Vanaisa in Eesti

My grandfather came to Estonia last week, it was also the Jaanipaev weekend which in Estonia is the biggest holiday of the year. It's the shortest night (longest day) and is ritualized with massive bonfires, massive drinking and massive lineups to get on ferries. Below are some pictures from our time in Saaremaa which we spent at Liisa's dads place and some of his friends places where we had a bit of dinner, singing and bonfires. We also attended a big naval parade which was held in honour of Estonia's Victory day on the 23rd.

All pictures can be view here: http://picasaweb.google.com/andres.sehr/VanaisaInEestiWeek1

Watching the parade.
British Destroyer (which later smashed into the dock).
Saaremaa's trademark symbol.

Vanaisa delivering a speech to the dinner crowd.

Vanaisa and I did a bit of car repair.
The crowd gathers for Jaanipaev lunch.

Vanaisa and I took a longer than expected walk.
Jaanipaev fire.
Liisa and Edgar in Kuresaare.

Midnight Sun

Changes

Liisa got into U of T law, I've spoken with work, end of August seems like a good time to change your life again. Should be fun.

Midnight Sun

Eesti really sucks during the winter. I mean this place is royally depressing. It is so damn dark and grey that it is not really that suprising that sucide rates are high as people get drunk, depressed and stupid during the winter months.

Now on the flip side is this time of year. It never get's pitch black, never. At no time of night does it get so dark that you can't see in front of yourself and only for 1-2 hours is it really "dark". It's both amazing and disturbing to live like this. It's hard to sleep as the sun is still up at 11pm and is fully risen by 4am but it is bizarre and amazing to live like this. The picture attached is taken at 2am on the 2nd of June, about 3 weeks or so from the longest day of the year which means that we will add another 1-1.5 hours of sunlight still until things go downhill.