I Went To Estonia - SURPRISE!

I Went to Estonia - SURPRISE!

Ha ha, I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody about this problem until it was solved, so I could only hope you were praying in general. All foreigners must register their presence in Russia within three days of arriving, or they can be arrested and pay hefty fines. Well, the organization that issued my invitation was to register me. Eight days after arriving they called and said they had forgotten about it, and I was illegal. I was told not to tell anyone and to not speak English on public transportation. Everybody knows me now as “Elizabeth that we didn’t register in time” because it seems like the problem was delegated to everyone!

Eventually they gave up and said I’d have to leave the country and return so I’d have new paperwork saying I just entered Russia and they could register me within three days of that. The easiest way to do this was to put me on a bus to Estonia, walk around the border city of Narva for two hours, and come back. I was excited to see a third country and to travel by myself. My bus left at 7 am and I memorized how to get to the metro, how to ride to the bus station, and how to get on the right bus. I know if my parents had known, my mother would have worried about me taking food and studying the route and my father would have made sure I had all the tickets and money and documents in specfic pockets and a list of the pockets. I realized as I was leaving that I had done the same thing myself! I bought groceries, made a list, and drew up directions with great concern. So anyway, you grow up like your parents.

In the end though Katya had to go with me to the train station because it was still dark leaving the house at 6. I dug an American alarm clock out of my suitcase and set it to Russian time, and then set the alarm for 5. We got up quietly. It was really, really dark. We were just going out the front door when I saw my watch said 5 – I set the alarm wrong to Russian time and we got up at 4! God gave Katya grace to not be mad; she fried eggs for breakfast and then we left.

In Estonia it was pouring rain and freezing cold. I carefully walked around the bus station and memorized how to get back to it, and then set off to find an establishment with a restroom. There were no restaurants, and everybody who possibly could be at home drinking tea was. The only tourist attraction nearby was an ancient church closed for renovations. I felt like a homeless person. I was in a country where nobody had ever heard of me, where I knew no one, and had nothing to do and nowhere to go and no tie to anything except a bus ticket back to Petersburg. I ate my lunch at a bus stop where a band of ten year old boys watched and pretended to want some. I wandered and wandered and finally came to a hotel where I used the bathroom and sat on a lounge sofa and read, and nobody kicked me out. I had been told to set my watch back one hour for the Estonian time change, so I did. My bus back left at 2pm. I found my way back to the bus station OK at 1:30. There I found that it was 2:30.

I asked at the information window if I could use my ticket for the next train. They said to go to the cashier. I wandered into three buildings before finding the cashier was right next to the info desk! Feeling that I looked pretty dumb I asked again, they say I should buy another ticket and return the missed one in St. Pete. They said I couldn’t buy the next one til they saw if there was room. I felt myself starting to cry. I kept saying to myself, “this is funny, this really is funny – oh why an I crying and not laughing?” but I could only grit my teeth and try not to hate all the Estonians who could tell I was crying.

Anyway, the next bus wasn’t even half full and I got on it and paid the driver and rode back and they gave me the needed document at the border, and all is well.