My Whole Personality

These days I feel like I’m giving off “my whole personality is travel” vibes. I promise I do other things. Like embrace the Estonian “shrove bun” tradition by trying no fewer than nine varieties (not all pictured here).

Nutlella

Cherry jam

Gelato

Donut style

Mango

I also watch the news. And just when I think, “maybe I’ll throw up a blog post with some pictures of my recent travels” (which is, apparently, my whole personality), there is some new horror and it seems inapporpriate to post about cream buns, the ABBA museum, or pizza.

And yet, it’s finally spring in Tallinn and I want to celebrate the things that got me through a very long winter.

Scenes from a Baltic Winter

So here’s a photo dump of some places I’ve been, experiences I’ve had, and things I’ve eaten since the last time I wrote.

Mama Mia!

A colleague from my Foreign Service orientation class is posted in Stockholm, which is such an easy mini-break from Tallinn I can’t believe I’d never been.  

Superstars at Eurovision…and beyond!

 

Stockholm by land and water, Swedish meatballs, my friend’s fluffball, mini statue of Alfred Nobel.

 

The Vasa Ship Museum. The Vasa sank in 1628, less than a mile into her maiden voyage and was salvaged in the late 20th century.

Eternally Hashtag Grateful

I went to Rome when I was 17 years old and, despite having been back to Italy several times over the (many) years since I was in high school, I had never been back to the Eternal City. I kept hearing that the crowds can be relentless.

Obviously traveling in the off-season would help, but as I researched other ways to avoid crowds, I discovered a pre-opening hours tour of the Vatican Museums. It was outrageously expensive, but I couldn’t get it out of my head. Could I splurge? I wavered. Then a friend explained that really, I should think about the difference between the cost of a plane ticket from Seattle vs. a plane ticket from Tallinn, and use the difference to fund the tour. I pretended to do the math and decided that yes, I could splurge.

The Key Master’s tour allows a small group (ours was 12 people) to accompany the man (natch) who opens up the galleries, including the Sistine Chapel, for the day. This would be a wonderful experience at any time of year but arriving in the winter darkness of 5:45 am and then getting to see the museum open up to the daylight was extraordinary.

Velvet ropes were moved aside to allow us rarefied views of masterpieces.

Laocoön and His Sons

The Buttocks of Laocoön and His Sons! (normally roped off)

We took turns unlocking doors and turning on lights, enjoying the tranquility of otherwise empty galleries. Even the morning cleaning staff didn’t start until the end of our tour. (Can you imagine cleaning such a place every day?)

We were even allowed to take photos and video (usually not allowed) in the Sistine Chapel, catching the moment when the lights illuminated the famous ceiling.

The unassuming door to the Sistine Chapel

When I finally exited, I caught sight of the crowds I’d escaped.

Given the expense, this was almost certainly a once in a lifetime experience. Was it worth it? No question. Thank the heavens for good friends and dubious math to help one justify one’s most indulgent impulses.

While I planned the trip around this specific tour, I obviously did more. Like revisiting all the amazing sights I barely remember from when I was 17, seing some new sights, and eating so many carciofi alla Romana (Roman-style artichokes) which I had somehow never had before!

You now have to pay to get close enough to throw a coin in the Trevi fountain. But I thought the chance of a return visit to Rome was worth it!

Crowds at St. Peter’s aren’t bad when you go first thing in the morning. Though when I returned later to climb the dome, they were worse.

The Borghese Gallery has a wonderful system of timed entriy, limited to two hours per visit, which they track with color coded stickers.

The park bench outside the Borghese Gallery collects Borghese stickers

While it’s crowded as you line up to go in, once the group is let loose inside, it dispereses and makes for an overall relaxing and enjoyable visit. I love the Berninis.

Pluto and Persephone

Apollo and Daphne

Because I wanted to visit Pompeii, I also tacked on a few days in Naples, where I had never been. Naples seems to be the least favorite part of Italy for so many people, which made me curious. While I wouldn’t call it “charming,” it is the only European city I’ve been to that captures some of the energy of a North African or Asian city. And you can’t beat the food! Thumbs up from me.

Views of Mount Vesuvius

Pompeii

Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, featuring art from Pompeii

Christmas

As I have mentioned, summer 2025 was FULL of visitors. But I was still striking out at luring anyone from my actual family until…Christmas! My sister got quite the Baltic experience, with Christmas markets in Tallinn, Tartu, and Riga, and spas in Pärnu.

Riga Christmas Market

Tallinn Christmas Market

Riga Christmas Market

Tartu Christmas Market

Tartu Town Square Christmas Market

Tartu ice skating rink in front of town hall

Tartu

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The Tartu Upside Down House

 

In front of Riga’s The House of Blackheads (built in 1334, destroyed in WWII, rebuilt after Latvia left the USSR)

Dumplin’ eating dumplings!

The Tartu Letterpress Center

Pärnu

Villa Ammende in Pärnu

Villa Ammende

FamJams on Christmas morning in Riga

At the KGB Exhibit

 

Vitamin D

The top five darkest capitals with the least daylight in the winter months are:

1. Reykjavik, Iceland
2. Helsinki, Finland
3. Oslo, Norway
4. *****Tallinn, Estonia*****
5. Stockholm, Sweden

If you do not live in one of these cities, and your response to me, when I tell you it is very dark here in the winter, is to tell me how it is also very dark where you are, I DO NOT SYMPATHIZE (Unless you are in a non-capital city that has little daylight. Alaskans and Faroese, complain away!).

Here are some pics from my VitaminD-palooza, where I saw loads of color, ate at one of the world’s 50 best restaurants, and survived a jungle trek I half expected would kill me. (And half did!)

 

The aforementioned trek was HARD. I felt it was more about the destination than the journey as the journey could be muddy and unpleasant and sometimes not all that pretty. Just dense jungle vegetation and mud. At least we had real beds.

 

Although sometimes the trail opened up, the mountains were breathtaking, and I could actually enjoy where I was.

 

But often it was just putting one foot in front of the other until we reached our destination. And yet…what a destination!

 

The Lost City was “lost” because the Spanish conquistadors, with their horses and heavy armor, never made it this far into the mountains. I was glad to have done better than the conquistadors, but happy be get out of the mountains and back to hot showers, even though it meant trading mountain coolness for Carribean coastal heat.

By the time I got back to Estonia, I was even grateful for the cold. 

So there’s my winter.

Now, with the great darkness behind us, I have spring and summer travel and visitors to look forward to. If all goes to plan, I’ll be on the west coast when winter rolls around in late 2026. Reach out if you want to get together.

Near and Far Are Relative Terms

If there’s one thing Foreign Service has taught me is that, in Elizabeth Bennet’s words, “near and far are relative terms.”

When I am in the USA, technically nearer to friends and family, I find rushing from state to state to see everyone stressful, exhausting, and expensive. I do it, because it’s important to get the face time with the people I value the most. But do I make fewer trips to the USA to avoid the guilt and stress of trying, and failing, to see everyone? Definitely.

But during my “regular” life, jumping from one entire country to another is a whole different story.

It was when I was in Asia I had my first, “as long as we’re on the same continent” moments, making minibreak visits to places I would previously have considered only with 10+ days at my disposal and a comprehensive, pre-planned itinerary.

Bangkok

Kathmandu

Chiang Mai

Did I do the full tourist experience? No. Was it expensive? Yeah, kind of. But did I get hours of uninterupted time with favorite people? Yes!

Now I’m in Europeland, where distances between countries are shorter and visitors from the USA more numerous. If I gave the impression my life was all about hosting visitors these past six months, I promise I’ve also been doing my fair share of visiting in return, focusing on people over places.  

Belgium

My friend R, from Islamabad, is posted in Brussels, home of peeing statuary, smurfs, and Tin Tin.

On my first day in the city, I caught manneken pis naked

The statue is often decorated

Beligum has never been high on my list of places to visit but R invited me and I do love beer!  In preparation I reread King Leopold’s Ghost, and requested a visit to the Royal Museum for central Africa (which has made major changes since that book’s publication). 

 

I think these are okapis?

While Belgium might not have been high on my list, I was immediately struck by how much my mom would have loved all the royalty, gold leaf, and Francophone culture. I’m sorry she never got a chance to see it. Do your traveling with loved ones when you can people!

Grand-Place or Grote Markt: the central square of Brussels

One of many ornate shopping arcades

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “Fall of the Rebel Angels”

Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “Fall of the Rebel Angels”

Belgian Frites

weekend oysters and champagne stand at the farmers’ market

Art Nouveau staircase

Fancy bookstore

Leave your frites outside.

R also suggested we do a day trip to adorable Bruges.

The Belfry of Bruges

My biggest takeway was that while theoretically I believe every culture should be valued on its own terms, deep down I believe those cultures prioritizing pleasant places to drink alcoholic beverages outdoors in nice weather are superior to all others. 

Copenhagen

K texted me in the spring to say, “a very big longshot but…” she would be in Copenhagen to start a bike tour in August. Any chance I could meet her there?

Not a long shot! As the crow flies, Tallinn to Copenhagen is twice as far as Minneapolis to Madison. But how much more pleasant to meet up for a leisurely minibreak in northern Europe?

Having “done” Copenhagen several years ago, I had zero sightseeing agenda and was happy to just follow K to her top spots: Nyhavn, Freetown Christiania, and Tivoli.

Nyhavn, 17th-century waterfront

Tivoli

The Flying Trunk: the Hans Christian Andersen ride at Tivoli

Freetown Christiania

Freetown Christiania

Freetown Christiania

Freetown Christiania

When her jetlag became too much, I continued on my own to Christiansborg Palace.

Christiansborg Palace

Christiansborg Palace Library

Throne Room

The palace houses some modern tapestries depicting Danish history which looks…eventful.

Two full days of cardamom buns and conversation, laughing, catching-up, and reconnecting over a shared love of all things Nordic was a delight.

Helsinki

When I visited Helsinki last Thanksgiving, I could just tell that the city would have different energy in the summer and I promised myself a repeat visit. But the summer was so busy with hostessing duties that August rolled around and I still I hadn’t managed it.

But then the circumstances of friends in town, a friend posted in Helsinki, and an Estonian mid-week holiday, all aligned to make a quick visit possible: ferry on Tuesday night after work, catch-up with my friend over dinner, take advantage of her spare bedroom, and then join the S-P family for sightseeing before heading back to Tallinn Wednesday night.

I was right. Helsinki does have a very different energy in the summer. And as the S-P family includes two architecture professionals, I got to see some of Finland’s much lauded design through the eyes of experts.

Helsinki Central Train Station Main Entrance

Helsinki Central Train Station Side Entrance

 

Helsinki Botanical Gardens

 

Helsinki Central Library Oodi

Temppeliaukio Church (Church of the Rock)

Their youngest was less impressed by churches carved out of rocks and more excited about visiting the Moomin shop, home of the Finns’ most beloved cartoon character.

Shop window for “Moomin Shop” featuring cartoon characters in window display

 

London

After the busy summer, I planned one last trip to make the summer to autumn transition: London. I have cousins there that I hadn’t seen since pre-Covid.

I knew my return would be bittersweet, because B’s wife/A’s mum died in 2023.

Fortunately, the three of us had lots of happy memories to share and B was able to show off his newly acquired culinary skills.

We also indulged in lots of nerdy book talk, I met many of their charming friends, we made several trips into the city, and caught an excellent one-person show called “Every Brilliant Thing.”

The then-current star (it rotates) was Sue Perkins, known to many Americans from her work on the Great British Bake-Off. She was amazing but the show would be fantastic with any good performer. Catch it if you ever have the opportunity.

Coal Drops Yard

British Library: Newton, by Eduardo Paolozzi.

Serendipidously, it turned out that another friend from Islamabad was overlapping with me in London for just a few hours. So I got to catch up with her and hear all the latest Islamabad info (F is Pakistani so she’s at the embassy permanently and doesn’t move around like the Americans do).

We talked about how much we both loved London, but how expensive it was and the only way I could afford living there was if I got a job at the embassy. Hmmmm…

And so I planned to end my summer travels with London.

Except…

Barcelona

About two weeks before leaving for London I got a text from good friends in Boston. They had landed a cat-sitting gig in Barcelona. Did I want to meet them for a couple of days? OF COURSE I DID. I wanted to see them of course, but since Tallinn had already given up the ghost on summer in August, this was also a final chance for summer weather. 

As there are so many flights feeding the Brits’ addiction to Spanish sunshine, it was easy for me to add a couple of days away from the office and do a quick switcheroo from London→Tallinn to London→Barcelona→Tallinn. 

This tower, seen from my friends’ temporary apartment, was part of a training area for firefighters. The views weren’t bad!

From Picasso’s study of Diego Velazquez’s Las Meninas

Ukrainian support in Spain

Movie poster for Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

From the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya’s rooms on art and the Spanish Civil War

So there it is. I am so unused to having friends and family in my general vicinity, I guess I imagined my first year in Europe would involve highly curated solo visits to unpeopled corners of the continent like Bulgaria or the Hungarian countryside. Instead, it was a whole season of visiting people and being visited in turn. Not a bad way to spend a summer.

Summer of Visitors

And just like that, my summer of visitors is over.

Throughout my seven years of this weirdo life, I have frequently lamented my lack of visitors. Besides missing hanging out with people I’ve known for decades, I also struggled to explain some of the nuances of my world to those who have never seen me in situ. 

Eight months after moving to Estonia, thanks to L’s suggestions on placement, I finally had the Facilities guys come by and hang all my art on the walls.

But what 2018-2024 lacked, April-August 2025 more than made up for. I hosted 15 different people over six visits. I had so much fun catching up with folks, getting to know children who have grown up in my absence, sharing some of my favorite things about living in Estonia, and discovering a bunch of new things with old friends.

Here were some highlights.

Cities
Estonia doesn’t have much in the way of cities but the one place that can compete with Tallinn in terms of culture and history is probably Tartu. S&T and I headed to the city formerly known as Dorpat, which is also home to the largest, oldest, and most prestigious university in Estonia, founded back in 1632 with the blessings of Swedish King Gustavus Adolphus.

Tartu also boasts several excellent museums, restaurants, and breweries. I immediately started hatching a plot to move there permanently after I retire. I mean, after I retire to Portugal. And then to Riga.

I’d go for a place in one of the older districts filled with adorable wooden houses, like “Soup Town” (due to street names like pea, potato, and bean) or Karolova, where we enountered a hyper-local neighborhood street festival. Curiously, the theme seemed to be putting children in charge of minature capitalist enterprises. Some were making and selling food out of random open windows, while others sold dry goods or just threw down a blanket scattered with unwanted toys and a sign reading €2.

Worn out Labubus didn’t tempt me, but I bought a carved wooden tray from a tween who started off speaking to me in Estonian and then effortlessly switched to perfect English. My language envy is real.

Ruins
Tartu has a very cool ruined cathedral, completed in the late 1400s, but mostly destroyed in the Livonian wars circa 1563. The remains loom over town.

In June, K and I went to visit the ruins of Haapsalu Castle, where we did NOT see any ghosts, although legend has it that the castle is haunted by the White Lady, who was walled up like poor Fortunato, in punishment for a forbidden relationship with a monk. I support her haunting.

I went back to Haapsalu the following month with J, M &M, where we explored the ruins of a 19th century manor house with a tragic backstory, and an adjacent semi-ruined former Soviet airfield.

Soviet-era Airfield

Museums
One thing I’ve noticed about this small country, relatively new to independence, is how thoughtfully they use monuments and museums to proclaim their right to exist as a nation. (I mean, they were part of the USSR, so they learned from the best.)

We spent hours in the National Museum of Estonia in Tartu, which traces the history of the Estonian people, and also displays some things that, to an older and/or mightier nation might seem trivial, like a t-shirt with the Estonian flag on it. This might not register as important to you or me, but displaying that flag was illegal during soviet times. When local citizens started wearing t-shirts displaying the blue, black, and white, it was a major turning point in the reassertion of Estonian independence.

Archeology Student Group’s T-Shirt

In addition to the The National Museum, mentioned above, I also hit Tartu’s Science Center on the advice of my boss whose kid said, “I could go there every day.”

It is great for kids, but I didn’t have any with me, so was more interested in TYPA letterpress and paper art centre, a recommendation from J&M who had visited when they swung through Tartu.

The Haapsalu train museum was closed when K visited but we explored the outdoor exhibits.

In Tallinn, L and I visited the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom, which was heavy hitting but also had fun interactive exhibits like the one that allowed me to don a virtual reality headset and decorate a Soviet era apartment.

Vabamu Museum exhibit on Soviet-era housing

Balancing personal freedom and safety

On the island of Saaremaa is a spot where they seem to just have gathered up random cast-offs from myriad 20th century invaders (Gernman Imperial Army, Nazis, Soviets, Nazis again, Soviets again) and called it a military museum.

The Estonian SSR flag

But for my money, the Seaplane Harbor Maritime Museum was the one to beat. Super interactive, gorgeous space, opportunities to do fun stuff like going inside an old submarine, pretend-driving a rescue boat, and learning first-hand about water pressure and air current. For an extra fee, you could also climb a mast (M&B did that).

Alas, I did often have to work, even when hosting visitors, so sometimes folks hit museums on their own and gave me the rundown later so I could advise future guests.

Restaurants and Bars
I had done a good job of exploring some restaurants when I first got to Tallinn, but slacked off during the great darkness. Eight months in and I had only made it to one of the three top medieval spots in town!

Fortunately, S&T were super enthusiasitic and we indulged in the Grand Chef’s Feast at Olde Hansa, where the conceit is that you are dining in the home of a wealthy merchant of the middle ages. Everyone says, “so like Medieval Times?” No!

I mean, Yes, costumed “servents” bring you your food and call you ‘honorable guests.’ And there are sometimes troubadores. But the focus really is on food—delicious dishes that do not include any potatoes (or tomatoes, chocolate, chilis) as they weren’t available until after the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María made their 1492 voyage. The dining rooms are candlelit and there are only a few nods to modernity, like emergency exit signs, indoor plumbing, and the ability to pay by credit card. But when I asked if I could use my American Express, the woman shook her head sadly and said “we don’t even know what America is.”

When we asked the “medieval” man to take a photo of us

Tallinn also offers more modern food. A Dagestani dumpling spot became one of my favoarites after I visited with L. S&T also enjoyed a visit here and if we’d had a little more time I would have dragged V, B, D & M there too, because that family nurtures a seriously deep love of the dumpling! Together we ate at two different Pelmen locations as well as Odesa, a Ukranian spot that served us complimentary shots of delicious horseradish vodka. It was thoughtful of them to bring enough for the whole table, but the 11 and 16 year olds demurred. More for the grown ups!

I discovered a love of selyenka soup in a Tartu tavern housed in an 18th century gunpowder cellar (in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the highest pub ceiling in the world)…

…and ate “legendary” 1970s cheeseballs in a 19th century windmill turned restaurant on the island of Saaremaa.

M & S treated me to a goodbye dinner at the very fancy Fotografiska rooftop restaurant. The neighborhood that calls Fotografiska home, Teleskivi, is full of loads of other great eateries: L and I enjoyed burgers and Estonian garlic bread (fried strips of rye bread served with dipping sauce) in a diner made of old train cars, while a hipster spot in an old industrial building convinced a skeptcal 12 year old that he was a fan of Russian dumplings. (He was took some convincing on the dumplings but was otherwise a wildly adventerous eater for a tween.)

My level of alcohol consumption went up and down depending on who was in town, hitting its peak with either with N&K or M&S, all of whom were more than willing to check out both the Depeche Mode themed bar in old town, and Teleskivi’s Junimperium, the gin distillery and bar that has ruined me for all other gin and tonics.

I also discovered, courtesy of a persistent 11-year old who insisted we visit, that Cat Cafe Nurri offers coffee, beer, and smoothies, along with unlimited cat petting.

Inside Estonia, Outside Tallinn
Some of my visitors combined their stay in Estonia with explorations in other parts of Europe (Scandinavia, Poland, Helsinki, Paris, Barcelona), and limited their Estonia time to Tallinn. Others took time to explore more of this country, allowing me to tag along and visit new places like Tartu and Haapsalu, both of which I liked well enough to make return visits. But that was just the beginning!

With V, B, D & M, I made it to one of Estonia’s famous bogs.

With J, M & M I did an overnight in Pärnu, supposedly known as the Ibiza of the Baltic? There is a lovely beach, but from June through August there were only two weeks when I could refer to summer without making finger quotes, so it was a bit too chilly for swimming.

“Summer and Bathing Town”

My longest visit was to Saaremaa, where J’s willingness to rent and drive a car allowed for deep exploration, including the aforementioned military museum on the self-declared kingdom on the Sõrve Peninsula, another abandoned manor house, soviet monuments, a beach of impressive rock stacks, a meteor crater, and Kuressaare Castle.

Kaali meteor crater

 

Who’s Next?
With all visitors now departed, I appreciate being able to slow down (a bit—I’m traveling later this month), but I was still verklempt saying goodbye to the last batch, who left just a few days shy of my one year anniversary in Estonia.

My colleagues don’t always relish hosting people from home. I’ve heard about guests who eat all the food in your cupboards, treat your place like a hotel with maid service, and expect you to take time off of work to be their full time tour guide. I guess I have way better friends. All of my visitors were perfectly lovely, with totally reasonable expectations and an openess to experiencing what Estonia had to offer. Although some (M&S!) were better at embracing the in-home sauna experience than others!

And if you still want to visit, I promise there’s plenty left that I would love to explore with others. Despite my best efforts talking up Riga, I didn’t convince anyone to tack on another former Baltic SSR to their summer 2025 journey. I’d also like to visit Narva, on the Russian border, and maybe some of the other islands. I still have at least a donzen Tallinn restaurants I want to try. Plus, I’ve learned so much over the summer, I’ll be an even better tour guide for the things I’ve already seen.

For everyone who already visited—thank you! I know not everyone thinks of Estonia for their European vacation, but I am so glad you did. I know Estonia and Tallinn a bit better thanks to you and it meant a lot that you came to see me.

Weekends in the Baltic

I talk a big talk about how fascinating eastern Europe is and then proceed to post about back to back trips to Paris. Now I sound like a hypocrite. But I promise the Baltic region does have a lot to offer and as soon as the days started to get lighter, I started exploring more, so now I can tell you all about it!

Vilnius

Lithuanian Ballad is a 1973 sculpture by Vladas Vildžiūnas, commemorating the 650th anniversary of Vilnius

Lithuania, the last European nation to abandon paganism and the first to abandon the USSR, prides itself on charting its own path. So perhaps no surprise that the capital city struck me as having the highest quirkiness factor of the three Baltic capitals.

Vilnius Street Performer

Literatų Street, decorated by and in honor of various artists

 

The “Republic of Užupis,” within Vilnius, is known for its many artists and its publicly displayed constitution declaring, among other things, “A Dog Has the Right to Be a Dog.”

Despite the quirkiness, dark history is always around the next corner.

I visited the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights, housed in the former KGB headquarters. Pretty bleak. If you are expecting kitschy Boris and Natasha style content, be prepared instead for rooms providing information and sometimes displays about torture and executions.

Padded cell and straight jacket

Then there’s this (beautiful?) Soviet-era behemoth looming across the river from old town, covering over what was formerly Vilnius’s oldest Jewish cemetery.

Vilnius, once nicknamed “Jerusalem of the north,” lost most of their Jewish population during the holocaust, but as my uncle’s ancestral roots are in this city, I was determined to see some of what remains.

The Christmas decorations were still up a month past Christmas at this corner, once the entrance to the Jewish ghetto.

Bagels had to be reintroduced here in the 21st century

Vilnius had dozens of synagogues but this is the only active synagogue that survived both the Holocaust and Soviet rule

Map of the ghetto

Even with the weight of all this 20th century history, 21st century Vilnius has loads to offer that is beautiful, fun, and delicious. I hope to go back!

Lithuanian Šaltibarščiai (Cold Beet Soup)

Garlic bread, baltic style

 

Around Tallinn

After years of lamenting that I’d never had the chance to host anyone in one of my Foreign Service homes, I suddenly have a summer calendar packed with visitors. I am thrilled to welcome people, but realized I need to make sure I can recommend places to go and things to see besides old town. So I’ve been making an effort to explore neighborhoods I hadn’t been to and sights I hadn’t seen. Here are a few highlights:

Maarjamäe Castle houses the Estonian History Museum in an impressive building dating from the late 17th century. Out back is the Soviet statues’ graveyard, where a bunch of Lenin heads now rest after being torn down from town squares throughout Estonia.

Nearby is a vast Soviet-era seaside monument to Bolshevik soldiers where independent Estonia limits upkeep to fencing off the parts that are crumbling enough to be dangerous.

 

If this kind of urban decay is your thing, the Estonian Centre for Architecture offers some tours of crumbling but iconic buildings here in town.

Patarei Prison started life as a fort under tsarist Russia, became a prison during Estonian independence, Nazi and Soviet occupation, and early post-Soviet Estonia. It has been prisoner-free since 2002, hosting museum and art exhibits. When I was there, construction had just started on some kind of urban renewal project. I am unclear exactly what they are trying to do but I understand it will include a space for The International Memorial Museum for the Victims of Communism.

“Sea Fortress”

Metal loops bolted into the wall are from the days when this building was a fortress. Cannons were chained to the loops to prevent too much recoil when shot.

Former cinema room where prisoners were treated to movie screenings

The V. I. Lenin Palace of Culture and Sports, now known as Linnahall, is a seaside events center. It was not (as is popularly reported) built expressly for the 1980 Moscow Olympics, but construction was hurried along to make it ready in time for those events. Making haste meant cutting corners so while some parts are well built, others started immediately falling apart. Linnahall hosted their last concert in 2009 and now the city is trying to figure out what to do with it. Real estate developers would love to see it torn down, but can’t get past its historic landmark status.

The exterior is open and can be explored by anyone

 

Coat check desks

Buckets strategically placed to catch leaks

The interior is only accessible with a tour

More Soviet history is on display at two Tallinn KGB museums. The KGB Cells, housed in the former headquarters of the KGB, is bleak but maybe not quite as bleak as the Vilnius version. It’s one of two exhibit spaces of the Museum of Occupations and Freedom.

The door straight ahead goes to a tiny space, smaller than most closets, that was used as an isolation room

The KGB museum in the Hotel Viru, accessible only by guided tour, provides a glimpse into the world of a late stage USSR attempting to welcome western tourists while also keeping tabs on the guests (and the staff members who had contact with them). Custom-built hotels for westerners existed throughout the USSR but according to our guide, this is the only one that has preserved the evidence of that age of spy craft.

Hotel Viru was Tallinn’s first skyscraper, and commanded outstanding views

Each floor of the hotel was staffed by a floor warden who made notes of all the comings and goings.

Fortunately, if all this bleak history and gray concrete starts to wear, I can point visitors to the neighborhoods of Kalamaja and Kopli Peninsula, both of which provide plenty of color.

Kalamaja was a neighborhood traditionally housing anyone related to the fishing industry. In the 1870s, with the opening of a railway connecting Tallinn to St. Petersburg and a consequent influx of factory workers, colorful two story wooden houses were built to house all the new residents.

With Kalamaja now well and fully gentrified, people are turning their sights to Kopli, just a little further out and developed a little later. This peninsula neighborhood spring up in the early 20th century, filled with housing to accommodate the workers of the newly built shipyards and, later, professors at the University of Technology. During the Soviet era Kopli declined and became known as Tallinn’s seedy underbelly. Some people still suggest avoiding it at night, but on a sunny spring day, it’s hard to imagine a more pleasant place to wander. From the main street you are steps away from the seaside and the trendy shops and restaurants housed in the old rubber factory. Once again, Tallinn takes its urban decay and makes it useful.

Estonian Maritime Academy

Rubber factory workers back in the day

Wrocław

Finally…my first visitor in Tallinn (and during my whole Foreign Service career!) arrived in mid-April and we made plans to go to nearby(ish) Poland. I literally don’t think I’d ever heard of Wrocław before moving to Estonia. Or maybe I just didn’t realize I had heard of it because the spelling and the pronunciation (vrots-waff) are so far apart. But how adorable is this place?

It was Easter weekend so the sights were mostly closed but we enjoyed eating, walking around, and checking out the gnomes.

Definitely hope to get back to Poland as it’s pretty easy to get to with daily direct Tallinn-Warsaw flights.

See, who even needs western Europe? (OK, OK western Europe is great too.)

Pretty Places/Ugly Times

How’s everyone doing? Good? Nothing upsetting going on in the world?

To stave off madness, I’ve been trying to focus on things I am grateful for that are only possible because of this weird job I have that I may or may not be able to keep as long as I had hoped: people I never would have otherwise met, places I never would have gone, once in a lifetime experiences.

My friend hand embroidered this amazing little sack for me showing all the foreign countries I’ve lived in. I love it so much. I hope to someday be ask her to do a larger bag, so she can add more countries that I’ve lived in. We shall see.

I am also trying to take advantage of living where I live, which is not only an amazing place itself, but allows easy access to other amazing places. Skip the rest if you get bored by other people’s vacation photos and/or have an aversion to Paris.

Christmas in Paris

I didn’t make it to any of this region’s Christmas markets beyond Tallinn, but I did manage several in Paris.

Why Paris? Easy to get to, plenty to do, and they know how to do it up for Christmas.

I based myself in an area straddling Bastille and Le Marais and I am sold on this as the perfect place to stay in Paris, especially for a return trip when you care more about eating and drinking and less about seeing the Eiffel Tower.

Le Parvis des 260-Enfants, where 260 Jewish children were rounded up and deported to Nazi death camps

It was my first solo trip to Paris, and as I had already seen many of the blockbuster sights on previous visits, I focused on some “lesser” (by Paris standards) sights.

The Musée de Cluny, with the Lady and the Unicorn Tapestries.

An opera at the Palais Garnier. When I tell you that going from understated Nordic design in Estonia to this nearly broke my brain…

The Marc Chagall ceiling fresco was added in 1964

The Château de Vincennes (where the Marquis de Sade was imprisoned).

 

As it had just reopened after the 2019 fire, I also stopped into Notre-Dame. It was so bright and shiny inside! They really took the goth out of gothic.

But here’s the thing about Notre-Dame: it’s never been my favorite. As a young teen on my first overseas trip, I was blown away by the cathedral at Chartres. I have seen so many other spectacular temples, mosques, and churches in the intervening years, I wondered if the sense of awe would remain. So I took a day trip and now can confirm: Notre-Dame de Paris gets all the press, but Notre-Dame de Chartres remains one of the most beautiful houses of worship I’ve ever visited. And the town itself if a very pleasant place to wander.

If you look closely you can see some sex-pest demons bothering women

 

I also stopped in a few more museums like the Maison de Victor Hugo (will 2025 be the year I finally read one of this books?), the Carnavalet-History of Paris Museum, and the Musée Jacquemart-André. This was originally a fancy home for very rich art collectors and today’s museum restaurant, with its Tiepolo ceiling, was once the ballroom. When we visited Paris together, my mom and I had our first meal of the trip here, but had not had time to see beyond the restaurant.

And here I discovered that in March 2025 they would be featuring an exhibit I would 100% jump through flaming hoops to see. Would I have to come back to Paris in just a few months?

Springtime in Paris

I first learned about Artemisia Gentileschi, a baroque female painter with a fascinating biography, back in the 1990s and was instantly taken. I’ve remained a fan but have only managed to see a few works in person. Then, in 2020, the London National Gallery planned a major exhibit of her work. I was quick to book exhibit and plane tickets, but a pesky pandemic scuttled those plans.

Now I had another chance to see many of her paintings under one roof. I will spare you the unending arguments I made to myself for and against a return trip to Paris a mere three months after my last, while my employment situation (and the state of the republic) is so precarious. Ultimately, I decided I could do it, so I would do it.

Was it worth it? Every penny.

I was actually giddy with excitement. Is it too ridiculous to say I was “verklempt”? I’ve seen so many of her paintings in books and online, and a few in real life. But to see all these paintings in-person and gathered together in one space?  To learn Danaë is a small, almost “cozy” painting compared to giant canvasses like Judith and Her Maidservant? To see depictions of all the fantastic women: Esther, Susanna, Judith, Cleopatra? It was all a little bit overwhelming.

Penitent Mary Magdalene

Ulysses finding Achilles at the Court of King Lycomedes

My ticket was for first thing in the morning and since I’d seen the permanent collection back in December, I sprinted straight for the special exhibit space while crowds were thin, stopping mostly in front of known favorites. As this was an experience to savor, I then returned to the start and went through more slowly and thoroughly, checking out unfamiliar paintings and new details on the ones I knew well. I only left after a third and final quick stroll through, to see my favorites on last time.

Outside, Paris was glorious in its spring-ness. We haven’t had a ton of snow in Tallinn but even in late March I was still rocking a full length down coat. Those Baltic winds! But in Paris, I wandered around with just a hoody, absorbing all the vitamin D as I sat outside for lunch and a glass of wine.

I stopped in the Pompidou, not because I am a big fan of modern art but because it’s going to close later this year for a significant refurb so I may as well see it now.

They featured a Suzanne Valadon exhibit (another trail blazing female artist who often used herself as a model) and Paris Noir, Black artists in France from the 1940s to the 2000s.

Untitled painting by Beauford Delaney

Installation by Valérie John

Close-up of Délire et paix (Delirium and Peace) by Georges Coran

I really enjoyed the exhibits, and seeing inside the iconic Pompidou, but I confess even my high-brow tastes are pretty low-brow and, much like an illiterate medieval peasant, I prefer my art representational, in bold colors, and plot-driven. See, for instance, the stained glass windows at Chartres or an Artemisia Gentileschi painting.

Christ’s Temptation in the Desert

Jael and Sisera from the Book of Judges

Esther Before Ahasuerus from The Book of Esther

Now it’s time to scale back my “I can do it so I will do it” energy and hang around home for a bit. Hopefully spring makes its way to Estonia soon.

Neighborly

How do you talk about working for the federal government right now? I guess you don’t. At least not on the internet. So let’s talk about something else. Like how dark it is in here in the north and how hard it is to want to explore anywhere that isn’t under my covers or inside my sauna.

I made a rare post-6 pm excursion outside my apartment for the Christmas tree lighting and official opening of the Tallinn Christmas Market in Town Hall Square.

But if you’re not going to explore, why even come to Europe? Not for the money, that’s for sure. When it comes to benefits of this job (of which there are, for now, many), Europe might not be the place to make the most of them. Houses are smaller, communities are less knitted together, extra pay is nearly nonexistent unless you serve in, like, Kyiv, and you don’t get an R&R ticket when you live somewhere others go for their own R&R.

So what do you get? Confidence in local food and water safety standards, decent internet, a lack of snakes, scorpions, and lizards in your house, and the opportunity to travel easily and safely to dozens of nearby countries. If you can get a day off.

Which is where I have been stuck since I got here. While my colleague has been on medical leave and I have been covering for her, there’s been no one to cover for me. When I first arrived, I fancied a Thanksgiving spent in Porto or Amsterdam. But with even one day off nigh impossible to negotiate, the best I have been able to do so far is to take advantage of a few federal holidays to visit nearby cities. Which from Tallinn means Helsinki and Riga. Neither is Porto nor Amsterdam, but both of these neighbors have charm and might be especially interesting to anyone thinking of making a visit here. Because that’s another benefit of living in Europe. You might have visitors for the first time in your Foreign Service career. My first just booked tickets!

HELSINKI

I can skip the lecture about how Finland isn’t part of Scandinavia, right? Linguistically, culturally, historically, geographically, Finland counts as Nordic but not Scandinavian. Still, as a lover of all things Scandinavian and Nordic, I’m kind of surprised I’d never been. Until Thanksgiving 2024.

With ferries taking just over two hours, Helsinki is doable as a day trip, although most go in the other direction: vacationers tacking Tallinn onto the end of a Nordic holiday or Finns coming over on a cheap alcohol run. I opted to spend the night, but it was still just a “tryout” to get a sense of how easy it is to take the ferry from Tallinn (very!) and what I might want to do on a return trip (spend an entire paycheck at Marimekko?).

From the ferry dock to Helsinki’s main square (the large white church behind the Ferris wheel) is just over 1 kilometer/15 minutes by foot. Convenient!

Working on the assumption that I would be back, I didn’t go crazy trying to cram things in to the six and a half hours of daylight I had to work with.

I spent more time in Helsinki in the dark than in the daylight

The darkness was combined with gray and rainy weather, reminiscent of a Seattle winter.  Which I don’t mind!  But I maybe didn’t see Helsinki at its very best? I could just tell that this is a city to be truly enjoyed in either snowy weather or full summer sunshine. Hopefully in the future.

I suspect that Helsinki, with its western Europe bona fides and nonstop flights from the US, will be popular with anyone planning a visit. And for outdoor adventure, Finland may have the most to offer in Scandinavia-adjacent northern Europe. But for old world charm, you need to set expectations. Helsinki is very modern. Yes, it was was started by the Swedes back in the 1500s, hoping to create their own trading port to rival well-established Tallinn, but it didn’t really take off as a major city, what with recurring plagues and fires. That only happened after the Russians took over (forcibly, to be clear) in 1809. They moved the capital and the University from Turku, nearer Sweden, to Helsinki, nearer St. Petersburg, and hired a German architect to rebuild the city center in a style resembling St. Petersburg. Russians gonna Russify.

Uspenski Orthodox Cathedral, along with neo-classical Senate Square, is a souvenir of Finland’s 100+ years under Russian rule

If you want a cute old town and the chance to exclaim, “Wow, everything here is older than our whole country!” it’s Tallinn you want. Save for one building dating from 1757, Helsinki is an urban center that has been very recently and deliberately crafted. Which fits well in a country known for valuing thoughtful, purposeful design.

Senate Square, setting up for the Christmas Market. The gray building in the left corner is Sederholm House, the oldest building in Helsinki, built in 1757.

I saw some of the famed architecture in a brief walk around the compact center, from the aforementioned Senate Square, anchored by the Lutheran cathedral, to the late 19th century market hall and customs warehouse designed by Gustaf Nyström, to the train station designed by Eliel Saarinen, father of famous architect and frequent crossword puzzle answer Eero Saarinen.

The Lutheran Cathedral: 1852

 

The Market Hall and the Customs Warehouse: 1900

 

Helsinki Train Station: 1907

The elder Saarinen (who also designed a church in Minneapolis) and his compatriots often used a style called National Romantic, a sort of side branch of Art Nouveau (more on that, below) that looks a little less fairy and a little more troll.

 

As you move away from the center you also move from the 19th and early 20th century into more modern design, but I will have to wait for my next visit to catch up to mid-century modern. I’ll also eat some reindeer, as on this trip I stuck to salmon.

 

RIGA

I know visitors from the U.S. are probably less interested in Latvia than Finland, but hear me out.

Yes, Riga takes twice as long to get to from Tallinn, and involves a bus rather than a ferry. Not my favorite transportation but currently the easiest way to get around the region while they build a train system integrated with western Europe instead of Russia. Fortunately, the “Lux Express” is quite pleasant as buses go and very affordable.

Why did I love Riga? It has an adorable old town, yes, but one not nearly as thematically consistent as Tallinn’s. It’s more affordable than either Helsinki or Tallinn, but that attracts (annoying) western Europeans in search of a boozy mini break. Travel vloggers all seem to prefer Vilnius (Lithuania is one of Lonely Planet’s best places to travel 2025) or Tallinn.

And yet…Riga charmed me from the second I alighted the Lux Express in front of the massive Rīgas Centrāltirgus (Central Market).

This market dwarfs anything in Tallinn, Helsinki, or pretty much anywhere else, having been constructed out of five former zeppelin hangers, and offering entire pavilions full of pickles and fish (fresh and dried), meat, tourist kitsch, produce, and ready to eat food and beverage.

As with Helsinki, I worked on the assumption that I would be back, and didn’t need to “see it all.” So I lingered over a fish-heavy brunch and a pint or two at Labietis, one of Latvia’s top craft breweries. They serve “pagan brews” in a nod to Baltic history: this was the last part of Europe to adopt Christianity.

 

Riga is the most populous of the Baltic cities, which lends it a certain energy. I saw plenty of tourists but not as many as in Tallinn, and with more locals to balance them out. Riga also felt a little rougher around the edges than Tallinn. In a good way. It’s a little easier to remember that yes, this was once part of the USSR.

The Moscow District’s “Latvian Academy of Sciences” is pure Stalinist architecture, although I wouldn’t be that surprised if the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man came lumbering past.

Statue of the Latvian Red Riflemen of WWI, some of whom went on to become Lenin’s personal bodyguards.

The dark history of WWII was also in evidence. Not far from the market I found the ruins of the Great Choral Synagogue, which, in 1941, was deliberately burned to the ground with people inside. The horror is only somewhat lifted by the adjacent memorial to Žanis Lipke, a Latvian dockworker who, with his wife Johanna, saved ,many from the holocaust.

I decided to save the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia for another day and instead chased pretty views. Riga loves an observation deck.

View of the market from the top of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, with old town church spires in the distance

Old town views from St. Peter’s church spire

Riga’s old town is adorable and, like Tallinn, contradicts many ideas of what former communist Europe looks like. You’ll find cobblestone streets, original medieval buildings, and also some rebuilt buildings (WWII was not easy on this city).

Monument to the first ever Christmas tree, erected in 1510. Really? Tallinn claims to have set one up some 70 years before Riga, but it was apparently not decorated. That was a Riga innovation.

As quaint as old town was, for my money Riga’s best feature is its vast collection of art nouveau architecture in an area within easy distance of old town. The “quiet centre” offers laid back cafes and restaurants, and will have you craning your neck on every block, trying to catch the details of these buildings.

Some of these buildings now house embassies. Shall we look at this very subtle message hung directly facing the Russian embassy?

The inside of this building houses a pretty cool medical museum. You know I love a medical museum, especially one featuring dogs with two heads (early transplant experiment) and memorabilia from the Soviet space program.

 

And so, Helsinki, for all its Nordic gloss and allure, did not win me over as completely as Riga. Happily for anyone visiting Tallinn, it’s super easy to tack on a visit to either, or both, and decide for yourself.

Baltic Babysteps

I live in Europe now.

Home leave 2024 was a whirlwind, with quick stops in multiple locations followed by a flight delay in D.C. and a slightly insane reroute to finally arrive in Tallinn two days late. Twelve airports in less than a month. Do not recommend.

What I do recommend is having friends and family as awesome as mine. Thank you to all the different people who hosted me. I can’t tell you how much it means to have a place to lay my head in so many cities and even a brand new (to me) state: Texas!

Texas wardrobe choices

Now that I have been in Europeland for over a month, you’d think I’d have lots of exciting things to report. But it’s been baby steps easing my way into life here.

There’s so much to do when you arrive in a new city: getting the local ID so you can get the local bank account and a free public transportation card; figuring out where to get staple items like groceries and cleaning products and which stores have specialty cooking ingredients not available elsewhere; sussing out personal service options like massage, haircut, mani-pedi.

Sometimes my big weekend plans are just “check out the Asian food store.” Sadly, they did not have the adzuki beans I was looking for. (I have also struggled to find quality hot sauce and black beans. Always with black beans. Are black beans just not a thing outside of the Americas?)

But other than bean and hot sauce issues, life is pretty easy here.There are regular supermarkets and malls, good food delivery and taxi apps. I don’t speak Estonian but it’s written in the Roman alphabet (just realizing that this is the first place I’ve lived outside of America where this is true!) and anyway everyone speaks English.

My apartment is great. Tall ceilings, private sauna (highly recommended to anyone out there considering a home remodel), parquet flooring, guest bedroom.

It’s still a bit spare and echoey while I await my HHE (Household Effects). The welcome kit is also bit spare, compared with my past posts, so I’m drinking my wine out of a plastic cup of the type I last used downing free refills of Dr. Pepper in a Godfather’s Pizza circa 1988. Classy.

Tallinn is adorable. And will confound anyone harboring ’90s era notions about post-communist Europe. The old town, a five to ten minute walk from my apartment, is about as picturesque as any old town in western Europe. Medieval towers, cobblestone streets, narrow alleys zigzagging off of town square.

But it’s not all middle ages. Outside the center you see early 20th century wooden and stone houses and apartment buildings, some of which have been left as they are while others have been incorporated into newer developments. Occasionally you can even catch a glimpse of something Soviet.

For those considering a tourist visit, I think one to two days of vigorous sightseeing would probably take you through most of old town, while another day or two would allow you to see the more modern side of Tallinn. But because I’ve been taking it so slow, I still have plenty to explore. I try to use at least one weekend day to check out something new—a market, neighborhood, restaurant, sight. Although the weather is clearly going to turn very cold, very soon, and I may start hibernating.

Work is keeping me pretty busy, especially as I am covering for a colleague out on medical leave, but it’s not overwhelming.

No social life has yet materialized but that might take some work. This is the smallest post I’ve been at and you always hear that it can be hard to socialize in European posts because you aren’t thrown together due to hardships. In Islamabad you had to work hard not to socialize. One time I went home on a Friday night determined to get straight into my pajamas, but some colleagues decided to have a “mobile happy hour” right in front of my apartment building, with a cooler full of beer on offer. They actually only started with a six pack but as more people stopped by, it turned into some kind of Stone Soup-like situation, only with our villagers rushing to the on-compound commissary to grab Flamin’ Hot Doritos and bottles of bourbon to add to the mix instead of potatoes and onions and carrots.

Anyway, that is precisely the kind of thing that does not happen at a European post where you can move about freely. Socializing opportunities don’t literally show up on your doorstep.

I hope to get some visitors in the next few months from friends at nearby posts, and I am trying to make my own plans to visit them in turn. While Tallinn may not be the shopping extravaganza that Islamabad was, it is a travel extravaganza, putting me within easy distance of oodles of great destinations on this compact continent. Where should I go first? Well, Riga, as it turns out. I’ll cover that in another post. But that’s so close it barely counts as travel. Where should I go next????

Goodbye Islamabad

Another one in the books. Time for some reflection.

Islamabad was my third tour, my shortest tour, and the shortest time I have lived in any of the countries I’ve lived in. It was not a place I ever imagined going, much less living, and it was a very winding path that landed me there.

Pre-packout organizing of my random leftover currencies

During my time in Pakistan I hit my six year anniversary in this job. One more year and it will be the longest I have stayed at any job. (I hope to keep going until mandatory retirement, although I take nothing for granted. As one gets older, medical clearance can become more challenging.). And as I spend more time in Foreign Service, my perspective on the lifestyle evolves.

When I first joined, I could not believe my luck. I know plenty of people who are smarter, nicer, harder working, and more deserving of this opportunity. Never mind better at foreign language learning. Back in 2018 I could not understand why everyone doesn’t try to get this job, or why anyone would give up this life once they got into it. Free rent, travel opportunities, getting paid to live in another country, all with a decent retirement plan? Who would not want that? Who would quit without maximizing their number of years in? I branded anyone talking about “the sacrifice we make serving our country” as a big whining baby.

Six years and three tours later, I have a different perspective. I still feel lucky. I still like my job. But I also get why not everyone wants to do it and I do ache a bit for what I left behind.

It turns out moving every few years is exhausting.

Because Covid necessitated my early departure from Kazakhstan with nothing more than two suitcases, that apartment was packed out for me, proving that a pack out can happen even if I don’t do a lot of prep and am not there to supervise. But in Kazakhstan I hardly had any stuff. Since then I’ve picked up carpets, framed art, furniture, and probably too much knickknackery.

It’s not like I bought nothing in China, but this is about it.

Just a small sampling of what I have purchased in Pakistan

Even with professional movers, it requires some preparation. Also, for reasons around my home leave schedule and how fast Tallinn wants me at post, I am traveling with only one suitcase instead of two. Packing a single 50 lb suitcase to take me through a final week in Islamabad (90+ degrees Fahrenheit with humidity you can swim through), two weeks of home leave, plus a first few weeks in Tallinn, where summer will be ending and fall fast approaching, required a similar level of strategy to planning the D-Day invasion. Tallinn colleagues will need to deal with seeing me in a very limited rotation of the same five black dresses until my UAB (unaccompanied air baggage, 250 lbs maximum) arrives.

Of course with each move come the goodbyes. From close colleagues to the random people you run into at Friday happy hour to the vendors who helped me spend my money.

Fortunately, the mental and physical exhaustion of moving is temporary. Longer term, and more emotionally taxing, is how I feel being uprooted from family and friends in the U.S. Six years in and I’m at the point where I worry people back home will stop thinking about me as part of their group. Or stop thinking of me at all. I have friends in the Foreign Service, but I miss the camaraderie of happy hour with people who have known me for 20 years or more. An Instagram post that includes most of my friends makes me smile, and then feel sad that I am not in the picture. Friends’ kids who I knew as babies barely know who I am anymore (17-year-old Greek island hoppers are the exception of course)

At least I am lucky that my people back home are (or at least do a good show of pretending to be) interested in life wherever I am posted. Some colleagues report friends and family who basically write them off once they leave the U.S., or are annoyed when they talk about their life overseas. Will my people start to feel that way?

Besides the people, I also miss the ease of daily life in America. Do you know what an amazing thing it is to move through life without second guessing everything from the length of your skirt to the amount you should tip? To walk around for a whole day without encountering a language barrier?

I miss having easy access to my dentist and my doctor and my hairdresser. I miss the variety of culinary options that even the most middling American of cities has on offer. I miss shopping at Target. I miss not having to find a work around for two-factor authentication that requires an American cell phone number. I miss not having to remember that my bank only lets me log on when the VPN is on but that the health insurance company only lets me log on when the VPN is off. I miss drag shows and Shakespeare in the park and theater shows in English.

But am I coming home to stay anytime soon (wherever home is)? I guess probably not. Because I’m still so grateful for this life, and even wish I had more time before mandatory retirement so I could live in more places! I’ll just have to hope Estonia offers me enough to keep me grateful for another few years.

Greece is the Word

The first and last time I visited Greece I was 17 years old.

I don’t remember if, at that time, I ever thought I’d return. But I certainly never predicted that the next time I visited I would myself be escorting two 17-year-olds. Then again, there’s so much about my life that didn’t turn out as expected, why am I surprised?

I first met A. and K. on the same long weekend, back when they were babies. One was born in NYC, the other in Boston, both to very good friends. I hauled myself to the east coast for a “baby tour” when they were both in their infancy. Since then, one moved to Seattle, where I got to watch her grow up, and the other I would see every year or two, usually in Minneapolis, where her grandparents live. They met each other only once, in their tweens, when we all converged on Minneapolis at the same time.

So how did we all wind up in Greece together? At some point (when I was locked down in China perhaps? in travel withdrawal?), we hatched a plan that I would take A. on a trip of her choice. She chose Greece. As the trip got closer, I started worrying about how bored she would get with only an old lady (me) to hang around with. So I broached the idea of inviting K., who was available to join us for the first half of the trip before heading off to a summer overseas program in Amsterdam.

What a learning experience for me! First of all, teens need a lot more sleep than I budgeted for.

Sure, they arrived more jetlagged than I did (there’s only a two hour time difference between Islamabad and Athens), but I assumed they’d soon outpace me with their youthful energy. Hah! These girls slept so long and hard, there were times I needed to check for a pulse.

Second, I learned that some teens may overstate their interest in cultural activities vs. beach time. With A.’s input, I thought I planned a balanced itinerary between culture and beach. But apparently we needed more beach time or at least more “stay in the room and nap” time. If I had to plan the trip over again, I might budget less money for domestic transportation, hopping from Athens to islands and back, and more for a single beach resort with a pool. In my worst moments I may have even thought, “We should have just spent the whole time at an all-inclusive resort.”

But I exaggerate. Both were interested in cultural sights and there was something kind of magical about the moment that our taxi driver from the airport told us in his broken English, “up here, look to right” and there it was: the Acropolis all lit up. Both girls gave a little gasp of excitement.

Over the next two days, I ran them ragged on Athens sightseeing.

I was surprised the girls’ interest was so piqued by the somber changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier, until I heard them comparing and contrasting the relative hotness of the guards.

 

The Acropolis Museum is interesting, but not as interesting as it would be if the British Museum returned a certain set of marbles. Some statues gave me serious hairstyle goals.

 

Surprisingly (to me), many skip the Archeological Museum, which actually has far more interesting pieces, in far better shape. And more hairstyle goals, for men and women!

Former Ottoman mosque in Monastiraki square

Food tour downside: fellow tourist who was super annoying. Upside: delicious food and, according to the girls, a hot tour guide.

Athens temperatures were sizzling but coming from Islamabad, it wasn’t too much of an adjustment for me. For the girls, it was a bit harder. A. actually tried to talk me into letting her skip our late afternoon tour of the Acropolis. She’d reimburse me for what I’d paid for the tour! I told her there wasn’t much I would force her to do on this trip, but the visit to the Acropolis was non-negotiable. In the end, especially as the route was easy and the temperatures were cooling, she was glad to have done it.

This amphitheater is still in use

But the heat, combined with the jet lag, made them glad to move on to our next destination: the island of Naxos.

I don’t know what to tell you about Naxos except that it was everything you want a Greek island to be: warm but with sea breezes that keep extreme heat at bay, beaches that go on forever, restaurants that deliver food and drinks to your beach chair, water an indescribable shade of blue, white painted houses in a charming old town, a harbor lined with excellent restaurants.

Kitron is Naxos’ signature liqueur

Agios Georgios Beach

blue water, pink nails

We chilled on the beach, ate, and wandered through the old town. The only thing that was wrong with Naxos was that we didn’t have enough time there. A change in the ferry schedule meant that we had a scramble to change our own plans, and skip the third night we planned to stay there.

We were all sad. And two of us were a little stressed, to tell the truth. Me, because the logistics of crafting a new itinerary while responsible for two teenagers had me barely able to think about anything other than the next step. And one of the teens because I was in the process of learning another lesson: some people are happy to go along for the ride (teen #1), while others (teen #2 and, frankly, me) like to know what’s next. In my head I knew that the Naxos airport (we were now flying instead of ferrying) was likely to be a one room affair with a single runway. I’ve been to those airports before. But when I told the girls we’d be getting to the airport one hour in advance, teen #2, whose experience is all with major international airports, was concerned about making our flight. She was too polite to ask me, “what moron gets to the airport only one hour in advance?” And I didn’t think to share that the airport was little more than a shack, which would have been helpful information for her to have!

There are countless other mistakes I made as I navigated traveling with temporary dependents on the verge of adulthood. Parenting is hard! I’ll know better next time. Although…when’s the next time I’ll escort two 17-year-olds to Europe?

Happily, after some more painful adventures in rescheduling (involving a phone left in the back of a cab, which is basically akin to losing a limb for your average teen), we were back on track to our next stop: Heraklion, Crete.

Here there was just enough time for us to see the ruins of the Palace of Knossos and the related museum, before K. left us for Amsterdam, leaving A. and me to continue on our own.

The Minoans are considered Europe’s first civilization, and had their home base here on Crete.

Crete is huge and we only saw a fraction of it, but what I saw, I loved. I loved the energy of Heraklion, which had a lived-in feel that Chania lacked. But I also loved the quaint old town of Chania, which the Venetians crafted in the their image. We drove through some gorgeous (if occasionally terrifying) mountain scenery, lounged at a couple of beaches, and tasted fresh and delicious food from land and sea.

During the 1866 Cretan rebellion against the Turks, over 900 Greeks, including many women and children, took refuge here in Arkadi Monastery. As the Ottomans moved in, rather than surrender, the people blew up barrels of gunpowder, killing themselves and some 1,500 Ottoman soldiers.

Snails, fresh fish, truffled feta, and apáki, a Cretan cured pork specialty.

 

The kitchen and “dining room” at Ntounias, a farm to table restaurant deep in the mountains above Chania. We ate delicious wild greens, goat stew, and spicy feta dip.

 

Ottoman mosque seen from Venetian fortress

Former Ottoman mosque in Rethymno

A winged lion of Venice remains on Heraklion’s waterfront

Former Ottoman hammam in Chania

Ottoman minaret in the distance

Venetian shipyards turned Ottoman warehouses

Minarets, fortresses, mosques, hammams, shipyards: the island’s past is evident in the many Venetian and Ottoman buildings.

Circling back to Athens, our final hotel provided rooftop views of the Acropolis, which we enjoyed after a long day of souvenir shopping.

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With our last free day we opted for a guided tour of Athens’ well-regarded street art scene. It was perhaps A.’s favorite activity of the trip, and a great way to wrap up our time.

Quite a memorable return to Greece. I don’t think I can overstate what a privilege it was to get to know both of the girls better, and to be trusted by their parents to take them on this adventure. It also seemed fitting to immerse myself in the cradle of European civilization as I prepare to make my first move to live on that continent. I had a little thrill when I realized I didn’t have to be too careful about getting more cash than I needed from the ATM…I’ll be able to put any leftover Euros to quick use when I land in Tallinn next month!

My final lesson learned was that I need to keep Greece in mind for a return trip. There’s so much more to see and do, and I’d love to visit in the off season to avoid some of the heat and crowds. Tallinn does have nonstop flights to Athens…

Work and Home

I feel like this has inadvertently turned into a travel blog, so as I head towards the finish line in Pakistan, let’s take a break and do a post about work, which isn’t as exciting as snorkeling with sea turtles, but the majority of my life isn’t snorkeling with sea turtles. It’s working and living overseas, currently on an embassy compound in Islamabad but with plans to head out in August to a whole different continent in a very different city.

Tallinn is a seaport, not a river town. But the general outline is true enough.

For those who are still struggling with what it is I actually do: I’ll start with what I do not do. I am not a high powered diplomat meeting with other high powered diplomats. My job is administrative in nature and currently I support the Management section, which is the most administrative section of the embassy. Think housing, office facilities, motorpool, HR. That being said, it’s not like that admin work never trickles up into something important and policy related.

On a policy level, the government of Pakistan wants to move Afghan refugees out of Pakistan, and the U.S. wants to accept many of these same Afghan refugees if they are determined to be eligible for a U.S. visa. Together with a local staff member, I set up meetings between our bosses and the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss boring things like how long it takes to process visas for incoming American diplomats and how many armored vehicles we can import. But here’s the thing, if we can’t bring in additional diplomats to staff the embassy’s visa line, and we don’t have enough cars to drive the diplomats around once they get here, no one gets the policy outcomes they want. Is this Reagan and Gorbachev in Reykjavik? It is not. But to an Afghan refugee who has been waiting six months (or years) for a visa to go to the U.S., it’s also not nothing.

So let’s just agree that my work is neither glamorous nor meaningless.

In addition to the day in day out stuff, I have also been able to take on some special projects that allowed me to travel to all three of our Mission Pakistan consulates.

In February I project managed a visit from Office of Civil rights trainers to do sessions on Harassment and Equal Employment Opportunity laws. High level visitors are assigned a control officer (glorified babysitter) but these were not really “high level” folks. At first they said they didn’t even need a control officer, just a point of contact at every location. But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed wiser to give them a control officer (me.) Pakistan in general can seem intimidating, never mind the extra layers of security protocols required for U.S. diplomats. So off I went to accompany them to Lahore and Karachi and Peshawar—oops! A few hours before leaving for Peshawar our flight got cancelled, apparently because the airline we were booked on sometimes books more flights than they have planes and then just cancels whichever flight is least profitable and Karachi to Peshawar was not the money maker that day. Worth it to have me around as control officer to arrange an extra night in Karachi and a video link training with Peshawar. (Fortunately, I eventually made it to Peshawar to lead a training for a different project).

Due to security constraints, I didn’t visit any tourist attractions or explore the food scene in these historic cities. But I can speak to differing levels of security for U.S diplomats. Peshawar is definitely the most hard core. There are no apartments, just Hardened Alternative Trailers (HATs) that contain a bathroom, twin bed, wardrobe, desk, microwave, and electric kettle. You share this limited personal space with your supply of emergency rations and a flak jacket.

Trying on a flak jacket

While you can do what your creativity allows with a microwave and electric kettle, generally you eat all of your meals in the tiny cafeteria. There’s no on-compound bar but a communal “honor” fridge has a few beers for sale. But if you are security staff (the vast majority are) you are considered on duty 24/7 and cannot drink. There’s a reason Peshawar gets three R&Rs.

Life in Islamabad is frankly the easiest of all Mission Pakistan sites and now that I am wrapping up my time here, I am already nostalgic for the things I will miss. But know there are also things I will not miss.

Things I will miss about serving in Pakistan:

1. VIP treatment: for security reasons, armored motorpool cars drive us everywhere and at the airport, be it personal or official travel, an expeditor meets and escorts me. My movements may be limited, but they are done in style!
2. Fresh fruit: I got here during Mango season, after which we moved on to pomegranate, blood orange, and strawberry season. We are finishing peach season, are mid- cherry and watermelon season, and re-entering mango season. The fresh fruits and juices are amazing and, when prepared on compound by our staff trained in proper food handling, very safe to consume. If not prepared on compound, see #1, below.
   

   
   

   Scooter traffic and orange sellers on the streets of Lahore

3. Shopping: Carpets, jewelry, artwork, handmade furniture, tailor made shoes and clothing…there are a lot of things to spend your money on in Pakistan and I have spent it! I am still spending it! Currently I am awaiting two pairs of custom made shoes, two dresses, and am trying to decide if I need an antique Bajauri chest.
   

   

   

4. Benefits: Because Islamabad is a special incentive post, we get several special incentives, including a bump in our salary, extra time off, and two R&R plane tickets. My paycheck will see a serious adjustment after August.
5. Our grounds: We have a team of groundskeepers who do an amazing job here. The smell of jasmine that permeated the entire compound this spring made every day’s walk to and from work feel special.
   
6. Community Events: From the twice weekly happy hours to the Black History Month Gala to the Pride-a-palooza Dance Party, there are so many community events on compound that even a homebody like me winds up being semi-social.

Things I will not miss about serving in Pakistan:

1. Bleaching my lettuce: “Pak-Attack” is expat slang for food poisoning and so far I have avoided it. Yes, fresh produce is delicious and plentiful here, but our medical unit warns every newcomers’ briefing attendee that anything not prepared on compound is “covered in a thin fecal veneer.” So bleach your fruit and veggies!
   Related, we have shelf stable milk, but the last couple of times I’ve tried to buy sour cream have been rough. If you have ever joked (as I have) that sour cream really can’t go bad, because it’s already dairy gone bad, I urge you to try some Pakistani sour cream that has been shipped in non refrigerated trucks during Pakistan’s worst heat wave in years, and then put into refrigerators plugged into an unstable local power grid. And don’t get me started on the time I bought sour cream and cream cheese and they tasted exactly the same.
2. Living on the Enclave: I don’t actually mind living on compound, even though it has a bit of the same feel as a small college campus. But the compound is on the Diplomatic enclave and to exit the enclave you need motorpool, ideally requested three hours in advance. Some places require advance security requests of a couple of days. Which means the only place you can truly go spontaneously is immediately outside the compound, within the enclave, where you can walk around as you like but only have a half dozen stores and three cafes to visit.
3. Windows That Don’t Open: Our on-compound apartments are real apartments, unlike the HATs in Peshawar, but they do come with blast resistant windows, as do our armored motorpool vehicles. I look forward to someday experiencing a breeze through an open window again. (Which is how you know I am not Moldovan.)

Note that this list is about serving in Pakistan, not about Pakistan writ large. Sadly, Pakistan is the country I’ve gotten to know the least during my time living here, mostly for security reasons but also because a year is nothing, at least when you also have to work for a living. I will have to add Pakistan to my ever-growing list of potential vacation destinations because when I am no longer “under Chief of Mission authority” I’d be free to explore. But that won’t likely be any time soon. Once I am in Europe, I suspect I’ll be mostly sticking around there for my vacationing.

Next up, Estonia! As soon as I decide if I need this Bajauri chest.