The boat trip to Tallinn was smooth but somewhat disappointing. Last year Ingrid really enjoyed the play room; this year there were far fewer toys because nobody had bothered to replace the ones that broke, so there wasn’t much to do there. But the whole thing was still a big event for her. First the trip to the harbour, then getting on the boat, then dinner in a restaurant, sleeping on the boat, and breakfast on the cabin floor.

We spent most of Friday morning in the Tallinn Zoo, so we wouldn’t have to begin our day with the two and a half hour car trip to Tartu. Most animals were interesting for about 2 minutes (Look, a tiger! OK, let’s go.) but Ingrid really enjoyed the petting zoo: goats, a pig, downy yellow chickens, rabbits etc. She was not too keen on getting too close to the mouth end of bigger animals (such as goats) but very interested in seeing them eat and drink.

Today looked set to be rainy (although in the end it didn’t rain at all) so we stayed in town, and I decided to start with my shopping plans: lots of children’s books in Estonian, and some movies too. Already I discovered that some books that were easily available last year, were hard to find this time, so now I’m preemptively buying books well above her age, just in case they’re not there when I want them. I am not looking forward to the task of packing my bags, or lugging them home.

We’ve also renewed our acquaintance with Oliver and Katariina, both just a few months older than Ingrid, both of whose mums I grew up with. Coming up tomorrow: Oliver’s birthday party.