Aside

I tried to import five bottles of Belgian beer back, but one of them broke, sadly. But other than that, I made it back in one piece.

I’m about to check out of my Yotel, and have spent the last hour killing time by uploading all the rest of my photos from Estonia and Berlin. And with that, my friends, I leave you this photo that I took of an image painted on the Berlin Wall near Warschauer Strasse — one I’m calling “Meta Che.” See you on the other side!

So I’m spending the night in the new Yotel that’s gotten a lot of buzz in the travel world lately. At least a few years in the making, Yotel is a UK-conceived, Japanese-inspired line of small hotels inside airports. This one in Gatwick is the first, and opened up in early July 2007. Given that I don’t have any friends in the London area, and that it’s a hassle to get into the city, and that London is ridiculously expensive,…

My two weeks in Tallinn have gone by rather quickly. It’s been productive (I had at least one interview every day, sometimes two or three), and I even scored an interview with Mart Laar, the former prime minister of Estonia! It was his economic and political policies in the 1990s that paved the way for its thriving success today. Today, he’s an MP and an active historian — he told me about an awesome little-known story that saved the nascent…

Veljo and Ivo are moving up their weekly pool night at Bamba so we can celebrate (commemorate?) my last night in Tallinn. Also, this afternoon I opened up an Estonian bank account at Hansapank. I tried to open one at SEB, but they said that they won’t open to non-resident Americans for some reason. If I was Canadian, it would have been no problem. So now I have a European bank account with 100 EEK ($8.82) in it! Woot!

Mohsin Hamid, The Washington Post, July 22 2007: The residue of U.S. foreign policy coats much of the world. It is the other part of the answer to the question, “Why do they hate us?” Simply because America has — often for what seemed good reasons at the time — intervened to shape the destinies of other countries and then, as a nation, walked away. There is so much about the United States that I admire. So when I speak…

I just read that there was an earthquake about two hours ago in Oakland. I assume that everyone is ok?

Today: Tallinn Saturday-Sunday: Ida-Viru County to attend a mini Haamer family reunion. Veljo, his son Kris, and Veljo’s brother Hanno and I are heading east to visit Veljo’s Dad, who lives on a farm somewhere out near Lake Peipsi. Monday: Quick morning trip to Tartu, back in Tallinn by the early afternoon. Tuesday: Two interviews in the morning, fly to Berlin in the afternoon Wednesday: Berlin Thursday: Early morning flight to Amsterdam, day trip to Rotterdam for a story, fly…

Glenn Strachan, April 30 2006: I can’t help but feel childish as my mind moves almost immediately from wondering what it would be like to live here to I can live here to I want to live here all in the space of a millisecond. It would be an illicit love affair because we really aren’t made for each other – I crave the warmth of long sunny days. Neither of those exists for nearly 6 months of the year.…

So I’m not really sure how many readers I have in Oregon, nor within driving distance of Bend, but here goes: I was contacted recently by a promoter for The Fray, who is giving away two tickets to readers of this blog for the band’s July 25 (6:30 pm) show at the Les Schwab Theater in Bend, courtesy of NoWhat.com. Given that this is my first time giving away tickets on the site, we’re going to make this really simple.…