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!

I can get you anything, but no prostitutes.

Well another fantastic week has gone by jam packed with adventures and hangovers, so sit tight kids while I drop these truth words in your faces!

Last weekend saw a delightful jaunt down the road to Vilnius, Lithuania where we saw a bunch of churches, walked around some tiny adorable cobbled streets, saw a shit ton of basketball related stuff and Lithuanian flags, and had some drinks. Vilnius is a beautiful city and really is a gem of a hectic little city!

Lithuanian flag shots, which we of course drank.

I suppose the biggest thing I noticed about Lithuania was that despite being only 500km down the road from Tartu, It was a very different place indeed. Aside from the superficial difference that the style of architecture was very different, it just seemed culturally very different. The constant presence of churches was very different to Estonia's predominate religious indifference and the people in Lithuania seemed much more open and friendly. You could also tell that Estonia was a much wealthier place. However there were some similarities, the soviet occupation obviously left its mark and there were a few things scattered around that gave Lithuania the feel of being in a gang with Latvia and Estonia in their fight for independence.

The 'Stebuklas' Tile, the point where the chain of people singing for freedom from the USSR that stretched from Tallinn, through Riga and finally finishing there in Vilnius.

Overall, I would highly recommend anyone who is in the area to jump on a cheap flight to Vilnius and check it out!

Horace was there too of course!

However a few days have passed since I returned! Pray tell, what have I done since then!?

Monday was Karaoke at the Gun Powder Cellar, which was awesome. I again proceeded to get drunk on beer that cost me €2.50 for a litre and then get up and belt out a Vanilla Ninja classic, Club Kung-Fu! The international students were confused, but the Estonians in the room loved it!

Tuesday was tea and biscuits with my tutor group on the fourth floor where I met one of the formerly missing members of our group, the sassy Ruta from Lithuania who missed the start of term due to commitments dealing blackjack in Nevada, which just further highlights the kind of interesting people you meet in the dorm!

Wednesday was the first of my famed Eurovision parties to take place in the Northern Hemisphere, and despite some cynical moments with some Europeans who suspected it was all some sort of elaborate hoax, the party was an overwhelming success! My neighbour Jürgen who I had at that point not met showed up and helped me and my friend Emilia drink a bottle of vodka and everyone was merry until Thursday morning when Emilia and I felt like death and like a true Estonian, Jürgen was fine (bastard).

The Eurovision party also confirmed something I've come to call the 'Algo Pequiñito' theory. Which is basically that at any Eurovision party where 2010 is shown, the first time Daniel Diges performs people will be underwhelmed and not really care, but come the second performance everyone is drunk, will sway and sing along as best they can. Awesome!

Finally yesterday was the ''Buddy party'' where students in the exchange network here got assigned to other people for some sort of reason! I'm not entirely sure what the point is, but it was a good excuse to meet some new people. I'm in a group of three, one of which I already knew and the other was Sandra, the president of ESN! Now I'm really making contacts!

Speaking of contacts, I feel that I should really explain the title of this blog post!

On the bus back from Lithuania I happened to sit near the Director of the student theatre here in Tartu who was very drunk. I heard a multitude of ''interesting'' stories from him including his failed attempt to defect to Sweden during the cold war, the night he got drunk with some random people in Canada and his current work with Russian avant-garde theatre performed in Estonian and how I should come see. However the real highlight was at the end of the night when he gave me his card complete with hilarious headshot and told me that ''He had many connections in Tartu and could get me anything, except prostitutes''. At that point it was revealed that almost the entire back half of the bus had been listening as everyone burst out laughing as I confessed that I felt that I would be alright. However it didn't stop there, he then confessed to knowing some prostitutes and then expressed his approval with Filipino women.

Well thats all for this week, with one final thought:

I feel that this week has seen the students from France shine through the most. All of them are absolutely lovely and man, they were sure in fine form last night! Jacques was salsa dancing to electro music with a lovely lass from Poland, Emeline was strutting around slappin' booty and Antoine was flirting up a storm with any object that came into his path whether it be human or inanimate. Go you Frenchies, y'all are good people!

Aussie now actually in Eesti!

So I have finally arrived! Well, I've actually been here for a little over a week now. But why no blog updates until now you ask? Well the answer is quite simple!

I'm an idiot.

Yes, correct, I'm an idiot who forgot that shipping your desktop PC to the other side of the world is only a good idea if you insulate both outside and inside. So essentially the hard drives fell out somewhere during the flight and damaged some of the internal components of my computer, so I'm stuck borrowing my dorm mate's computers until it's fixed, which means yet another blog post without pictures. Sorry kids!

Now, on to what I've actually done! Sit around children and let me tell you a tale...

So basically I got to Tallinn last Friday on the tiniest plane I'd ever been on and was greeted at the airport by the effervescent Kristiina Veerde who greeted me with mostly inflated balloons and a bottle of beer as well as some other treasures. We were promptly whisked into the old town by an efficient bus and with the help of our Krissu, we found the hostel and I got some food and my new favourite Tallinn café 'Must Puudel' which is owned by several Estonian celebrities including Vaiko Eplik (Eurovision 2003 lead singer!). Later that night I joined my friend Fred to check out a few bars where we ran into another friend of mine Janno. In the second bar they played several Eurovision songs. It was pretty damn fun.

On Saturday we went to the re-independence day concert 'Vabaduse Laul' in the national song festival grounds where I saw a number of musical acts from the always quirky Brainstorm to the eccentric Kerli and the bizarre folk warblings of some Norwegian chick who didn't even seem to know why she was there. I saw an unfathomable amount of Estonian flags and it was an amazing experience. I also met Kristiina's Mum and Sister and her Mum bought me an Estonian-English dictionary which has already guided my culinary expedition through a few supermarkets! Aitäh Mrs Veerde!

With Sunday just for relaxing, I arrived in Tartu on Monday around midday. After a quick tour and a run to the shops with Krissu, she headed home to Rapla and I began to settle in. I met my room mate fairly soon after that; Erik Müller, a German medical student doing his placement at the university hospital. Sharing is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be! The room has plenty of space and we're both respectful and pretty easy going. We hung out at a local pub on Monday and that was the end of that.

Tuesday through Friday have blurred together a little bit in a whirr of drinking, orientation, making new friends and meeting new dorm mates including Mark from Chippenham, England, another German called Ferdinand and a Frenchman called Alexander. However there is still one spot free, so who knows who will show up!

Friday was the international student pub crawl, which ended as messily as you would expect, however on the plus side I made a whole swag of friends. There should be photos of this. I shall at this point take a moment to point out how damn cheap beer is in this country. Dayum.

Saturday was hangover recovery, not much to see here aside from the mysterious Kangaroo meat dumplings I found in the supermarket next door, moderately delicious!

So that leaves us with today when along with 14 others I boarded a bus to the adorably named Kauksi to enjoy the last weekend of summer in Europe's 4th biggest lake, Lake *Peipsi! With the lake being so huge, there were waves just like you would get in the ocean, except with fresh water. I met a whole lot of new people, swam, sunbathed (note I didn't say tan, I still don't tan), and walked a heap. On paper it's not so exciting but I assure you it was, again photos to come.

So thats it for now! Stay tuned for my next blog where I discuss my first week of classes and a probable visit to Finland next weekend! That's right bitches, I'm going to Finland.

Oh and final point; damn this country has some attractive people. Like seriously dayum!

*apparently this is called something else in English, but this is what everyone here calls it.

Acceptance!

So after an agonising month of waiting for my acceptance package to arrive from Estonia, I decided to bite the bullet and ask Piret (UT's International Coordinator) if she knew what was going on and if she could help.

Her response was simple, "It might have just got lost in the post" and with the email she attached a scan of the acceptance letter and online versions of everything else.

They like me! They really like me!

However, the email excitement didn't stop there! On Friday I received another email, this time from the mysterious Ülle Tensing, an email completely in Estonian!

I was extremely excited until my mate Janno translated it and I discovered it was just confirming the details of my monthly scholarship I get while I'm there, which I already knew about.

The most exciting thing about the email was the reality of the task of having to learn Estonian finally dawned on me. With words like 'majandustoetuse', 'tegevusvaldkonnad' and the multi accented 'Vahetusüliõpilaste' I've been confronted with the fact that this is not going to be as easy as I would like. But as I've said before, it's not fun unless it's a challenge.

Three weeks, Three days!