The Beginning of the End (25 July)

Monday

Monday was a day of goodbyes, but also an unexpected hello. First to depart was Margaret; well, actually, we left her behind at the hostel when we headed to the airport. Margaret is staying in Estonia for a few more days before heading south to Latvia & Lithuania for a Balkan tour.

So the five of us piled into a maxi-taxi, and headed to the airport. We checked in (no problems), and headed through security (no problems). Tallinn airport is very small, and we settled in at a cafe to await our flight. Unfortunately our plane was a little late arriving. Then we were a little late boarding. Then the pilot announced that there was a problem with the computer and we couldn't leave. All the while, the clock was counting down - we only had 75 minutes to make the London connection in Frankfurt, and we were losing time in Tallinn.

Check-in

Cafe in the airport

Finally we took off from Tallinn (over an hour late), and cruised down to Frankfurt. Fortunately we made up some time in flight, and landed in Frankfurt with about 25 minutes to spare, or so we thought. The taxi to the gate took ages, and we finally parked with about 10 minutes to spare. We were relieved to find that we appeared to be at B22, and would be flying out of B25. But then we learned that we would be taking busses from the Tarmac, around the back of the airport, and have to make it through passport control before we could get to our transfer gate!

That's our plane! (As we waited for a bus)

As we were coming off the plane, we had an extraordinary chance encounter. One of the ladies on our flight has been reading our blog for the whole trip, and is spreading the word among her Australian friends. Apparently we are reaching a lot of Aussie Trefoil Guilds. It was quite humbling, and we would have loved to slow down to chat, but we had a plane to catch!

So we waited for the bus. It was quite frustrating, because we could see our next plane being loaded up only a matter of metres away! Finally the bus came, then we waited to get off the bus. We said a very hurried goodbye to Charlotte (who was onward travelling to Amsterdam) outside passport control, and then legged it through. We made it! With about 5 minutes to spare.... Or so we thought.

Turns out this flight was delayed as well, and we still had another 10 minutes before we even boarded. But most importantly, we made it. But with only 4 of us left in the group it felt strange. Whenever we passed a checkpoint there would be a pause as we kept looking for numbers 5 & 6.

Heathrow brought some unexpected surprises. In our hurry to catch the flight at Frankfurt, our bags had a similarly tight connection. Three bags made it - one bag did not. Fortunately the airline was good about it, and planned to make a special home delivery for Tamara the next day. After waiting around to get that sorted, we were ready to head home. In the arrivals lounge was one last surprise - two of Emily's Brownies were waiting to greet us back! It was certainly a lovely surprise, and made as all smile.

Back in Britain

Our welcoming committee!

And with that, we separated. To her family (Emily), to her car (Katie), to the tube (Alyson), and to the bus stop (Tamara). It was the end of GOLD Estonia 2016 Project.


Our next blog entries will give you an update of what happened when we all got home, and stay tuned for our highlights of the trip, what we learned, and much more.

Our last group shot - by the receptionist at the hostel

Our Last Weekend in Tallinn (22-24 July)

More about Tallinn (the last weekend) (22-24 July) So, after cramming the last few days of project work together, we were left with a final weekend in Tallinn. The leaders had given us lots of ideas of places to go, and things to see, and it was as a group that we had to make some decisions.

Friday

We had been invited to tour the police station on Friday with Maria (one of the leaders), and we took up this invitation. It is a new police building, and they are rightly very proud of the facility and its capacity both now and in the future. Like much of Estonia, it is very modern, and has excellent IT infrastructure to support the work of the local officers. Charlotte (our leader) was first into everything: locked in a cell, wearing a helmet, getting handcuffed! Of course, she was let out of everything, and we had a great tour. Maria presented us with an Estonian police dog mascot which we will pass to future GOLD Estonia teams, and we presented Maria with a few tokens to express our thanks; she has been instrumental in supporting the new training scheme, and given us lots of opportunities while we have been in Estonia. THANK YOU MARIA!

The imposing police station	First, was the holding cells	Charlotte the jail bird
Then joined by the team	Margaret testing out the riot gear	Charlotte in the driver's seat
Then we threw Charlotte in the back of the paddy wagon!	The police fleet	Charlotte being handcuffed
Apparently it is not at all comfortable!	Tallinn Central's area of responsibility	Thank you to Maria for a fantastic visit!

From the police station, we headed back on the bus to Tallinn TV Tower. Built outside of town, it gives a fantastic view of the whole of Tallinn (not just the Old Town) - or it would have if not for the low level cloud and mist. It was still a fascinating trip, with lots of interesting displays about how Estonia has helped shape the modern world, and a great cafe (for cake) at the top. Heading back to the hostel, we were treated to an amazing Mexican feast, and plans to play games and chill.

We learned a lot about Estonia

The view was poor (trying to look towards old town)

But we had fun anyway!

Saturday

Saturday we were going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. Probably not you? But we did, with songs and excitement. There were polar bears, and peacocks, and farmyard animals, and felines, and crocodiles, and monkeys, and parrots, and leopards, and did we mention polar bears?!. Fortunately it was only the farmyard animals who were making a run for freedom, and we enjoyed seeing some many amazing animals up close.

Peacocks	Strike a pose!	Parrots
At home with the animals	Getting close up to the animals	Enjoying the wonderful sunshine

Once we were back at the hostel, we split up for a short while. Margaret took Tamara to the local (only) Catholic Church in Tallinn for the weekly English Mass, while Charlotte, Emily, Alyson & Katie stayed behind to chill and prepare dinner. Once re-united, we headed back into the old town - some for a Ghost Tour, others for a beer in the square. The tour was less of a 'ghost tour', as a myths and legends tour of Tallinn. It was fascinating and we learned a lot (and laughed a lot). After a long day we headed back to the hostel, ready for the next day's adventures.

Off to church

Our amazing tour guide

Looking up as we learned the story of the window

Sunday

Sunday marked our last day in Tallinn, and the end of an amazing trip, and fabulous project. We spent the day doing what we did best - eating! Emily was our tour guide for the day, and had picked out all the best cafes and cake shops in Tallinn. But first, we headed down into the Bastion tunnels for an interesting look at a different part of Tallinn. It was quite cool (in temperature as well as being interesting), and we soon popped out in a different part of Tallin to where we started the tour. Next: onto the food!

We started at an amazing pancake place for Brunch (it lived up to the reputation of a full stomach for under €5!), but then needed to walk it off a bit before the next stop. Numerous coffee and cake shops later, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. Tonight would be a special dinner as we would be heading to the town square for our last night celebration. The food was the worst we had eaten anywhere on the whole trip! But the atmosphere sitting on the square was quite magical, and we ended up in the pub (on the square) as the night drew in, and the twilight lingered. Throughout our journey we had kept journals for each other, and it was a fantastic place to reflect, share, and laugh. As much as we wanted to stay, we knew that tomorrow would mark the next change in our journey. So, we headed back to the hostel to sleep and pack.

Next on the blog - did we all make it home? (Or to our next destination for the onward travellers)

Return to Tallinn (The final leg) (19 - 21 July)

Returning to Tallinn was bittersweet. Coming back to our hostel was very familiar, and we were looking forward to finishing the leader qualification; but our final check-in reminded us all that our project was coming to an end. There was no time to dwell, as we checked into the hostel and immediately left for EGL to consult with our last group of leaders. Again, we were greeted with a familiar face from camp, and a leader we hadn't met before. We felt that we were becoming experts in our sections of the qualification, and yet every group would have different comments and items of feedback. Once we got back to the hostel, we were able to relax. After an amazing dinner (Thanks to Margaret for being head Chef that night!), we all settled into one room for some relaxing and a movie.

Wednesday morning was clear and bright, so we took our work outside. We finally climbed Fat Margaret's tower, and sat in the cafe at the top to work through the feedback. After showing the proposed scheme to more than half of the regular leaders in Estonia, we had a lot of comments to review and incorporate changes to the leadership qualification. The concept was really well received by the leaders we met, and they particularly liked the accessibility, structure, and relevance of the qualification/training proposed. We had a lot of comments and tweaks to consider for incorporation - some of which were even contradictory! Yet, after a few hours we had the next revision ready for the training board. Make no mistake - the qualification is not a British or Australian Qualification which has been modified - we have workshopped with the Estonian Guide Association to create something that follows the WAGGGS principles, and meets their needs. With this revision completed, we explored some more of St Margaret's tower, before heading back to the Hostel to prepare to meet the Training Board.

View from Fat Margaret's	Working hard
Fat Margaret's was a fortification - very thick!	Now it is a maritime museum - complete with knots for visitors to practice

Wednesday night was our last night with the training board, a chance to present our findings from consulting the leaders across Estonia, and to consider what happens next with the work we have done. As one member noted, we have kickstarted this process in Estonia, and achieved massive progress towards not only initiating a better scheme, but developing and even implementing it. We have left the training board with a document ready to be translated into Estonian (with all its nuances), and hopefully with final approval to start implementing after the next annual meeting! Of course, this final meeting still including much discussion and evaluation of whether a section should be in/out/changed. As a team, we are looking forward to hearing about what happens next, and hearing about the positive impacts that this training and qualification will provide to Leaders and their Guides.

It was almost with sadness that we left the office on Wednesday - our project was coming to a close, but the sense of achievement was strong as well. Charlotte had a perfect cure though - facials! Our thoughtful leader had bought us all face masks in the UK, and then carried them all though Estonia for us. It was a great fun way to pass the evening, especially when combined with our card games.

Application of the Facials

Facial Selfie!

Thursday was our first time at the Eesti Gaidide Litt office during the day. It was evaluation day, and we were meeting with the core Estonian GOLD team to evaluate this year's project, and look towards future projects with the UK-Estonia GOLD partnership. This was also our longest session in the office, and we got heaps of fantastic feedback about this year's project, their plans for implementation, and ideas for projects to follow. We also had the chance to thank the leaders and staff from EGL who had made this project possible and successful.

Our meetings always had great snacks	Discussing what happened	Smiling at what went well
Saying our Thank yous	Signing off some Queen's Guide paperwork	One last group shot!

This year our project was to focus on two areas - engaging with Rovers (Senior Section), and engaging with leaders and their training scheme. Although it was disappointing not to meet many Rovers, we achieved more than could have been expected with the leaders. The feedback from EGL is currently being compiled and will be returned to the UK to review and plan for projects to follow. Our team will also have an opportunity to provide feedback from the project - but this will happen at our de-brief weekend in December.

Leaving the office this time was definitely with sadness (that our project was over), but joy at what we had achieved. We climbed St Olaf's tower to celebrate (amazing views of Old Town Tallinn), and headed to a traditional Estonian cheap-eats restaurant to mark the end of the project work.

Climbing the tower

Looking around the corner

Yummy Herring

But that wasn't quite the end of our time in Estonia. The original plan included de-brief on Sunday, and a couple of travel/rest days between Parnu & Tallinn. It happened that a festival was happening in the south of Estonia that weekend, and everyone was going to be away. So, we did consultation and project work on our travel days, and our rest days, and every other day in between to get it finished by Thursday. As a result, all of our rest days were concentrated on the last weekend, and we were going to make the most of it!

Read our next blog post to find out what we did with that last weekend.

Parnu, Tori & Nuudi (16 - 19 July)

As promised, it was an early start from Tartu as we walked down through town to the 7am bus. After about 2 1/2 hours (and variable amounts of napping), we barrelled off the bus in Parnu. Parnu is known in Estonia as the summer capital, and is a summer resort town. Straight away (with all our bags), we headed into Parnu town to join the creative arts workshops being run by one of the Guide leaders we met on camp. It was the last day on camp, and we joined in making block prints. Our creative attempts included some mixed fortunes, but we all successfully made some paper prints, and printed our own t-shirts. They would take a couple of days to dry - so we left them hanging, and the 'turtles' continued.

Carving the blocks (Margaret & Emily)	Carving the blocks (Katie, Alyson & Charlotte)	Rolling the ink onto the blocks
Loading the block into the press	Revealing the finished print	Hanging prints to dry
We are pleased with the results	Turning the Roller on the Press	We were mostly inspired by Guiding!

With our bags, we headed back to the bus station for a bus to Nuudi (via the obligatory supermarket stop). Here we would be staying at Mila's family's house, in a tent in the very large back garden. Arriving quite late, we quickly put up the tents and cooked some dinner. Mila cooked us a traditional Estonian meal complete with lots of sour cream, and some marinated (raw) fish. Although we were hesitant at first, we all tried some of the fish, and it was delicious! We hadn't showered at the Scout HQ, so we were looking forward to showering at Mila's, but first we embraced the Estonian Sauna.

Mila asked whether we wanted a 'hot' sauna, or 'not so hot' (90 degrees C, and 60 degrees C respectively). We knew it would be an experience! Fortunately, the new sauna is attached to the house (instead of the spider infested shed in the garden), and opens onto the shower room. Three at a time we alternated being in the hot sauna, and outside in the cold, before taking turns in the shower. We all felt very refreshed afterwards, and stayed up late chatting.

The next morning dawned wet and raining. We delayed heading into the village fair (too wet), and instead wandered into the village mid-afternoon. The chapel of St George is in Tori (the village), and has been recently restored by the locals after its destruction by the Germans at the end of WWII. It is a very beautiful church, and is in memorium to those Estonians who have lost their lives in service of their country, and of soldiers who gave their lives in defence of Estonia. It is a beautiful monument to the freedom granted to Estonians, and well worth a detour to visit if you are ever in Estonia!

While in Tori, we headed to the pop-up cafe (complete with music stage blaring) to meet the local leaders and discuss the new training scheme. Like in Tartu, it was great to catch up with some of the leaders from camp, and meet new friends. We also really enjoyed showing the leaders how their feedback had shaped the new scheme, and gained more valuable insights to take back to refine the scheme. By this stage, it had started raining again and we were very glad when two of the leaders offered to drop us back to Nuudi instead of walking in the rain.

Walking to Tori

St George's Chapel/Church

Meeting the leaders & showing them the new plan

Mila cooked again for us all; chicken in a cheese cream sauce (YUM!), and made heaps. Tonight her whole family was coming home from holiday and we would be meeting her mother and brother for the first time (Melita - Mila's daughter - was already a friend from camp). Once we had met everyone, it was time for bed again.

Our last day in Parnu was not quite as expected, but still good. Unfortunately the session we were going to run with the Rovers was cancelled, so we had a whole day in which to explore Parnu. Parnu is quite small and we walked quickly through the town, and onto the beach for some sunbathing. We also went for a paddle in the surprisingly warm water, and enjoyed our packed lunch on the sand.

Parnu Beach

Walking through Parnu

The storm clouds were brewing - but they went straight past us!

After lunch, we headed into Parnu to meet Relika and collect our printing. It was still a little damp, so we carefully wrapped our shirts in grease proof paper and set off again. For the whole trip (even before we left), Charlotte had been raving about a 'fabulous' statue that they found in Parnu on the recon trip for GOLD Estonia. After a few wrong turns, we found it. Charlotte was very pleased - we were a little underwhelmed, but had a good laugh. Now we were off in search of ice-cream, then cake, then dinner. The ice-cream was good, but the recommended cake shop was too busy so we ended up at the cafe/pub/corner store across the road. But it had reasonably good coffee/cocoa/strange green cucumber-ish drink, and we were able to sit and play cards through the rain showers. We then walked back to the recommended pizzeria to find a queue out the door, and promises of a 1hr wait for pizza after we had a table. Fortunately we had plenty of time before our bus, and decided to wait. The wait was worth it and we were rewarded with steaming bowls of cheesy pasta and crisp pizzas.

Charlotte's Statue

Becomes GOLD Estonia's Statue!

Massive Calzone!

Soon it was time to head back to the bus stop for our trip back to Mila's family farm. We had been warned that coming back early would mean eating dinner from Mila's mother as refusal would offend; so we were heading back later, and hoping for a quiet night before travelling again in the morning.

This quiet night didn't eventuate (but in a good way!). It was Mila's brother's birthday, and we were invited to be part of the family celebrations. The extended family were all there, cousins, nieces, nephews, and it was a fun evening. We were roped into playing running games with the children including buy/sell colours, and duck, duck, honey (part, part, honee). Once we were all tired out, we sat down to dinner (our second), with traditional Estonian BBQ of potato salad, tomato salad, and ribs. It was very delicious, and followed by an amazing 'cake' (Kringel). It is cooked from Mila's grandmother's recipe, and is a bread dough flavoured with sugar, butter, and peanuts - YUM!

Playing games with the Children

BBQ with Mila's Family

Kringel

Finally, we climbed into bed well past midnight, feeling very welcomed into the family, and very privileged to enjoy an insight into Estonian celebrations.

Tuesday morning was sunny and clear, and we enjoyed a sleep in before packing everything up, and saying a big Thank You to our hosts, and walking down the street to the train station. We are now on a train to Tallinn to met with our last group of leaders with consultation on the training plan, and then with the training board to finalise it and look at the next steps for Eesti Gaidide Lit to implement the new scheme.