"Tallinn, Tallinn, Take Me In...."

As you probably know, Beth and I had the great opportunity to visit friends in Estonia for Thanksgiving!  We hadn't taken a vacation since being in Moscow, so we figured this would be a good chance for a mini-trip to a nearby country. So last Tuesday, Beth and I boarded the train for an 18-hour ride to Tallinn. The trip itself went really well (Beth and I got a room all to ourselves, which was a surprise), except for the 4:00 a.m. wake up call from customs.

Here was the first thing we saw when we left the train in Tallinn:

At the train station we were greeted by our good friends Andrea and Shera!  They gave us a tour of Old Town in Tallinn.

After some sightseeing we went with Andrea and Shera to pick up Josh and Megan at the airport (they had been in Budapest for medical reasons--please keep them in your prayers).  We spent the evening catching up and hanging out with them as well as the Thompson family.

Thanksgiving was celebrated at Andrea and Shera's flat, and was a blast.

Over the next few days we toured a castle an hour outside of Tallinn, the Christmas Market in Old Town, and so on.

We were also able to visit the President's house.  According to Josh, every birthday Estonia's president invites everyone over for tea.  And by everyone, I mean every Estonian who wants to come.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

What an incredible trip.  Here are some pictures from Josh and Megan's BALCONY.