TRIP TO ESTONIA September 24 – October 2, 2021

 

LET’S GO TO TALLINN

It’s September 25 and it’s 4:00 in the morning. We met at the door to the terminal. There we are going to meet with the families and we will say goodbye to them since, due to the Covid, only people who travel can enter. After hugs and some nerves, we got in a very long queue to check-in, and we arrived more than 2 hours in advance! The girls are nervous and although it is very early, they are more talkative than ever.

After passing security, we take a brisk walk to the boarding gate. We got to the plane and they couldn’t fall asleep as they were so excited. We started to get to know each other …

When we reached our stopover in Amsterdam we met the Dutch teachers and children: 2 boys and 2 girls: Dylan, Hugo, Lima and Malene.

Arrival in Tallinn.-  Baggage claim, two to go! We gave the data and they fixed it in a couple of days. We took the tram and got to the city center where we are staying and walked to a hotel that looked like a maze. The girls loved it and they found out right away! A walk around Tallinn, getting to know our Dutch colleagues and then meeting the Austrian teacher and the girls who were with him. We had dinner in a medieval Estonian restaurant where the atmosphere was very quaint and the food was too!

Ugh, what a long day! We are going to sleep…

VISITING TALLINN

We have all rested well. Julia and Verónica are waiting for their suitcase but while Julia’s arrives, her friends have made sure that she is not missing anything. The same has happened to Veronica. This is nice!

After a good breakfast, we take a good walk around Tallinn and get to know the city center a bit. A giant size snack and we are getting ready to catch the bus that takes us to the 4th largest city in Estonia, it is called Parnu and it is half an hour by bus from the host school in Lindi.

ARRIVAL IN PARNU

The trip from Tallinn to Parnu is not long and it is good for us to rest a bit. Upon arrival, some teachers from Lindi’s school are waiting for us and they take us to the hotel. The girls had already thought about how they were going to distribute themselves to sleep. We left our luggage and went to a restaurant on a Baltic Sea beach where we all had dinner together. The teachers from Malta have just arrived and we have already met them. This time they come without children because due to Coronaviru the regulations of their country do not allow them to travel with them.

LINDI SKOOL

       

We got up early to get to Lindi’s school early. It is a new school and not very big. Upon arrival we have to take off our shoes and leave them at the entrance. We put on some slippers to “walk around school” or we stay in socks because the floor is warm. They take us on a tour of school, children on one side and teachers on the other. We visited some classes and they showed us how they work in the classroom. Leaving aside that there are less than half in each classroom, it is not so different how they work in this Estonian school! We eat around 11 o’clock and at first it gets a little weird but we get used to it right away. By the way, how delicious is the food in our school!

We have spent three afternoons at the home of several Estonian families and we have done many activities with them. We also went to visit a school that has a museum, to go angling and dissect the fish we catch, to take a walk through a beautiful forest, we visited a science center-museum with activities for children.

The daughter of a school teacher also came to tell us about her job, which consists of training dogs to pull sleds in Norway. The dogs were very quiet and one of them was deaf. A singer from Latvia came to give us a concert and he sang just like Ed Sheeran… And, since their gym has everything we need to do jumping, we hung on with harnesses and tried it.

On the day of farewell, they did a small concert at the school and sang their hymn. After this we took the bus to Tallinn where we arrived just to take the last walk, do some shopping and rest a bit at the hotel, since we had to be at the airport at 4 in the morning again.

RETURN TO MADRID

In the end we arrived in Madrid with a bit of regret for having left our new friends and for having finished the experience but with a lot of desire to get home and see our families. It has been a great experience!

Thanks to the Lindi school and its teachers and students, the traveling companions, the organizers and the El Peralejo school for giving us the opportunity of enjoy this wonderful experience.

Cheer up and participate because this experience happens once in a lifetime!