Show Me This, Show Me That

The next morning, we headed back to the city, where we walked from Grand Central to our hotel in Chelsea at 8th and 23rd. On the way, we passed the scaffold-draped New York Public Library and Bryant Park. There were a bunch of people playing bocce ball, or something similar, in the park. Along Broadway, the was an outdoor fashion exhibit of some kind. It was neat because a lot of streets around Broadway and Times Square were pedestrian only, or had a pedestrian walkway/bike path in the middle of the road.


When we reached Leo House, where we were staying, we quickly dropped off our bags and headed out again. We got some really tasty Indian food for lunch, which we ate near Times Square.

Above: Leo House, home base for a few nights in Chelsea.
Below: A school we walked past. The playground is on the roof...

From there, we were just a block away from the Music Box Theatre, where Christina had arranged tickets for Lend Me a Tenor, a Broadway show, which was not a musical despite its name. I didn't know what to expect, but it was quite funny. It was also neat to see actors who we recognized on stage (and up close, we had great seats). The actors included Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace), Tony Shalhoub (Monk) and Justin Bartha (The Hangover).

After the show, we headed off for a very different experience in a very different part of town. We took the subway to the East Village, where we had a nice walk before catching the Improviser Festival at The Stone. The Stone is a "performance space dedicated to the experimental and avant-garde." What this means is we were two of about four audience members for what was a really interesting, intimate and not too pretentious set. The instruments ranged from guitar to pink post-it notes to a weird glove connected to a computer.

Above: We saw some men fishing near this sign when we were walking around the East Village.
Below: At The Stone.

We got dinner at Katz's Deli, not realizing it was sort of a landmark, until we walked into the packed restaurant. Then we noticed the walls covered in photos of celebrities and presidents, and found out it was it was featured in films such as Donnie Brasco and When Sally Met Harry. I tried a potato and spinach knish, pretty much the only vegetarian thing on the menu. I didn't know what it was until I ate it, but it wasn't bad, essentially a stuffed bun. Vaguely like an Estonian pirukas.

Above: Hendrik trying a chili dog for the first time.
Below: My spinach knish (the "k" is not silent) which Blogger decided to rotate on me.

Note: I might be moving my blog to WordPress in the very near future because I waste a lot of time fighting with Blogger when trying to post/format pictures, despite having a rudimentary knowledge of html coding...

Arrival and Escape

On the boat cruise. Everybody was really excited about the Statue of Liberty. We took our tourist shots, too. We were tourists after all.

After arriving, we went for a Circle Line boat cruise around Manhattan Island. It was interesting and nice to relax after the long bus ride. Hendrik and I both commented afterward that Manhattan is much greener than we were expecting. There is a fair bit of parkland, and not just Central Park. I should mention here that most of the pictures to go with these posts were taken by Hendrik. There's no point carrying around 2 cameras and taking pictures of the same things, so I just let him use mine.

Above: Domino Sugar factory, soon to be luxury lofts.
Below: Where the World Trade Center used to be.

One thing that this day highlighted was the importance of packing light. We were originally going to stay at a hotel on Saturday night, but Christina's relatives, Laura and Andy, graciously invited us to dinner and then to stay the night. Because our plans changed, we ended up carrying our bags around all day. (In case you were wondering, the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York does not have lockers. But you can leave your bags at the Greyhound baggage counter for $8/bag.)

There are a lot of bridges (and tunnels) connecting Manhattan to the rest of New York and New Jersey. Note that I'm carrying my backpack.

To get to Andy and Laura's lovely home in Greenwich, CT, we had to take a commuter train from Grand Central Terminal. The walk there from the pier took us past the edge of Times Square, which was insanely busy, but I'll write about that later. Grand Central was neat, but it was a little hard to find our platform (partially because of the apathetic ticket booth attendant). The train ride was uneventful. The train itself was a little... depressing. Definitely not as nice as GO trains in the GTA.

Human traffic around Times Square.

Laura picked us up from the train station, then drove us through town and down to the water. It was so nice to just relax at their house that night. Hendrik and I went for a swim before bed, listening to the tree frogs and other night sounds. They were different than what we have at home, but somehow familiar. It was really nice to Andy and Laura again and I look forward to the next time.

Looking out at the water in Greenwich, a stark contrast to the city.

New York. Getting There is Half the Fun!

People have been hyping up New York for years. "You'll love it, you won't want to leave." "It's the most amazing place." "It's so exciting." "You have to go!" Did it live up to the hype? I'm going to post my thoughts in a couple of posts. Which, believe it or not, I'm not writing in the middle of the night, rushing against the countdown until my time runs out and the internet cafe cuts me off...

View of the city from the bus before entering the tunnel from New Jersey.

There was some talk about going to New York with my family, but unfortunately that didn't happen. (Partially because my parents ran off on a last minute trip to Estonia for a traditional multi-day wedding.) But then I started looking at bus tickets to New York and decided I was going with or without them. (Greyhound and Megabus have good fares if you book ahead of time and don't mind a 10 hour bus ride.) My cousin Hendrik decided to come to Toronto for a few weeks from Estonia around the same time I wanted to go to New York. So I bought some bus tickets and off we went.

Hendrik and me in front of the bus in Toronto. Before we knew we were in for a 15 hour drive.

I left work on Friday, July 30 and took the bus to Toronto. Hendrik and I had dinner with my mom and aunt Christina, who gave us a ton of tips (and helped out a lot with arranging things for us to do). Then it was off to the bus station... We took a Greyhound to NY. Our bus left an hour late for some reason. And then we sat at the border for 4 hours. There was some confusion at the border because Hendrik is a minor and the border guard didn't know how to dial an international number... But it was all fine in the end, even though we were 5 hours late arriving in New York...

Hendrik on the bus in front of our first glimpses of New York's skyline.

There were a few interesting "incidents" on the bus...

• There was a man sitting near us who leaned his seat all he way back. Unfortunately, he was sitting in front of two rather tall men, who politely asked him to lean it slightly forward. When he refused (rather rudely), they got the driver involved. The man with his lean on had this smug smile the whole time and kept looking at us as if we approved. It was rather bizarre. The driver ended up asking him to move elsewhere.

• I learned the most effective way to get your toddler to be quiet: Yell "SHUT UP!" repeatedly in a whiny voice.

All that said, the bus ride was better than the many overnight buses Tiina and I took in Spain last year. Mostly because I actually slept, even if only for about 2 hours at a time.

Algonquin Canoe Trip

Here's a recap of the canoe trip I did this summer in Algonquin Park.


Day 1:
Tim River to Rosebary Lake. Lots of beaver dams to drag the canoes over. After the girls went to sleep, some of the other leaders and I were freaking out because we heard something swimming. That is, we thought there was a bear. Then we decided it was a deer or moose. Raja calmly says, "No, they don't make that much noise when they swim." Then we heard a strange owl, which freaked us out even more (it sounded like a person!) and I said (half-jokingly), "I don't like wildlife! Let's go to Joe Lake!" (When we stayed on Joe Lake on our last trip, we found beer cans in the fire pit.) We never did find out what was swimming.


Day 2:
Rosebary Lake to Queer Lake via Tim River. The river was way longer than it looked on the map because it pretty much doubled back around every bend. Again, lots of beaver dams. The day ended with a 1330m portage. It was very hilly, and awfully steep considering we were carrying everything. Two of the girls did it twice back-to-back! It made every other portage feel like a stroll in the park, which was great because we had a lot of them.

It was a little cold sometimes...

Day 3:
Queer Lake to Little Trout Lake to Ralph Bice Lake. It was gorgeous! Idyllic really.


Day 4:
Hanging out at the campsite, eating yummy food. We found a little lagoon to swim in where we hung out on the rocks, eating trail mix and granola bars.

Day 5:
Ralph Bice to Magnetawan Lake via Hambone Lake. A short paddle to the access point. A short drive to Timmy's and then back to Kotkajärve.

This is why we do it.

Viljandi Folk

Let's pretend it's August and I'm posting this in a timely manner...

Zetod & Lenna Kuurmaa - rocking it in traditional Seto clothing

Towards the end of my trip, I went on a mini-road trip with my friend Remi, who I met the previous summer at Kotkajärv. He picked me up in Tallinn, we drove to to the town where he lives near Haapsalu (west coast). I ended up driving his standard car for a bit on a dirt road, and then all of a sudden I was on the highway and he was asleep! Thankfully, I didn't need to pass anyone and I didn't have to break because of a car coming at me in my lane... (No joke, the drivers are insane when they try to pass, I thought I might die a few times..) Remi and I ended up in Viljandi for the folk music festival (my second time) where I met up with my uncle's family the next day. Unfortunately, I sprained my foot the first night I was there, which slightly impeded my ability to dance in the mud pits that the festival grounds turned into because of the rain. It was still amazing! Ok, I did try to dance to Zetod with Lenna Kuurmaa, it was the last night, but it was so packed! (Always composed Riho the classical composer was even getting into it.)

Highlights: Paabel, Zetod, Aleksei Arkhipovsky (crazy balalaika player), Svjata Vatra

Joyful people coming together to enjoy the mud.

After Folk, I scrubbed the mud off of my shoes, headed back to Tallinn and then flew home. Flying over the suburbs of Toronto was hard, I had culture shock coming home.

Ilus, ilus, ilus on maa!

Canadian mini-camp. The bench doubled as a xylophone and you could climb up to the little platform behind the flag.

After the first family reunion in 15 years, I spent a week at a camp in the backwoods of Estonia (literally, the place was called tagametsa). It was great seeing old friends who were at the maailmalaager at Kotkjärve last summer (international Estonian camp in Muskoka), as well as meeting new ones. I only got one tick, but don't worry, it was removed properly and I have all the necessary shots! Tick-bourne encephalitis is a growing problem in Estonia and I met a number of people who had experiences with it. Anyway, camp was great! I was there as a leader, but was still able to enjoy the activities. We had campfires with the other leaders every night where we sang and ate great food! French toast on made on a fire is really yummy. It was funny, because we (the Canadians) were singing all these old Estonian songs that the Estonians didn't know. In 4 years, I'm going back to do the 24 hour race - hiking, canoeing and biking. Time to start training!

Climbing at camp. I am absolutely terrified of heights.

After camp, I went to Tartu. My cousin Jaanika and I met up with two of her friends one afternoon for cake, and then ended up crawling around in sand caves under a field! The entrance to the old mine was in the middle of a grassy field. There was a metal hatch labeled "koobas" (cave) in spray paint.. We also did a few other things, like watch the sunset from the roof of the anonymous apartment building that happened to be next to the Vironia house. Maybe I'll be back in 2 years as a rebane for volber.. who knows! (It's an Estonian thing, ask and I'll explain it to you in person.)

Welcome to Estonia!

Family vacation! At the top of Pikk Herman (a tower in the parliament complex).
(Only view of Tallinn I have, Dad took so many pictures, I didn't take any..)

So I've been in Estonia for about 2 weeks now and thought I should post a quick overview of what I've done so far. We've been to Pärnu, where we finally got a nice day on the beach. We went to Viljandi, where we got a private tour of the really cool Pärimusmuusika Ait - I can't wait for Viljandi Folk! (A festival I'm going to at the end of the month.) Then we spent some time in Tallinn with family and friends. There are so many Canadians here right now! Well, they're starting to leave now..Above: View of the crowd from the (bottom of the) stage.
Below:View up from where I was standing.

Of course, the highlight so far was singing at the song festival with 26 000 other people. Not to mention the hundred thousand people plus in the audience who sang along for all the standard songs (Koit, Kaunimad laulud, etc.). It was my second one and was still mind blowing. There is just no way to describe the feeling of being on stage at a wildly significant cultural event. You'll just have to try it for yourself in 5 years!

After laulupidu, we went to Hiiumaa and then Saaremaa, both beautiful little islands. We found out we might have roots in Hiiumaa because there are a lot of people there with our last name. And there was a guy who looked exactly like my dad did at 15... I think there is some investigating to be done..

Hiiumaa: Dad's favourite hobby...