Sunshine in Sweden

I'm in Malmo for a week with Tiiu at her sister's place and appear to have swapped the cold and wind for sunshine. Flew in from Tallinn to Copenhagen on Monday afternoon and then took a train straight into Malmo over the Orseund bridge.

The bridge was worth making the trip for on its own, it stretches for over ten miles and links the two cities.

I was in Stockholm for a day last week, but didn't have much time to sample their way of life.
Yesterday I made the obligitary and my first trip to IKEA, pronounce I-Gay-a, over here. Not quite sure what all the fuss is about, its a big shop with lots of furniture and cutlery. Or perhaps the greatness of this place went over my head.
Anyway, they sell pretty good hotdogs for fifty cents, so don't let it be said that I don't partake in the local customs. Tonight I plan to have a kebab, so there, how about that for blending in with the locals.

Unlike Stockholm the houses in Malmo have more of an English feel and design to them. No four of five story woodern apartments here, but lots of semi detatched houses with their own little gardens out front. The price of food and drink is cheaper than back in Dublin, infact its pretty similar to Estonian prices, but there is a far wider range of shops here. Speaking of shops and bars as I was or maybe wasn't, I couldn't find a bar last night that was showing the Champions league football, so had to make do with the BBC's web site. It looks like Man. Utd are finally going to lose somethng, But then again maybe they will slaughter Porto in the second match and Mr Phil Ralph will never stop reminding me.

Well thats about it for now, except to let you know that here in Sweden the internet connection is not a mere 3 or 8m, as in Ireland or 10 to 20plus as in Estonia, but 50. Yes 50.
Wow those crazy Swedes don't do thngs by half.

Indoor Football

This morning I played indoor football and as with most things I found out about it through someone who knew someone in a bar. Its sounds a little strange, but when you don't really know anybody its way things happen everywhere I guess.

Well over a pint or four last week I mentioned that I fancied playing a bit of football, the next day I was included in an email for a game on Saturday with a bunch of people I didn't know. Well Saturday was switched to Sunday and at 11:00 I joined a truly international bunch. An hour or so later a tightly fought match ended 30 - 25, or something like that. After ten minutes I was a star, giving some perfectly places passes and scoring three early goals, after thirty minutes my reputations was starting to diminish as my absence from any sort of football field for four years was starting to show, missing passes, slowing down, sweating like the proverbial pig and going in goal for a chance to get my breathe back.
But such is life.

I'm off to Sweden tomorrow for a week, so I'll miss next weeks game, but I'll definitely be back after that. Just hope I'm not too sore tomorrow morning after today's activities.

Estonia 1 - 0 Armenia

Last Wednesday I went to watch Estonia's World cup qualifying match at the national football stadium "A La Coq Arena". Although it didn't seem particularly cold when I left for the game, all that changed after taking my seat and the wind blew around me. Although the game lacked the excitement of the Ireland - Italy match a few hours later, it was great to actually go to a match again and help support the local team.

The stadium is named after a beer, in fact it's the only beer I drink over here. If they served it in Ireland it would be the only beer that I'ld drink there as well. Anyway back to the game. Armenia obviously came looking for a draw as they lacked the quality to win and most of their squad spent an average of five minutes on the ground faking injuries attempting to waste time. I'm pleased to report that their efforts were wasted, for with five minutes remaining Estonia scored the only goal of the game.

With Spain, Bosnia, Turkey and Belgium in the same group, Eesti's chance of qualifying from this group was always going to be small, but as more and more of their players join clubs in Europe's higher leagues, expectations are high for the future. With this in mind there is an under 19's tournament in May that I plan on attending.

Well after the match it was of to the Nimeta Baar for me to watch just about every other match, until the early hours of teh next day.

Estonian Class

This morning I took my very first Estonian class. After many delays and a change of venue I was finally able to say to the class "Tere, Minu nimi on James", Hello, My name is James.

I've been over here for nearly three months and have felt a bit of an outsider because of the language barrier. Although everyone takes the time to translate their conversations for me, they shouldn't have to. After all what right would I have to complain about the Russians living in Estonia that refuse to learn Estonian, if I do precisely the same thing.

Before the class started a knew three or four simple expressions, but even these I tended to pronounce somewhat quietly, I little embarrassed perhaps at my efforts to speak someone Else's language.

Well at 9:00 this morning all that changed, as I and my three fellow students through ourselves into the course. The other students consisted of a Turk, a Hungarian and an Englishwoman.
Ninety minutes later the first of my twice weekly classes was over, only three and a half months to go. Full of enthusiasm for my new venture, I spent another the next two hours at home going over the material.

Off course with all this extra time being spent on the course, I have to wonder where I will find time play video games, read books and watch all those downloaded movies.
Ah yes, I just won't sleep.

If its Thursday, this must be Sweden

I felt like the proverbial American tourist last Thursday as I landed in my forth country in a week. I didn't quite do Europe in a week, but it was pretty close. Having left Ireland on Sunday, passed through Latvia on the Monday, then a day or two in Estonia before taking a ferry to Stockholm.

I was in Helsinki last summer for a day and expected Stockholm to be pretty similar. But it was so much better. There was something fresh and bright about this city, it was more like Paris than its neighbouring capital cities. It was cheaper for food and drink than Finland and for that matter, Ireland, there seemed to be so much space, large shops, buildings and harbour. The tourist sites were all in easy reach such as the Royal palace and the metro was so clean and quiet.

If you go to Stockholm yourself one day, a piece of advise is to buy your train ticket in one of the shops in the station and not at the ticket office. For some unknown reason the ticket office charge a euro more.

A Living History

Estonia has vast open fields stretching out to the horizon, it's a country that makes it impossible not to relive the history that passed this way. As the snow turns this country white, laying a meter deep in places and temperatures dropping to minus fifteen it was so easy to imagine Hitler's and Napoleon's troops retreating this way.


With their animals and trucks collapsing, their weapons seizing and their armies just lying down and succumbing to the cold. Okay, so Napoleon didn't exactly pass through Estonia, but rather a couple of hundred miles to the south in Latvia, but you know what I mean.

Well today I went to the Maritime museum and clambered aboard the Estonian World War II Submarine Lembit and this history was literally all around me. The closest I've gotten to a submarine before today was watching one pass by a cross channel ferry many many years ago. But today was something completely different, although it was free of diesel fumes, the pounding sounds of its engines or the voices of its crew, this was the real thing. I could picture the submariners standing where I now stood beside the torpedo tubes preparing to fire or crouching as depth charges exploded all around them. Yet the cramped working conditions, bunks resting above torpedoes, small compartment doors and the famous periscope, these were all still here.

This particular submarine had quite a history. Built in Scotland for the briefly independent nation of Estonia, it was then taken over by the Soviet Union in 1941 when they occupied the country while the majority of its officers were "Removed for being untrustworthy". This last comment usually meant that they were put against a wall and shot, for believing that Estonia had any rights to be a free state. It actual war record is still something of a secret.

For a bit more info on all this, click on the link.
http://www.meremuuseum.ee/?op=body&id=45

Book Review Number 4

Once more I return to the fictional world. On this occasion its Tom Clancy's "Red Storm Rising", an old fashioned boys own adventure of Tanks, planes and lots of things going BOOM.

Please click on MY BOOK REVIEWS on the right hand side of this page.