| www.AdoptConnection.com |
| Estonia |
 | |  | |  | |  | |  |
 | |  | |  | |  |
(Click on any of the pictures to the left to enlarge. They were taken by our children
during our preview trip, during springtime.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia
Estonia is a beautiful country. When we were there, we were in Tallinn, the capital. We
stayed in the "Old Town", which has cobblestone streets and beautiful medieval looking
buildings.
Many adoption programs are in countries that you may not WANT to visit just for fun.
Estonia is a beautiful and we loved being there. It's even a great place for a vacation!
Estonian people are mostly of Russian and Finnish decent. They are all Caucasian, with
brown and blonde hair.
during our preview trip, during springtime.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estonia
Estonia is a beautiful country. When we were there, we were in Tallinn, the capital. We
stayed in the "Old Town", which has cobblestone streets and beautiful medieval looking
buildings.
Many adoption programs are in countries that you may not WANT to visit just for fun.
Estonia is a beautiful and we loved being there. It's even a great place for a vacation!
Estonian people are mostly of Russian and Finnish decent. They are all Caucasian, with
brown and blonde hair.
Here are some things we wrote to our family after returning from Estonia, that we thought were particularly interesting or
humorous about the country:
In Estonia, one thing we realized after awhile is that pedestrians in a crosswalk REALLY DO always have the right of way. You step
into the street on a crosswalk and everyone SLAMS on their brakes to let you cross. Of course you look to be sure, but they always
stop. It is important to keep in mind that older children adopted from Estonia are used to this, so they may need to be watched
and taught quickly that cars in America may not stop so certainly.
Everything is very clean, I mean CLEAN! We made a game of finding trash on the street. We rarely would see a receipt or
something like that on the ground, and that was about it. And there are no trash cans. Only little tiny ones attached to an
occasional bench, but no giant monstrosities on the corners like you see in most cities.
For money, we got Euros at the airport thinking those would be good anywhere. But in Estonia, you can only pay with credit cards
and Estonian Kroons (EEK). The kroons were easy to compare to USD, they are just one decimal off from USD value basically.
100 kroons is like 10 dollars. We didn't know that, though, so imagine our kids' eyes when we withdrew 5000 Kroons from the
ATM.
When you order water in a restaurant it is always bottled and it's usually like 3 or 4 dollars. And unless you specify, you will
always get carbonated water. You have to order it "still."
Everything is pretty expensive. Clothes, food, soft drinks, gas. It's $8 a gallon for gas.
Nearly everyone in restaurants, stores, and behind any counter speaks all three languages: Estonian, Russian, and English. We ran
into more trouble with people not speaking Russian for the kids rather than not speaking English for us.
There are phone booths everywhere.
The buses are attached to wires that run along above the street, so they stay in the same lane all the time.
There are a lot of McDonald's, and they are exactly like the ones here except the menu is in three languages.
The water park (Kalev Water Spa) was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, and we are jealous that we don't have a place like
that here. It's a big gym, an Olympic size pool, several hot tubs in different temperatures, different types of bubbles and flows,
etc., kid pools, and 4 or 5 enclosed flume slides. We went there two days in a row because it was so much fun for all of us! It wasn't
crowded and we don't know how many times the kids must've gone there, but they showed us how to do everything (how to work
the lockers that open and lock with your electric wristband, etc.).
Of all the times in the park and in public, we saw two dogs. Walking dogs outdoors, or perhaps owning dogs, does not seem to be as
popular in Estonia as it is in America.
****
humorous about the country:
In Estonia, one thing we realized after awhile is that pedestrians in a crosswalk REALLY DO always have the right of way. You step
into the street on a crosswalk and everyone SLAMS on their brakes to let you cross. Of course you look to be sure, but they always
stop. It is important to keep in mind that older children adopted from Estonia are used to this, so they may need to be watched
and taught quickly that cars in America may not stop so certainly.
Everything is very clean, I mean CLEAN! We made a game of finding trash on the street. We rarely would see a receipt or
something like that on the ground, and that was about it. And there are no trash cans. Only little tiny ones attached to an
occasional bench, but no giant monstrosities on the corners like you see in most cities.
For money, we got Euros at the airport thinking those would be good anywhere. But in Estonia, you can only pay with credit cards
and Estonian Kroons (EEK). The kroons were easy to compare to USD, they are just one decimal off from USD value basically.
100 kroons is like 10 dollars. We didn't know that, though, so imagine our kids' eyes when we withdrew 5000 Kroons from the
ATM.
When you order water in a restaurant it is always bottled and it's usually like 3 or 4 dollars. And unless you specify, you will
always get carbonated water. You have to order it "still."
Everything is pretty expensive. Clothes, food, soft drinks, gas. It's $8 a gallon for gas.
Nearly everyone in restaurants, stores, and behind any counter speaks all three languages: Estonian, Russian, and English. We ran
into more trouble with people not speaking Russian for the kids rather than not speaking English for us.
There are phone booths everywhere.
The buses are attached to wires that run along above the street, so they stay in the same lane all the time.
There are a lot of McDonald's, and they are exactly like the ones here except the menu is in three languages.
The water park (Kalev Water Spa) was about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, and we are jealous that we don't have a place like
that here. It's a big gym, an Olympic size pool, several hot tubs in different temperatures, different types of bubbles and flows,
etc., kid pools, and 4 or 5 enclosed flume slides. We went there two days in a row because it was so much fun for all of us! It wasn't
crowded and we don't know how many times the kids must've gone there, but they showed us how to do everything (how to work
the lockers that open and lock with your electric wristband, etc.).
Of all the times in the park and in public, we saw two dogs. Walking dogs outdoors, or perhaps owning dogs, does not seem to be as
popular in Estonia as it is in America.
****
