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Showing posts from May, 2008

Country #72: Escape from Estonia

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Um, nice try...but no. Uspenski Cathedral Shopping at the Kauppatori, aka Market Square Ice breakers, hanging out in the off-season Havis Amanda, she represents Helsinki and its rebirth Temppeliaukio Church, better known as the Rock church Sibelius Monument, honoring the composer Jean Sibelius Helsinki Cathedral The guardians of the Central Railway Station Even their construction barricades are cool!! I have to admit that when I booked my trip to Estonia, I did briefly consider the idea of doing a day trip to Finland. I went as far as looking up the schedules and the prices, but in the end, decided that with only four days to play with, I would be selling Tallinn short in favor of upping my Country Count, something I seriously try to avoid. I like to think that travel is more about really getting to know a place and a people than it is about checking items (or in this case, countries) off of a list. And then I got to Tallinn. As I might have

Country #71: And I chose Tallinn.

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The Dome Church A stadium dedicated to Song Competitions Alexander Nevsky church St. Olaf, once the tallest building in the world, in the background Entrance into the Dominican Monastery St. Olaf's spire, up close Town Hall Russian cars from the Occupation Museum Not surprisingly, the Estonian Russians are less than thrilled with this display. Translates to Grandma's Place, this is a restaurant where Hillary Clinton once ate as first lady...I can only assume under a hail of gunfire. After a month of working in Amsterdam, I finally had a nice stretch of days off and a lot of possibilities. I could go the laid-back beach route and head to the Greek Isles or the southern coast of Spain. I could get all exotic-like and head to Tunisia. I could finally get to Berlin, a city that it feels like I have been trying to get to forever. Instead, I chose Tallinn. As in Tallinn, Estonia. I had heard all kinds of buzz of this spectacular and hip city, that

Koninginnedag (aka Queen's Day)

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Orange bitter liquor...it's what's for breakfast Clock him with an egg and win 20 euro April 30th is the day when the Dutch (and the tourists that love them) manage to outdo the usual everyday bacchanalia that is Amsterdam. Ostensibly, it is the celebration of the Queen's birthday (although it is actually the birthday of her mother, since the current Queen pragmatically realized that changing the holiday to her actual birthday in December would probably put a damper any outdoor celebrations and had the good sense to leave well enough alone). So now as before, in springtime, everyone dresses up in orange (the royal family is known as the House of Orange), drinks orange liquor, walks arounds streets strewn in orange debris and in general sleeps off an orange hangover come May 1st. Or was that just me?

A picture is worth a million....pictures (the tulip edition)

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Once again, it looks like I will be spending most of my summer in the ultra-cool city of Amsterdam, only difference is that this year, I made it in time to see the much heralded tulips. They are gorgeous, they are amazingly colorful and they are simply everywhere. Yet even with this level of omnipresence, I have calculated that there has got to be a 5 tourists to 1 tulip ratio at play. Hotels are all booked solid, tour busses are clogging every street and may the gods help you if you decide to take a city bus to the Keukenhof , the world's most famous flower garden. It is tulip mania around here. I have posted a small percentage (seriously!!) of the photos I took at the flower parade and the garden itself to show why people from all over the world are flocking for flowers.