Triumphant Return

"Get away from me, cat!" I yell, slamming the door. I catch a glimpse of Tima's sad, white face as I shut him out again. I don't understand it; we were never friends before I left. "I fed you," I called through the door at the mewling beast. "What more do you want?"

(Note to self: when both you and your host family take vacations at the same time, try not to be the first one to get back. The love-deprived cat will be waiting.)

I shake off my irritation. After all, today is a joyous day: I'm finally through with that forever-long vacation! I've had the chance to shower, blow-dry my hair, eat free food - I'm even wearing clean socks! With such a return to luxury, how can I allow one little walking allergen to spoil my fun?

I sit down at the computer, thinking to write a blog post. Then I pause. What do I say? I wonder. I have no shortage of stories; quite the opposite. And my phone is exploding with beautiful pictures. But I'm still very tired from the long bus ride back; I have to teach in a couple hours; and even if I did try to sum up the whole ten days in one post it would be so outrageously long that no one would read it.

Hmmm . . . I consider this for a moment, then decide on a compromise: it will simply have to take several posts to tell all the stories. I'll just write them whenever I have time and energy, and hopefully everyone will be up to speed before the week is out. (Thankfully, I have enough pictures that I won't have to do too much typing.)

For today, then, a prologue of photos.

Tallinn, Estonia
Our hostel was right in the middle of Old Town, so we were
surrounded by medieval buildings like this.

I exercised great restrain by not buying all of these hats.
I did gaze after them longingly, though.
I couldn't help it.

There was a surprising number of fake animals on this trip...

Our hostel in Tallinn, the Monk's Bunk.
It was a really fun place to stay, even for us Mormon girls
who had to decline the invitation to many parties.

Lots of cathedrals, as always.
Apparently, Russia doesn't hold a monopoly on those.

Walking around Old Town, Tallinn was simply unreal.
It seemed to transport you out of time,
taking you into a magical world of fantasy.
We started calling it "the Disneyland for grown-ups."

Changing money, again and again and again.
In this picture, I only have euros, US dollars, and rubles;
when we got to Stockholm, I got some krona too.
It was ridiculously confusing, trying to keep all those exchange rates straight.

Stockholm, Sweden was our next stop on this trip.

It has a lot of water.
...no, really, A LOT of water!

We saw several cool museums like this one in Stockholm,
but I think I preferred exploring the forests.
(Wait until you see THOSE pictures!)

They have tons of these little guys in stores all over Stockholm.
They're pretty much adorable.
(Or, as became common slang for us on this trip, they are "totes adorbs!")

The Stockholm Sweden temple. THAT was super cool.

Beauty on that water: that's Stockholm for you.

Ah, yes. Well, you see, we had some travel problems.
More of that to come in future posts.

Eventually, though, we did get to ride an enormous ferry.
It had a sauna, two casinos, several restaurants;
I felt like I should have been wearing a fancy dress
instead of crawling aboard in my dirty t-shirt and jeans.
(Ah well. That's travelling.)

Once the vacation was over, we all had a sudden bout of
homesickness. Because what happens when you're done
with your vacation? You get to go home.
Well, not us. Not yet.
So much the better for you, though, eh? :)

Come again soon! I'll be posting again as soon as I'm done trying to get back onto St. Petersburg's time schedule. (Travelling across time zones during the week daylight savings time ends? Not smart. I'm still not convinced I know what time it is.)