We went climbing at Tartu adventure park. As much fun as last year. Ingrid fearlessly went first and helped her less-experienced friend Katariina, and was disappointed that she still wasn’t nearly tall enough for the last two routes; Adrian mostly stayed on the ground as this really wasn’t his kind of thing.

Adrian, very tired at dinner.

We went to the Ahhaa science centre today. They had a spy themed exhibition with a lot of activities that we really enjoyed: recognizing fingerprints and tire tracks, trying out an airport-style baggage scanner and a hand-held metal detector to find fake guns and such, climbing and crawling through a dark corridor criss-crossed with green laser beams, and a “stepping stones” memory game (just like the entrance to El Macho’s lair in Despicable Me 2) and so on.

We also saw an awesome “science theatre” show about the chemistry of fire, which was basically a demonstration of lighting things on fire, and of different ways of making the fire burn stronger and faster. I love fireworks and explosions – at a safe distance.

The fires ranged from tame (a cotton ball in normal air) to really impressive fireballs (a propane-filled balloon). The final fireball (another balloon containing a mixture of 1 part propane and 5 parts pure oxygen) was such that all members of the audience were first instructed in the proper technique of covering their ears, and the presenter wouldn’t proceed until everybody was following those instructions. It made a very satisfying bang and the heat could be felt several rows away.

Adrian with his new sticker book. It’s got spaceships!

Legos apparently work as a bath toy, too. Or, well, since the Legos and the bath do not interact at all, I guess they are more of a bath distraction: they help me get Adrian in the bath and soak there for a while.

Ingrid has two friends in Estonia. Two of my childhood friends just happened to have children who are almost exactly her age, to within a few months. Whenever we are in Estonia, those three spend a lot of time together.

Adrian does play a bit with them, too, but not so much. No, Adrian’s best friend in Estonia is Artur, the big brother of Ingrid’s friend Katariina, ten years older than him. Adrian absolutely adores him, and when we started planning our trip to Estonia, all he talked about was Artur. And Artur is so incredibly kind and patient with Adrian, which of course makes Adrian adore him even more. He lets Adrian climb all over him, carries him when Adrian’s legs get tired, and so on.

Still in Rõuge, we went on a little excursion to Luhasoo bog.

Estonia has a lot of bogs – about one fifth of the area is covered in marshes and bogs. (Here’s a bit more about Estonian nature for the non-Estonians among you.) Many of them have plank paths for hiking, and some have raised viewing platforms.

Luhasoo has a hiking trail of about 5 km with a very nice plank path through the bog, to and around the lake in the middle of the bog. Many of the planks had started rotting – not so much that there was any danger of ending up in the bog water, but they were springy enough to notice when walking. Which I actually rather liked.

At intervals along the trail there were educational boards with information about the ecology, plant life etc of the bog – really well made and interesting. I learned that bog water is so acidic that it harbours no bacteria and is therefore very safe to drink, and for the same reason peat moss can be used to cover wounds. I also learned that the correct English name for the wild berries that in Swedish are called “blueberry” is not actually blueberry but bilberry.

This evening we drove out to Rõuge to a friend’s country house. As night started falling, we had the most beautiful fog outside, so some of us went for a very late walk. Others ran around like madmen.

Yet another breakfast shot!

Seriously, after two nights of crappy sleep I was so tired today that I didn’t pick up the camera all day except for this shot. I felt like a traffic hazard driving from Tallinn to Tartu. Then we drove around in central Tartu in its totally tourist-unfriendly labyrinth of one-way streets, looking for a parking spot. After we finally got access to our apartment and did some urgent shopping for fish fingers and breakfast materials, we all fell into bed.

On board M/S Victoria I, on our way to Estonia.

For the kids, one major highlight of this annual trip is the buffet dinner on board the ferry. This time we shared the buffet at least two busloads of tourists from some Asian country who had different expectations about personal space than we did. Adrian got butts shoved up into his face several times, until we adjusted our tactics for the buffet queue.
Ingrid’s choices from the buffet: taco shells and nachos with chopped tomatoes; ketchup; prawns.
Adrian’s choices from the buffet: french fries, mini sausages, cucumber.

After dinner: boredom.

After boredom: a night of very broken sleep for all three of us.