Estonia During the Holidays

My best friends from my university and I went on a Christmas vacation together, as I mentioned before in the post about Sweden. As I arrived in Sweden in the early hours in the morning, I had to hurry up and pack my carry on for my next destination- Tallinn, Estonia. We used Ryanair during the entire trip because it is so cheap, and took us to all of the destinations we were looking to visit.
The only problem with Ryanair is that there are many hidden fees. For example, you have to pay a booking fee and a fee if you don't have a Ryanair credit card. You can only bring a carry on for free, not check bags. Another issue is that Ryanair doesn't fly into the larger airports, so transportation to and from the city is a bit difficult. It usually will take much more time to use Ryanair or Easyjet, because the airports are quite far from the city center. An example of this is Paris CDG- so easy to get to, but Ryanair and Easyjet do not fly from here. Once you get into Paris, you must then take an hour bus ride to get to Beauvais airport. The other airport in Paris, Orly, is a bit easier to get to, as the trains will take you there. However, it is still out of the way.
During a trip last year, my friend and I wanted to see Milan, Italy. We booked our ticket on a low-budget airline and flew into Bergamo. Bergamo is actually a completely different city. My friend and I arrived late afternoon and found the hotel. We both decided we didn't have enough time to see Milan, as it was near dark when we got to the hotel. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see Milan at all! These, along with awkward flight times are the problems with flying low-budget airlines. They are great if you have someone waiting for you at the airport, or you live near it. They definitely are not as convenient as the other airlines, however you do save a lot of money!
After finally making it to Tallinn, Estonia we went out for some sight seeing and lunch. It's such a beautiful place! It really reminds me of a Christmas village you see people set out to decorate at Christmas time. We found the town square the second day we were in Tallinn, and we fell in love with the city. It was decorated for Christmas, and there was a Christmas tree and a market. That  town square was my favorite place in Tallinn. Posted below are photos from Tallinn, Estonia.

This is the local currency of Estonia, called the kroon. I believe they switched to the Euro starting New Year's Day, so we were lucky to be able to use this currency before the switch! Here's something to be careful of: The ATM machines here in Estonia are really different. It's very easy to forget to take out your card, because you have to actually request for it back! When I used the ATM for the first time in Estonia, I ended up finding someones card still in the machine! Unfortunately, this same thing happened to my friend while taking out money. He forgot that the machine made you request for you card back, and left his in the machine. Beware of this!

Snow mountains everywhere! There were piles and piles of snow all over Estonia (and everywhere we went during the holidays)! I couldn't believe how much snow I saw on that vacation. Since I live in the northwest of France by the sea, I never see snow.

During our stay in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, we stayed in "Old Town". Like I mentioned above, it was like an old village. It was really pretty. The other parts of town were actually quite modern and advanced. The transportation was advanced as well, as I saw many trams and buses during my time here. We didn't have much time in Estonia, so we basically spent most of our time in the old part of town near our hostel. This was my first time staying in hostels, and I must say I am impressed! I had this image of a dirty, old, rundown place crammed with people looking to steal your belongings, however it was not like that at all! The hostels we stayed in were really nice, clean, and modern. It was nice that there was a big group of us, so we had our own room in each of the hostels we stayed in.

This is a photo I took while venturing out in the Old Town. This is the street we stayed on, the biggest in the Old Town. We were quite lucky that we were close to everything.

This is the market, which is located along the old city wall. I can't imagine standing outside for hours in that cold weather!

We found a place to eat traditional Estonian food from the past. They had only one vegetarian option. Some of it was alright, however there were some things I had never tried before (and will never again!). One of them being barley and these black balls. I'm not sure what these black balls were, but they had an odor and made the barley taste bad! So unfortunate! I can't say I'm a fan of Estonian food from the past. On a more positive note, the restaurant, Olde Hansa, was really nice and had a fun atmosphere. The servers make it seem as if you're living in the past. Even the bathrooms were oldfashioned! It was entertaining.

A reason I love traveling during Christmas so much is that I really enjoy seeing the Christmas decorations put out in other places. It's nice to see what other cultures do for Christmas. I saw signs saying "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" in Estonian.

 This is the Estonian flag. I really liked it! The colors are really nice together.

The photos from above are from the Town Square, my favorite place in Tallinn! It was so beautiful, and really got me in the Christmas spirit! As I mentioned above, there was a market, a Christmas tree, singing, and all sorts of typical Christmas things! I think this was my favorite Christmas tree I saw during the vacation.

This is the beautiful Alexander Nevsky Cathedral! This is an Orthodox cathedral, built to resemble a Russian cathedral. It was really nice, I wish we could have gone inside for a look around. I also wish we could have seen it during the day, however most of the time in Tallinn was spent in the dark. It really took some getting used to to go sight seeing in the dark all the time! When we were there, the sun would rise in the afternoon, and start to set around 3pm. We were all craving daylight after our time in Sweden, Estonia, and Latvia. Luckily we went to Belgium in the middle of the trip and saw lots of daylight!

There were so many colorful buildings in the Old Town. It's so nice to see the architecture in other cities. This architecture is so different from the architecture I had seen in my past travels.

This is the palace in Tallinn. This palace was right by our hostel and the shopping center.

Why More Americans Don't Travel Abroad

http://us.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/02/04/americans.travel.domestically/index.html?hpt=Sbin

This is such an interesting article about why Americans do not travel abroad. I find that most Americans are happier being at home, or just traveling around the US. I think it's important to get out there and experience new things and see how other groups of people live. I am very interested in learning about other cultures, which is one of the reasons I love to travel so much! I think the idea of having a gap year is a great idea! I'm currently in the middle of my second year abroad :)

Sweden for Christmas!

As an assistant, we are given a 2 week vacation for Christmas and New Year's. During this holiday, my best friends from my university in the US came over to Europe! We have 2 friends currently studying in Uppsala, so we all stayed with them during the holidays. From Sweden we traveled to Estonia, Belgium, and finally Latvia. We celebrated New Year's in Riga, Latvia.

This was a very rude awakening to what the weather would be like the next two weeks. This train was completely frozen!

Sweden really does look like a winter wonderland! Snow coated streets and trees. I've always wondered what a winter would be like in a Scandinavian country.

This is downtown Uppsala on Christmas. There were lots of people out and about celebrating. That's a major difference between Europe and the US. The young people spend Christmas Eve with their family and do all of the celebrating, dinners, and gift opening on this day rather than Christmas. On Christmas, the young people go out to the bars and clubs with friends. I don't think I could ever do that, I'd just feel... wrong! I found this to be the same way in Portugal as well when I was there last year for Christmas. My French students told me that's normally what they do too, so I'm guessing it's just what they do in Europe on Christmas.

This is the Uppsala Cathedral. It's one of the main "attractions" in Uppsala. It's so pretty on the outside and on the inside. The picture right above is a Viking rune stone. There were some of these scattered around the cathedral. So interesting!

This is the castle in Uppsala. It was quite nice, and big. Too bad on our tour at around 11 on Christmas we couldn't enter the castle! The picture right above is very interesting. Our friend who studies at the university in Uppsala told us all about the history of the sites we were seeing. This one in particular was intriguing to me. These are cannons aiming at the church. This is located just outside the castle. hmmm... wonder what the royal family thought of the church at that time....?

At the Uppsala University, they have these organizations a bit like sororities and fraternities. They are called Nations. Our friends said they were similar to houses at Hogwarts in Harry Potter. My two friends belonged to this Nation pictured above. I think this system of "Nations" is unique to Uppsala University. To get in as an outsider, you have to have a student identification card. When we were there during Christmas, the Nations were closed. It's a shame we weren't able to experience what it was like.

The most popular clothing store H & M. I love this store! It originated in Sweden along with IKEA.

These are views around Stockholm. I liked the city, I wish I could have seen more during the day! I must come back again during the summer. All of these photos were taken during our trek to the "Gamla Stan", the island in the middle of Stockholm. This is where most of the important touristy sites are located. We didn't have much time, so we only got to know what was in and around the Gamla Stan.

I really loved the colorful buildings here in Stockholm! I just wanted to take so many pictures of them. It really reminded me of a perfect Christmas village, except the snow was real!

This is the castle in Stockholm. It was pretty, and reminded me a bit of Buckingham Palace in London without the fence around it. However, if you look closely you can see the guards standing out in the cold. Ah, that must be terrible! The 2nd photo is the church and obelisk just outside the castle.

While we were in Sweden we visited Uppsala and Stockholm. I liked Sweden a lot, however I know I would much rather see it in the summer! During the winter, not only is it SOOOO cold and snow is everywhere, but there is NO sunlight! It took awhile to get used to. While we were there, we saw the sun for maybe 3 hours? Ah! However, after returning from Latvia we could see a difference in the length of the days just from 2 weeks ago! The sun was out a bit longer, but any bit helps. Here are sites for tourism is Stockholm and Uppsala: http://beta.stockholmtown.com/en/ and http://www.uppsalatourism.se/en/. I really will never forget my first night in Uppsala, walking from the train station to the apartment. That was the coldest I had ever been in my entire life! I couldn't feel my face or anything. After that first night, it seemed to get better or maybe I just got used to it.

Popular style in France

Notice- All black! Where did I get the idea the French wore colorful clothing?! Seriously, they really do wear all black. The big trends are boots, tall- boots, scarves, skinny jeans, and lots and lots of black.

http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/img-set/BQcDAAAAAwoDanBnAAAABC5vdXQKFml2S2VxNXNwNEJHQTJ2cnpCNGhrVFEAAAACaWQKAWUAAAAEc2l6ZQ.jpg

December 2010

This December was quite cold compared with December 2009 in my town. Teachers and students tell me that this kind of weather was really rare for the region. One night, it even snowed! My roommate had never seen snow, so that was exciting for him. This weather did not last for long. It was like spring when I returned from my holidays in super cold Sweden! I'll post photos of the snow below, as well as photos from other events that occurred in December. I'm still playing catch up, but I'm close to being finished!

I held a debate with my students dealing with current events issues in France and the United States. As you see above, they took it very seriously. Topic number one dealt with lowering the drinking age in the United States to age 18, as it is in France. One group basically said that by lowering the drinking age, not as many people would be listening to Justin Bieber and get drunk off of one drink. They also stated that 18 year olds wouldn't have to drink apple juice all the time, and get fat. hmmm.... Maybe they're onto something? Doubtful. Topic number 2 dealt with the smoking ban in France. As of now, people can not smoke inside public places in France. I love this law, and wish it would be put in place in the United States. Most of my students, who are in fact smokers, said that this was a good law. They felt that it was healthier.

On one of the first few cold days in December, a group of my friends here and I went to visit a friend in Pontivy. We rented bikes and rode them all around this river. It was such a beautiful ride along the river. It was really cold, but good exercise! Pontivy is such a tiny town, with not much to do. However, there is a small castle... and that's really about it!

Here is my classroom! It's always so unorganized. I think it really must be more of a storage room than a classroom. There must be over 40 chairs in this tiny room! I also have 2 TVs, 2 projectors, a computer without a mouse, and 3 trashcans. Oh well, it works! I just have trouble fitting all of my students in the room with all of this extra stuff in the way!

My friends and I took a trip to Rennes, the biggest city, and capitol of Bretagne. I really like this city! There's so much to do here, however there is no beach. We went here right before our Christmas holiday to do our Christmas shopping for our family and friends back home. The 1st photo is the stadium in Rennes. I would really like to attend a match sometime! The 2nd photo is the market in Rennes. It's a lot bigger than the one in my city! I love all of these markets! You can get fresh food for good prices. I really should take advantage of these markets while I'm here. We certainly don't have markets like these in the city where I live. The 3rd photo is just to show the architecture. This is the most popular form of architecture in this region. The 4th photo is a church and the 5th is a really pretty park we walked through. It was still so green and nice, even in December! The 6th photo is the castle in Rennes. The 7th photo is the Christmas market. Here in France, each town has a Christmas market. They really are everywhere! I tried "vin chaud" (hot wine) for the first time at this market! I fell in love with it.  Here is a link to learn more about Rennes :http://www.tourisme-rennes.com/en/home.aspx .

Here is the "snow" we got in my city. This is rare, so I was happy to be able to experience it here in Bretagne. The snow started falling at around midnight, which is when my roommate excitedly came to my door telling me to go outside and look at it. He was so excited to see snow for the first time. The next picture is the day after the snow. It didn't really stick to the ground, and by night it was gone!

                                     
Finally, we have the Christmas market, or Marche de Noel, in my city. I visited the city center the Sunday before I left for my holidays in Sweden thinking it would be dead. This was not the case! Everyone was downtown doing their last minute shopping, ice skating, writing letters to Santa, looking around the Christmas market, or watching the Christmas parade. It was so nice to have been able to see the market in my city, because last year I didn't see it at all! The photos above are of the Christmas market and the mailbox to put your letters to Santa Claus.