Oh, I dunno. Hanging out I suppose?

One can't help but notice that I have been absent from my blog for a litte while, is this the beginning of the end? The point where I forget about my blog and leave it to obscurity?

Hopefully not! I think it's more likely though that I have not left Tartu since I got back from the Netherlands so I assumed that nobody would want to hear about my doing nothing. But I guess most of you have lives far more boring than mine, and who I am I to keep you without your only source of entertainment?

Narcissism aside, I did actually leave Tartu once! Last Sunday in fact. After an overall lazy day in my room, at about 2:30pm I casually strolled to the bathroom to find roommate Mark Lemon frantically getting ready to leave to pick up a guitar he'd just bought from the Estonian version of ebay and asked if I wanted to come to Tallinn to get it, so I said yes! We travelled all up 5 hours there and back, and were only in Tallinn for about 2 hours, but overall it was worth it!

Just Mark and his guitar

But I can't say I've done a huge amount since then. I went to a 1920's theme party but didn't feel like dressing up, cheered on a fellow exchange student to Karaoke championship victory and aside from that just did some homework. Possibly my most boring week and a bit to read about, but it's been fun living it!

I've started to get back into the swing of the Eurovision writing now that there is actually some information flowing about and soon I will be really busy trying to balance University, Eurovision and travel, but thats the dream isn't it? If anyone wants to check out my articles; click here.

Thats all really, aside from drinking more than I should there isn't much more that I'm allowed to say, so here's what you all come here for anyway, photos of Horace!

Horace in front of Riga's famous Laima clock and in front of the Heerenveen Windmill

Final thought!

If you want to write a blog about your adventures in Europe, sometimes you should actually do something. Alternatively make a note about them so you can remember what you did and blog about them later.

Fauxsian.

Those who know anything about the usual delights of my culinary world know that Preston's Noodle Kingdom is perhaps one of my favourite places to eat in the world. With this in mind, along with the fact that there are a whole host of other fine Asian eateries I frequent (Ben-K in Hawthorn, Dae Jang Geum Korean BBQ Hall in the CBD, Basil House in Preston and random food stolen from awesome colleagues Yasuko Murakami, Cyndy Chan and Bridget Kinsik) can mean only one thing:

The thing that I am most homesick about is Asian food.

I managed to last nearly a month without any Asian food whatsoever, and believe me, it's been hard. During my trip to The Netherlands almost two weeks ago I finally caved when Paul suggested Wagamama's for dinner, and after a delicious bowl of Ramen, I knew it would be only a short amount of time until I bit the bullet and tried out Tartu's very own Žen Žen Buffet.

They didn't even have friggen chopsticks!

I really wanted this to be at least semi-authentic, I'd have accepted even an Albury-Wodonga level of Asianity to my food but alas, even this was too much to expect. From the minute I walked in and realised that not a single Asian person even worked in this restaurant, I knew I was doomed.

The pasta, as I am going to call it because referring to what I ate as noodles would be stretching it a bit was full of some very inauthentic ingredients, I can not recall eating a single dish in China with pieces of tomato or olives in them, yet here they were. Rest assured I complained about this to dining companion Mark Lemon throughout the entire affair.

"Spring Rolls w/ Tomato Sauce"

Our entrée arrived after the main, which would not have bothered me, but what did bother me was that the dish we ordered barely resembled what I requested. I thought that it would be nearly impossible to mess up spring rolls, but lo and behold, the samosa/pastie combination which was placed on our table with a little bowl of tomato sauce left me without any amusement at all.

At the end of the meal, the only real highlight was the cherry juice they served us. It's a regular Estonian brand, but at least it tasted like I expected it to.

Final thought?

God damn I could go for a good laksa right now...

The Netherlands sans Amsterdam.

Thats right everyone, you heard me. I went to The Netherlands without going to Amsterdam!

Okay so technically I went through Amsterdam, but considering one of my oldest friends is from the north, I feel it's time for a geography bomb to hit y'all!

Okay, see that map? That is The Netherlands! Now you may note that I have thus far not said Holland. Thats because Holland is actually just a part of The Netherlands. See those pastel red and pastel yellow bits? Thats Holland! Amsterdam is in there right along with The Hague and Haarlem yay! My Dutch-venture took me to the two northernmost provinces, Friesland and Groningen which as y'all can see is not Holland.

Also I chose not to go to Amsterdam this time because I thought it would be more fun to see the town where my friend Paul is from, and thus we hung out in Heerenveen. Simply no regrets at all! The countryside was beautiful, I saw a windmill from inside and out and I got to meet Paul's mum who was really lovely! Then I went to Groningen where Paul lives and stayed in his tiny ass bedroom where exciting things like video gaming, beer drinking, napping and strange 'joppe' flavoured chip eating went on. As I said multiple times throughout the weekend it felt much like a high school sleep over weekend except with more people speaking Dutch.

I was enticed by it's seductive cries of 'Limited Edition: Fabulous Taste'.

It was also the first time I had played video games for a while, so it was nice to geek out a bit. Mind, we did do a little sight seeing in Groningen as well, but it was quite small, we rode around for a bit and I delighted in not having to wear a helmet on a bicycle which felt super weird.

Other than that, I spent a lovely day in Riga doing lunch with a friend who lives in Riga and coffee afterwards with a classmate who coincidentally was also wasting time in Riga. Riga is beautiful and fairly laid back so I recommend it for everyone, including myself as I really need to see more!

A significant thing that has happened since my last blog post is that after two years, I have left the eurovision website escdaily and along with much of the team I wrote with, we have formed a new site escXtra. Due to the fact that we all agreed to split as amicably as possible I won't really go into the reasons behind the split, but I feel that this new project is a better fit and I hope I can have nearly as much fun here as I did at the old site! As we are starting from scratch we are without most of the following we once had, so if y'all want to keep up to date with Eurovision and support my "work" on the side, please help us out by 'liking' our facebook page here!

The rest of my week and a bit has been filled up with homework which is finally hitting hard. I received a book in the mail this week which contains a 351 page saga I have to read in the next two weeks, major Estonian test on Monday and an essay which was due on Wednesday that I franticly wrote on Tuesday, on the wrong topic. All this has meant the second attempt at a trip to Finland has also been cancelled so I hope to see things get done soon so I can go to Finland!

And on that note, it's only like 50 days until I head to Armenia for Junior Eurovision! Woo! My application for accreditation was sent off two days ago, so it won't be long now until I get my official press stuff sorted out and get my first real taste of what it is like to be press on the ground at a Eurovision event, albeit a smaller one. With the sudden withdrawal of San Marino today and only two songs left to hear properly, My current tip for jESC victory is last weeks holiday destination, The Netherlands! If you wish to hear some darn infectious teen pop, here's the video for you!

And now it's time for the now traditional final thought:

Puffins? Puffins!