28 May 2007:

We arrive in the port outside the Old Town in Tallinn, Estonia for a brief 4 hour port call. I don’t’ have a tour booked so I wait for the first batch of tour busses to depart and head down for the walk into town. But since there is a shuttle bus waiting at the end of the gangway I decide to catch a ride into town....big mistake.

The bus is operated by a small, local tour company, not by Princess Cruises. Passengers have been told that they will need Euros or the local currency to pay for the shuttle....and many are offended that they have had to change money. They are even more offended when they reach the bus and find that the local company....trying to be hospitable to their guests...has agreed to accept U.S. dollars. There is much grumbling and complaining to the two young ladies who are trying to sell the tickets...as if they are personally to blame for the extraordinary inconvenience suffered by the tourists of having their U.S. money accepted. When the girls quickly run out of change and ask the tourists to provide correct change or try to make change among themselves, the complaints become positively hysterical. There is much shouting about angry letters to the cruise line and how these two girls aren’t running their business in a professional manor.....and on and on. I am ashamed to be an American tourist. Once again, I see why we are not universally loved around the world....we are our own worst enemy. I should have walked into town and avoided the embarrassment. We are saved by, of all people, a gaggle of mainland Chinese tourists....who, apparently are used to little problems like lack of change and quickly organize themselves to pool their money and purchase the remaining seats on the bus. As the bus finally pulls away I am happy to leave the whining knot of complaining Americans in the dust.

The Old Town section of Tallinn is a lovely little village that you can walk across in 30 minutes. It is a place of narrow, winding streets, soaring churches, tiny alleyways, large open squares, old city walls, colorful cafes and many small shops selling everything from cheap tourist trinkets to expensive jewelry and high fashion. The narrow, meandering streets make it easy to get lost in....but the limited size of the town and the tall towers that act as landmarks make it easy to find your way again.

Tallinn, like so many other places I’ve seen on this trip, would be a fine place to spend a few days lounging in the cafes and strolling the crooked lanes. But our time in port is short, so a brief walk across the Old Town and back and a few minutes of shopping is all that I have time for. We must return to the ship and head back into the Baltic on our way to Poland and the cities of Gydnia and Gdansk.

.....At the ship I find myself standing behind Rainman in the security line. This fellow is chatting to everyone and no one. He is carrying on a running stream-of-consciousness monolog “....ooh, it’s hot.....this line is moving too slow.....I wonder what I’ll have for lunch.....the broccoli is always good....my teeth hurt....I better empty my pockets....will my Tums set off the detector....ooh, it’s really hot....I’d like to get a drink...I wonder what kind of drink I’ll get....what was this town we were just in....”. It never stops. It is very annoying. I imagine myself strangling him and watching the life drain from his eyes....that thought pleases me.....way too much. I may have been on this cruise too long.