On Oct. 11th, Glenn and I caught a train to Prague (Czech Republic). The next morning, I flew to Estonia (leaving Glenn in Prague to visit with our personnel who live there), caught a double-decker bus and took a side trip "up country" to visit a good friend in Narva, two hours outside of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. On the 14th, I caught a bus back to Tallinn to attend a wonderful ladies retreat, put on by Women of Compassion.
But first, a little history...
The Republic of Estonia is located in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. Bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Russia. Across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden and Finland. Though often referred to as part of the Baltic states, Estonians are actually a Finnic people, and the official language, Estonian, is closely related to Finnish.
I am on the beach in Narva, just a mile or two from the border of Russia, overlooking the Gulf of Finland. The sun is about to set so it is cold and windy on the beach.
Fall has definitely set in more in Estonia than in Hungary as the leaves are a definite vibrant yellow. I have never seen such YELLOW leaves, and large leaves at that!
Lesa, my friend and former co-worker, married Sasha last spring and now lives with him in Narva. Sasha and Lesa took me around on Saturday for a full day of sightseeing. Sasha, though he does NOT speak English, did a great job of telling me about Narva's history which dates back to 1345.
The old fortress in Narva, most often called the Hermann castle, was originally a wooden structure built by the Danes in the 13th century. As conflicts arose against Russia, out of necessity, the Danes reinforced it as a stone castle and added a wall around it, and in later years it was sold to the Livonian Order as a convent, with more buildings added as needed. (Sasha did a great job of giving me the history but I didn't do nearly as well at remembering it!)
The Estonian fortress is behind me on the left and the Russian fortress is on the right, with the Narva River as the natural border between the two countries.
This is a view of the backside of the Russian fortress, the Ivangorod Castle. Driving over the bridge, you leave Estonia and cross the border into Russia.
This is the border crossing that is a block or so from Lesa's old apartment before she married. I have a fascination with borders. I'm intrigued by how you can drive across a line from one country into another and have a whole new cultural experience that requires the use of different monies, language and norms. That, or I just like the word border.
As Sasha was driving in the neighborhood where their church is, we passed this sign hanging out over a tiny street, not much more than a dirt road, telling us to STOP because to go down the road would take us into Russia. I don't understand how governments oversee the borders except at border crossings, when you know 500 years ago there was no "border" and people just walked from one territory into another.
The Narva River is the boundary line between Russia and Estonia and it is forbidden to swim from one country to the other. You can't see it in this picture, but there are red buoy's strategically placed in the middle of the river denoting the exact dividing line between the two countries. We saw men fishing from their boats in the river, but they are careful not to go beyond the red buoy.
Guard towers like this one are seen along the river to watch for "swimmers".
I don't generally care for museums, but it was cold so I joined Lesa and Sasha as they browsed through a museum there on the grounds of the fortress. The museum had a wide variety of showcases, everything from the development of the fort to famous Estonians in history, but my favorite was this one on Mosquito Catching Equipment! All it takes is two cups, or one cup and a hand!
Two days later, I caught a bus back to Tallinn to attend a ladies retreat, put on by Women of Compassion, for women from North America. This retreat is provided largely by donations to WOC, with the participants covering only their transportation to the site and a registration fee. I was asked by a friend to go and room with her, so I registered, not sure from where the funds would come to cover it. Out of the blue, Glenn and I were blessed by a love gift when we were in America in June that covered my travel expense and registration fee. When I registered for the retreat and when we received the gift, I had no idea at the time that I would NEED this retreat. God truly meets our needs, even when we aren't aware we have those needs!
This was my "small group" of ladies that I was a part of during morning sessions. We were able to share our hearts within this group and friendships developed that I hope will continue for years to come.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Word that we heard each morning and our small group time was really good, but we were also blessed with some pampering by volunteers from America. I got a pedicure, a color analysis (which colors look good with my skin tone and hair) and a hair cut (finally! I've been waiting for 3 long weeks!!) They were hoping to bring someone to do massages, but unfortunately, no one volunteered... Alas!
Cile, Diane, Heidi and Jen
Before going, I didn't expect to know anyone else except Jen, who had asked me to go in the first place and to be her roommate, but it was a nice surprise to get there and see more familiar faces.
The food was delicious, my favorites being the salmon (twice) and the dinner rolls with fresh butter! Jen loved the rolls too, and she confessed she usually ate more than one for lunch and dinner. (I won't tell you exactly how many...) On our last day, I went to hug her good-bye and saw that she had a pile of dinner rolls beside her plate, covered with a napkin! She lifted the napkin to show me how many, and then confessed she'd already eaten 1. She's young. She'll burn them off before she even gets home, but mine, well, they stay on my hips and thighs forever. Take our word for it; the rolls were delicious!
(Photo and commentary used with Jen's permission.)
On the 17th, I flew back to Prague and spent the next day having morning coffee with one family, lunch with another family, and afternoon coffee with a third family. Riding the tram across the Charles River to visit one of the families is all the sightseeing we did.
We didn't have any time for walking in the city or eating at any of the fun places like Bohemia Bagels or Buffalo Bill's since we went straight from our time with families into the meeting we were there to attend.
I did want to show you though the "snack" food the hotel provided for our morning break time. These open-faced sandwiches (which is so European!) had purple leaf lettuce, a thin slice of ham folded in a way to make it bubble up, and colorfully piled on top were thin strips of boiled egg, pickle slices, tomato wedges, and parsley. They were so pretty that no one wanted to eat them. (Only two were eaten out of the two trays!)
Glenn heads to Istanbul tomorrow and will be gone for 3 days while I hold down the fort here. Next week ... off again!
