After a long silence - hello to all of you again, this time from...eh, Riga, Tartu, Tallinn? Well, right now from Tallinn! So we are back in Europe now. About three weeks ago around midnight, the plane toughed down and we were home. "EU citizens" it said on the sign for the passport control and it took us about two seconds to pass it. Then we got out of the airport and even though the air didn't quite smell like home, everything definitely looked like home. Did we ever consider China as as far developed as Europe? Well, apparently we must have been very badly influenced by our stay in India and everything afterwards seemed like the future, but here now, this was developed! China... you still have some way to go. The taxi was the most luxurious car I have been in for a year, the guy offered real service,
the houses and architecture looked sooo familiar, the music in the radio was well known, in the hostel there were blond heads and brown heads and blond heads and red heads and blond heads,... and the girl at the reception offered us a beer as a welcome... yeah - we are definitely back home. You wonder why we call Europe home and not France or Germany? Well, what could be more home for a European couple than Europe?! I guess traveling changes a lot of perspectives but we both see Europa as home now.
The next day confirmed my thesis about being home - Europe greeted us with perfectly German grey sky and continuous rain!
But still, the streets were paved with cobbled stone, there were pedestrian precincts, one cafe followed another, the restaurant sold roast beef with sauerkraut and Viennese schnitzel - and I was all lost among those familiar sights. Where were those incomprehensible writings all around us, where was the rice with chopped-up ingredients, where were all the black heads, were was the everyday struggle to get what we wanted, where was the pollution and the noise, the communication with hands and feet and the perpetual smile? Where was the adventure? Apparently, it doesn't take a lot of time to get used to a new culture and to break the habits of an old one, so I found myself a stranger among a familiar place and culture and had to readapt once more!
The beauty of home, however, is that you get used to it really quickly and, moreover, there were still lots of things to discover all around us. Our first stop-over:
Riga, where the plane had taken us and where we spent two days exploring the region in the rain and four nights without
sleeping because of the crowd of puberty-hitten, drunk, extremely cool backpackers we were stuck with in our dormitory - are we getting old??? (tja Suse, ich glaube Fun Franks hat sich sehr veraendert...). Nevertheless, we had the time to visit some really nice areas, admire some beautiful architecture and say hi to Roland, a very familiar statue for me because he also stands in the partner city of Riga: Bremen!
However, we soon decided that we had to get away from those clouds and David proposed the itinery >Tartu>Tallinn>Laheema>Tallinn>Riga within 10 days to me. I thought he had gone completely crazy but then he reminded me that we were back in Europe and that we did not have to travel for two days anymore to get from one place to the next! On the contrary, two days travel would probably have brought us right back the doors of our parents! So we decided to go visit
Estonia
and went to
Tartu, a very sweet student town that was extremely dead because of the holidays but just perfect for us to get some sleep and to visit the beautiful town centre, the old cathedal ruins, to chat with Oscar Wilde for a while, and to explore the best ever toy museum that made us want to be kids again! Can there be anything better than to worry only about getting or not getting this new Lego set?! Well, yeah, better would be to get it right away but besides that I mean...
Next was
Tallinn(the pics above), and from the minute we set foot into that city, we fell in love with it! Seriously, nobody can resist those beautiful old cobbled-stone streets winding through old houses, parts of the old city wall and along small parcs, those lovingly decorated restaurants, cafes, bars, pubs and medieval cellars, and those fun people: a girl running around in mirco-shorts where you can see more than is covered, a guy who sells the "smallest kite" in the world and who does nothing else all day long than letting them fly, super friendly girls who sell roasted almonds in medieval wagons
(Ja, Suse, wir sind wohl wirklich brechenbar, aber wer kann bei dem Duft schon stark bleiben...), a gang of 8 people processing through the streets with a drum and singing "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna", all those artists exhibiting their works in the street,... Even though Tallinn is definitely a very touristy city, it is a beautiful place to be, it has a very special charm and it just gets under your skin. Could we imagine to settle down here for a couple of years? Without hesitation! But first, we did all the regular tourist stuff even though we were freed from the usual backpacker gang. We were back with Hospitality Club and had the most fun hosts possible: a "typically Estonian" family who made our time very special!
Thanks Urmo, Liivi, and Kriss for all the great
laughs, the typically Estonian experiences, the bed, the wonderful cooking, the guitar, the tea with honey, the coffee with milk and sugar, ... We hope to see you again soon! So, from this temporary home, we explored Tallinn and we also went to Laheema National Park for three days. This, however, is the story for another day because this is getting long here! So see you soon again!!
Oh, and this is a special for you,
Ian and Jesper. Do you recognize the card? When we walked into our hostel in Riga, the first thing we stumbled on was the card of the Golden Gobi! No idea how it got there because all the other information was about Europe but who knows... You seem to keep following us around!! :)
There we go again and this time: Hello from Riga! The last time I told you that we were going to visit Laheema National Park in Estonia and we did spent three wonderful days there even though we now also have to suffer from this terrible European summer: we got soaked in our dear tent! Luckily, we had one wonderfully sunny day when we rented bicycles and went exploring the region. How good it felt to
have the fresh air blow into our faces, to smell the see, the pine forests, the flowers and the summer fields! Ah, I just loved it! Of course, we hadn't been on bikes for a very long time, so after 60 km we almost dropped dead and couldn't move or sit for the next two days (especially as we also kept playing basketball and fresbee in our free time at the campground) but it was all good fun. 
on traditional Estonian village swings, drank locally brewed beer in the middle of the day, watched a family of storks for hours, visited an old manor house with a beaufiful winter-garden,... it was the perfect change from city life! Oh, and no, I did not go for a swim, shame on me, but the beach near our campground was really terrible with tons of algea, and then it got very cold, and then nobody wanted to go with me, and then it started raining, and then it got so cold and uncomfy, and then I was so lazy, ... hehe, well, let us say I prefered the sauna of the campground!
After Laheema, our route took us back to Tallinn and to Urmo, Liivi, and Kriss. Unfortunately, the rain clouds somehow also followed us and we were rather stuck in the city with three days of rainy weather. I can tell you, if this continues, we'll be experts on Eastern European history and art, well-known in all museums possible, and very up-to-date on the latest blockbusters in the movie-theaters! Ah, and we'll
be able to advise you and the best bars, cafes, and restaurants in the region. My favorite cafe in Tallinn has already been discovered, Kehrwieder is just awesome (Kennst du es, Suse?)! Luckily, we did have some dry periods during the days and so we went out one evening to stroll through the illuninated streets and soak in the fairy-tale atmosphere once more. Tallinn is just the perfect place for all of this, execpt maybe that fact that it doesn't get dark here before midnight right now... 
One of the museums we visited when it was a little clear, was the Estonian Open Air museum. They display old Estonian farms and village houses such as
an old chapel, a bourgeois house, fishermen's lodgings, an old fire station, an old school... It was quite an interesting visit because we learnt a lot about building houses and it was fun to see the interiors of lodgings from the last couple of centuries. Unfortunately, we were not there during the weekend when they have all kinds of animations to show how people really lived during that time - but then, it is not that unknow to us as we are back in Europe now. :) 
Then we were on the road again, for the astonighingly long journey of 5 hours! I barely had the time to fall asleep in the bus when we were already back in Riga and our new HC family welcomed us. This time, we would like to thank you, Edgards, Maruta, and Ernest, for your warm welcome, all the good advice, and the nice trip to Rundales! This time, we were a little better of with the weather and thus spent a great
time out in the city, exploring all the tiny streets of the old town and the flashy new areas. We did find the Bremer Stadtmusikanten this time, we climed up the tower of St. Petri to enjoy the views, we visited the museum of occupations to get a better understanding of Latvian mentality, we enjoyed great food and we found THE perfect medieval restaurant, down in the cellars of an old house. The place was just incredible with astonishingly real decorations, basically only candle light, and perfect to have a beer and to get lost in reveries! 
One last story before the end: so, we were strolling leisurely through the streets of Riga, when we bumped into a German dipolmatic car. Looks nice, doesn't it? Well, looking right and left, David was the
first to discover the occupant. Do you also recognise him? Yep, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, our secretary of state, in person. And what was more, he did not only enjoy his diner in that nice restaurant, he also went to exactly the same concert in the cathedral as we did! Apparently, he has good taste! 
