Two Britons who left the United Kingdom to tour the world got stuck in Estonia for the past seven months due to the coronavirus pandemic – and they say Estonia is the best place to be trapped in.
The British tabloid, The Sun, reported that Craig and Kirsty Stenzel quit their jobs, rented their home and sold some of their possessions to raise cash for a year’s travel around the world. However, when the coronavirus pandemic began and most of the world locked itself down, they had only reached the Estonian capital, Tallinn.
Since that, they have spent 180 days exploring the city from hostels and Airbnb rentals. They’ve also been featured in a local tabloid, Õhtuleht (Evening Newspaper), where the cover story said that “Estonia is the best place to be corona-trapped”.
The 33-year-old psychologist, Kristy, told The Sun that “Our friends and family thought we were mad at first to stay in Estonia but over time they wished they could be here with us as we had so much more freedom. The emergency situation only lasted from 17 March to 17 May, after that life was back to normal while the UK and the US are still wearing masks and getting government restrictions.” Kristy added that they could’ve gone back home, but – assumingly because they rented their home – “we’ve nothing to go back to.”
The couple, calling themselves the Tide Knot Travellers, lives in St Albans in Hertfordshire, a 26-mile drive northwest from the centre of London.
Famous in Estonia
On 7 July, Estonian tabloid Õhtuleht also published a story about the Stenzels where they said they had thought earlier that should they be trapped somewhere for a longer time, the best place to do that is Estonia.
“We can’t live without Estonia anymore, so we’ll probably be back again and again,” they told the newspaper. They also explained that when they got married two years earlier, they decided they wouldn’t go on honeymoon, but save money and then go travel the world for a year.”
The Stenzels had wanted to backpack around Asia and climb to the Mt Everest base camp. “The world we planned to travel has completely changed.”
Cover: Craig and Kirsty Stenzel taking a selfie with the Tallinn Old Town in the background. Photo from the couple’s Instagram.
