Hotel Kubija Tartu

... his childhood still loomed large in his mind, and he wanted to stare at the brooding presence that lurked in the east. We drove up the main highway towards the customs post. Lots of lorries were lined up on the side of the road, waiting for inspection. As the border came into sight, Nick became increasingly nervous, which is amusing from someone who used to support the Revolutionary Communist Party.<br><br>Anyway, as soon as we could see the ...

... buildings being reconstructed. <br><br>Along with its historical feel, there are lots of really neat bars &amp; restaurants. It would be a nice place to hang out and chill but I need to move on to Scandinavia. Most of the places other than cafes are empty (at least in Old Town). Perhaps the summer session has substantially reduced the students that go to these places. <br><br>The cobblestone streets and old churches ...

... table with three different kinds of ham, cheese, bread, rice crackers, butter, boiled eggs, cottage cheese, jam, cereals, tomatoes and cucumbers, orange and apple juice, some porridge which tasted a little weird, tea and coffee. The breakfast was good and we we're ready for our longest daily trip during our journey - from Otepää to Valga, the city located right on the border between Estonia and Latvia.<br>

... the local beer factory with a bunch of the other international students on Saturday, and yesterday I went to watch Colin race in the Tartu 10-km, which was actually held in a little town named Elva 27 km south of Tartu. We also saw one of my professors there and got some good pictures of each of them as they finished the course. Other than that, I've been figuring out how I'm going to pack all my stuff to get it home, which I think will require me to ...

... I came here, I halfway expected Tartu to be like every other post-Soviet eastern European city I had ever seen - fading paint, wooden buildings, and an overall atmosphere of grim and greyness. Well, the wooden buildings are here, and there are some other visual reminders of the Soviet times (certain buildings still have the hammer-and-sickle insignia in their stonework), but in general, the city is kind of like a fairy wonderland of goodness. We haven't really had an "angry" snow ...

... Estonian sentence which only contained one familiar word, so we smiled and nodded goodbye and left before she could keep talking. Baby steps, Peter, baby steps. The week was fine, though, starting with the Russian ballet on Sunday which was interesting and entertaining without being gripping. I don't really enjoy ballet, but I liked the music (Tchaikovsky) and it was an afternoon of culture, at least. Things were normal after that with only 1 minor hiccup on Tuesday when I had my first ...

... prison that has 1000 inmates. It's the lowest number that I've been involved in. We go through the security and screening. The prison guard lady handling me was pleasant...she seemed to vaguely remember me from former visits. Off to the visiting area. Valdur enters and we are happy to see each other for this one hour visit which went very quickly. We talk about his health and well-being. He still has ...

... called me on my cell phone and we talked a while about the mailing and all the things that have to be taken care while I'm here. Bev had two lengthy conversations with our African conatcts about our work there. We are in the finishing stages of a borehole grant valued at $25,000 and there were some details that had to be ironed out. Also, Christina Davis, daughter of elder Howard Davis is living there ...

... songs at the beginning of services. This lasted almost half an hour. I was not familiar with any of the songs. They were all Latvian. Following the music, Robert Schultz gave a 20 minute message about repentance. Then I was asked to give a sermon. Earlier Robert asked that I would say something about the Sabbath, even if my subject was quite different. My sermon was about my favorite subject: The ...

... must say I found it interesting, but it didn't knock my socks off. Aside perhaps from Tallinn's Old Town, the country has no must-see attractions, and you get the impression that most of the cool stuff was destoryed in the wars over the centuries. If you come to the country, you have to come with the intention of seeing Estonians and their way of life. Outside of Tallinn, the real Estonia is never hard to find, though real Estonians may be ...