Estonia, Who knew?

Robin and Pam's cruise on the Baltic Sea is in its final days. They visited Estonia and the next day they got a little glimpse of Germany. Here's what Robin wrote.

We stopped at Talinn in Estonia right after our grueling two days in Mother Russia. As if divinely prompted to smile on free people, the weather was cool, breezy and sunny for our visit to a country that has only been out from under Communism since 1991. What strides they have made!!!! The people are so hopeful and happy to be free – something we take for granted. While the town was bombed during WW II, (the Russians said the Germans did it, the Germans said the Russians did it, but the townpeople recognized the difference in the sound of the planes and declared that it was the Russians) most of the old town was spared, and it is charming. We were treated to an organ concert at the oldest church. Music is a huge part of the national psyche, and the largest choral music festival maybe in the world is held there every five years in a huge amphitheater. Thirty thousand singers from all over the world convene. The contrast to Russia was overwhelming.

Today we are docked in Warnemunde, a small German port town. Many hearty souls on the ship made the three-hour journey into Berlin, but we decided just to stroll around the village knowing that three hours in means three hours back, and precious little in between except a high level of fatigue. The town of Warnemunde is clean and orderly as you would expect in Germany. Even the gulls in the harbor seem to fly in a more orderly fashion. I found myself wanting to walk up to the sausage seller or the schnitzel vendor and ask this simple question: "Two world wars. Eight million jews. WTF??" But I didn't. Pam and I argued about culpability. She believes that because these people were not alive or too young when that all went down, it's an unfair question to pose, just as those of us alive now in the States are not directly responsible for slavery, she believes. Maybe I don't believe in redemption after all, because to me there is a national stain that can't be erased by the passage of time. I may be wrong. I just don't know.

THEN I got to thinking about the personalities of nations. Does the personality of a nation come from some critical mass of individual personalities within it? I think of Russia's bullyness, and Kruschev pounding his shoe on the table at the UN, and I tell you, I observed similar behaviour from many Russians during my brief stay. So volatile, so quick to get angry. And the Germans...I guess giving the world the Mercedes and the BMW gives your feelings of superiority some credence, but war and extermination?

Then I think of the Swedes. And I wonder if their confidence, their ability to take care of all of their people with social programs, just the smoothness of their whole operation, comes from having a nation of tall beautiful people who don't even have to wear makeup?

And finally I think about our young nation, and the gosh-by-golly attributes shared by so many Americans, and the childlike way we provide aid, and in return want the recipients to play by our rules. We are the children on the world scene. Big powerful children.

It all makes sense in my goofball mind.

Only one sad thing happened on this extraordinary trip, and that is the loss of the fair Aurora. The Aurora, a great ship not quite as large as our behemoth, was our constant companion from port to port until we left Talinn. She followed in our wake. At night we looked out on the black sea and there she was, and she always was berthed right next to us in every port. We became attached. As we left Talinn (it might be Tallinn, I forget), I felt that she wasn't getting moving as she ought. Her ropes were still tied and the usual bustle of pushing off activity was missing. As we moved a few miles out of port, I kept waiting for her to catch up. By dusk I was sitting on the balcony, binoculars in hand, searching the horizon. No Aurora. I got up in the middle of the night and saw only the black, black Baltic. In the morning, I checked first thing. That's when we had to reconcile ourselves to the fact that she had made another turn, the shipping lane not taken. Now, of course, I wonder: Where did she go? Back to home port? To some other Baltic outpost? She's gone and we miss her companionship. Does she miss us?

Tomorrow's the last day. We think we'll stay aboard and savor our last day in the lap of luxury. We've yet to have had our proper Scrabble challenge, something Pam particularly enjoys as she always wins. I'm always so joyful to have gotten a word, ANY word, that I never bother to count points and all that. She counts, she wins.