25-AUG—Tallinn, Estonia

The Tallinn dock, and our little boat on the left hand side.

The Estonian Flag.

Pronounced “Tah’ linn”, the city name means Dane City, since it was built by the Danish centuries ago.  We arrived a little after lunch, so had the morning to leisure on the boat.  We realized when we got up that it was Saturday, and that we have only one week left!!  (I know, I know…boo hoo!)  But we saw a woman wearing a shirt saying “Hello Weekend!”, which was even funnier since she was retired, so…

As we arrived in the port, we noticed there were already 5 or 6 other ships already in port.  

Our Soviet Bus (quite small).

Anyway, we had planned a tour today that was called “Soviet Flashback”.  It is a tongue in cheek tour on a little Soviet era tourist bus, with guide dressed in a Soviet military uniform, who barked at us and called us “Capitalists”.  He took I.D.s and looked them over, asked us questions, and for one gentlemen, took the ID back to the bus, and got on a (desk) phone and called “KGB HQ” to “verify” the man’s credentials. 

The name over the radiator is "Tourist" in Russian.

Checking I.D.s with "KGB HQ"

Vodka...a requirement of the tour!

We boarded the bus, and he continued the act, teaching us about 1982 in Estonia (in the Soviet Union), and taught us how to salute Brezhnev.  Then he poured us each a bit of vodka, and passed out gherkins, and we drank and ate the pickle.  It was quite entertaining.  But, in the midst of it, a woman came up to our bus, quite uncertain, and asked “Is this the shuttle bus to town?”  We all laughed, and he made some amusing remarks, which she did not understand.  Then our ship’s contact (the ship has a contact person with some of the ship’s tours) asked if she was on Silversea, and she was not even on our ship.  It just had us all rolling with laughter (even the “Commander” broke character to laugh).

Cheers!!

Take the pickle!!!

Push!!  Push!!!

We got ready to go, and pulled forward just a few yards and the bus died.  Well, in true Soviet style, he called upon several men to get out and push.  Skit or not, it was still funny!

Eventually, he dropped the character and became tour guide and talked about the difference in “Soviet” and “Russian” and about the “patriotic” versus “pro-soviet” Estonians.  He did a good job portraying the divide in the attitudes of people here toward or against Soviet era alignments.  So, in the end, it was very educational.

Our little boat next to the behemoths!!

The Olympic Center for 1980.

We visited the location where, during the 1980 Summer Olympics, hosted by Moscow, they had the sail boat races (which obviously could not be held in Moscow).

We got back to the ship JUST in time for Tea Time, then canapes in the room, and a pre-dinner show with piano (concert and classical) and operatic singing.  Finally, a nice dinner with our friends from the Trivia Team and the ship’s Cruise Director.  We wrapped up the night with typing up this blog and drinks in a bar with a lone singer and about 4 guests (since everyone else went to the show).

This guy was swinging, and JUST made it full circle!
(Our guide took credit and said it was one of his "staff".)