This is definitely the worst trip over to Estonia I have ever had… I have had issues with return legs (once I spent the night in Newark, another in Chicago). My flight schedule went something like this:
NW (Memphis to Amsterdam) 7:20 pm to 11:10 am
KLM (Amsterdam to Stockholm) 12:05 pm to 2:10 pm
Estonian Air Regional (Stockholm to Tallinn) 3:35 pm to 5:50 pm
I got to the Memphis airport early (around 5 pm) because I had a feeling that my ticket (e-ticket to Stockholm and a separate paper ticket to Tallinn) would cause an issue. It did. The check-in stated out with getting boarding passes and checked luggage to Stockholm… I knew this would be a problem with having to retrieve and re-check my luggage, so pushed them to try to get it checked all the way to Estonia. A more experienced agent came out and she also couldn’t even consulting with some unseen person via phone (who later arrived to help in person). In the end, they decided that NW/KLM and Estonian air do not play nice together (they checked this with the computer). This simple thing set into motion a bunch of stuff…keep reading…
The flight to Amsterdam was running late after a late departure (air traffic control computer problems is what was announced)…we failed to make up the difference on the flight over…by the time we taxied all over the Schipol airport tarmac, my hour-long connection looked a bit tight. I was able to move through the short connection line at passport control / re-security check (where’s the love?, don’t they trust US airport security?).. My bag wasn’t so quick (which I didn’t find out until later).
The KLM flight to Stockholm was a smaller aircraft, so I had to plane-side check my little roller bag. When leaving the plane in Stockholm, it wasn’t obvious where my bag would come out and when I asked the gate agents, the answer they gave was seemingly clear but also smacked of them not unstanding my question… They indicated that plane-side checked bags hit the belt with the normal luggage (which is unusual). When the belt started moving, a bunch of usual luggage came out before my plane-side bag… after recovering it it was a long wait until I was pretty sure they were done putting our bags out…. since the baggage office had a queue, I decided to go upstairs to try to check-in to the Tallinn flight. The time was short (<20 minutes) and queue for check-in was long (once I found it since they already dropped it from the check-in oboard since it was already boarding.
So I go to the SAS desk to see if I could change the ticket. He sends me down to the Estonian Air desk… I went down and didn’t find it… I return and he insists that it exists, so I give it another shot and this time I find the Estonian Air desk (which is actually a multi-airline desk with a Estonian Air small sign, of course). I work with a really nice ticket agent that explains that it is an SAS ticket, so they would have to change it. By this time, my ticket is probably no-show invalid anyway, so I ask about just buying a ticket. It was another $200, but I did what I had to do…
After getting my flights set, I decide to try to track down my bag. Since I left the arrivals / baggage claim area, I cannot backtrack to it anymore. So I have to find the outside office / window. Infomation pointed me in the right direction and go to the window (also for about 20 airlines)… ring the bell (actually a door buzzer code), once, twice, three times.. wait 5-10 minutes. Needing to check my sanity, I go up to the KLM ticketing window upstairs and they called down and she reported that they were “waiting” for me. I go down and after doing the buzzer code two times, a guy shows up. He takes the tag info and goes in the back and tells me it is on the next flight to Stockholm. The good news is that it is due in before I need to check-in to Tallinn, so we are all together again.
My original idea was to drive from Tallinn to Kohtla-Jarve after landing at 6pm. With the delay, I don’t want to make that drive from 10:30pm onward (and probably fall asleep at the wheel). So I picked up another night at the airport hotel, pushed the rental car (called them to tell them not to wait on me), and pushed my hotel reservation at Saka Cliffs.
I wrote most of the above in Stockholm, but now I am at the hotel Ulemiste. I have stayed at this hotel 3-4 times over as many years. It is designed to be pretty basic and functional. The bathroom for instance is completely tiled with a floor drain near the shower area. There is a curtain to pull around, but the floor gets all wet anyway. The main thing I like about it is the price: 60 euro a night in Tallinn is pretty inexpensive these days… and the fact I can walk to it from the airport. (The big minus is that is between the airport and the Ulemiste shopping mall, but other than that there is not much going on in this part of town.)
After checking in the hotel, I decide to pop over to the Rimi Hypermarket (part of the mall) right next door since it is open to “23″ and it is only a little after 10pm. I start to walk towards the back of the store and I see that all the alcohol is taped off like a crime scene. The last time I was in Estonia (last May), the goverment stopped package sales for several days, so I remember how that looked. Basically caution tape around several aisles of the store. Not able to buy a 1/2 litre of beer for the night, I bought some other things to drink and left. At checkout, I see a sign that indicates that sales for alcohol are only from 10a-10p. It is strange that Estonia is getting more strict blue laws than Tennessee.
So I came back to the hotel and showered up. I am finishing the text of this post in the hotel bar area enjoying a pint of A Le Coq (actually 0.5 L). I really miss both A Le Coq and Saku when away. These beers are the big two of Estonia and they both make a quality flagship and several other interesting varieties.
