Villa Artis Parnu

... carriageway. The town has a nice pedestrianised centre and pastel coloured shops and restaurants lining the way. Nick wanted to go to the beach and I needed to take Saskia's toe to be looked at. The last couple of times I'd changed the bandage, some pus had oozed out of one of the holes made by the stitches.

I picked up a tourist map, and identified the little red cross symbol for a doctors, and went looking for the clinic with Saskia. Nick wandered off in ...

... shall we say. Put it this way, Mel pointed out that he could clearly see the hole for the mini-golf because there was a weed growing in the middle of it. To be honest, I'd thought the concrete overgrown area was the remains of a building's foundations, rather than mini-golf.

The climbing wall was not much better. There was one tall tower, that needed a harness and sported a slightly frayed rope. There was also a traversing wall, with the holds fixed ...

... first pictures in front of Kersti's house, bought some water cause all the signs showed it was going to be a hot day, and started walking towards the suburbs. First car driver, heard that we didn't take a tent for this big adventure, was kind enough to offer his tent to us. It also turned out that his mother had been given Kersti some lectures about social sciences in university. A few ...

... had traditional saunas for men and women, one Turkish-style steam sauna, one 15m swimming pool, one smaller pool with warm water (27°C) and jacuzzi for 5-6 people. Unsurprisingly, the jacuzzi was full most of the time. Maybe other spa treatmets like infra-red sauna, massage etc make this a good spa (didn't try those) but I wouldn't come here for the pools.

After taking a part in a minor sauna competition with some other Finnish guys and walking to the showers I nearly ...

... is a resort can only be a stretch, but Pärnu has that kind of reputation in its own country. And I would be willing to see a concert even at North Pole if necessary. So why not one of those open-air ones in Pärnu summer? Well, it wasn't to be. At least not this time around. In fact, it was all just a matter of perspective. To someone from Croatia calling a town like Pärnu a summer capital may be a contradiction ...

This blog is now finished. I will stay in Estonia for a couple of days, celebrate the weekend in Riga, and fly to Singapore on Monday. I will be living & working in Singapore for about 1-1,5 years (well, that's at least the plan), traveling around the neighboring countries. If and when I manage to create a blog about my trips around there, it will most probably reside in blogspot.com. Life goes on. Enjoy every moment.

... one too fast (so almost got fined) Generally, it feels very strange, looking back at the past weeks. So many different places, so different people, so different experiences. A bit unbelievable that I was in South Africa only yesterday. But what do you know - just a bit more than 20 hours of flying, sleeping, eating, driving - and that's that!

We are in Talinn. This is a great city. We had been here in 2001 so we have noticed the enormous progress the city has undergone since then. We arrived here yesterday afternoon. Last night we had a meal provided in the hotel so we did not venture out. This morning we left on a tour of the city. It was a public holiday here celebrating their Independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Last night there had been a huge singing festival to celebrate this event. Our guide ...

... quite a cold experience. Almost a month had passed since then so I felt confident that the sea would be a bit warmer now, actually who am I kidding I didn't even think about the temperature of the water, it never even crossed my mind. However it probably should have because the water was f...., let's just say it's not called 'the Baltic sea' for nothing. After 10mins of torture I was thinking that it might be time to get out before any extremity decided to drop off when I noticed a few ...

... beach, so I had somewhere to juggle at least. Not much to report besides that, aside from the crazy old guy in my dorm who decided to lecture me on the pros and cons of a capitalist versus a socialist economy for a good half hour, all the while adjusting his bow tie with his two-knuckled fingers, despite my making it quite clear that I really didn't understand Estonian. Smile and nod, smile and nod.