May 25: Tallinn, Estonia

Our arrival in Tallinn was met with a very nice passenger port with an information desk right at the front, free wifi and cute souvenir shops. At the port we boarded a hop-on-hop-off city tour bus which was very handy. We rode one loop around to see everything and then got off at Toompea, the castle which has been the seat of power in Estonia since the 1220s when a fortress was first built there. Nowadays it still has a brick tower built in 1371 ("Pikk Hermann" - Tall Hermann) and wall but is mostly a pink Baroque style building.                                 / After a look there we got on the bus again and went out to the much-mentioned Open Air Museum. This is a collection of buildings and other structures such as windmills from different regions and time periods in Estonia. A very, very good idea, and pretty well done, except there was a lot of stagnant water in ponds and drains. What likes stagnant water? Mosquitos. What likes Claire? Mosquitos. I was not happy, unfortunately. These critters were FAT, maybe twice the size of NZ mosquitos. I had stockings on, and they were trying to bite me through them. And on my arms, chest, buzzing around my ears and face. Adrian was hardly bothered by them. I tried to stop them, but even now as I am writing this 3 days later, their bites are still visible on my calfs and shins. So alas, we did not spend much time there.                                       / Later on we walked around, had another little ride on the bus, looked in a lot of souvenir shops, and tried some Estonian chocolate: "Kalev". mmmmm cherry and dark chocolate. It turns out Tallinn LOVES cats (perhaps as much as me): there are cat magnets, cat hats (I got one!), scarves, slippers, tea towels, bags, mittens, socks, key rings, bookmarks, T-shirts, mugs, glasses and so much more I can't remember. We saw a cat-shaped pansy planting box in a public park and a man on a bike with a cat shaped reflector. Anything you can make catty - Tallinn has it. Needless to say, I wanted it all! We didn't see one actual cat. We learnt that Estonia is famous for its wool - both from sheep and from foxes. Also for linen (usually presented in the natural beige-ish colour), felted wool and wooden products.                             / The evening consisted of a somewhat entertaining show in the ship theatre, an art auction which we left because the presenter was really bad, and karaoke in a bar on deck 12 :)