Hotel Draakon Tartu

... for those that need clarity). <br><br>Tartu is a neat, small town. Pretty river, hills, historical architecture &#8230; It is dominated by the University and retains much of its renaissance character. Most of Europe seems to have been hit hard by fires and war in the 1700s which destroyed the gothic architecture. WWII destroyed much of what had been rebuilt. Tartu, like so many others, has the essence of the past with ...

... option at the University of British Columbia. As cost is a big deal for me since I'll likely have to take out loans, some of these are slightly unrealistic - UBC in particular is ridiculously expensive for non-residents. However, I've been doing a lot of research into scholarships and such, and there quite a few options out there, so I can't rule anything out at the moment. Anyway, that's how I've been spending my time recently. I also went to ...

... for writing this blog: Usually I look back through my pictures and see what is recorded there, then I write about that on here. I tend to forget things, so it's nice to have another record of it somewhere :) Unfortunately my picture-taking pace has slowed down considerably as life becomes more routine here, but the weather has been getting considerably warmer on a more regular basis, so I may start taking more pictures of everyday things in Tartu. Ooh, something to write about now. So ...

... more than twice what the last one was. Today is my day to visit Valdur Vesingi at the foreboding Vangla prison in Tartu. I'm really glad I've figured out an easy way to have a cell phone and German the Russian Estonian cab driver. I call German the Russian to pick me up and off we go the Vangla. It's a gray winter day. There are only four visitors in my group today to see inmates. That's very low for ...

... covered. Estonia has been going through the same economic downturn as the rest of the world. Tourism, hospitality business, restaurants are all suffering. We hope that a nice group of people coming over in the fall can be very attractive to hotel people we know and that a good rate can be negotiated. We want to try take look at a few places Monday or Tuesday, including out standby the Pallas Hotell. Johnnie ...

... we talked. Conversation is always enjoyable. Katrin was quite talkative....Andrus always is. Katrin is getting her Masters Degree and has just been certified as an anesthesiologist. She works as a nurse at the main hospital in Tartu in the brain and spinal surgery. We really like Katrin...she has a gentle disposition. At 1:00 PM Jim and I left for the Vangla by taxi. The train station is just across the street from the Apartment ...

... those a place that hold so many good memories for us. Then Bev and I had to get ready for our guests tonight. A few carloads are coming up from Latvia and our locals from Tartu will be here. Toomas Schvaak is coming down from Tallinn. There were plenty of chores to take care of through the day including picking up our missing piece of luggage at the bus station and buying more envelopes for the mailing prep to be done on ...

... and very much part of their culture. We all had a great time going down the slides, swimming in the lazy river, etc. The best moment was when my dad decided to go down the water slide and the man behind him decided to follow him immediately. So, I was standing at the bottom watching two grown men coming down a water slide together. I was so mad this was ...

... building. More interesting, however, is the building housing the city's main art museum. Apparently built with its foundations placed atop the old city wall, it has a distinct lean to it, more than vaguely reminiscent of a certain tower in Italy. I've never seen a leaning classical building before! For me though, the nicest aspect of wandering through Tartu was its lovely old district of Supilinn (translated: "Soup Town"). Having ...

... At the taxi we run into Helgi Luts, one of the people who attend our services. She has had cancer and is goinig through chemotherapy right now. We talked several minutes. Altogether, we have run into five people we know in town...either brethren or people we hanve known from the past. Then we went to pick up our Russian Bible Study lessons that arrived from Ukraine. Six 20 pound boxes ...