Day 67 – Tallinn, Estonia
- We were up early to eat breakfast before our 1015 gathering point. We went to the Grand Dining room, so we avoided the usual breakfast chaos in the Cafe.
- Our tour was a bus/walking tour of Tallinn, Estonia including the medieval old town, and a few churches, of course.
- Estonia elected a new President the day before, so discussions were politics forward, but that’s also relevant given their country’s ownership by Russia prior to 35 years ago.
- Part of our tour was in the middle of a protest for more pay for teachers. Our tour guide is also a teacher, and she had to hide from the cameras with a hood and her “lolipop” sign.
- Their big Russian Orthodox church sits across from their Parliament building and preached Putin’s policies. The religion is gone from the building, but there is talk of a demolition, a refurbish, or at least removal of the Russian symbols and changing the venue’s purpose. It’s pretty on the outside. It could be a nice wedding venue.
- Right next to it, we saw some batshit-crazy parents pull a tiny toilet out of the stroller, and strip their kids bottoms right there for them to pee in public.
- Before we could really recover from that, a seemingly-crazy lady hailed police loudly and several times to say someone was trying to kill her. The police said something to her and she calmed down, seemed content with their answer, and went on her way. She might be one of their regular customers. They seemed to know exactly what to say to her.
- The whole area is mostly pedestrian only and is protected by parking bollards. Still, traffic was nuts. Parking spots aren’t marked, but some woman coming back from a store seemed mad that we were all standing in her parking spot. We were all on the sidewalk which is obvious because there is a curb.
- Next, we went into a creepy church. For €5 (included with our tour), I’d rather have the audio vox so we could hear our tour guide. Wealthy people have crests on the walls and had private balconies for services so they wouldn’t have to sit with the commoners. There were also several memorials to sunken ships. It was all quite bizarre.
- After a very quick-because-it-was-cloudy view and souvenir shopping, the skies opened up. I got trapped in a breezeway between two other tour groups: one from our ship and one from a German cruise. Once the rain subsided, our tour continued.
- We walked past the Russian Embassy. It was covered in “go away” banners and posters. Estonia wants nothing to do with Russia ever again now that they are finally free of them.
- Near the end of the guided tour, she showed us a building with a Peeping Tom statue. The guy across from there would watch a woman in her home. To get him to stop, she built a statue that looked like him and had it “looking” in his windows. He stopped being so damn creepy.
- We needed a break from all the standing and walking, so during the “free time” of our tour, we popped into a bar for drinks. I had the #1 beer of Eesti, so you know, like Budweiser.
- Back on the tour, “oh look, another church.”
- We walked over 7000 steps, which is a huge number for a bus/walking tour. Usually, you see some things by bus instead of only using it to get to/from the city center. It was also a hot ride back to the ship.
- We hauled ass straight to the grill without even dropping our bags in our state room. It worked! We got a table. It was crowded and loud (why is the blender here the loud kind and not the quiet kind like in the bar?). I couldn’t get anything without sauce, though. My sandwich (a Cuban) was a goopy, slimy mess that fell apart with just one bite. They had also added a small buffet and extended the seating. I guess we have to assume that in 27 years of sailing, they have never filled this ship and didn’t know how to feed their guests. Then we had to wait for them to take my ship card, take it to Narnia for data-not-payment processing, and then bring it back. That’s way more than enough time to flip our table, but there isn’t like a checkout kiosk, so we sit and wait every time. We gave up and “walked” our non-tab. I’m sorry that messes with their data, but it was not the time to be holding a table while we waited for them.
- After naps and a tiny bit of work, we finally headed to dinner at 1930. We were offered a sharing table and it was amazing. Denise and Harry are from Brisbane and were delightful. They gave us great travel tips, too. We hoped to get to spend more time with them. Dinner itself was mediocre. For like the third time, I made a veggie plate out of sides instead of eating any of the entrees.
- We spent the rest of our evening Horizons with Davian. He was prepping for an inspection and was justifiably being meticulous to prepare. We also met Mark & Nikki from Canada (and Denver). He was one of the guest lecturers on the ship
Day 68 – Helsinki, Finland
- At 0700, they made an announcement for the assistant cruise director to call the cruise director. WTH, Oceania? Do they not have phones and text??
- We had breakfast in Terrace and they were out of strawberry jam. Orange marmalade does not go with yogurt. The ship was supposed to get a procurement, so I crossed my fingers that strawberry would return.
- Then, at 1000, they made an announcement for the stretcher team to go to the medical bay. 😥Again, why is this on the public/all address?
- After I spent part of the day before making a cute little thing for our blog, I found that I missed about half of the images. Dammit.
- We went ashore and took the tram to the city center.
- It was hot, so we had a drink break at food not-truck.
- It was free admission day at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma | Finnish National Gallery, so that was a nice perk.
- We found a good place for lunch, Thai Monora.
- To see more of the city, we rode the #4 tram to the end and back. We only had time to do that in one direction, but it’s a nice way to see more architecture, neighborhoods, etc..
- Back on the boat, we rested. He napped. I watched part of a movie and then “worked”.
- During pre-dinner drinks, I whined (a little) about my phone being low because I forgot to charge it mid day. The guy next to me was trying to convince me not to have my phone. I told him that I like to read. Later, he used his phone to reply to a text or an email, and one of the women in their group teasingly asked him, “Are you using your phone to work right now?” So I leaned over and said, “Yes. Yes, he is, …after he scolded me for using my phone.” We all had a big laugh. Mark is really a nice guy and very funny.
- Dinner was lovely. We joined a sharing table and met Cathie and Ted. They are both from Colorado, went to college in LA, and have lived near Boston since then.
- Horizons was set to be a shit show with karaoke, so we hung out in Martini’s until we were ready for bed.
Day 69 – Stockholm, Sweden
- My ‘Canes won 45-6 and set a school record, too! That’s a great start to our season!
- Breakfast at the cafe was punctuated by the “sounds” of three cruise-wide announcements. This cruise director needs someone to help him get organized. He gave the wrong time for the last shuttle back and forgot to tell us about the marathon in the city, thus the three announcements. Many people couldn’t have heard his corrections since he had already given the all clear to go ashore.
- On our shuttle to the city, several people on our bus were surprised to learn that our ship line is part of a larger one. They were making “it’s a small line” excuses for the ship. No ma’am it is not a small line.
- Immediately, after we got dropped off, we saw six weddings at their (beautiful) city hall. My understanding is that in most European countries, people have to have a civil wedding. Then they can opt for a religious one. Most people seem to have a small, family-only civil one and then have a bigger one where they have a larger party. It was still cool to see.
- Next, we took the metro one stop to Bohemia. It was quite disappointing, too touristy and commercialized. We walked through it. I LOL’d at the $80 scarf that was worth maybe $45.
- We took the metro back for a fun adventure. We walked up with perfect timing for our reservation and were right after a cruise group just left. The Ice Bar was a lot of fun. We stayed about 20 minutes of the 45 allotted.
- For lunch, we found a Ramen place because I wanted some dang vegetables, but it was barely better than our cruise one. And the service was terrible, too.
- Back at the ship and after some rest, we went for drinks at Martini’s.
- Dinner with Bob & Toni was just lovely. They went on a PAC-12 cruise with USC and Cal (their team) alumni. (Meanwhile, Miami can’t even share a watch party venue.)
- After dinner, we went back to Martini’s instead of being anywhere near the Rock-the-boat Dance Party. We hung out with a great woman married to an absolutely awful man. They got defensive when I told him I was done talking to him. I get it, she loves him, but the only reason he’s not a Drump voter is because they are Canadian.
Day 70 – at sea in the Baltic
- Whew, finally: a sea day. These cities are all close to each other, so it makes sense that we hadn’t yet had a sea day, but it was go-go-go for a bit there. So, we slept in a little and still made it to breakfast in the Grand Dining room before they closed.
- Not wanting to sit in the state room, and needing to get out for the morning tidying, we went to the card room with my laptop and his ROG. The Mahjong crowd was a touch louder than others we’ve experienced, but about half of them left when it was time for Bingo to start. It was still a great place to work.
- For the afternoon, we rested, worked, and gamed.
- Just before dinner, we went to the “Club” gathering for returning cruisers. It was a nice party. Everyone was dressed up a lot except us; we followed the dress code. We chatted with Jim and Janie from the Chicago area. They told us a great story about Walter Peyton’s Superbowl ring being found in a couch by some college kids. We told them about the Chicago hot dog place in Denver that has a ton of memorabilia. The party was very nice. We got to see the ceremony for Employee of the Month. We have never sailed the same line twice until this, but we had also never seen staff recognition. Maybe it is worth repeating a line.
- Afterward, we had a quick drink before dinner at Martinis.
- We had a nice dinner at Toscana before meeting Dominic & Ferris, Lynn & Dale in Martinis. They were so nice.