Working Our Way North to Tallinn, Estonia

July 5, 2014 - The weather has been continuing to improve the last few days - it gives me hope for our future in Amsterdam that it won't all be clouds and rain. Though the temps have yet to hit 70 in July. However to be fair, we are a bit further north now; Tallinn, Estonia to be exact. We are pretty far north - the sun didn't even set until almost 11 last night!!!

So today was our day to spend exploring in Tallinn. Knowing it was a small city (only about 400,000 people) and that our focus would be on the old town, we knew that the one day would be enough. It would have been great to have a few more hours to spend exploring but overall a day was good. 

I wasn't 100% sure on the history of Estonia and if it had ever been a part of the USSR.  From what I can tell, it was part of the SSR (Soviet Social Republic) but many in the international community did not recognize the Baltic States to be a part of this.  Regardless, they were run independently from the USSR and never fully integrated into that government.  These days, they are known to be a huge technology hub (Have you heard of Skype???  Yup, started there.) and are known as the Silicon Valley of the Baltic Sea, but they are also economically dependent upon tourism, especially in their old town which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

The cruise ship docked an easy 15 min walk into the old town. It was easy to find. As with most old city centers, this one was for sure geared towards the tourist. American style pubs and the like, souvenir shops at every turn, etc. But mixed in with the tourism was some gorgeous architecture, cobblestone streets and adorable local artisan shops.

The fog over the water as we docked in Tallinn - eerie, yet beautiful.  You can only see the tower in the distance.

Also called Fat Margaret, this is actually the Maritime Museum

The boys refused a picture together, hence the two almost identical pictures.

Walking into the Old Town

"Moose ears!"

Josh just really liked the sign because it showed a naked woman on a dog.

One of the things I really enjoyed about Tallinn as we were walking was that any building that you walked by that had a history behind it (which was many) had an acrylic plaque on it with details of it's history. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of the plaques but they were very interesting to read as you were walking and made for a more informative walk around the city.

Walking thru the Old Town - streets of cobblestone lined with beautiful, colorful buildings.

I've always had a thing for beautiful doors.

On the left is actually Town Hall, though it looks like a church (at least according to TripAdvisor, it's Town Hall).

View down one of the streets

We eventually worked our way over to the Old Town center.  As expected it was filled with tourist shops and restaurants.  However, that did not diminish from it's beauty.  

Town Hall Square

More of Town Hall Square

It reminds me a little bit of Brugge, Belgium with the colorful buildings along the edge of the square.

A better view of Town Hall

I would love to know what is up with those dragon type things sticking out of the top of Town Hall.

Admittedly we did the little touristy train around the city.  It was a quick ride and gave us an idea of what to look for when we walked around.  And without that we wouldn't have seen the point where you have the most beautiful views of the city which we went back to at the end of our day.

Aidan on the train

Liam on the train

Part of the wall that protected the city

Photobomb!

We had lunch at a typically touristy place in the center that was so so. Literally as we left lunch, we turned the corner and saw what would have been a much better choice. With all our travel, we should know better than to eat in the center. Regardless we were off and running for some more exploring. 

They were highly amused by the bird rock barriers (we saw a few varieties of this on the cruise as you'll see).

As we were searching for the Toompea Castle, we came upon a school for archery.  Both kids have done archery before and love doing it and so they insisted that we try it.  There was only about a 15 minute wait and we had plenty of time so we let them do it.  It was harder than Aidan remembered and it probably didn't help that she didn't have a left handed bow for his size so he had to do it as a righty. But they both had a great time shooting at the targets!

As we wandered we came across an archery "school". Both kids, of course, were eager to try. Both had done it before, Aidan as recently as his colonias in May. They had a blast and when it was their turn there was no one else in line and so they were able to really take their time and enjoy shooting!

Liam ready to go!

You can tell it was a little harder for Aidan to pull back as he's a lefty and this was a righty bow.

After the archery we decided to try to find the highest point in the city with the best view of the Old Town.  We'd seen it when we were on the train but finding it on foot was another matter.  We finally made it only to find out there was a second, better view, just down the road.  So we have pictures of both - not a bad thing.

Alexander Nevsky Cathedral

View from atop Toompea Hill

However, this was the better view we found out...

More of the old city wall

We had only a few items on our list to see and to be honest, as we were seeing them, I didn't know specifically what those places were til I googled them after (using my list as a key and matching up the pics I took). A little backwards, I know. But it made for an easy, relaxing day of touring Tallinn.  No game plan, just wandering. 

We eventually made our way back to the ship, an hour before we had to be on board. The kids are loving the adventure club and begged us to go before they closed at 5 (they reopen after dinner). And so Josh and I got an unexpected hour off.  What did we do?  Connect to wifi to try to update our iPads with books (kindles) and games (for my long flight home to the US next week). Sad lives, I know!

Regardless, the next few days are intense. No more sea days for a while and early, early days. Tomorrow, St. Petersburg, Russia!!!  It's the only tour we are doing on the trip and lasts both days of our stop here. Not only does it feel safer to tour there in a group, but it's also the only way we can get a visa to enter the country. Excited nonetheless!!!

Besos,

Julie 

All Packed Up and No Where to Go???

This is a belated post from back when we were on our cruise...

July 4 - We've left Barcelona. We left our apartment more a week ago. Too bad we don't have a destination for ourselves and our things. Oh it's all still going to the Netherlands. We just don't know where. Something in our guts told us this was going to happen. We were both afraid to say for sure where we were going to be living. Our response to where was something like "well, we found a great house in Naarden but are still waiting for the final contracts to be signed."

We found this great house and put in an offer to rent on  June 11.  Now as we near mid July, we have no contract signed.  Strike that, Josh and I have signed the contract but the owner has not.  It's ridiculous.  Stupid things like a curtain for the skylight has tied things up between realtors.  But there is more.

Why?  It's confusing to us but I will try to explain. The owner, a first time expat heading out to his first assignment, was unsure about renting for more than a year even though his expat agreement was for two. His fear was that his family would not like it and he wanted the ability to return early. We get it and have been in the same boat and have only rented our house on a year to year basis as well. We agreed (though not our ideal situation) to that and some other talking points and they agreed to ours. All seemed to be moving forward til it all stopped. 

I finally sent an email stating that yet another week had gone by with no progress. I expressed my concerns that something was obviously holding up the signing process and that whatever it is, they need to let us know if we should be considering a plan B as we have many balls in the air that rely on us having an address, the most important being a roof over our heads in a matter of weeks!!

July 5 - I did not expect the email that came in response.  Well, my gut wasn't totally surprised but yet I was.  Keep in mind that the last several weeks have been full of chaos and last minute challenges so to have something go smoothly was apparently asking too much.  

The email suggested we go with plan B. I'm not exaggerating that our stomachs just dropped. Here we are, attempting a vacation as a family after almost 9 months apart.  Trying to pull the mess of our lives back together. Just wanting, for a moment, for things to go as planned. But apparently that was asking too much. 

Why do we need to go with plan B?  Apparently, if we understood the email correctly, the banks get involved when an owner rents their home. And the bank was not happy that the owner wanted to extend a contract with a clause to potentially end after a year when his own expat contract is for two years. The bank feels that our contract to rent should reflect his expat contract. Our opinion is that if the owner can pay the mortgage, why do they need to get involved.  But they do things differently in the Netherlands and we need to adjust to those differences.  

As with everything else in this real estate process, we had to drive things forward. Our team was planning to give up and start a new search. Our response though, which we felt was common sense, was, ok then let's just do a 2 year contract (better for us) and in the meantime, let's start a new house hunt in case that offer still doesn't please the bank. It's common sense and not all that difficult to figure out but I think there are too many chefs in this kitchen and this process has suffered as a result. 

July 7 - Ahhh Monday. Finally some news. Apparently both the owner and bank were happy with the new two year deal and the bank gave their blessing. We still aren't sure how happy the owner is with this situation but my guess is at this point, he's probably relieved to have everything taken care of so he can get on with his expat assignment. 

At the end of the day Monday, we received our contract, signed, finally. What a huge relief after almost a month on something that should only have taken a few days. We printed out the contract on Tuesday, signed and asked the ship manager to scan and email us the contracts. A huge relief for us. 

July 9 - Josh emailed out the contract this morning (the scan didn't come thru until late the night before) and what a relief. We now know where our things need to ship. We now know where we will live - a huge piece of the puzzle. And now we can start to make other plans like utilities, furniture placement, small house purchases, etc.

July 18 - Josh received an email that August 15, our move in date, is a holiday in both Spain and France.  And while our goods technically should be in the Netherlands (if our stuff is still in France on the 15th then that is an issue) by that date, apparently this could cause traffic restrictions both going into and out of Spain and France.  And as a result there would be a significant fee (Europeans take their holidays very seriously) added to the move.  So now we are trying to find out if we can move in a day earlier and how that would affect the cost of the move.  The kids and I arrive Aug 17 and they start school Aug 18 so for us it is essential to get the basics in by the 15th.  Never a dull moment.

July 19 - We've started to email with the owners and they seem really nice.  As everything to date had been thru realtors (who worked rather inefficiently) it's nice to get to know the owners a little bit.

So while the title of this entry started off as "all packed up with no where to go", I'm now happy to say we officially have a home to go to when the kids and I arrive in mid August and hopefully will have at least some of our things!  We're looking forward to visitors in our new house in Naarden!  See you there!!

Besos,

Julie

Disconnecting

In this day and age, disconnecting is an incredibly hard thing to do.  We are a society that has become constantly connected to the technology age - when we are walking, when we are eating, when we are talking with others - we are in a constant need to remain connected.  At times this can be a good thing (like when Michelle and I booked a hotel online as we were driving to New York this week) and at other times it's not.

We need to disconnect from work in order to recharge our batteries.  This is one of the things I admire about Europe the most - their ability and encouragement to completely disconnect when you are on vacation.  But when you own the business, how can you completely disconnect?  This is a struggle I've had over the last 10 1/2 years.  The beauty of my business is that it can travel with me and I can do trips like our recent cruise or 5 weeks in the States and not need to take vacation time per se.  However, it also means that in between visits with friends and family, I need to get work done as well.

However, there are times when the choice is not yours to disconnect.  And it's hard to face that reality and let it go.  While on our cruise a few weeks ago, I had no choice but to throw in the towel and disconnect almost entirely.  It made me want to vomit.  No really, it did.  It threw my entire body into a tizzy (there's a word I haven't used in a very long time) and it was incredibly hard to accept the harsh reality that I could not get work done while I was away.

Now I knew I would have to disconnect on this cruise to a degree. Internet at sea is costly. But it's been 6 years since I last cruised and I expected the internet to be much more state of the art then what I got on board. We can get internet on planes 36,000 feet in the air but not at sea?  I find that amazing. 

Add that to my now defunct laptop that died before we left and you have a person feeling the ultimate in disorganization. Something I don't do well with. I NEED my impeccably organized inbox on my laptop. The hope is that I will get it back. Problem was that of my 500,000+ files that needed to be restored! only about 1/3 were completed during the 36 hours before we left for the cruise. And at almost $1 per minute for snail slow unreliable internet, I'm not willing to break the bank restoring it on the ship. And so it will have to wait until we are stateside on the 13th (at which point the moment I set foot in my parents' house I will restart the restoration - can you say addicted???).

I know that part of the reason I have trouble disconnecting is because this business is mine and if I don't take care of it, it's not going to take care of me.  But there are moments of frustration when I wish I could just shut off the email for a solid 2 weeks and not worry about the repercussions.

I've met a few people (and I stress few) who have said that a few weeks a year, they completely disconnect.  They put an out of office on their email that states they are away, will not be checking email and that your email will be deleted and if you need to reach them, you may do so after "xyz" date.  I find this idea brave... and thrilling.  And I want to do it.  Because in reality, we all want to be able to do this.  So what is holding us back?

I think as an American (I can't vouch for Europeans) we have this mentality that we have to remain connected for job security.  That people won't understand that you are away trying to recharge and that the responsibility remains yours to get the job done no matter what, even if it means sacrificing your time off.  But it's important to take some time to smell the roses and let our brains recharge.  In fact, I'm a believer that it make us better workers when we get some time off.

Regardless, these last weeks have been hard but at the same time, an important lesson on how much we let technology take over our lives these days and also how necessary it is to let that technology go every now and again.  It can be scary but also refreshing.  So every now and again, we should all take a day off of that technology and take some time to smell the roses.  Sounds cliche I know, but sometimes I think we forget to look around us when we are so focused on that little screen that is in front of us.  I know this experience has reminded me of that and while it's been a struggle trying to get myself back online and functional again, I'm also glad to have had a little bit of time to disconnect.

Besos,
Julie