So much to tell...

i just got back from my whirlwind tour of estonia. the entire country in 9 days seemed a bit overzealous when andrew and i were mapping everything out but we found that we could see what we wanted to and more in just 7. partly because this country is so small (about the size of vermont and new hampshire combined) and partly because i have a lead foot.

so that's what we did. and you know what? it was fantastic.

don't get me wrong... it wasn't all castles and sunshine. here are some low points of the trip: car won't reverse. we found this one out early. at the very first stop actually. but one quick call to roman, our rental car guy, and we were back on track. lost keys. found in a few minutes right between the slide and the swing. the obvious place for keys i know. stuck in the sand. in about two feet of sand to be precise. we weren't going anywhere until we flagged down an estonian hero who single handedly dug, jacked, propped, and pushed our car out of a sand pit. we love you tiit. sickness. our first hostel in narva was freezing. i woke up the next morning with a nasty sinus infection. a lot of medication and nose blowing kicked it by the time i got home. oh well. a dead battery. easily fixed with the purchase of some jumper cables and some helpful punks. a frightening seven point turn. when you realize that you're in the middle of the forest and the very narrow road you're on just ended for no apparent reason you only have one choice.

sounds like we had an awful time huh? well, you're wrong. it could have been bad but when something went awry we figured it out. oh yeah, and we laughed a lot. no point in freaking out right? and of course there are always the highlights of any trip: a great team. i found out after picking up the car that andrew can only drive an automatic. so andrew was the navigator extraordinaire while i was the master of the stick-shift. throw in a few impromptu driving lessons for more laughter. pop megamix. estonian radio got a bit old after the first day so we picked up a tape of the top 51 estonian pop hits from the last decade. play for good times. free fish. offered to us by a woman on kihnu island after we purchased a few handmade items she sold from her home. not just a few fish either. these were 50lb. bags of half dead herring. too bad we didn't have a cooler in the trunk. local heroes. as mentioned above, we weren't going anywhere on several occasions without some help. a push, a jack, a jump, a shove... it never took long to find someone willing to help. a cappella. when the radio and pop megamix no longer cut it. mabel. our rental car. could be a bit testy but she was a trooper and the third member of our gang. which is why i have over a dozen photos of her.















picnic lunches. in order to save money we had a pb&j picnic everyday. yum! plus all of the beautiful chapels, waterfalls, castles, bogs, manors, cities, lighthouses, towns, forests, and windmills we saw along the way.

below you'll find some highlights from the trip. remember that you have the power to enlarge! just click on the photo of your choice.