Being in the Baltic we are able to escort tours and I was excited the other day to get on an excursion while in port in Tallin, Estonia. Only 10 passengers, myself and our guide, Christian headed out into the Estonian countryside to reach a beach for a SEA-KAYAKING adventure! Ha! First of all: Estonian countryside…never thought I’d type that. Second of all…sea-kayaking! We reached a somewhat remote beach and met our instructor and second guide, Andres. He showed us our spray skirts, our paddles, how to get in and out and steer our kayaks with our foot pedals.
I hopped into a kayak with a guest who’s a junior at Univ. S. California and we headed off, around the small, uninhabited island of Pedassaare, and stopped to walk around (barefoot) through the woods for a bit, hearing about the Estonian environment and history from Andres. After another go around the next bit of the island we stopped and tried wild cucumber leaves and wild peas before being fed lunch on the beach. Finally we headed back after navigating through about a 5 foot wide opening between two boulders in the ocean.
We were EXHAUSTED by the end of it, but I was proud to say I had kayaked 5.5 miles that day. (Proud- until I asked Andres about his longest kayaking excursion. He told me about a trip he did in a single kayak from Stockholm to Tallin, Estonia. That is under 400 miles and took him 36 hours straight of paddling open waters! Talk about a rock star guide!!!)
The next day in St. Petersburg me and Lindsay got to go out exploring for the day. We had a blast blowing through the Hermitage (one of the most famous art museums in the world) and then headed to the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood. It is an AMAZING cathedral, with colorful, onion-shaped domes and an interior very reminiscent of St. Mark’s in Venice. It is covered wall to wall in TINY mosaic tiles, creating intricate Biblical images. We had such an amazing time and had fantastic weather!
We were so lucky to have a sunny day in St. Petersburg. It was actually one of about 30 sunny days the city sees each year in the summer. On a tour a couple weeks ago my guide, Anastasia, knowingly quipped that people in the city have “9 months of expectations and 3 months of disappointment.” Ha ha! Anyway- to finish off the day me and Lindsay also had set up to have dinner in the dining room, Compass Rose. Well- with all the passengers on evening tours, we ended up eating alone! Ha! We were worried the staff wouldn’t be too happy, but we had fun. They all came over and talked with us and joked around while we filled our bellies with great food. It’s been a fun couple of days on the ship! Hope to talk to some of you guys soon!
Love ya!
Tripp
3 comments:
Sea-kayaking! Another new adventure for you! So glad you're taking advantage of all the "tours" and not just hanging out on the ship all day! Miss you so much and love you, too!
Tripp, I am just loving these excursions with you. Thank you for doing such a good job bringing things to life. It sounds like you will not be getting too fat on all that wonderful ship food. I send you a big hug!
I loved the climate report about St. Pete. literally LOL
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