Our last stop in Estonia was Pärnu, affectionately known to locals as "Estonia's Miami." Truth be told, on a cool day at the end of tourist season, it felt more like Estonia's Hyannis, which is actually a bit more my speed. We checked into our room for the night, which was as spotless as we'd been led to expect, and was perhaps the roomiest accommodation I've had in a hostel. Then we headed out on the town. Lunch was the first order of business. After wandering the downtown's six blocks for a bit, we decided on a place with bar food where we could sit outside and enjoy the sunshine. We both ordered sausages and fries. Mine came cut up like little octopi. It felt like high-class presentation of kid food. After lunch we decided to ... read more

We are determined to see one national park in every country we visit, so today we headed off to Lahemaa National Park. Looking at the guide, it seemed we could use any of three towns as a base, all of which were on the same busline: Käsmu, an old captains’ village; Võsu, a popular beach town; and Altja, a tiny fishing village at the end of the line that has a swing on a hill. (Apparently swings are a thing of high sport in Estonia.) Turned off by beachgoers and intrigued by swings, we checked the schedule for Altja. Five hours between drop-off and pickup; sounded reasonable for a couple of short hikes. We approached the ticket counter. “Kaks pileetid Altjasse. Edasi-tagasi,” we said in broken Estonian. (“Two tickets to Altja. Round trip.”) “Ei edasi-tagasi. One ... read more

After returning to Arlanda airport in Stockholm, we breezed our way back through security (have I mentioned how much less painful it is to travel through Europe?) at the international terminal and perused the duty-free store, picking up url=http://www.cybercandy.co.uk/aaasmt/index.php/url_indprod/xlc_2185/Mentos%20Lakrits%20%281%20roll%29.htmltasty candy morsels. Ambling toward our gate for the ARN -- TLL flight, we started to experience a sense of deja-vu. We got to the gate 45 minutes before the flight, and . . . again, no one there. We checked the departure boards for cancellations or gate moves, checked the nearby gates, and it looked like we were in fact in the right place. Every once in a while, we'd see one or two more people sit down at the gate, but n... read more

Well, we're off! We arrived at our gate in Madison and were greeted with the eerie silence of a flight that's been secretly moved to the next gate down. Once we resolved that issue, things improved considerably. Miraculously, all of our planes took off on time, despite the fact that we were 1. flying United, 2. through O'Hare. The second leg was a codeshare flight, operated by SAS, which is the loveliest airline either of us has flown. The seats were comfortable and the meals were as tasty as airplane food can be, with key lime bars for dessert. (Graham: "And free cocktails!") The in-seat entertainment also had an interesting feature: a view from the underside of the plane, pointed toward the ground. Not very useful when flying over Greenland at night, but it added some ... read more