Talinn, Estonia

Hello all!

I’m in Talinn, Estonia, the capital city. The city is a formerly Russian state that is now a thriving democracy. So far this has been a great port visit and is actually at the top of my list for most interesting places to visit. Yesterday we conducted a ship tour for children from broken homes. About 30 kids from ages 7-14 came onboard and got the full treatment. The children didn’t speak English, so we had a translator to help w/ the tour. The kids seemed to really enjoy the ship and they got to ask the Captain a bunch of silly questions at the end of the day that was a highlight. I even got interviewed by the Estonian press. Overall it was a really nice time and I was glad to get to give the kids a little break from their tough life at the orphanage.

Yesterday evening, I headed out on liberty with Don Haley, our Combat Systems Officer. We walked around town for a bit and took a bunch of pictures. Of course walking so much made us thirsty, so we had to sample the local beers ;) We ended up having dinner at a Medieval restaurant called “Old Hanse”. The waitress were dressed in 14th century garb (with funny shoes) and stayed in character the whole time. I’d heard from some other Officers this was the place to go for dinner, and that they tried “BEAR meat” for dinner. Of course, I had to try it. The meal was excellent! The meat was very gamey, but was covered in a cranberry jelly sauce that was very tasty! The meat was served w/ a cheesy biscuit, roots (similar to potatoes), barley, some cabbage and a pickle. The beer was the highlight we had a wonderful honey dark lager that was to die for. I could’ve sat there all night and drank it up. But alas, we moved on to take the rest of the city on. Overall, we had a wonderful time the first night out. Prices for food and souvenirs was very reasonable…esp. compared to OSLO!!

Today, I gave a special tour w/ the CO for the Ambassador to Estonia, Mr. Dave Phillips and his wife, Kay. They were wonderful people, and were from North Carolina. We took them around the ship for a special tour, then they had lunch on the Mess Decks (where the crew eats), which was a nice change to see someone so high up in our government come down and eat w/ the average Sailor. Very refreshing. As we had lunch I had a nice conversation w/ Kay, and she told me all about the rich history of Estonia. She mentioned that there was a wonderful movie she’d seen that was in English all about how the Estonian people preserved their language, culture and their dignity despite being under Soviet rule for over 50 years. She brought the movie back to the ship later this afternoon and I got a chance to watch it tonight. It was called, “The Singing Revolution”. The Estonian people are wonderfully talented singers…throughout their long history and esp. through the Soviet occupation/rule, they would host national singing festivals a few times a year. These were the only chances for the Estonian people to get together for a common purpose that wasn’t serving the Communist propaganda machine. IT was an inspirational story of the human spirit and was a great movie.

Well, that’s all for now…

J.R.