The final days

Day 13

The work for today consisted of cleaning a dirty wooden floor. Not such interesting work, but the day got more interesting in the evening because it was Italian night. This meant that Italian girl Anna was going to make us all some delicious fresh pizzas! They tasted really good and I was a very happy boy. The only problem was that I always wanted more pizza, but felt a certain shame when I would reach for that last piece of pizza. So I made up a plan. I was going to do all the dishes, all alone. First I did all empty plates, then the cutlery and after that I sneaked back into the dining room to get the plate with the last piece of pizza on it, took it with me to the kitchen when nobody was watching and then... heaven in the kitchen. Hmm, what was that pizza delicious! Anna, if you read this, know that you are always welcome to come visit me in Holland if you make me some more of those pizzas. :)

Day 14

Today was the last working day, but the work itself was not that interesting. First we had to carry some tables to a barn outside and after that we had to clean a large hall. But again, in the evening it got more interesting. It was Spanish-Latvian night, which consisted of a video about Latvia, two quizzes and some Spanish music. It was really nice.
After that we went outside to sit in the hot tub, which was heated by the burning of some wood. The water was really hot, but it was a really good experience. In the end we sat there, with small breaks of running into the cold river to cool down, till just before 4 in the morning. At that time Anna, Ieva and I decided it was a great moment to walk to the cold lake and swim. Another really great experience! It certainly was a special night.

Day 15

In the morning of today we didn't do much, because a lot of people wanted to sleep late. But during the day we went on a bicycle trip and we went to a lake in the forest to have a nice BBQ. After that we went to another lake to swim in.
In the evening it was time for Spanish carnaval. The photos will follow later, but I can tell you now that it was great to see everybody being dressed up in a funny way. At midnight also Kadi came by to bring a homemade strawberry cake, which was really nice. Then we did a small game, in which everybody had to write down on a piece of paper a personal message to all other participants. Thanks to everybody for the nice comments. :)
The night ended at half past three with an amazing play, performed by Elena and Ondine. Another great night!

Day 16

Today is already my last day in Sänna. We said goodbye to all the people that were staying in Sänna and the "temps" went together to Tartu. We were given a ride by the mother of one of the local volunteers, which was very nice. I went into Tartu for a few hours with my friends, but at half past 2 it was time to say goodbye to everyone. Now the camp has really ended. On the bus ride to Tallinn, I thought of all the good memories. Here's a list of all the things I will never forget:

- The incredible amount of mosquitos in Sänna
- All the great fresh food
- Having porets for breakfast
- The fact that Estonian people eat cold pink soup
- Ondine's unconditional love for cute little cat Pesu
- Cute little cat Pesu
- Elena's great imitation of a drunk David Copperfield
- Pekka's stories about the army
- Pekka's great working shirt of the second week
- The taste of dried meat
- Waking up with the song "On the road again"
- The squeaking sound Ieva made while saying "Oh my God, Oh my God, Oh my God"
- The nice conversations with Anna
- Kadi's positive energy
- Watching soccer games together with the guys
- My working shirt of handball club Örebro
- The sound of the letter õ

One more thing I will never forget is the beauty of Tallinn. Going back there felt like going home. I had not booked a hostel yet, but I had a list of hostels. However, I forgot to draw a map, because I knew how to find the street where I wanted to be. But after having walked in the hot sun for one hour, I found out that there would have also been a shortcut, that would have taken me to my first hostel in about 15 minutes... Anyway, I found myself a hostel, took a hot shower, which gave a really weird special feeling on the mosquito bites on my legs, and got ready for the night. The big night. The night in which Holland could become World Champion for the first time. I watched the game, under the pleasure of a nice Dutch beer, at a big screen on the main square of Tallinn. It was so nice to hear the crowd cheer for Holland so much! I even stood next to a group of girls with Dutch flags painted on their cheeks the first half! The game was really exciting, and went into extra time. Since I saw some people leave, I decided to move forward a bit to go sit closer to the screen. This lead to me almost getting into a fight with some Russian guy, who thought I was sitting on his place. In the end his girlfriend had to drag him away.
Then another memorable moment. In the 107th minute of the game, the transmission on the big screen ended. For two minutes everybody was waiting for the images to come back, but it didn't. So together with a big group, we ran to the city center. It must have been really funny to see for the people that were sitting in a park that was on the way between the square and the city center. In the end I missed 8 minutes of the final, including the red card for Heitinga, but was just in time to see the winning goal by Iniesta. Of course it wasn't a good moment, but I could live with the result. Holland didn't deserve to win this final.

Day 17: a day full of setbacks

After another short night because of a snorring guy opposite to me who got up at 5 in the morning to spend some time packing his bag I woke up in Estonia for the last time. I had breakfast at a bakery close to my hostel and after that I went souvenir-hunting. After that I went to the closest tram stop and got on the tram in the direction of the airport.
I knew I had to either stop at the stop Autobussijaam, or one of the stops after that. But when I got close to that stop, suddenly everybody started to help me in Estonian. I understood the word "järgmine" (next), so I thought they meant I had to get out at the tram stop there. I said "airport" to them, and then they started talking about a bus I should take, but I didn't understand much of that. So in the end I got off at the main bus station and decided to walk to the airport. That went ok, but it turned out that I could have stayed on the tram for at least one more stop... Anyway, I got to the airport, exchanged my money while being screwed by a bad exchange rate. Also I was 1 EEK (=6 eurocent) short to exchange all my money, so I was left with 6.90 EEK. I wanted to go to the kiosk at the airport to get some refreshment, but the cheapest ice-cream was 7 EEK, and the woman behind the counter refused to sell me that product for 6.90 EEK, which is less than 1 eurocent too little. So I was 1 eurocent short of a refreshment. But when I set myself a goal, I become unstoppable. So I decided to drop off my luggage at the airport and started walking again to the nearest supermarket, where it would be possible to buy some icecream with the money I had left. But when I arrived at the supermarket, I couldn't find my Estonian money any more! I must have left it somewhere at the airport. I got very angry with myself, but of course that didn't help. I never found the money back. I just hope that I didn't leave it at the store of that lady that wouldn't sell me that nice icecream. Conclusion: no refreshment for Laurens at the airport. The few coins I had left, I gave to charity.

I had to spend more than 1 hour waiting for my plane to leave, but I made myself useful with my laptop and the free wifi at the airport. I applied for another internship in Prague from the airport, in 10 days I will know whether I will get it or not. Let's hope for the best. My battery died quite soon however, and then I had to wait. The plane to Helsinki left 30 minutes late, which caused me some stress since I didn't have much time in Helsinki to catch my flight to Amsterdam. When I arrived in Helsinki, I was in such a hurry that I left my book (from the library) in the plane. "Luckily" the plane to Amsterdam had a delay, so I had the time to ask the personnel at the airport about what to do about it and got some instructions. I hope I will get it back.
The plane to Amsterdam also had a delay of around 30 minutes. At around 6 I arrived in Amsterdam, just to find out that my luggage decided to extend its holiday by another night in Helsinki... Apparently the delay of my flight from Tallinn to Helsinki meant that there was no time to get my luggage into the plane to Amsterdam, because there was another girl at the airport who also came from Tallinn and didn't find her luggage. So we filled in a form and hoped for the best.

So the last day of my travel was not really a good one, but I did enjoy my stay in Estonia so much. So I would like to say one word to everybody that contributed to making my stay so good:

Aitäh!