Viljandi


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July 5th 2010
Published: July 5th 2010
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Monday July 5 - I am writing this from a sweaty train. I hope that when it begins to move in the next few minutes that there is a breeze. Oh please let there be a breeze. And - there is no internet. So much for wireless on all buses and trains. Last night I got to bed after midnight, just about usual for here. I met about five new "roommates", though most were staying in the room next door. They are from Holland, Peru, Kuwait andEngland. Three of them were high school kids in about IB program, like I teach. There were three other guys staying in my room from the Netherlands, but I never met this as they came in late. I did see them sprawled on their beds in their underwear this morning though. Rough night I guess.

I got up around 6:15am to get ready and make the 7:55am train to Viljandi for a day trip. I went with Morgan. The train took about 2.5 hours and was reasonably scenic. We got to Viljandi at 10:20am and walked the 2km into town. Went to the tourist info office for a map that had a walking tour, so then we follwed the map to the different sights. The main reason I wanted to go there was for the castle ruins and the lake. Both were very nice. We saw a lot of old buildings and took a lot of pictures. We decided we could even make the 1:34pm train back to Tallin, rather than wait for the one at 4:19pm. On the way to the bus that would take us to the train, we looked for a shwarma restaurant that the lonely planet mentioned. No luck. It must have gone out of business or moved. We waited for a bus and when it finally came, the driver said they do not go to the train station. So we had to walk super fast for twenty minutes in the heat and we just made it. No one was on the train when we got there. Not even the driver. So we looked at out schedule again and it turns out we looked at the schedule from Tallinn, not to Tallinn. Even worse, this only goes on Fri, Sat, and Sun, not the rest of the week. That applied in both directions. So we had to catch the 4:19pm after all.

After that we walked back to town, going into a grocery store along the way. I bought some new water. Next we stopped at a cemetery to eat some snacks and have some water. Then back to town. I walked to the lake and took some pictures and agreed to meet Morgan back at the train station around 4pm. I had to move fast to make it - the lake was down abut 1000 stairs and then back, so I couldn't linger, unfortunately. We met back at 4pm, bought our tickets and then waited for the train. Which is where I am now. And no, the breeze hardly exists.

Dozed on the train a bit but eventually made it back to the hostel and had some left over cheese and lunch meat for dinner. Packed up a bit, as I will leave Tallinn tomorrow and move on to Saaremaa island. Here goes nothing!


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SwingSwing
Swing

We went on this standing swing and it was fun.


5th July 2010

Crazy bug bites but you are seeing some amazing places!
7th July 2010

your travels
Hi Jenn - this was one of Zacc's favorite parts of Europe and now I can see why. Keep traveling and blogging so the rest of us can live vicariously :) Guessing you and Jeroen are excited about Netherlands in the World Cup. We are hoping Germany beats Spain today. Our dream final is Netherlands v Germany; we won't care who wins. We like both those teams.

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