12th Tuesday
Took the flight from Keflavik airport to Arlanda, Stockholm, continued to Helsinki by Viking line. Met some interesting people in the ferry, Charlie Tomberg from USA and a Russian professor living in Vyborg (the former Finnish city).
13th Wednesday
Woke up in Helsinki, took a tour through the city on foot and it brought up alot of memories from last summer when I was there for three months. at 15.00 I went by ferry to Tallinn, there I called Heli the girl which was going to accomodate me the next days, she lived in a very interesting neighborhood called Lasnamaa and built in the Soviet period. At the evening we went with her sister Juta and her boyfriend to swim in the sea 40km away from Tallinn in the east.
14th Thursday
Took a tour specially through Vanalinn (the old city in Tallinn),Heli and I drank coffee in the nicest bookcafe I�ve ever seen. I met her father Johannes and discovered that he knows Icelandic and nordic culture thouroughly, he told me for example about Austrvegr (the east way) which was the way the viking went from Scandinavia to Istanbul (Mikligardur). Her parents were wonderful.
15th Friday
I continued to discover some areas of Tallinn, I met for example a Russian guy about 50 years old, he had been living in Estonia from birth but didn�t speak a word in Estonian, although he spoke English and French fluently. At 18.00 I went with Johannes, Juta and Janus her boyfriend to a summerhouse in Sindi, close to Parnu. There we barbecued some sausages and drank some Finnish beer with the nice neighbor downstairs.
16th Saturday
All of us except Johannes drove through South-West of Estonia, we hiked in Somaa Rahvaspark (The national park in Somaa) where a huge land is covered with swamps, there we svam in Estonian swamps. At 16.00 I went by bus to Tartu. In Tartu I met Kersti, who is the sister of Tiina an Estonian girl I met in Iceland. Me, Kersti and Rein, her friend drove to Luitike 25km. from Tartu in south, there we meet her parents and her grandmother. The grandmother lives in an old summerhouse during the summer, after dinner we went to concerts 2 km. from Luitike, the concert place was outside, covered with hills and a lake and the stage was on the middle of the lake. After the concerts we drove to Tartu and drank some brandy with Kerstis parents. Leo the father, told me for example that he had been a soldier in the Soviet army in Kalingrad. All the time in Tartu they were very hospital and took good care of me.
17th Sunday
On Sunday, me Kersti and Rein drove through the whole South-West of Estonia and visitied several places, we hiked in Taevaskoja national park, we visited Otepaa, the skiing area in Estonia and saw the house of Kristina Smigun, we got a free tour through a castle in Sangaste, which is a hotel now (www.hot.ee/sangasteloss), we went to Hanja, were Suur Munamagi is the highest summit in the Baltics, there we saw all the way to Russia and Latvia.
18th Monday
I used this day to discover Tartu and specially the center, during the evening me and Kersti took a bycycle tour.
19th Tuesday
I went to Narva in the North-East, the border-town to Russia. In Narva 98% of the population is Russian and it was very strange to go for example to supermarket were everything is written only in Estonian but the employees don�t speak a word in that language. I saw the last statue of Lenin, situated near the Narva castle and looking towards Ivangorod the city on the other side of the river Narva.
20th Wednesday
This day is very special in Estonia, 20th of Agust 1991, Jon Baldvin Hannibalsson the Icelandic minister of foreign affairs declared The Baltic States to be independent, the next hours over 50 nations followed his footstep. It�s a freeday in Estonia. I borrowed Tiinas car and drove 70 km. to Voru to meet a riverrafting group, I riverrafted through the Vohandu jogi (river) 18km. I did thid in the river Gauja in Lativa 2 years ago, so it was interesting to go to similar suroundings again. In the evening Tiinas and Kerstis mother made a wonderful salmon. Afterwards me and Leo tried their saun in the basement for the first time, and Leo taught me the basics of birch-leafs cleaning.
21st Thursday
Very early in the morning I went by bus to Riga, Latvia, I came there shortly before noon and met Bruno at 13.00. I got in contact with Bruno through the nordic association in Reykjavik where I was working this summer, Bruno lives in Riga and is in the advertisment business, he had promised me to let me stay for some days in Riga, during the time we became good friends and I met his friends as well. In the evening we made dinner together and then went to the nicest pub ever, Karamba, there I met his friends, Zilgalvs, who works in the Latvian TV and Jansons, who is a marketing director and has spent some time in Iceland doing practice.
22nd Friday
I rediscovered Riga, and went for example to the national library of Latvia and read some books about the Latvian language. After Bruno came home from work we went with his friends to the small village Pavilosta on the west coast, in Kurzeme (Kurland). Kurland is famous in nordic history when the vikings ruled the sea and the strands of all Western- and Northern Europe. There was one place they avoided, Kurland, because the people there were famous for their cruelty. In the Saga of Egill Skallagrimsson you can read about his aqaintance with the Baltic maniacs.
23rd Saturday
The Saturday was wonderful in Pavilosta. We spent the time in this summerhouse which the Social Club bought. The Social Club is the name of Bruno and his friends. This summerhouse used to be an old farm, which they bought 2 years ago and are now rebuilding it step by step. We did some interesting things, like drinking beer, making a new place for the outside sanitarium, cutting some trees which will be used for the fire in the winter, eating crawfish and swimming in the Baltic Sea. In the evening we ate sausages and drank beer and vodka and discussed some fine things.
24th Sunday
In the morning many of us suffered from krapula (timburmenn) but we continued to do interesting and needful things, I made crawfish soup for the Social Club, we swam again in the sea etc. in the evening we went home to Riga again.
25th Monday
Easy nice day in Riga.
26th Tuesday
Easy nice day in Riga.
27th Wednesday
What a life.
28th Thursday
I went early in the morning by bus to Vilnius. On the way I met an Hungarian guy living in Canada the last 20 years. He is originally from Transylvania and told me the political issues about that area which now belongs to Romania. He told me about the romanizing of the area and how difficult it is that Transylvania becomes part of Hungary again. We discovered Vilnius together and found a hostel, interestingly it was the only night of my whole trip which I had to sleep a guesthouse/hotel/hostel. In Vilnius we met an interesting girl Julia who showed Andras Vilnius the day after, when I went to Marijampole.
29th Friday
I went to Marijampole to meet Inga, a Lithuanian girl I got to know in Helsinki last summer. I met her and her husband Zilvinis at the bus station. Inga is studying laws and will finish next year, but Zilvinis is working in the police force, investigating car accidents. Inga showed me around, but then we went home to her and met her parents. In the evening I met her brother Vitalias and her wife, we made a Lithuanian party, with a lot of food and less of alcohol, which was much nicer than the Icelandic tradition, with a lot of alcohol and less than no food. Her brother is also educated in laws and works as a prosecutor, we made some interesting discussion where psychology and laws interact, like about free-will and wether the individual is responsible of his acts. Vitalias said that a man is punished because of the results of his actions, not his actions.
30th Saturday
We all went to Kaunas, the next biggest city in Lithuania and the former capital in the beginning of the 20th century when Vilnius belong to Polland. At 15.00 I went back to Riga.
31st Sunday
I did some interesting things in Riga, like going to the market, which once was the biggest in Europe, but is now one of the 5 biggest.
September
01st Monday
I bought the ticket by ferry to Stockholm early in the morning and made some shoppings, I said goodbye to Bruno and Riga and went by the ferry at 18.00. I bought a ticket to the sauna for 5 lats or 750 ikr which I found to be enormous, then I discovered I was buying the whole sauna for 1 hour. After that I took a dinner and went to sleep early.
02nd Tuesday
I woke up in Stockholm and went to the airport after noon, at 15.00 local time I landed in Keflavik, at last after a great fun and adventure I was home.