Our Overseas Anniversary - a year remembered

It's been a year since we lived in Estonia and began our European journey home to the United States.  As a personal celebration both for our life there and our journey back again I thought I'd mention a few tips for those considering moving from the U.S. to Europe.

First of all, we were independent travelers, which means we had to make all arrangements ourselves.  Those traveling for government agencies, companies and other organizations will have a different experience completely.

LUGGAGE

In order to move for this 6 month to 1 year period we had to sort three groups of our belongings:  suitcases, shipping boxes, storage.  We were limited to four 50lb suitcases for our family of four, as well as three Sunshine Kids car seats.  Each of us took one carry-on bag.  My kids each dragged their own small, wheeled backpacks packed with activities and "surprises".  A friend had lovingly wrapped a small present for each of my kids for each hour of flight time (about 12 hours).  This turned out to be a wonderful way to keep them from getting bored as they had a new present to look forward to every hour.  NOTE:  Although luggage allowances flying out of the U.S. give you usual limits, do NOT expect to be given the same allowances for your return or when making a connection.  Always check with the airline specifically!  European allowances are much less than those for the U.S. and each airline has their own rules.

CLOTHING TIPS

Since that original flight I've since learned some helpful things about effective clothes packing.  My most important discovery?  Take all your socks and underwear and take a minimal amount of outer clothing appropriate for your trip.  This works best for our family because although I can stand wearing dirty shirts and pants to a laundromat, I can't stand not having any underwear.  Also, unlike adults who manage to stay relatively clean, kids manage to dirty every outfit they wear every day.  Which means a kids' minimal amount of clothing will be more than an adults'.  We also discovered that weather differs drastically throughout Europe, so sweaters and raincoats in the north (England, Germany, Slovenia, France, Holland) in late summer/fall was appropriate, while shorts and hot weather gear was necessary in the south (Croatia, Italy, Spain, Portugal).

EUROPEAN CAR RENTAL

We would fly overseas, then get a long-term car rental and drive ourselves throughout Europe to Estonia. You'll most likely have great difficulty arranging a car to drive through many countries.  Most rental companies require you to stay within the country in order to have insurance coverage.  As far as I know there is no car company that will cover you to drive through Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia or Russia.  Only two companies (at the time in 2008-09) rent European cars long-term: Peugeot                      (http://www.peugeot-openeurope.com/html/en/home/home.aspx ) and Renault ( http://www.renaultusa.com/carmodels.asp ).  These car rentals must be arranged for a specified amount of time before leaving the U.S. We decided to try Peugeot and even went to a car dealership to get a peek at an equivalent of the car we would be renting overseas.  Peugeot turned out great.  They really worked with us, even when we had to extend our original rental agreement (we actually had to return the original car and rent a new one) and during the misery of repairs after our one car accident. We picked the cars up in both Paris, France and in Calais, France and paid extra to return the car in Rome, Italy.

CARSEATS
In theory, our regular three car seats should have fit, but between the car seat armrests and the interior shaping of the rear seat of the car, they didn't.  Good thing we checked out the car in person before arriving in Europe!  After serious research we made an investment in the Sunshine Kids Radian car seats (http://www.skjp.com/product/97556/165XX/_/Radian65SL%26%23174%3B#) which did fit side-by-side in our rental's European-sized backseat.  We checked these seats rather than using them on any of the planes, and all our kids are forward-facing only so we've never used them rear-facing.  They are heavy, but do fold down for compact travel.  On our way out we kept these new carseats in boxes that we checked because they were easier to strap onto our rolling suitcases with tie-downs and keep clean until we got them into the car.  On our way home we strapped them on our cases without boxes and had success with that technique as well (although they didn't stay as clean).  I used Kiddopotamus Piddle Pads (http://www.elitecarseats.com/Kiddopotamus-Piddle-Pad.pro) to help keep the seats cleaner.  These are soft and effective, but are also smaller than some brands so can't always catch the mess.

LIVING IN ESTONIA

Food

It was very difficult to find out what sorts of things would be hard to find in Estonia before we left the U.S.  Luckily, because we are very picky about our favorite foods and I thought that shipping a few basic favorites would help us adjust, I sent our favorite brand of peanut butter and oatmeal in bulk in our shipping boxes, as well as my entire herb/spice cupboard.  This proved a good choice.  While familiar peanut butter is available in Germany, Estonia doesn't have good peanut butter.  All the herbs and spices are widely available, but the difficulty there is translating the labels to ensure you get the right thing.  At first everything was so unfamiliar that I couldn't find anything I wanted - not even milk or normal bread (FYI: their bread is much better than ours!).  It was just an adjustment problem though because once we'd settled in and become more familiar with the grocery stores it was just a matter of seeing what was there all along.  At first I could only shop at Stockmann (www.stockmann.ee) located at the corner of Liivalaia (which is Pronski at the corner) & Ravala/Tartu mantee (also changes names at that intersection) which is a mall and a grocery store.  Stockmann is easily recognizable, attached to parking and carries a lot of British imports.  As I became more familiar with the big things of Estonian life it was a lot easier for me to pick out familiar or at least recognizable foods at grocery stores like Rimi and Prisma, which are cheaper and Walmart-like in their product availability.  What not to bring?  Don't bother to bring electronics (or carefully research and purchase appropriate converters before you come) or anything for measuring.  I found it so much easier to use available British cookbooks and buy the measuring cups, etc there.  Mine were practically useless because they didn't do U.S. and metric and the cookbooks I'd taken called for expensive ingredients or ingredients I had no way of finding.  Maybe you'll do better, but in the end our favorite recipes were the ones we made up based on the ingredients we found readily available.

Driving

The speed limits are a lot lower, and if you're going to stay an extended period of time you'll need to get an EU drivers license.  Also, summer speed limits are higher than winter limits.  The roads are pretty narrow, but the cars are smaller.  I came to love the traffic lights that change from red to yellow to green because as I was driving a manual transmission and it gave me the time to shift into gear.  The toughest thing about Tallinn is parking downtown.  There is no public parking inside the Old Town walls, so it's a learning curve to figure out the closest legal parking areas for where you actually want to be.  Also, as soon as you get a car ask for a time clock sticker for your window (in some countries, like Denmark, not posting one in your window with the time of parking will result in a fine), and in Estonia specifically you will need to buy timed tickets in increments of 15 minutes up to 3 hours from the Parkimiskaart (usually little sheds or buildings with a cashier) which you'll scratch off the date and time and place in your window.  Remember to do your day-month-year in that order or you'll have an invalid ticket.

Shopping

You really can find everything you need here.  There is even a small selection of English language books at several bookstores (fiction and non-fiction for both adult and children), clothing styles are very European and trendy, handicrafts are everywhere and the food is excellent.  Many Finns come to Tallinn to buy alcohol (pretty much everything in Estonia is cheaper than in Finland - especially Helsinki) and beauty supplies abound.  I especially fell in love with double-sided glass nail files.  Why are those so hard to find here in the U.S.?  They are the best thing ever.

Getting In and Out

Although it is possible to drive to Estonia, no car rental company will insure you all the way through (at least none I know of), so that leaves flying (no direct flights from U.S.) and ferries.  Because of the car we did ferries both ways.  One from Stockholm, Sweden and the other to Helsinki, Finland and then on to Germany.  The ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki was very user-friendly, easy to find and ticket agents were informed and gave good instructions.  Our other experiences were not user friendly or clear and caused us some major frustrations.  Also, beware the time tables trying to get ferries in from anywhere except Helsinki because they only run on certain days and the companies often don't even answer their phones (in our experience).

LOOKING BACK

I'm happy to be settled at home again, but I look back at our adventures with a lot of fondness.  We met so many really amazing people, learned a lot about the beauty of other cultures, saw amazing landscapes and discovered a lot about ourselves.  Life is an adventure and it's difficult and challenging trips like these that are the worst of times and yet the very best of them too.  I can't wait to go back.