except for the cars pulling over and honking to alert someone indoors to come out and get in the car.
When I said everything is very clean, I mean CLEAN! We made a game of finding trash on the street. We rarely would see a receipt or something like that on the ground, and that was about it. And there are no trash cans. Only little tiny ones attached to an occasional bench, but no giant monstrosities on the corners like you see in most cities.
For money, we got Euros at the airport thinking those would be good anywhere. But in Estonia, you can only pay with credit cards and Estonian Kroons (EEK). The kroons were easy to compare to USD, they are just one decimal off from USD value basically. 100 kroons is like 10 dollars. We didn't know that, though, when we went to the ATM and withdrew 5000 kroons. The kids went "Whooooaaaa!" No wonder they thought we were rich and were surprised when we didn't buy them something they asked for!
There are no overweight or unattractive people. Well, I shouldn't say that. There are the tourists. They're ugly sometimes. Oh, and all the really overweight women - they are in the hot tubs and shamelessly naked in the locker room at the indoor water park/gym. We saw them nowhere else! Aside from that, everyone is usually extremely attractive, not just not ugly. LOL
There is alcohol for sale EVERYWHERE. It really is often cheaper than water.
And as for water... When you order water in a restaurant it is always bottled and it's usually like 3 or 4 dollars. And unless you specify, you will always get carbonated water. You have to order it "still."
Everything is pretty expensive. Clothes, food, soft drinks, gas. It's $8 a gallon for gas. The first night we were there, without the kids, and before we knew how much the money was, we spent $50 at some stupid bar and grill for two really terrible sandwiches and a bottle of water. YUCK! The food at the grocery store isn't that expensive, though. So we started going there and making sandwiches and things at the hotel.
Nearly everyone in restaurants, stores, and behind any counter speaks all three languages: Estonian, Russian, and English. We ran into more trouble with people not speaking Russian for the kids rather than not speaking English for us. There is much more prejudice against Russians than there is against Americans. We had to leave one restaurant because there was no Russian menu - only Estonian and English, which meant the kids had no way of telling us what they would like to eat. And the waitress was rude to the kids when they asked if there was a Russian menu.
There are phone booths everywhere.
The buses are attached to wires that run along above the street, so they stay in the same lane all the time. I have no idea what that's for exactly.
There are a lot of McDonald's, and they are exactly like the ones here except the menu is in three languages.
The water park (Kalev Water Spa) was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, and we are jealous that we don't have a place like that here. It's a big gym, an Olympic size pool, several hot tubs in different temperatures, different types of bubbles and flows, etc., kid pools, and 4 or 5 enclosed flume slides. We went there two days in a row because it was so much fun for all of us! It wasn't crowded and we don't know how many times the kids must've gone there, but they showed us how to do everything (how to work the lockers that open and lock with your electric wristband, etc.). They swim really well, too.
More later, I'm still thinking of things to say about the town. :) Check back for more paragraphs.
^^^
The only other thing I could think of, still in my exhaustion (mostly mental), is that there are no dogs. Of all the times in the park and in public, we saw two dogs. OK, three if you count the Pomeranian sticking out of a purple leather bag, carried by a woman dressed in a purple suede mini-dress with thigh-high purple suede boots and giant sunglasses. But I think she actually stepped out of a fashion magazine, so she doesn't count.
