Tallinn Cruise Weekend and Super Bowl!

Friday

Woke up to quite the blizzard outside and therefore decided to head to Stockholm later in the day than originally planned because touring around the city in the snow did not sound appealing.

Morning Blizzard

Nick was feeling rather sick and wasn’t sure he was going to be able to come on the cruise with us. Nick and I met the Leander, Franzi, Anneloes, and Laurie at the train station and ended up catching the 2:30 train to Stockholm. Nick still wasn’t sure if he would come, but ended up catching the next train with Pen and other friends. Once in Stockholm we went to supermarket to stock up on some food for the boat and then met Nick, Pen and group back in the Central Station. We were stressing a little as we needed to catch the right subway to a stop and then find our way to the dock to get on the boat before 5ish. We ended making it there ok and checked in.

Our Cruise Boat

It was amazingly relaxed security and ticket/passport checking to get on the ship. We had the most basic rooms that had 3 pull down beds, a couch, a small TV, a very small bathroom with shower and no window. Picture below along with the starlight lounge:

We found the cheapest sandwich we could to tide us over for the night and went about exploring the 10-deck boat. There was a cover band playing at the rather gaudy starlight lounge where there was also blackjack, roulette and slots. The cruise was very international and very mixed in demographics from families with very small children, many college aged kids, older Swedes, Russians, and Estonians, and other European tourists. Meet some new friends who also were exchange students from Uppsala. We were a diverse group of 2 Americans, 2 Dutch, 2 Germans 1 Aussie, 1 Kiwi, and 2 Canadians (plus 3 other German girls and 1 Swede we met).

Anneloes, Franzi, Laurie, Leander

Watched some of the cover band and also danced at the disco on the top floor. We took it fairly easy for the night in order to be able to better enjoy Tallinn in the morning. It took sometime to fall asleep while getting used to the rocking of the ship has we sailed through the open water areas of the Baltic Sea.

Saturday

Got a 1.5-hour early wake up call over the ship intercom in the morning and prepared for the day. Went out to deck to see the city and watch the boat coming into dock pushing through some ice in the Baltic Sea. We disembarked and wandered our way towards the medieval Old Town section of Tallinn.

We passed Communist era remnants as well as newer modern buildings before coming to the more traditional and beautiful architecture of Old Town. We all had to stop at an ATM to get some Euros (Estonia had switched to the Euro on the first of the year). Went to an Italian café for lunch, Leander and I shared a large antipasto dish of very nice meats and cheeses with bread while the girls had paninis. Unfortunately Nick started feeling sick again and had to head back to the boat to rest.

We remaining 5 walked all over Old Town through its winding narrow streets and later had fika, the Swedish tradition of afternoon coffee/tea/hot chocolate (I know we weren’t in Sweden, but it is a tradition we’ve all been rather fast to adopt). The hot chocolate I had was perfect for a break from a rather dreary and cold day in Tallinn. We visited the newer town square where there were ice sculptures for Chinese New Years and also looked around in souvenir shops.

I am continuing my tradition of buying a small flag from al the countries I visit so I got my first while here in Europe of all places in Estonia! Later in the afternoon we made our way to a day spa, which we had bought 1.5-hour passes to. It was very relaxing to be in the saunas and pools. Afterwards we visited a liquor store to pick up some cheaper beverages than you can get in Sweden. We returned to the boat around 5pm very tired from the day and relaxed in our cabins for several hours watching TV and napping. Had a nice big warm meal of mashed potatoes, meatballs, coleslaw, gravy and jam with Nick and then met up with Pen and her group. Went to the disco again and had a fun night.

Russian Orthodox Cathedral

Sunday

Got to sleep in a bit more as the ship didn’t pull into harbor at Stockholm until 10 am. We headed straight to the metro and then to the first train to Uppsala, all of us rather tired from the weekend. Back in Uppsala Nick and I had Burger King, which was a very satisfying meal after a sometimes sparse weekend for food. Got back to the apartment and shortly after took a 4-5 hour nap in order to be able to stay up for the Super Bowl later at night. Video chatted with Andrew and Kevin and then Mom and Dad before heading out to a sports bar in downtown Uppsala that was staying open late for the Super Bowl. My friend Katie had reserved a table for 10 of us in the bar. The bar was surprisingly full and very large with tons of TV screens. The game started at about 12:30 am and didn’t finish until after 4 am, but it was a good game and we had some good American food with burgers and wings and beer (all about 2-3 times more expensive than in the states though). We were watching the Swedish broadcast of the game so we didn’t get any of the commercials unfortunately, the announcing however was still in English. Was rather indifferent about who won, but it was at least an entertaining game 31-25 Green Bay. Got to bed immediately when I got back to the apartment. This day felt more like two days as I was up so late with a long nap in between, but definitely worth it and a good end to an awesome weekend.

Monday

Slept in passed noon before going to class at 1:15. Picked up my new debit card my parents had sent me. I picked it up at a gas station, after wandering around a long time looking for what I assumed would be a shipping store. The package had been there for a week prior to my picking it up due to my laziness of not translating a slip that came in the mail that as it turned out meant I had a package waiting for pick up. Had our group interview of Brian Palmer at night for Actors & Strategies for Change. It went very well and he is a very interesting intellectual and character. Came back to the apartment did some homework and did these last two posts!

Big Adventures in Store!

Two more days of classes and then it is off to Stockholm Wednesday Night and then flying Berlin Thursday morning! 4 nights in Berlin, overnight train to Amsterdam, 1 night in Amsterdam, then 1 night in Brussels before flying back to Stockholm the following Thursday! I'll have a lot to write about and plenty of pictures

Until Next Time!

Hej då

Jesse

Old Town Wall