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Published: October 7th 2017
We are here and it’s been quite the adventure. As I write this, we have been awake over 31 hours. I have NEVER been this emotionally or physically exhausted traveling. Our flight out of Chicago on the world’s second largest passenger plane was delayed 30 minutes because 70 passengers were missing. The plane was huge by the way so 70 passengers didn’t feel like lots of missing people. Lufthansa is a German airline so the overhead announcements were in German followed by incredibly muffled and quick announcements in a hard-to-understand English. We boarded the plane, waited for the missing passengers, and finally, the German pilot comes on and says a bunch of gibberish in German and follows the announcement in English with “No passengers so we leave.” And so we left 30 minutes late with lots of missing passengers. This made for a better flight because there were 10 people to a row and our row was missing 3 people so I did not have anyone to my left and Kamie got an aisle seat. The food was terrible, the flight was long but I watched an old movie “Chocolat” (so-so) and a newer movie “The House” with Will Ferrell and
The scenario of what happened
It continues on the back and is signed by both customs agentsit was funny. They had a gigantic movie selection that included movies that were recently at the movies like The Big Sick, Captain Underpants, etc. Kamie used his mini TV to play Solitaire for 8 hours. We got to Frankfurt and the airport is HUGE. We walk 10 miles from one gate to the next (or so it seemed), super sleepy, super exhausted, hot and tired and we finally catch our 2 hour flight to Estonia where we sorta slept off and on for most of the flight. I was barely awake at this point but soon… I would be very, very awake….
We arrive in this tiny airport in Estonia, grab our luggage and see other tour members do the same, and just as we are about to leave customs… an official uniformed customs polizia man (picture those dark blue cargo-type pants with pockets on the side, bullet-proof vest, and big heavy boots) and another woman pull us aside. They tell us to come into a separate area to have our bags scanned. He asked if we had anything to declare and we say “No, We just got here.” Typically, when they ask you this, they
want to know if you have over $10,000 in cash or if you are carrying items to resell or an item worth over $800 that may somehow be restricted in their country. He then asks if we have alcohol or cigarettes. Yes, yes we do. We have two cartons of cigarettes I say. This is where we were pulled aside even further, our bags were all put through a special scanner, and then they asked us to remove the cartons of cigarettes from our bags. He then inspected them to see if they had been opened. We now believe they thought maybe we had marijuana cigarettes or something? We don’t know. We weren’t for sure what kind of trouble we might be in but after some odd discussions, we were informed it is a misdemeanor to bring more than 4 packs of cigarettes into Estonia. We had 19 unopened packs. Things were foggy at this point but I know two things happened.. he said one of us was going to have to be the one to surrender their passport and basically take the wrap for this and the other one would be walked-out of customs to meet our tour guide
and let them know we would be delayed to catch the group bus to the hotel. Kamie really didn’t like the idea that we were being split-up but I figured I could negotiate better than him, women are treated better in cold dark Tallinn prisons, and no one wants to put-up with my mouth 24/7 so they might let me go on that fact alone.... so I knew immediately I would be the one with the cigarettes and I handed over my passport. He took my passport, had me wait in another area, and he left with Kamie. I didn’t think I would see Kamie again until this was over but Kamie insisted on telling the tour guide what was up and returning with the customs agent so I was glad about that. Good for you Kamie because the customs agent had told us Kamie would not be returning! Kamie said (later) that the tour guide was very harsh with the customs agent when he told her what was going on and she was protective of us and questioned the cigarette laws with him. She said this must be a new law and but honestly, I should have looked at
We need this at work
After you stand-up, after 4 seconds, it automatically changes the seat saver plastic for you... you just wave your hand over the green flashing light if you want to change it before then. how many we can bring into the country but I didn't and so this really was my fault. It is a lesson learned. Anyway.... when Kamie and Polizia Man returned, we were taken to a long hallway and sat in the very last room on the right – a perfect Dateline interrogation room – two chairs, one table, no cameras, videos or phones allowed (by us) but they video us from above. At that point, he sorta seemed to be on our side. He told us because we told him about the cigarettes before he rescanned our bags, we can pay the declaration taxes on the cigarettes (about 100 Euros which is around $127 USD) or we can pay the fine for the misdemeanor which would be much higher and would take longer to process. I asked if we could just throw the cigarettes away and he said No-No. I said we would pay the taxes and he said it would take a bit to complete the paperwork. He was in and out of the room asking a couple of questions and having me complete and sign paperwork in Estonian. I felt leery but what choice did I have? He
All our customs paperwork
Everything is signed on the back and official. I will seriously be laughing about this... in 2 days tops! never smiled and there was never any indication it was okay to joke during this time however, I had to at least try to trust him and he did explain every piece of paper I completed. Frankly, at one point during this interrogation, I was thinking I was going to be on a future edition of “Locked-up Abroad” because he was never friendly and I felt suspicious of the entire situation and my damn co-workers put that fear in me pretravel so I blame them (ha). I know this sounds strange but I never really freaked-out... I did say a few silent prayers, however. Finally, he calculates the fine and we paid 82.05 Euros (around $104 USD) declaration taxes on a total of 15 packs of cigarettes (4 packs were free), he brings me change, a form signed by them with my name on it that looks like “Hey, here is your first criminal charge of your life… in another country” but it wasn’t, it just felt like that’s what it was…. but it had the entire scenario of what happened typed-out... in Estonian… but you could sorta tell what it said (see pic) and he reviewed each sentence with
Close-up of our plane
If you look closely, you can see it's a double-decker. me thoroughly. He also brought me a receipt for the taxes and a signed statement from him and the other lady that they returned the cigarettes to me. We were walked out of the customs maze and there were two big doors that opened and painted on the doors were…“WELCOME TO ESTONIA” and folks, I’m here to tell you, we didn’t feel very welcomed. Our tour guide was there and said our tour members had already taken a bus to the hotel but another plane had landed already and more tour group members would be arriving any minute and we would catch the next bus to the hotel with them. I’m pretty sure we both stood outside the customs area in shock for the next 10 minutes. Kamie & I agree we think they thought we had drugs on us. I think Kamie feels bad about that because people always think he looks like a drug dealer. Later, I saw the customs guy walk around a couple of doors and back in and I just felt my heart skip a beat and my stomach do flip-flops. I’m fairly certain we are going to Niagara Falls or Arkansas for vacation next year. 😊
Anyway, we are here in Estonia! Our tour guide is a lovely lady from Lithuania. We met the other tour members – all 41 of them! We are the youngest couple by at least 10 or 15 years. I think Kamie is disappointed we are traveling with a bunch of old people but we’ll make friends tomorrow… when we are awake. Sometimes old people can be the best! For tonight, we had a group tour meeting to go over all the logistics, checked-into our hotel, and had a terrible fishy dinner. It’s time for a very long sleep and definitely a prayer of thanks. I'm sure we'll have a good chuckle about this as soon as the shock wears off...
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Kari
non-member comment
Good lord!
EEDA,EEDA...your 1st adventure on this trip nearly got u hard labor. I know when we wemt to Australia in April I researched chewing tobacco. Wes decided then it was time to quit. He toim 2 cans with him and when they were gone he was done. How flippin scarey. I found its best to declare eberything. Btw, 10 to 15 older would ne our agish....hmm, OLD, no. Habe fun u 2.....