we are marching in estonia!

i just spent five days in estonia with my roommate kathryn. i arrived at the tallin airport early in the day (abby, the airport has flor tile all over! and cy, i saw altro on all the busses!). kathryn was on a later flight, so i had some time to take in the sights of the old town.

tallin is a medieval city with an old stone wall surrounding the old part of the city and towers built into this wall to protect the city (men would shoot with bows and arrows from these towers). there were horses, and men in suits of armor and damsels in distress. all very knights of the round table.

estonia is part of the old u.s.s.r. the locals are very happy not to be under soviet rule any longer (they will be adopting the euro next year).

in our five days kathryn and i took a guided bike ride in the old and newer parts of the city, went to a really lovely dinner at a five star restaurant, saw most of the sites in the old town (those towers have a lot of stairs!), went to the botanical garden, took the sightseeing bus, took the city bus, found the local grocery store for a couple of dinners and walked a lot.

one evening we went to the modern art museum. it was designed by a finnish architect and it is sooo beautiful. very modern and elegant. that day just happened to be "museum day" which meant that all the museums all over tallin were free. everyone and their mother (and i mean that) was out.

another day we took a day trip to a small city called varnu. we didn't have a lot of time there (and there isn't a lot to do), so we had a nice lunch, walked to the beach, walked areound the little town center and came home. that evening we decided to go to the spa and get massages (and a pedicure for me). that spa was really beautiful.

as i was lying on the massage table, looking at the linoleum below me, i was thinking about how the european designers use all the cool products that come from europe that i could only use occassionaly in my projects in l.a. because of the expense. i'm getting excited to find a job so i can use these products more!

we came home happy and safe (we both avoided the ash cloud that is still hovering over part of europe). on to the job search (marching, marching, marching...)