A Mr. & Mrs. trying to live with the Swisses: "I hope one day when I say I'm from Estonia, people don't say: 'What? Where's that?'"

When I booked our overnight boat trip to Tallinn, I was not imagining cruise ship. But it totally was. It had Bingo and everything.

So I made John pose so I could draw him naked, like on the Titanic. Kidding.

We got to cruise through the Archipelago, a series of 2400 islands off the coast of Sweden. It was so green and tree-y that it reminded us of home. With lots of beautiful boats and houses interspersed. In Sweden, all land is "free use", so you can camp on any of the islands as long as you can't see any houses from your campsite, even if someone owns the land. We didn't camp, though, we cruised.

At Rick Steves' suggestion, we had pre-ordered the buffet or, for a fancier Swedish term, "smorgasbord" where we gorged on mostly, sushi, salmon prepared various ways, cheese, and ice cream. We totally hit the Kids Corner dessert bar for ice cream with toppings.

The ship was nice since it was built in 2004, but the decor was totally 80s. Not sure who their interior designer was but it wasn't someone born after 1960.

We made it to Tallinn the next morning and found our way to the hotel. Rather than a gorgeous, perky blonde girl checking us in and asking how she could help, we got a Russian-y guy who spoke to us only enough to let us know our room was not ready yet. So we walked through the adorable medieval city for about two hours to kill time. During WWII Estonia was occupied by Russia, then Germany, then Russia again. They were finally liberated fully in 1994 and have since become one of the most progressive and successful European countries.

Then we ran into a couple from San Diego at an imported beer store where John was looking for Red Hook. We quickly realized that they were us. They are living in Switzerland (German side, but still) for two years for her job. He is having trouble getting a work permit. They are moving back to CA at the end of this year. It was so weird. So we ate lunch together at a place recommended to them. It was a throwback to the 1500s, so we ate elk soup and ox sausages by candlelight. There was no electricity. Luckily they did make beer and cider back then.

When we finally checked in to our hotel, this was our bathroom. Bigger than our current apartment. And interesting placement of the toilet.

We spent the evening walking around old town where they were having a Tallinn festival, so there was lots of entertainment. We liked this band so much that we stopped for some wine / beer in the main square to listen before dinner. The next act wasn't on until 8pm, so we thought they had another hour left on stage. Unfortunately they ended their performance at 7, before we even got our drinks. Oops.