Semester in Estonia/Tallin

 Since I am doing a semester abroad to study I also want to share what I am studying here.  Nah just kidding. I am actually studying. Classes here are smaller than i am used to with around 15 students. There are weekly assignments, regular labs, essays, self-assessment and tests during the semester. Luckily the level is lower and professors can make exceptions when you can not join a class. On of my classrooms Short frustration Break of my roommate One of my labs handwritten number recognition on a microcontroller Beer As promised in one of my first posts and regarded as a small case study I give an update on the beer in Estonia. With the consent of my fellow German students I can acknowledge that the beer in Estonia is really good. Most of the Estonian beer is brewed in Tartu, the second biggest city of Estonia. The favourite beer of our dorm is also from there, called Alexander. The afordable german imported beer is called Argus and despite the cheap price nobody buys it, be...

Stockholm was the city in the northern part of Europ e that surprised me the most so far. Stokker and Holme are Swedish words and mean "inventory" and "small islands".  Throughout the city there is big and calm water, that's why the city is also called the Venedig of the north. The city has some fantastic properties, like being busy but not crowded. There is a good public transport system, good bicycle lanes. We rented an E-Bike for 2€ for 2 days which was amazing to ride around the big city. The city and the people are modern, digitalized, and really multicultural. This city is a must see in the north of Europe! This is the most usual view in Stockholm. Pretty houses directly at the water. These houses are on every second postcard of Stockholm. So here you see them again. Ferry Ride We went to Stockholm by ferry. It was not much more expensive than a flight. Our boat Gabriella was built in 1990 and the flair on the boat was amazing. We left the harbour 30min b...

  Rouven and Franzi visited me last week in Tallinn. I was so happy that they visit me and I can show them the city. We did a whole week of travelling and exploring of Tallinn, Helsinki and the surroundings. Since tourists can not travel for free in public transport we walked a lot and now I finally know how to find myself everywhere in Tallinn. Tallinn Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Tallinn Old Town Fishing in Estonia has not a lot of restrictions. Pensioners can fish completely free.  You can find a lot of flea markets in Estonia. They are selling everything from old tools up to antiques or some fruits like apples they collected in the woods. When you see these you feel spoor for the people, sometimes the value of all the products they try to sell for a day does not exceed 30€ old engine room from a coal - steam ship that sailed around the world Control room of an old submarine Tallinn has a big number of bars. This one offers live music and a modern atmosphere After the...

 I made a trip to Vaasa in Finland to visit Clarissa. She is currently doing her Erasmus at the Abo Akademi University in Vaasa. .  From Tallin you go by ferry to Helsinki which takes 2,5 hours and then you take one of the comfortable finish trains to Vaasa. In Finnland a lot of things look like directly out of the magazin, especially people in the cafes. Or the people in the restaurant in the train look like out of the advertisment from the Deutsche Bahn. I couldn't take pictures of people since it would be strange to be directly fotographed. The trains in Finnland are very spacious The E-Scooters are really common in Finland. Here you can see them in Helsinki. Tourism? No. Vaasa has no much to offer for tourists. Even when asking some locals directly they were overwhelmed by the question. On the other side there is lots of space, the City lies directly at the sea and the nature is beautiful. Vaasa's Zentrum isn't the prettiest A Fisherman group fishing on sunday afternoon...

The Park Last weekend we visited the Lahemaa National Park. It is the biggest National Park of Estonia, around 7 times bigger than the Black Forest National Park (Schwarzwald) in Germany and belongs to the biggest national parks of Europe. Most of the park is covered by forest and bogs. Besides deer’s and foxes there are also living wolves, bear and lynx in the park. We luckily (or unluckily) haven’t met any of them. Hiking in Estonia is different than in Switzerland or Austria. Estonia is a flat country and so are the hiking paths. The highest mountain(or let’s call it hill)   in Estonia and all the Baltics is the Suur Munamägi being 318m high. Through the bog there are wooden paths so you do not sink into the bog so called "erratics" are more common in estonia than in other countries. Glaciers brought them round 10 thousand years ago to the place where they rest since then. One of the small lakes in the viru bog out of around 20 lakes Jägala Waterfall The Jägala waterfall i...