I left Europe
Sorry for my momentary absence from posting new entries, but I have been quite busy traveling around Europe. I had a wonderful time traveling around Sweden with my parents. We went back to Jönköping and saw Maj Brit and her family. It was nice to see them again, and I enjoyed seeing the city once more. It was strange to see the city without all my favourite international students residing there. Next we went to the glass blowing region of Sweden. Mum and Dad enjoyed seeing all the glass working. For my part I enjoyed relaxing in the city of Kalmar. We toured the island nearby and an old castle. We even watched a few world cup games.
I took Ryan Air to Riga and very soon I was on a bus back to Tartu. It was amazing to go from a land of such weath to then be in Riga which is still overcoming its Soviet past. I was quite happy to cross the border and head back into Estonia. I met with Carola and Little Liis and we went out for dinner.
The next day was my last full day in Tartu. I did a bit of shopping with Carola. I purchased a jersey of the local football club, which I thought was a nice souviner. We had a wonderful BBQ on the beach. Monday morning there was much to be done. All the little things like closing my bank account and saying goodbye to people. We had a wonderful lunch with Jacob, Liis, and Little Liis. Kai also stopped by. It was very sad to leave. I did not want to say goodbye to such wonderful friends. I was very glad Carola was coming with me.
Carola and I drove to Lithueania in an intense heat without AC. After fighting trafic in Riga we finally arrived to an old manor house that used to be owned by Carola’s great grandfather. The family that owns it now and is renovating it was there to welcome us. They had a wonderful dinner all prepared for us, it was very very nice. We spent the night in the manor house.
We spent the next night in Riga and watched the Sweden England football match. Here we said goobye to Carola’s car. It was so wonderful to be rid of this car. It always seemed to be on the edge of breaking down. We had a nice time with friends.
So many bags. We had way too much stuff. We took a taxi to the bus station and luckily we were able to move all our stuff in one go to the bus stop. We had to pay 10 euros extra for the baggage, but it was much better than any airline. If we had tried to take that much stuff on an airplane they would have charged us an extra 200 euros. Thus began our trip to Munich. We had two stops in Lithueania, and then on to Berlin. We did not stop in Poland except to cross the borders. The border crossing was generally an hour-long process. It was very interesting to see how things gradually became more western european in their orientation.
We arrived in Berlin the next morning, a couple of hours late. Carola asked, and the Eurolines representative said that the only bus to Munich was scheduled to leave two hours ago. This was a positive and negative development. It is bad to be delayed when you really want to get somewhere, but it would have been a wonderful oportunity to expore Berlin a little bit. However, it turned out that a bus was waiting for us, only the Russian driver was off doing something somewhere and would not answer his mobile. Our estonian travel agent from the previous bus was furious at him, as he made he bus even later. This second bus to Munich was a Russian-only afair. If you did not know Russian you did not understand anything.
Finally we arrived in Munich and hauled all our bags off and on two different trains only to find out that our third train had been canceled due to flooding on the tracks. So, Carola’s brother came to pick us up. We had two Latvians joining us by this time as well. Carola’s brother headed down the autobahn at about 200km/h. The lithueanian boy said, a little nervously, I’m not going to tell my mother about this. We finally arrived in Rosenheim, glad to be there. The Lithueanians had to continue on another bus and then another train. Carola’s family prepared a wonderful dinner for us, and then it was time for bed.
Over the next week Carola was very gracious and was my tour guide around southern Germany. Everything was so interesting and wonderful it is hard to know where to begin. We saw crazy football fans in Munich, climbed a mountain in the Alps, visited Saltzburg Austria and just generally relaxed and enjoyed spending time together. We have the next 5 months apart so it was very nice to be able to spend some nice time together because it will be hard to be apart for so long.
Yesterday I took a cheap flight up from Stuttgart, DE and came to Stockholm. I got an expensive hotel room and quickly fell asleep. This morning I got on a plane to Newark. This is where I am now. I will spend four hours in Newark and then on to Denver. Thus comes to a close this chapter of my life. But I am very excited about starting graduate school, and I cherish the friends that I have made during my stay in Tartu. It has been a wonderful experience. I look forward to working again full time and seeing family in Colorado. It is a strange mix of emotions when one enjoys being around so many people from so many places. I can’t complain though, I wouldn’t trade my experiences for anything.
I took Ryan Air to Riga and very soon I was on a bus back to Tartu. It was amazing to go from a land of such weath to then be in Riga which is still overcoming its Soviet past. I was quite happy to cross the border and head back into Estonia. I met with Carola and Little Liis and we went out for dinner.
The next day was my last full day in Tartu. I did a bit of shopping with Carola. I purchased a jersey of the local football club, which I thought was a nice souviner. We had a wonderful BBQ on the beach. Monday morning there was much to be done. All the little things like closing my bank account and saying goodbye to people. We had a wonderful lunch with Jacob, Liis, and Little Liis. Kai also stopped by. It was very sad to leave. I did not want to say goodbye to such wonderful friends. I was very glad Carola was coming with me.
Carola and I drove to Lithueania in an intense heat without AC. After fighting trafic in Riga we finally arrived to an old manor house that used to be owned by Carola’s great grandfather. The family that owns it now and is renovating it was there to welcome us. They had a wonderful dinner all prepared for us, it was very very nice. We spent the night in the manor house.
We spent the next night in Riga and watched the Sweden England football match. Here we said goobye to Carola’s car. It was so wonderful to be rid of this car. It always seemed to be on the edge of breaking down. We had a nice time with friends.
So many bags. We had way too much stuff. We took a taxi to the bus station and luckily we were able to move all our stuff in one go to the bus stop. We had to pay 10 euros extra for the baggage, but it was much better than any airline. If we had tried to take that much stuff on an airplane they would have charged us an extra 200 euros. Thus began our trip to Munich. We had two stops in Lithueania, and then on to Berlin. We did not stop in Poland except to cross the borders. The border crossing was generally an hour-long process. It was very interesting to see how things gradually became more western european in their orientation.
We arrived in Berlin the next morning, a couple of hours late. Carola asked, and the Eurolines representative said that the only bus to Munich was scheduled to leave two hours ago. This was a positive and negative development. It is bad to be delayed when you really want to get somewhere, but it would have been a wonderful oportunity to expore Berlin a little bit. However, it turned out that a bus was waiting for us, only the Russian driver was off doing something somewhere and would not answer his mobile. Our estonian travel agent from the previous bus was furious at him, as he made he bus even later. This second bus to Munich was a Russian-only afair. If you did not know Russian you did not understand anything.
Finally we arrived in Munich and hauled all our bags off and on two different trains only to find out that our third train had been canceled due to flooding on the tracks. So, Carola’s brother came to pick us up. We had two Latvians joining us by this time as well. Carola’s brother headed down the autobahn at about 200km/h. The lithueanian boy said, a little nervously, I’m not going to tell my mother about this. We finally arrived in Rosenheim, glad to be there. The Lithueanians had to continue on another bus and then another train. Carola’s family prepared a wonderful dinner for us, and then it was time for bed.
Over the next week Carola was very gracious and was my tour guide around southern Germany. Everything was so interesting and wonderful it is hard to know where to begin. We saw crazy football fans in Munich, climbed a mountain in the Alps, visited Saltzburg Austria and just generally relaxed and enjoyed spending time together. We have the next 5 months apart so it was very nice to be able to spend some nice time together because it will be hard to be apart for so long.
Yesterday I took a cheap flight up from Stuttgart, DE and came to Stockholm. I got an expensive hotel room and quickly fell asleep. This morning I got on a plane to Newark. This is where I am now. I will spend four hours in Newark and then on to Denver. Thus comes to a close this chapter of my life. But I am very excited about starting graduate school, and I cherish the friends that I have made during my stay in Tartu. It has been a wonderful experience. I look forward to working again full time and seeing family in Colorado. It is a strange mix of emotions when one enjoys being around so many people from so many places. I can’t complain though, I wouldn’t trade my experiences for anything.
posted by destartalado | 5:09 AM
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