Hotel Pallas Tartu

... nice but similar to many of the other medieval cities I have visited. Most distinctive are the wooden homes that are around the old town. Many have not been painted for many years which gives them an even older feel (they are probably 100 years or so old).<br><br>It is Friday. I am dressed up for bars &amp; a club. I have a beer at a café that is on top of a building, getting a nice view. The Estonian beer, A. Le Coq ...

... my big suitcase via ground/ferry (it's much, much cheaper than air shipping) and just use my backpack for the 3-week tour at the end of the semester. However, if I want my suitcase to get back home before I leave for Marshall in August, I have to send it soon, because it could take up to 2.5 - 3 months to arrive. It shouldn't be a problem because I don't really need a lot of the stuff I have any more, and I was going to leave some of my clothes here to ...

... we got here; it usually seems to just accumulate without being damaging to safety or anything...the danger comes from the permafrost on all the sidewalks ;) Anyway, while Estonians don't generally show signs of joy or pleasure as they walk around town, they definitely don't have the same hurried character that I usually associate with cities. Tartu isn't a huge town (pop. ~100,000) but it's twice the size of Huntington, even though it doesn't feel like it. I can walk around to every single ...

... years to serve of a 20 year sentence. He would be 65 when he would be released. On former visits he seemed resigned to be imprisoned for the rest of his life. Now, he seemed more hopeful of not only being free, but possibly having his sentence shortened. He is translating the booklet Jesus Christ - The Real Story into Estonian. He only has two two hour sessions at a computer available to him all week ...

... we grabbed a taxi there for the five mile or so trip out to the Vangla. We were supposed to have been cleared to see Valdur, but there seemed to be no record of our request. The receptionist, was uncharacteristically pleasant and told be that THIS time she would let us see a prisoner with no record of visit request...but to be sure that this didn't happen next time. We filled out forms and gave our passports to the receptionist ...

... All is in place and I feel very good about how things are going. Six PM when are guests are due to arrive. First comes Katrin and Andrus. Then Toomas, then the Latvians. Jim and Britt made it from the hotel. Ten came up from Smiltena about 90 miles south. Bev prepared salmon. Others brought side dishes. A LOT of strawberries came from Latvia which were just picked on one of the farms. They looked beautiful and were very ...

... one time I forgot my camera. Later that night, we went with some of our Swedish friends to the Restoran Balkin which had cuisine ranging from the more Eastern European areas (Romania, Hungary, Serbia) to dishes that were more Greek and Turkish. My wife had the chicken kebabs, my friend Paul had some sort of steak with a peach on it, I had minced meat balls with Feta.

... escaped wartime bombing entirely, it's a fully intact residential quarter of traditional wooden Estonian houses. The simple, vernacular architecture is a dramatic switch from the refined classicism of downtown Tartu (and even more so the medieval atmosphere of old Tallinn). It's still pleasantly residential, with children and meandering elderly people making up most of the street scene. Tourism, though, is essentially non-existent ...

... rolled out to us on a cart. Customs declaration was made for them as 'books" that were a "gift, not to be resold." There was no problem handing them over to us. I hope that this can work this easily for future printings and shipping. Overall, the price comes out quite cheaply for printing done in Ukraine. The Russian Bible Study Course lessons cost us about 30 cents apiece. Only the cover is ...