Goodbye Estonia, hope to come again

What a lovely country this is. Even though it was mostly work I did have a chance to see some of the country and experienced the lovely people and cuisine. The second week was mostly work and it was just as well since there were several storms that hit the country. For most days I could see snow blowing sideways and it took some bundling up before we could go outside. The country got so much snow and not warm enough to melt so by the last week they had to load the snow in trucks to dump into the ocean. All the roads and sidewalks were snow packed with a layer of ice underneath. I always had to walk very carefully to not slip and crack my head! Taxis would not go into some parts of old town because the snow was too deep. This is normal for the people here I think. They continue to go about their daily activities. Did I mention that there's a lot of fur walking around Tallinn. Forget fleece, you need dead animal to keep you warm in this weather! It sure didn't stop the Finns from coming over on the ferry on the weekends to have their drinking binge. It's a crazy scene. By this time me and the guys have dubbed them FDFs (f@&*^ drunken finns!).

I would love to come back here during the summer, I am sure the city takes on another kind of beauty. For such a small country they take pride in culture as there are many theatres for operas, music and such.

The day before our final meeting the CEO of the region took us to a fantastic restaurant called Restoran O. Sirje says it is the best restaurant in Tallinn so we were honored. We all got the tasting menu which consisted of 8 courses of very small sample size dishes. It was estonian food with a modern flair and so delicious. With each course there was a special wine that went with it. Towards the end I was a little wasted. In the picture you can see all the wine glasses by me because I could not finish any one glass!

Stranded in Munich!

Thurs - Sat Dec 16 - 18
I guess with all the traveling for this job I was bound to go through a bad experience. Well, it came in spades this week. The plan was to fly back to Dudo from Tallinn Estonia via Frankfurt last Thursday the16th. Flight was leaving at 6pm from Tallinn but apparently it was snowing heavily in germany and affecting all the airports there. First they delayed our flight to Frankfurt until 7:30. OK, that gives me half an hour to catch my connecting flight. By then I emailed Laszlo to email me all the train times in case I have to catch a train from Frankfurt to Dudo. At 7 they announced that the delay wasnow to 10:30. OK, forget about the connection and forget about catching a train at a decent time since the earliest train would be at 4am.

Strange but at 10pm I hear an announcement that our plane was here and that we were boarding in 15 minutes. I guess the weather was looking a little better in Frankfurt so we had a window of opportunity! So we took off for Frankfurt and about half an hour before landing the captain announces that Frankfurt decided to close the runways because they couldn’t keep up with the heavy snow. Now we had to divert to Munich airport! I could feel the plane ascending again. I was frantically trying to remember where Munich was in relation to Frankfurt and if it’s possible to take a train to Dudo from there! When we landed in Munich the captain told us that we had to stay on the plane until they figure out what to do. Half an hour later we were told that due to all the stranded travelers before us there were no more hotel rooms for us so they were going to refuel and try to go back to Frankfurt in the hopes of being able to land this time. After another 15 minutes we were told to get off the plane and that the people at the airport will tell us what to do. Meanwhile the stupid steward made the usual announcement of “ thanks for flying with Lufthansa we hope you enjoy your stay in Munich” was she kidding?! I could hear people laugh at the gall of it. We get off the plane and there were so many people there. We were told that we could not get to our luggage and that we would get it when we rebook the next morning. By this time it was going on 2am. They had set up cots throughout the airport and told people to sleep and that the ticket office would open up again at 5am. There was this old guys who was getting very irate. He demanded to the airline reps to open up the ticket counter because he did not want to wait. I could see that people were tired and upset and in disbelief. I really didn’t want to sleep on the cots because there were too many people around there – they said there were a couple of thousand of people all over the airport. Meanwhile I was desperately looking for an outlet so I could recharge my ipad, ipod and blackberry. Throughout the whole ordeal I was communicating with Gary through Sametime. He was looking up flight times and weather for me. He also told me to keep calm, probably afraid with my impatient I would go postal! Actually I was feeling fine. It was mother nature that was causing the problem so why take it out on the airline staff who were already getting it from other passengers? The whole time I had my ipod playing my Vietnamese xmas music so I stayed relaxed and calm. Anyway I finally found a place with an outlet but it was away from any available cots. Since it was more important to charge up my electronic device I laid out my coat, used my daypack as a pillow, took off my boots and was ready to settle in. I emailed Gary a picture of my makeshift bed and he felt bad for me. I slept for half an hour and woke up feeling cold. I realized I was laying in direct line to the entrance into the airport and that people were starting to come in so I got blasts of cold air flowing through. I thought I would get to the lines 1 hr before it opens so I could beat all the other people. Well, it seems that everyone else had the same idea and there was already a very long line. At one point the rep told us that if were flying domestic to take a train because most airports in germany are closed. Earlier Gary told me that a train from Munich to Dudo would be 6 hours. Shit, I really didn’t want to do this. I got to the train line and waited past 5am but no one was there. Finally I gave up and decided to go to the ticket counter anyway. Since the economy line was so long I decided to get into the business class line. Smart move because the rep was able to book me on the 7:30am flight to Dudo. Bad news was my luggage was NOT coming with me. She said that there were thousands of passengers in the same boat and they would not be able to get to anyone’s luggage right now. I just finished telling Gary that the weather was not that bad in munich when it started snowing heavily and I could see the snow plow on the move. Crap.I was just waiting for them to say that our flight was cancelled. We did get on the plane and onto Dudo!

I did NOT want to go into the office that morning. I did not have any toiletries for extra clothes. Unfortunately I had to go in to pick up some important documents for my India visa. Worse of all we had a department xmas party that night. I did not feel like going out to buy clothes or toiletries since it was just for one day. I got creative and used my lipsticks as eyeshadow and blusher.I only had on jeans and a tshirt so needless to say I was not looking my best.

Everyone at the office was concerned and wanted to hear about my little adventure. At the xmas party that night the senior vp made me come into the middle of the room so he could tell everyone about my night at Munich airport. I was just happy to be going home the next day. Apparently Dudo is not used to snow so it shuts down with only a few inches. The runway is especially short so a small sign of bad weather is enough to take them out of commission.

Marietta wanted me to go out with the group afterwards, it’s tradition to go dancing after the xmas party. I told her no since I felt exhausted from no sleep the night before. She wouldn’t take no and would order expressos for me. In the end I stuck to my guns and said no. It was already midnight and I really wanted some sleep.

Saturday Dec 18
Well I guess my travel troubles wasn’t about to end. Got to the Dudo airport and checked in for my flight to London where I would catch my connecting flight to phoenix. Got through security and went into the british airway lounge. Just started eating breakfast when I hear my name paged. This cant be a good signed. The lady at the lounge desk couldn’t tell me what the page was for, only to go back out to the ticketing office. Yep, definitely not a good sign. Turns out my flight from London to phx was cancelled because of snow in London. What the hell? What is going on?! Thank goodness my flight was business class because I didn’t have to get into any of the long lines. There were lines everywhere as the airport had to deal with all the backlog. They rebooked my ticket to go from Dudo to phx via Atlanta. I agreed and hoped that there wasn’t a blizzard on the east coast. The rep booked me a room at the holiday inn near konigsallee so I spent the day shopping and walking around the xmas market. I also caved and bought toiletries and some cheap stuff like socks and makeup. I have been wearing the same socks for a few days and they were starting to stink. I couldn’t take wearing them one more day. One the bright side, since I didn’t have my luggage it was quick to pack!! One bright spot was that I found a vietnamese restaurant around the corner from the hotel and had a bowl of pho! It wasn’t nearly as good as my mom’s but it was more comfort food than anything else. I am SO ready for some warmth and sunshine.

Got on the flight to Atlanta ok, I had a 3 hour layover before the flight to Phx so I spent in the lounge calling Gary and my family to tell them I was ok. I was sitting next to a solder who was desperately trying to get to germany to be with his wife and daughter. He only had a 2 week leave and was frustrated that he could not get to them because of the snow in frankfurt. I felt bad for him and shared with him some news on how things were there. He said his wife was thinking of driving up from bavaria (south germany) to get him at the frankfurt airport in case the train was not running. I told him not to drive because the roads were bad and there were lots of stranded drivers. The trains were running fine so he should just do that. At one point his eyes were getting teary as he talked about just wanting to see his family. It made me grateful that I was going to see Gary in only a few hours.

There's a blizzard raging outside!

Fri Dec 9

Wow, I haven't been in a blizzard since I don't know when! It started snowing yesterday morning and never let up. The snowfall was not heavy but most of the time it was blowing sideways. By evening the wind was really kicking up. We were still working in the office at 8pm and I was worried we wouldn't be able to get back to our hotel. I could see the road outside our office window that the roads were getting worse. But no problem in the end, I was just glad Laszlo was driving. Our hotel was busy because they cancelled all flights for yesterday and today so some people were stranded.

We braved walking outside and across the street for dinner last night. It was maybe a 100 yards walk but I had to cover myself head to toes. We got reccos for this place on the 9th floor. It was more swanky than we thought. First clue was a coat check when you walk in. Second was there 3 different wine glasses and 4 different forks on the table. When we looked on the menu the dishes that sounded fancy. No regular meat, just wild boar, deer, duck etc. We all ordered the fish soup since we love the fish soups in the restaurants here. Should have know because on this menu it was some fancy name like Clear Consome of wild herring in a ravioli blah blah blah. When it came it was this big bowl with a spoonful of soup and one ravioli in the middle of it. It was lukewarm and tasted too fishy. Our food was ok but not worth the price. At the end we noticed that they charged us for the water ($5 for a glass!) that we did not order (therefore thought it was free). The waitress claimed that this is normal and it was etiquette. What the hell? We told her that this was the first restaurant in estonia and in all the world that we were charged for water that we did not ask for. Oh well. Live an learn.

The windows of my nice hotel room (the Radisson) were rattling all night with the gusty wind. It's so crazy. I guess being on the 22nd floor in one of the higher buildings in the city didn't help either. They say that after the storm a cold front will come in. It's supposed to go back to below zero by this weekend. Oh joy! I am having a hard time remember what temps in the 70's feels like! 7 more days before I am back in phoenix! Yesterday Gary sent out xmas cards, a task that usually belongs to me. He has been so good about picking up the slack and has never complained. It really hit home last night during dinner. Laszlo was interrupted several times with phone calls from his family. He had to step out twice to talk. He explained that his family misses him and are being needy. He has been on this job one year already and actually works in germany when he's not on audit. He flies home to hungary on the weekends when he is working in germany so it's even worse than my case when at least I am working in phx when I am not on audit. Eventually Laszlo left Udo and I to our dinner so that he could call his family back.

When we drove to work this morning there were a few inches of snow on the snow. Our mercedes rental car was nice but not that good with driving in snow, espcially with back wheel drive! The fronts and sides of houses and buildings were covered in snow. It looked as if someone took a frosted paint can and sprayed the houses with it. I'm used to seeing snow accumulation on rooftops but not on the sides, it looked so strange. This showed how hard the wind is blowing and that the snow was really going horizontal.

In estonia they call wednesday "little friday"!

Wed, Dec 8
Udo and I went into the office today and there was a big tray of baked goods in the shared kitchen. When we asked what the occasion was, Mart explained that it's just a little celebration for Wednesday which reminds you that the weekend is getting closer. They call it Little Friday here. In the US we call it hump day but I like little friday much better! Mart said that in town the restaurants are quiet and empty on monday & tues but fill up on wednesday and quiet again on thursday. It shows that they really do celebrate it! On the same vein it's the same thing with xmas. The xmas holiday is shared with small intimate family settings so companies will do their xmas celebrations early December and call it Little Xmas. So cute! Udo told me that in eastern germany where he grew up, they call wednesday "berg fest" which in translation means mountain party. This means that you have climbed to the top of the mountain on Wednesday and it's downhill from there! I also like this name better than hump day!

(Btw, if you have already read the last two posts, go back to see some pics I just added to them.)

I ate blood sausage!

Mon Dec 6

One of the traditional dish during Xmas is Veriworst which is blood sausage. No, it's not just a name, it's really sausage made out of pig blood! I guess it's traditional throughout europe because the guys have had it before. When they found out I've never had it they insisted that I at least try it and that it's delicious. OK, I'm asian, I've eaten weirder stuff so ofcourse I would at least try it. There were stands in the xmas market where they were grilling meats, sauerkrauts, bratwurst, and the veriworst.- all in this huge 30 inch diameter frying pan. Udo was smart in that he ordered one for me and said if I didn't like it, he would eat it. The taste of it wasn't bad but I did not like the consistency and promptly gave the rest of the blood sausage to Udo. Like a wimp I went to get a bratwurst for myself!

Xmas market in Tallinn

Sunday, Dec 4

Friday afternoon the three of us drove up to Tallinn where the rest of our audit will be. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and it's where a third of the country's population lives. The town is on the northern shore of Estonia and only a 3 hour ferry ride from Helsinki Finland.

I was excited to see the xmas market in the town square in old town tallinn. It was a 5 minute walk from our hotel but it was quite cold. I wanted to buy a fur hat because my stylish newsboy cap wasn't cutting it! With zero degree weather you cannot afford to expose your extremities for long. Everybody has to wear hats, gloves and scarves.There were plenty of stands with fur hats and scarfs and wool clothing. I was cold and wanted to buy everything - had to remind myself to not overdo it and that I will return to my home in the desert in a couple of weeks!

Udo told me that this is one of the best xmas market he has seen. It's not crowded, the scenery was perfect because of the snow, there was a beautiful 30 foot xmas tree all lit up in the middle of the square. The many stands displaying local foods, hot drinks, crafts & clothing were also decorated with lights. There was also a big stage set up to play estonian music or movies. We snacked on grilled bratwurst and hot wine. When our toes start to freeze we would duck into a shop or a cafe to thaw out. On average we could only stay outside for 1 hours at a time - it had warmed up to 14 degrees!

Old town itself dates back to the 13th century and is surrounded by a totally intacted wall. We found a really cool wine cellar/restaurant (Restoran Gloria) on Friday and had our drinks & dinner in front of a fireplace. We were litterally right next to it so Udo was in charge of adding logs to the fire throughout the evening. At one point when I told Laszlo I didn't want any bread because it wasn't hot, he placed a piece of bread on one of the fireplace tools and toasted it over the fire for me. I think he had a couple of glasses of wine by then and didn't care that we were being obnoxious.

We were warned about the drunken Finns but was still not prepared for the scene. Our hotel for the weekend was the Viru Sokus with 600 rooms. At any given time there were hoards of finns in the lobby, drunk. It was really claustrophobic. The breakfast room in the mornings was a sight to behold. Hundreds cram into the room and piling on masses of food like there was no tomorrow. Some looked like they never went to bed or stopped drinking. We couldn't wait for them to get back on the ferry and leave on sunday! It was funny to see them lug 6-packs of vodka as they get on the tour bus to leave.

There were so many restaurants in Old Town that we never thought to make reservations. Learned the hard way on Saturday when we walk all over town and couldn't get a table! It started to snow pretty hard so we were covered in snow and had to wipe off each time we go into a restaurant to check for a table. Finally found one place where there was a free table in the basement. So weird, the waitress tried to talk me out of it by saying it will take a very long time for the food, at least 45 minutes. She also said that they are 3 floors and 1 kitchen and it's very busy. If we hadn't walked all over town in bad weather desperate for a place to eat I would have told her to shove it and walked out. Stomach more important than pride!

Laszlo had a favorite restaurant - Restoran Aed - the place we went to for lunch on Saturday. The waitresses were cute and friendly and the restaurant itself had so much personality. It was built in the 17th century and had so many different nooks and cranny over 3 floors. The walls inside look like it's still the original wall and there were hanging plants winding around the beams. The food wasn't that great but the guys really loved the place.

I love the food here!

Tues. Nov 30

This time my team consist of Laszlo who is hungarian and Udo who is german. We also had a part timer Alex who is from austria. Dinner with the group has been so interesting, I love hearing stories about their countries.

The food has been really good in Parnu. We went back to the russian restaurant on Tues and I had the Borscht soup this time. It's more like a stew of beets, potatos, carrots, onions and cabbage and beef. It's served with a dollop of sour cream, so good. On wednesday Alex took us to an austrian restaurant so ofcourse I ordered the schnitzel. Alex refused to order it because he was offended by the fact that it was topped with herring and capers.

On thursday Mart took us to the yacht club for dinner. They all decided to do a vodka shot and ordered one for me even though I didn't want one! It tasted pretty smooth but I gave it to the guys to finish, no sense in asking for trouble! They told me stories of how the russians do business with vodka. You must drink with them or they would be offended. It's typical to have vodka in a meeting. You cannot get right to business because it will not work this way. It's almost like you are there to drink with them and if we get some business done in the process then that's fine. Udo ordered the salted herring which is a typical dish here. It's served with sour cream and is quite good. It was fresh like sashimi. The best was when I tried baked ice cream for the first time. It's not like the fried ice cream at home. Alex makes it at home and told us how to make it. I can't imagine it working but I will try it when I get home. Supposedly you whip up egg white with a little bit of sugar and salt. This mixture is pour on ice cream in a dish and put in the oven at high heat from the top of the oven. It only takes a few minutes to brown the egg white and not long enough to melt the ice cream. It was so yummy! The mix of salty and sweet was so interesting.

Estonians eat more fresh fruit and vegetables in the summer but in winter they stick to more pickled stuff. Our lunches always consist of some kind of pickled cabbage or relish and potatos along with our meats. I'm greatful that they brought lunches in for us. It's too cold to bother venturing out! Each day the weather gets a little better. Monday was the worse when it was -4. It snow on and off and the street is hard packed with snow.