Stage Manager’s Log
M.S. Prinsendam
Sunday, July 2, 2006
Tallinn, Estonia
Unfortunately this morning I had to get up and be out of my room by 0900 as we had cabin inspections today. So I headed up for breakfast as soon as I was out of the room, and then I had a little bit of time before rehearsal. I actually ended up with an hour so after inspections were done I went back to line down for an hour more. Rehearsal was supposed to start at 1100, but we started a little late on account of the fact that Leigh was a little late. It happens. Rehearsal was pretty efficient once we got started. We only had to work with Sally, as Tom and Elena are basically self-sufficient.
After rehearsal I had a quick lunch on the ship before changing into street clothes and getting off the ship. I took the shuttle into town and walked around the city. Tallinn is the capital city of Estonia. it isn’t a very big city, but at the same time, it isn’t a very big country. It is quite a beautiful city though, and much of the architecture is traditional or even original. You can walk into the old city, which is surrounded by the original city wall. Like many countries here there are cafés on every street.
Around the Maid city square you can find the old Hansa building from the Hansiatic league. Around that are people with carts dressed in traditional Estonian costume selling fruit and spices and souvenirs. it is a very picturesque town, and certainly deserves more than a few hours of wandering.
I wandered up Toompea Hill where there is a big Russian Orthodox cathedral. I walked down along the city wall, and looped back towards the city square. I didn’t have too much time in the city as I had to be back on the ship for a lecture at 1500. In the city square I stopped at a café and had a cappuccino with Elena, after which I headed back to the shuttle stop to come back to the ship. I barely made it back in time to start the lecture, but I made it.
After the lecture I took a little under two hours to take a nap. I was pretty tired. At 1800 I went up for dinner and then came back to the lounge for tonight’s gameshow, “What’s My Line?” After the gameshow we had the variety show with Sally Jones, Tom Sutton, and Elena Ivanina. The first performance ran a little long, so for the second we cut a few things from it. Between the shows I took some pictures for them because the light was really nice.
After the variety show we had the Indonesian Crew Show. The only good thing about that is the free drinks. It is a good show, but I have seen it a bunch of times and I don’t really do anything for it. Also, I wasn’t feeling to great at this point. After the show was over I was very ready to go to bed. I stopped by to drop off Elena’s CDs and to say goodbye to Tom before heading off to bed.
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