Today was my day to explore Tallinn. I started off the day with a breakfast at 8 a.m. at the hotel. The hotel’s breakfast was a bit limited compared to the other three hotels that I had stayed at. They didn’t have orange juice or apple juice and instead had some type of pink juice which tasted somewhat like cough medicine. I opted instead for the water with lemon slices in it. I had scrambled eggs along with a ham and cheese sandwich. I had planned on eating toast but there was no toaster.
Really I had no plan for today. I had consulted the Lonely Planet travel guide which gave me a generalized route on where to go. But as I realized Tallinn streets are long and winding and it’s difficult to keep track of which street you are on in order to follow a path designated by the travel book.
I decided to head toward one of the designated places which they travel book had recommended. This was that Margaret which was one of the towers from the Medieval Time of Tallinn. After asking a Russian visitor to take my photo I decided to try and go to some of the areas which are high up and where you can see a large part of Tallinn according to the travel book. After exploring around I found the place where you could go up to a viewing stand and see the sites. Spray painted on the side of the wall Den stencil lettering it said “put down the camera and enjoy the view.” I thought to myself “how appropriate.” I did take some photos of the view and shopped at the souvenir stands.
I walk down to another part of the city and looked up against the city walls. I tried to find a way which I could walk along the city walls but I never did find a way except for a very brief area where a cafe along the wall is positioned.
I also made it over to the Orthodox church with the onion shaped towers. They were having a worship service inside and I knew not to have my hands in my pockets. I stood solemnly taking it in. Here I was an American on vacation and I was watching average Estonian worship their God. I feel for these people. They may not have known the biblical truth but they seem to be so sincere and saw them about it. I wish there was a way that they could have known the God of the Bible. After a while I decided it was time for me to leave because I had seen a similar Orthodox worship service before.
I decided now was a good time to try to get some lunch. I had tracked down where the nearest Subway was. It was quite a bit away from the old town but I managed to find it using Google Maps. The Subway server spoke perfect English. I joked with her that I had eaten Subway in the last four countries. She then wants to know if Estonian Subways were best. Had this Subway I found there was ice in the ice dispenser and unlimited free refills at the drink dispenser both the plus in my book.
Afterwards I walked around some more and decided I wanted to visit the Occupation Museum which documented Estonian life under Soviet occupation. Why was searching for the museum I came across a large square with a concert going on. There was a children’s choir singing which I videoed using my camera. I eventually found the Occupation Museum, but it was closed for today. The sun indicated that today was a holiday. This was a common theme today as many museums were closed.
I walked around some more and found an ice cream shop and bought three scoops of chocolate. It was somewhat expensive but I figured I was on vacation and needed to indulge myself.
I shopped around for some souvenirs.
I also found a church which was selling tickets to the tower. I knew my GoPro is completely out of battery there for us all the church briefly and then went back to my hotel to get a fresh battery for my GoPro. There were quite a few steps going up to the tower. Also I found that the area of walking around the tower at the top was designated as always going right. While I was there there were some people who were trying to go left that is counterclockwise and it made for some difficulty for them to get around me. I made some videos.
I also found myself at the large Guild which houses the history museum for Estonian history. There were many Interactive videos on it which provided for some interesting part of the day.
I had checked on an Irish Pub for supper but unfortunately their menu did not mention that they served fish and chips. At this point I was just getting really hungry and decided to head toward McDonald’s. At this McDonald’s they take your order and give you a receipt with an order number and then you wait in line for your order to be called from another counter. It seemed like it took my order forever but eventually I got my food. Here I was eating in the shadow of a tower at an American style restaurant. It seems like two cultures were clashing.
I headed back to my hotel room to relax. At this point I decided it was time for me to go and try to find my bus stop so that there would be no surprises tomorrow whenever I departed on my plane ride back to America. I found my bus stop without too much problem using Google Maps.
Tomorrow will be a long day for me but I am excited that I was able to spend a week in Europe getting to know the Baltic states.

I actually woke up at around 7 but did not actually get up until about 7:30 this morning. Breakfast in the hotel was actually very nice but initially I did not find the milk or the juice. There were both located in areas that I did not actually note to look at. The juice was in an automatic dispenser. It was somewhat like a fountain drink machine. I had toast with apricot jelly and its on little glass container. I also had Nestle chocolate cereal which was a favorite of mine whenever I was living in Germany. I also had scrambled eggs.
I figured it would be a good time this morning to try to hit up things which I missed yesterday. I went to the Orthodox Church near my hotel but unfortunately they did not open until 10. I had a good hour to kill before they would open. I went down to the market area near the place where I called the ferry to go to the fort. Merchants had set up tent to sell souvenirs and food. I got some souvenirs including a photo a patch and a postcard.
I then went to the commercial area to take some photos in make some GoPro videos. The thing about Helsinki compared to the other cities I’ve been to is that there is really no old town in Helsinki. Its more commercialized and with lot of malls.
I also ran across a southern fried chicken restaurant which I decided to go to the for lunch.
I decided to go to the church near senate square which I had not gone inside. Senate square had many tourist from the tour bus is parked near by. There was also a man dressed as some type of metallic person with a sign that said Leonardo DaVinci. After climbing all the steps the top of the square a Korean lady asked me to take her picture and then I got her to take my picture and then afterwards she got a selfie with me in it. Honestly I did not know what to think of the selfie. I thought she was getting close to me to rob me or pick pocket me. But as it turns out she just wanted to get a selfie with an American. So here I am on some Korean woman’s cell phone photo album. I entered into the church which did not have anything extraordinary decorations. It was actually fairly sparse compared to other churches of in. The church was teaming with tourists with their cell phones out taking photos. There is also a local choir group practicing with their director. The age group of the choir group appeared to be adults. I took some video of the choir group while they rehearsed and then left.
I’ve been went to the Orthodox Church which I had arrived at her earlier in the day. Since I had been there before I knew where the steps were to get to the entrance. However the people who I was walking with followed a well worn path instead of the steps. The only problem is this particular path is very steep abd difficult to walk up. If they had only went just a few feet for the they would have seen the steps. There were already about three tour buses which were unloading at the time I showed up. The church would roped off the Center area. You could tell it it was in Orthodox Church because there’s no pews and the front of the church was decorated and the usual Orthodox fashion of gold icons. I took more pictures and decided to get back to the hotel to check out in time to make it to the ferry terminal.
As I was checking out of my hotel I gave the attendant sone mint chocolate which I did not like but mistakenly purchased yesterday. I hope they will find good use for it as I cannot stand mint chocolate. In fact if feels like you’re brushing your teeth with a chocolate bar.
I rode the number four tram to the center of town and went to the southern fried chicken place. I believe this was not a franchise but locally owned. The lady gave me a glass of Fanta after I ordered it. I had also ordered a 5 piece chicken nugget with fries meal. About 10 minutes later the maeal arrived. She had given me a couple of packs of ketchup and very full container of some type of spicy mayonnaise. In Europe people tend to eat there fries with mayonnaise and this might have been an extension of this idea. The meal itself contained too many fries and not enough nuggets. I my nuggets and left plenty of fries.
I knew my 24 Hour transport pass was going to run out at 12:28 p.m. and decided just to be sure I should probably by a new one ticket pass. I walked around the hill think you train station trying to find a ticket machine but all I could find was ATM’s. Then I went over to the tram stop and was able to find it. I asked some people waiting to buy tickets behind me it which type of ticket I should get and they said that they were not from the city and was not familiar with the routing. I was able to buy my tickets and then I asked someone who was local if this was definitely the tram to take to go to the west terminal ferry link. She said it was.
I found my way to the terminal and checked in. I had an hour to kill before we loaded the ferry. I was able to chat with my girlfriend be a the terminals free Wi-Fi service.
Next came time to get in line to load the ferry. Basically you just kind of follow the crowd if you aren’t sure what to do. They opened the ferry gate at 2:50 p.m. again I just followed the crowd in and found a seat. I realize later on that no one was carrying around suitcases our luggage and must have stored them in the lockers beforehand. I feel kind of dumb rolling around my suitcase and backpack. But to each his own. During the ferry ride I discovered the ferry’s free internet and chatted with friends throughout the ride. I managed to go outside and take a few pictures of the ferry. Inside the windows were much too dirty to even try to take any pictures.
We seemingly made it into the port early but had to wait a little while for them to open up the doors. I guess they needed to get the pathway secure.
Using Google Maps that was able to walk to my hotel. My hotel in Tallinn quite unusual. When getting to my hotel room I actually have to walk through the prep area for the restaurant. Also the Wi-Fi doesn’t work in my room which is very aggravating. But the worst part is that the heat is still on and the room making the room unbearable. I had to open up some windows. I asked to change rooms but they said they were all booked up and was unable to give me a new room. If the problem persists so will try to ask for a new room tomorrow night when hopefully many people have left to go back to work.
I will to the old Town and had pizza at Pizza Americana. The service was not exactly cheerful. The lady never greeted me whenever I come in and never offered me a menu. It was up to me to figure out to that I should go up to the counter and kid a min you myself. I ordered a small pizza with four meats. It was fairly large when it came. It was a pan pizza. I believe it was probably twice the size of a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut. But I was able to eat it all and drank all of the one bottle of Sprite which they gave to me.
Tomorrow I will explore the old town of Tallinn before packing up and going home on Monday. Its been a long and exhausting trip and I will be glad to get back home and get some sleep.

(Or how I learned to love 4 hours at Riga airport)

Before I went to bed last night I realize that I had not print it off my airbaltic boarding pass. Airbaltic is one of those airlines that charges for each add on including potentially printing out my boarding pass at the airport. So I knew I needed to be sure to print it out before I got to the airport. Hotel Monte Cristo has computer available for people to use to print out items. I realized that I needed to use it last night but when I checked someone was already there using it. I waited about 15 minutes and went down to the bottom floor and he was still using it. Therefore I went to bed hoping that I would be able to use it early in the morning. I woke up at around 2 and went downstairs and found that he was not using it. So I register for my flight but unfortunately I wasn’t able to print out my boarding pass. The lady at the front desk said that the printer was not working and that I could email the boarding pass to her which I did. I went down and she had been able to fix the printer and had my boarding passes ready.
As a side note I believe the person using the computer was a hotel staff member perhaps a security guard. I surmise this because he was wearing the same color shirt as the receptionist and when I logged onto the computer it showed the security cameras around the hotel.
I slept until 4 a.m. and got up expecting to be able to leave on an earlier bus than 5:45 a.m. My flight was at 7:40 and they started boarding at 7:10.  However there was no earlier bus than 5:45 a.m. putting me at the airport around 6:16 a.m. giving me around 45 minutes to go through security without any delays on the bus. Google show there were 19 stops on the bus which could have easily delay the bus and not even considering early morning traffic around Riga. As I was chatting with an online friend of mine he recommended I use a taxi. I checked with the front-desk receptionist who also recommended I get a taxi. It was about 10 till 5 and I told her that I would be down in 10 minutes. She said that she could have a taxi within 10 minutes. I had already packed up my stuff therefore it took minimal preparation to get my stuff ready to check out. After checking out I waited around two minutes before my Taxi Driver arrived. He had to walk up to the hotel since there is no parking and helped me with my bag as we exited. We had agreed on 15 Euro for the ride to the airport. As I rode to the airport I noticed he was an older man so I asked him if he was living in Riga when the 1991 revolutions took place. He said he was and I asked him some more details about it and he volunteered some information. I could tell that maybe he was tired as he did not say too much. But I wanted to let him know that I was interested in his country’s history and I would love it if he could tell me some stories about his time under Soviet occupation.
we got to the airport at around 5:25 a.m. I paid him by 15 year old and he help me unload my bags and he went on his way.
Security required me to separate my electronics including my iPad and camera take off my belt and jacket but not my shoes. I have a Lithuanian license plate which I’m sure is going to cause problems in security so I just go ahead and have it ready to take out whenever I go through the X-ray machine.
I got to my gate and realized that there was not enough seating so I went upstairs and got breakfast and sat down and waited while chatting with my friends over the airport free Wi-Fi.
It wasn’t until my girlfriend told me that my flight may be cancelled that I decided to check with the agent at the gate to confirm that it was cancelled. I went downstairs and there was a red light flashing in the language of Latvia with something I did not realize. Then it change to English and said cancelled. I asked the ticketing agent if this was true and he said yes and that I would need to go upstairs to the air Baltic transfer desk to get rebooked. I went upstairs and waited while another gentleman in front of me was having the same problem I had. I was hoping that he was not getting the last seat on the next available flight. The Airbaltic representatives apologized and gave me at 3.50 Euro credit to use at an airport restaurant while I waited. The next available flight departed at 11:05 a.m. I had to wait for my boarding pass from finnair who’s ticketing desk will open 2 hours before the flight. Therefore basically I had 4 hours to burn at the Riga airport. I spent time chatting with my girlfriend who is always willing to stay up and chat with me even though it’s very late for her. I don’t know who was more tired her or me. I had only gotten a minimal amount of sleep the night before because I had gotten up at 2 a.m. and again at 4 a.m. to get ready for this early morning flight. Really all I wanted to do that morning was to sleep. But I knew I couldn’t sleep because I was traveling by myself and I really should watch my bags. While I was waiting I had somebody come up to me and asked for money. I told her I didn’t have any money. I had wondered how she got to the airport without having any money because it seems to be a closed-off area that one could not just walk up to.
There was already a line forming at the finnair ticket desk so I decided to get in line. When I got to the ticketing counter and explain my situation I had the finnair lady asked me if I wanted a window seat. I asked if there was any extra charge for this and she said no and therefore I requested a window seat. I got my boarding pass and went through security. This time they stop me to open up my suitcase and examined my Axe spray on deodorant. They said that mace comes in these types of bottles and they needed to examine it. I then proceeded to my gate. As I was waiting with my iPad connected to a charger the security guard brought through a dog to sniff out our suitcases. I thought it was all very unusual because I never see dogs at US airports.
As I was waiting a young man asked me if I spoke English. Whenever someone comes up to me and starts asking me questions always take extra care to hold on to my bags because sometimes I think they’re trying to distract me so that they can pick pocket me. As it turned out he was just wanting to know where we pick up our checks luggage. I didn’t exactly know what he was asking about because it seems like it was obvious. But he could have been a first-time flyer and obviously I was the one that should not be asked about this because I was unfamiliar with Helsinki Airport. As he was giving his ticket to the ticketing lady he asked her the same question. She kind of looked at him funny and said you’ll just have to follow the crowd. I figured this guy was unfamiliar with flying as these are basic questions on checked luggage. This must have been his first time flying.
I made a new single serving friend with the lady sitting next to me. She was a Latvian doctor attending a conference in Helsinki. She too had been bumped from the earlier flight and now she had to make it to her conference by 2 p.m. we discussed her memories of the revolution and where she had been to in other parts of the world. She had lived in Texas briefly and thought that my accent was from the southern part of the United States similar to Texas. I always find this humerus when Europeans try to guess where I’m from. In London I had a restaurant worker guess that I was from Texas.
Judging from the amount of people on the Finnair flight I surmised that the airbaltic flight did not have enough passengers too warrant a fight. This Finnair flight had several empty seats as well. I believe airbaltic took consideration of sending a almost empty plane to Helsinki and realize that it would be cheaper to rebook everyone on the thin air flight.
It wasn’t anything that I could control and I kept my calm about the cancellation. Our mission group at church has a saying. That is “be flexible” and “that’s just the way we like it.”  and sometimes that’s the philosophy that you must have when traveling when faced with unforeseen cancellations or change of plans.
Our flight landed early.  I noticed the same guy who had asked me about where to claim his luggage asking the same question to the lady who would sat beside me. oh well I hope this guy was able to get his luggage.
I knew I needed to take a train from Helsinki airport to the central train station. I stopped by the tourist info desk. They were very helpful in telling me exactly what I needed to do in order to get to my hotel. The moral of the story is if you don’t know ask.
As I was riding the train to the Central Railway Station some teachers with young children got on. I figured they were around first or second grade. Now mind you today’s teachers would only put a child on a bus to take them on a field trip. But these Finnish teachers were using public transportation on a regional train. This is something that Americans probably would not even think about doing but yet the Finns are fine doing this.
The lady of the tourist desk give me a map of how to get to my hotel. I normally use the GPS on my cell phone but it wasn’t working. Therefore it required me to ask around to try and determine where train stop number for was.
I finally made it to my hotel. Now up until 2002 my hotel had been a prison. But they close the prison and made it into a hotel. You can still see the old prison facade on the outside of the hotel and the rooms have high windows making it seem like you might be in a prison cell. they oversold the basic room which I have requested and upgraded me to a nicer more spacious room for free.
After getting settled I decided to go out and get something to eat. Now mind you I get ribbed a lot about my selection of food while I’m overseas. But it is my vacation and it really doesn’t matter what other people think so long as I’m happy and my belly is full. Therefore I decided to try for Pizza Hut. I lucked out on the pizza that I selected as it had a all you can eat buffet with free refills and ice and drinks. I was in heaven.
I decided to try to find a church built into a cave which was a little bit further away from the rest of attractions. I didn’t exactly have Wi-Fi available therefore I was using GPS and Google Maps to try to look at this church. at some point in the journey I found a free Wi-Fi signal and was able to get On the appropriate train to get to the church.
I got to the church and found the inside of the church was filled with a Chinese tour group. Some of them were standing at the pulpit acting like they were preaching. I felt that this was a little bit over-the-top but I’m willing to give Chinese a pass as they do not understand all this could be considered mocking Christianity. I did my usual GoPro and regular flip videos and decided to head out to see new attractions. I stopped by a couple of tourists stores and found that postcards where anywhere from .75 – 0.80 Euro. In general Helsinki is much more expensive than the other locations I have been to.
I had noticed that it was getting a bit colder so I decided to head back to my hotel and grab my jacket before venturing off to the Island fort. After retrieving my coat I headed to the port where a ferry would take me to The island for it. This ferry is part of the mass transit system so no extra ticket is required as long as I still have my day pass which I purchased at the Helsinki Airport.
This particular fort has a long history has it had been used to defend Sweden Finland and Russia.
At the fort there were signs for shots which happened to be closed because it was so late in the day. There was also a church which was closed. I found out that there are 800 residents who live on this island. Their houses are marked with the sign saying private residence please do not disturb. I made the mistake of wandering into some of these areas taking photos and not knowing that I was in a residential part. The good side is that I think I got some good photos out of it. The fort contained high walls and kanin which could be used for defending the port. Also there seem to be a gathering of people dressed in formal attire. I figured it was probably for a concert or something. After spending about 90 minutes on the island I decided it was time to go back.
I had thought that Subway which had Fountain drinks on the outside would provide free refills. I bought my sub and drink my glass until I needed a refill. As I was getting the refill I noticed that it was 0.90 euro per refill and hopes that the server did not see me. If she had seen me I was going to play the dumb American card.

I then headed out to look for souvenirs and take some last-minute pictures before heading back to my hotel. I went to a sporting goods store to look at Finnish hockey shirts but they were a bit expensive and I am not sure if I will get one.
I stopped by a supermarket near the subway to get snacks for the evening. I got a personal favorite of mine when I am traveling in Europe. That is it is apple juice with seltzer water. I don’t know why they don’t offer that in the US but it always tastes good. I made the mistake of getting chocolate candy with mint which makes you feel like you’re eating chocolate and brushing your teeth at the same time.
I stopped by Senate Square to get some photos of the domed church. I asked some guys to take my photo and they kept on asking me to back up more. I was hesitant to back up because I thought they might be trying to use this as a ruse to steal my camera. But they were honest about it and gave my camera back. I’m under the impression that Finland has less crime than the other Baltic states that I visited.
Tomorrow I’ll need to check out of my hotel room at noon and head toward the ferry station. This will be an exciting transport for me as I have never taken a ferry to another country. I’ll have to get there at least 90 minutes before the ferry leaves at 3:30 p.m.

As I looked for my obligatory Cold War era globe at the Mt. Juliet Goodwill, I found myself in the inspirational section in the corner of the store. I spied a handful of Bibles.

Curiously I went through them seeing if I recognized the names or churches mention in them. I found this one

This Bible Belongs to Bryson
Given by Great Grandma Puckett
Date 12-8-14
Occasion: Love and Best wishes hop you will like to read & study your Bible. Be true to God, Christ, The Holy Spirit and The church.
Love Always
Great Grandma Puckett

Doing the math in my head I have surmised that this gift did not last over two months before being given to Goodwill. I wonder why it was given so quickly. A (young) great-grandson may not be privy to Goodwill, so I am guessing it might be a parent (possibly non religious or agnostic) who might have given away the Bible so quickly after the holidays. An unsuspecting Great Grandma Puckett is woefully unaware that her opportunity to impart her faith on future generations was squashed with a post holiday donation to the local Goodwill.

I think I did a facepalm when I saw this.

We sang Katy Perry at church again this morning because Cross Point

— Zack Bennett (@ZackTN) January 26, 2014

These are actual post election status updates from friends on social media:

“If Obama wins, the USA will be no more. He will destroy us as One Nation Under God.”
“There goes our country. What a sad sad day.”
“I’m speechless. I pray to God that America will make it till 2016.”
“And our country is ruined…”
“It’s the end of the world as we know it. God help us.”

And I want to tell everyone to get a hold of themselves. Each and every person above has a roof over their head, a full stomach and is blessed way more than we could imagine. It is simply a difference in ideology (big government vs. small government). These type of gloom and doom predictions are not helping our country. Be willing to compromise, to see the other side’s view.
To my liberal Democratic friends, be careful not to use divisive language such as “bigots” to conservative friends. Them’s fighting words and will not help build bridges to make our country great.
I fear that we are in for more stagnant government that cannot solve problems because the nation is polarized. It’s time to come together, congratulate the winner and work to a better tomorrow.

Without repeating my last entry, I want to delve into an examination of why young people leave the church.
I’ve known countless numbers of my peers who no longer attend church. It’s heartbreaking for myself. I recall those times where our faith was strongest…on those lock-ins, devotionals, retreats and summer camps. Yet somehow the belief evaporated somehow.
Much of it comes from an act of rebellion against their parents. For these people religion is seen as a list of rules which mimic an overbearing parents’ rules. Perhaps these people grew up in church which could be seen as too legalistic. Once someone gets away from their parents, it’s a time to sow their wild oats. And somehow these people never really make it back into church, making bad habits habitual.
I’ve known other people who are just plain lazy. They can’t make it into church for even the late service. These people aren’t all that heathenistic, they just aren’t committed. Part of the problem might be because their parents weren’t all that involved in church activities.
Another reason is because those who fall away let sin take over. Once sin takes over it’s difficult to admit wrong and return to one’s first love.
Whatever the reason, it’s heartbreaking to hear of friends who are no longer faithful. God’s grace is never ending and always available. I hope and pray that eventually all of my wayward friends find a way home.

Above is a recent ABC Nightline report on an atheist summer camp. Text of the article is here.
I’m not at all surprised that there are summer camps dedicated for nonbelievers. What is intriguing is that these kids are regurgitating what their atheist parents tell them. There is a tendency for children to believe what their parents believe. I see this everytime a teenager posts a political belief to Facebook, knowing full well they haven’t investigated both sides of the argument.
I am surprised that the owners of the Christian camp are so willing to allow atheists to rent it, after all doesn’t that go directly against spreading the Gospel?
A poll conducted last year showed that atheists are one of the least trusted group of people among those polled. This isn’t too surprising to me, after all God’s word is the measuring stick to judge right or wrong. Without the Bible, what does society have to judge one’s actions?
Some atheists have a tendency to be as evangelical about their non belief as Christians tendency to spread the Gospel. Some atheists are just as close minded as they claim Christians are toward non belief.
I weep for these children mentioned in the report. They will likely grow up to be non-believers as their parents have raised them, without investigating both sides of the argument.