kubb in the park

ciao a tutti,

the transitions have been really fast lately so it makes it hard to sum up everything that has happened. i'll do my best:

i did not want to leave spain at all. the freaky weird day seemed to be perfect with naps and super late nights. i've never seen a father and son play football (soccer) in the street on a sunday night...at three a.m. i was getting used to the good cheap food, good cheap sangria, and free amazing days with good people. so, it was a good thing i was going to sweden with friends i met in fiji.

the four day fiji reunion consisted of sebastian and sofia, the cool swedish couple, pauline, from england, and myself (laura, you should have been there too). at times my mind would say, 'what are you doing in sweden visiting friends you didn't even know existed before this trip?' the week we were in stockholm was some of the best weather they have seen in a long time (long, cold, dark winters for them). it was a bit chilly at times but the sun was shining. they really know how to make cinnamin buns and hot chocolate there, so that helps take the chill away. sebastian had a pretty good knowledge of interesting swedish history and things about buildings/statues/and other sites so we did lots of cool walking tours. then we would usually meet up with sofia after she had work. it was also cool to see urban, the swedish guy that i met in croatia. one of the best moments for me was playing kubb in the park. its a game where you knock down small blocks of wood with sticks. we played two games and whatever team i was on lost. thats ok though, i'm not swedish. i feel like a wuss because for the past three days, my muscles have been sore from throwing the sticks (if you saw how big...ok, how small the sticks where, you would understand why i feel like a weenie--its just i was playing it really intensely). but really the best part was hanging out with everyone. i think if i grew up in sweden i would want to be best friends with sebastian and sofia.

now i'm in tallinn, estonia with pauline. its always been really easy to travel with her so its been a good time. tallinn is pretty small but we've been able to occupy our time with cool things to do. there's so many dang churches its unbelievable and everything has a bit of that communist touch to it. some things are cheap and some things aren't. food is nearly nothing, but getting a water always costs more than you would think. we've been really lucky with the restaruants we've gone to. the one on our first night was straight out of italy which made me happy and last night was a proper estonian dinner. my potato porridge thing with bacon was good but a traditional softdrink called kali got me sicker than i would like to admit. tonight is some musical concert--i don't really know much about it, but i'm hoping its not too fancy-pants. tomorrow we are going to helsinki, finland for the day. its not in any of my books (the scandinavian countries have their own lonely planet book, and i don't have that one) so we really have no idea what is there.

on friday i'm going to hamburg germany to enjoy some wedding festivities. i don't know who is getting married but i know they are nice. the people i'm visiting (jasmin and bjorn, the cool german couple from the farm in new zealand) are going to the wedding and i'll be joining them as a guest. i'm going to do my best to look fancy, but i'm not so sure. either way, it will be good to see them again.

so, from now until arriving home, i believe i will be with friends or family--minus a few days. this means its going to be fun for me, but also it means i'll be a lot more delayed in returning emails. if you've emailed me, or if you will email me in the next two months, i'll do my best to write back as soon as i can, but it may have to wait until i get back home.

have a good day
your friend

chad