Category: travel

Tallinn At Midsummer – More Pictures

I started to put this post together yesterday, and today is very different. I am on the plane back to Chicago, and since early morning, the only thing I can do is to scroll the new and to hope that Ukraine will use this time the best possible way. I didn’t see any confirmation of recapturing Donetsk, but I hope that it was not somebody’s joke.

At first I wanted to conserve this post for a while, but then I though that there is nothing wrong in celebrating the beauty and the spirit of freedom of the country that so far gave the greatest portion of it’s budget to support Ukraine. So let it shine!

Continue reading “Tallinn At Midsummer – More Pictures” →

Tallinn At Midsummer

Today was the first day of this trip when I was really happy that Anna’s family trip was rebooked. Today, we all would go to Tallinn, assuming “there was no holiday n Estonia,” and it was! Somehow we missed when Midsummer became the same everybody’s time-off in Estonia as in Finland, and today almost everything was closed! Olevista, most of the museums, and even many smaller boutiques, believe it or not! Even finding public restrooms was a problem!

We tested the routes for our August trip, and I took pictures of all opening hours, located the restaurants which allow people from the street to use their bathrooms for one euro fee; took notes of all places which are not child-proof (a lot!) and almost counted the steps 🙂

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Russian Embassy In Tallinn

Roses – The Is No Life Without Roses!

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The Photo Exhibit At Esplanada

Lilacs

Lilacs in bloom have always been a sign of summer for me, especially summer in Estonia. There were lilacs along all the streets of Narva-Joessu, and the month of June was all about them.

Yes, there are lilacs in ROgers park, and all my bike rides in May smelled lilacs, but it turned out that I completely forgot what lilacs in full bloom smell like! They are not “shrubs” – they are trees! Forest of lilacs! And the smell os overwhelming!

The flowers were so close to my face that I could not resist the childhood memories and started to look for “piatery” -“the lucky fives.” And guess what – I saw one right away!

And then I did what you’re supposed to do with the lucky five – I made a wish and chewed a tiny flower. And I hope that this wish will come true!

More lilacs – you can’t even see the leaves behind the bloom!

Border Control

One more thing which made my arrival to Helsinki miserable was the wait at the border control. I had never experienced a situation like yesterday when I waited in the border control line for over 45 minutes, like in O’Hare. I lady who was managing the line replied to my question, saying that I was lucky if I never saw it before :). I think it was a combination of several flights arriving almost at the same time, with many of them being late, so passengers with connections proceeded first. Also, I noticed that there was once again a significant trickle of Russian-speaking people with all sorts of passports coming in, and they would always go through extra scrutiny by the border control.

Trying to save time at this last stage of my journey, I gave my passport to the border control officer and said: staying here in Finland until next Saturday, not going anywhere.

–And where are you going next Saturday?

–Back to Chicago

–And you are not here for business, I assume?

–Nope, for husband. It doesn’t count like business, does it?

–Well, more like a hobby! Or… maybe… some business?

It was good to have a laugh, and I think he enjoyed it, too.

The one before the last disappointment was a rail tacks construction for the airport trains, which meant they are less frequent now. Sometimes on the weekends, you would have to wit for the train for 30 minutes! And the last one – massive road construction and a reroute of traffic by our house (it has been going on for a while, but when I was in Helsinki last time, I didn’t have time to notice). So, I need to learn new traffic patterns just when I learned my way around!

Suomenlinna

The is no other place i the world that would give you as much peace, calm and tranquility as Suomenlinna, even in during the busiest summer/tourist season!

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Finnair

My flight to Helsinki was a disappointment. It was the first time in a while that I took a direct flight, and although Boris mentioned that recent service changes were for the worse, I didn’t fully believe him. 

I do not like complaining at length, but I wanted to mention a couple of things;

  • Not specifically related to Finnair, but the lounge they share with Qatar Airlines is indeed miserable (last time, I was in the BA lounge)
  • The food on the flight became way worse and less. The dinner does not include bread or crackers, or cheese; there is only a “snack” before arrival, not breakfast, as it used to be. Also, I didn’t see any duty-free shopping. 
  • The rows are way closer to each other, even in the 30-s rows, than they used to be. The last time I was so uncomfortable was several years ago on SAS flights, and I remember how happy I was to find a different situation on Finnair. I decided not to put any luggage under the seat in front of me, although my DRW backpack fits, because I thought I would have trouble stretching my legs, but even with all the space available, my knees hurt badly in the morning. 
  • Not related to Finnair: my neighbor on the left was horrible; I couldn’t imagine a tiny quiet middle-aged woman could be such a horrible neighbor: not “excuse me,” no “could you please,” not “thank you,” just multiple demands. 

Well, enough of that! I am in Helsinki, I have a new bike, and today is a day off work, so I will have an actual vacation day!’

Passports Disaster

I am on my way to Helsinki, but not the way it was planned – I am flying on my own. As I mentioned, the last two weeks were one emotional roller coaster. Here is a complete story of our passport disaster.

John’s and Nadia’s passports were good to travel in June, but Anna’s passport had expired, and Kira didn’t have one yet. Anna applied for both passports in February, not even thinking that she might need expedited processing, starting the whole thing sixteen weeks before the trip.

However, that was when everybody started to apply for passports and the current backlog had started. When the passports didn’t return in May, Anna started jokingly saying that she and Kira might need to travel to Chicago for an emergency appointment. When the passports were still not there two weeks before the departure date, she tried to apply for an emergency appointment only to realize that no appointments were available before the departure day!

That’s when we all started panicking. Anna called her Congresswoman, and her office promised help. Meanwhile, Anna called every day to see whether there would be any cancellations, but even when she would catch one, while she was on hold for another representative. 

On Wednesday, she came to Chicago to try to get in without an appointment, but they won’t let her in. Her Congresswoman’s office told her that they were supposed to get a callback on Monday, but they didn’t, and they don’t know why. Anna decided to try to get an appointment for a later date (she found another time during summer when everybody could go), and was able to get one for the two-week later date.

We decided it was better to go later in summer than not at all, and Anna spent another two hours on the phone exchanging the tickets. I decided to still go now (I just made the trip shorter) and booked another ticket for later. Just after we were done with all of these exchanges, Anna’s Congresswoman’s office called to inform her that they got an appointment for her on Friday!

We had yet another several very emptional hours. It turned out that while I could easily restore my original trip, Anna’s original tickets doubled in price. Even though I suggested a crazy idea of making this wish come true, there was a risk – what if the passports would still be delayed? What if something went wrong?

Anna and John decided to keep the new dates but still used this Friday’s appointment. Then, Anna had a last-minute realization that Nadia’s passport won’t be good for travel in August, so she needed to make the new one for her as well. 

I am on my way to Helsinki, but not the way it was planned – I am flying on my own. As I mentioned, the last two weeks were one emotional roller coaster. Here is a complete story of our passport disaster.

John’s and Nadia’s passports were good to travel in June, but Anna’s passport had expired, and Kira didn’t have one yet. Anna applied for both passports in February, not even thinking that she might need expedited processing, starting the whole thing sixteen weeks before the trip.

However, that was when everybody started to apply for passports and the current backlog had started. When the passports didn’t return in May, Anna started jokingly saying that she and Kira might need to travel to Chicago for an emergency appointment. When the passports were still not there two weeks before the departure date, she tried to apply for an emergency appointment only to realize that no appointments were available before the departure day!

That’s when we all started panicking. Anna called her Congresswoman, and her office promised help. Meanwhile, Anna called every day to see whether there would be any cancellations, but even when she would catch one, while she was on hold for another representative. 

On Wednesday, she came to Chicago to try to get in without an appointment, but they won’t let her in. Her Congresswoman’s office told her that they were supposed to get a callback on Monday, but they didn’t, and they don’t know why. Anna decided to try to get an appointment for a later date (she found another time during summer when everybody could go), and was able to get one for the two-week later date.

We decided it was better to go later in summer than not at all, and Anna spent another two hours on the phone exchanging the tickets. I decided to still go now (I just made the trip shorter) and booked another ticket for later. Just after we were done with all of these exchanges, Anna’s Congresswoman’s office called to inform her that they got an appointment for her on Friday!

We had yet another several very emptional hours. It turned out that while I could easily restore my original trip, Anna’s original tickets doubled in price. Even though I suggested a crazy idea of making this wish come true, there was a risk – what if the passports would still be delayed? What if something went wrong?

Anna and John decided to keep the new dates but still used this Friday’s appointment. Then, Anna had a last-minute realization that Nadia’s passport won’t be good for travel in August, so she needed to make the new one for her as well. 

They all came to Chicago on Friday a half-hour before their appointment time (which was 10 AM), and it turned out that the time didn’t matter at all, and they had to wait in line. They got in at about 12:30, and Anna was sent to retake her photo, but the person was at lunch, so they waited more. All our plans for the birthday lunch for the girls were not going to happen, and I decided to walk in their direction at least to see them and hand out my mom’s birthday cards for the girls and Vanille cookies and macaroons, which I ordered a day before. Fifteen minutes into our conversation, Anna received a call that the girls’ pictures had to be retaken as well.

After that, John drove home with the girls, and Anna waited for the passports, which were ready closer to 6 PM instead of 3-15 PM.

The good part is that now everyone has a passport so that we can plan our early August trip, but the horrible part is that… well, that is was a mission impossible!