Back to Estonia 8-20 August

August was the month of being back to Estonia, something that was not really planned, but as Taivo took this sudden decision (or maybe just a late announcement) of taking Kerli as his wife, I got a good reason to get a reload in cool and hot Estonia.

Overview of the excellent time in Estonia with a short delay - moving back to China, search for apartment but mostly the tricky and blocked internet in hotel made accessing blogspot impossible till today.


As all this flying to Estonia was last minute decision, the most convenient option Finnair was not available with reasonable price. I got a opportunity to try Aeroflot and put my leg first time on ground in Moscow, even though according to plan only for 1h15min.
Photo in Beijing airport, the paper print under the screen is announcing a delay of boarding. Check-in told immediately that making to my connecting flight in Moscow will be impossible, but they can put me in hotel in Moscow for 24h to wait for next flight to Helsinki.







Moscow airport with forest fires, flight delayed, outside +37 degrees, inside no aircons.
Getting to hotel took a bit more time, even though I landed around 5PM, finally I was escorted with special security forces (as I had no Russian visa) to hotel at 1AM






Moscow airport








Forests in fire around Moscow







After the hot and smoky 24h in Moscow, Helsinki felt like homey Estonia.
The August 8 storm getting over Helsinki-Tallinn ferry.









Flying chairs on the ship deck









Viru Hotel and skyscrapers





All beautiful Tallinn from Viru Hotel roof. Never knew that Linnahall was planned to align exactly with Viru Hotel, impressive urban planning.







Kristel on her hunt for roofs of Tallinn








Viru Hotel roof floor was also hosting the special room for KGB agents to monitor and listen what was happening in hotel. Type writer still from that time.






Same type writer








Small roads, something to appreciate after 1,5 years of roads with many levels and neverending traffic jams.







Lakes with Pepsi color water Vanapagana Pühajärv










Potato paintings, the Kristel and GT art, though this particular is not from them.










Somewhere on the road from Türi to Tartu







Kerli&Taivo wedding in Viljandi

















Kerli's name flying away

















The man and his backbone







Metro Plaza - Tallinn developing, luckily old is also preserved. Nice result.







Modern metropol








Kopli, a place to go for a coffee! Not 3 year ago! :)







Interior of Boheem







Architecture of Kopli










Architecture of Kopli - red house in sunset light







Other interesting discovery - roof top cinema









Roof, cinema, headphones, silence, Madis







Tallinn

Life in Shanghai - spring 2010

The exciting life of Shanghai. Mostly moments from Spring 2010
Now, after making the move and relocating from Shanghai to Rizhao, it is time to get some of the photos from Shanghai to this blog.



Sunday mass. Perfect place to learn standard Chinese, on streets everybody has its own dialect (Shangainese, Mandarin, etc.), but this guy's Mandarin was just perfect for beginner wannabes like me.






Little girl is taking the best out of Sunday Mass, already has the veil, only groom still missing







Just few weeks before opening the World EXPO, soldiers learning behind the desks how to do a security check to VW Santana.






Stairs









Cigar Ambassador





That must be a place to be, wonder what is happening behind the doors... measuring the size of their... favourite toys?! :)








First warm spring days in ZhongShan Park







Little Jackie Chan getting serious with soap bubbles

















Fashion 1









Fashion 2

1000 Islands Lake

1000 Island Lake (Qiandao Lake) made in 1959. In the process of making some old villages turned into underwater diving destinations and the peaks of hills turned into islands.
There are still some traditional villages nearby the lake. Though the lake was nice and touristy, the old villages were even more interesting to stroll around.







Ming or Qin dynasty pots in the river.



























Lunch getting ready














The art of using chopsticks



















House and meat storage







Pork drying. When the meat is "ready", it will be washed in the river stream running through the village and to pot it goes.









Close-up of the bone, tasty!









Of course the key attraction of pre-arranged group trips is the lunch and dinner feast with turning round tables, continuous flow of different dishes...

2,2 hours of my life for last 1,5 years...

... this is about how long it takes almost every day in Shanghai metro to get to work and back. First line 1 to the final stop, then switch to line 5 and that one also to the last stop. Nice an cosy, last year in August it got so hot in the metro, that a new kind of cooling system was introduced (besides the regular air-con) - 200L waste bin with huge piece of ice in the middle of wagon.









Morning greetings. When the EXPO started on May 1st, each metro station exit in Shanghai got 2 soldiers in uniforms and one volunteer to welcome people. One example here.






Volunteer flagging people to take the escalator faster... maybe more efficient solution would be to have faster escalators.







Waiting for the next train.







Volunteer with a sign to encourage in a name of EXPO to let people first out of the train, before rushing in. The irony is that this station is the very first stop of the line and there are no people to come out.











China has a really unique bicycle fashion, last year when arriving here I was really impressed. There are so many ways to make the ultimate mini bicycle that could be packed almost to the size of a walking stick. Mostly because of making it easily transportable by metro... till March 1 2010... from that moment on also compact bicycles in metro got a ban.
This bicycle on the picture is by far the smallest (Photo taken before 1st of March) that can be seen.

Seems the ban has started to take effect: lately haven't seen these super small ones with rubber-belt chain and wheels just little bigger than roller-blade wheels on the streets any more. Luckily there are still some really interesting models around, that would deserve to be shown to Nordic-27gears-mountainbike-style lovers.