And another. 

Liisa enjoying the summer night at her cottage . :-)

Our Churches?

Tallinn has a lot churches for a country full of non-believing pagans. Actually, there aren't that many it's just that it's a small town so it makes it feel like there are a lot. Most of the churches are very old, 400+ years or so in many cases. I started thinking about churches and how Europe is so full of them and how people visit them a lot. St.Peters, St.Pauls, Notre Dame, etc.... This lead me to think about what our churches are. Meaning what type of building will people be visit in 300 years of our that we build? Is there anything? Skyscrapers, stadiums, modern museums? Do we build anything that will be worth a visit in the future?

Just my random thoughts for today. :-)

Mom's Visit

So my mother came to visit for a bit. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. :-)
Aside from kicking me out of my bed we got along great. We spent a weekend in Hiiumaa where my grandmother was from and checked out some land we own there which is amazing and should not sit untouched much longer (sorry, no pics of it. I'll get some later this summer). We also spent a weekend at my grandfathers village as his first cousin Rein (my great-great uncle?) had his 90th birthday. Rein didn't get out of Estonia like the rest of his family as he had the bad luck of being in Tallinn when the Red Army came looking for "recruits" and was shipped off to the front. By the time he returned to Estonia his family had fled.

All in all my almost 5 weeks of constant house guests has come to an end. Now I might finally be able to get some peace and quiet. That is until the next vistors arrive.

My grand-fathers village, Neeme. 

Big old rusty Soviet army tower. Not safe but fun to climb. 

A cousin hid from the Soviets in this well when they came to "recruit" people for the Red Army during WWII. 

My Great-Grandparents. 

Mom and the relatives. 

Me and the relatives. 

Some leave, some come.

On Nick and Dal's last night in town we decided to take full advantage of Estonian life and hit the bar scene. I can't remember completly where we went but it was at least 4 or 5 different bars and as most of these long nights out ended with us at Levi's Valjas, the infamous cellar bar. We then headed back to my place where we ended up snapping 75 pictures in about 1 hour, some of which are posted here. Needless to say the next day was a bit rough, thankfully I didn't have to get on a 7am flight or 10am ferry anywhere. :-)

Just a couple of days after Nick and Dal and Mike left Mom came for a visit. So now we're on about 4+ weeks of nothing but house guests.

Nick thinking that he has to be on a plane in 4 hours. 

Nothing better than drunken handstands. 

Liisa providing the entertainment. 

Dal and his new drinking technique. 

What are you looking at? 

Dal in deep thought 

Saaremaa

For the rest of the road trip we headed to Eesti's largest island, Saaremaa. We spent a very relaxing weekend driving around and visiting the castles, manor houses, etc. We had a heck of a time finding our campsite and we're driving on logging trails and other miniscule roads but eventually got there and it was well worth the trip.

The crater lake in Saaremaa 

Finally found the campsite, beautiful as usual. 

At the beach 

Road Trip Day 2

On the second day of our road trip we woke up and headed to the beach in Parnu for some food and relaxing on the beach. Sun and water were both about 20C, just warm enough to get comfortable. Then we spent the next couple of hours driving up the coast looking for food and a place to sleep. After quite a long search we found a open restaurant in Lihula, a place which has been in the news around here a lot in the past year. We then found a place to sleep on the coast fairly close to where we needed to be early the next morning. And again we enjoyed the "white nights" of Estonia. Next, Saaremaa.

Mike and I taking advantage of the toys on the beach.

Mike and Dal enjoy so fun in Parnu 

Ruined church in Lihula 

Silhouettes 

The rising moon in the other direction at the same time. 

Sunset in one direction. 

On the road.

After a weekend in Tallinn (and an unwanted work day on Monday) we headed out down the western coast to the most south western point in Eesti. We spent the night at a campsite near the sea on the longest night of the year and watched the sun very slowly cross the horizon.

Our campsite by the sea. 

Grilling some meat.