It's not 4am

Really, it can't be. Why is it so dark outside? . . .

It's really nice to be home. I'm not even minding that home happens to be in 90 degree heat with infinite humidity. There's a car here that I can drive as much as I want, and a couch, and I've got a kitchen again, but I don't have to cook if I don't want to, and and and . . . it's just good to relax. Oh, and I should mention that I've also got a brother and sister here to take care of, and even though that requires endless energy, it's a lot of fun for now.

The memories from this summer, especially this Baltics trip, are all crowded in my mind. I really want to tell everyone about everything. There are just so many details, and they don't all form a coherent whole. There's a billion themes I could talk about, and they're all pushing their way to the front, but they can't get out nicely, as if they were stuck in a door frame.

My head hurts because I fell on my butt on a slimy rock on an island off the coast of Helsinki. Somehow, this jarred my head, and it's been hurting ever since. But which story to tell from here? I can list my injuries from this trip; I could tell about the bunkers on the island. Let's try that second, it's cooler.

The island was part of a string of islands connected by bridges. I was traveling with T--, and she had heard there was a fortress here. The ferry drops us off at a bridge. To the left is one island, to the right is a string of three. We go to the right, pass a church, go to the next island, pass the Naval Academy, go to the next island, find the little footpaths, find houses with grass on the roofs. We'd been watching Lord of the Rings, and to us, they look like Hobbit houses. Further on, we get to the cannons guarding a pass and have lunch on their pedestals. Under the cannons are a string of connected bunkers whose entries are covered in poison ivy and tall prairie grasses.

This island is a mound of grass surrounded by huge rocks leading into the water. Clearly, I had to go running around. And while the rocks were dry, it was perfectly possible to jump from place to place. It was stupid of me to try my luck, and go out onto a rock that was a little in the water. To get back, I had to pass over a super-slippery rock, which is when I fell.

We figured this was the fortress T-- had heard about, but decided to make our way back to the last island, the one on the left of the ferry-bridge. We go there, and much to our time-cramped disappointment, this was the island with fortress, with complete and proper defenses you could wander through, and dark passages, and parks. So, we ran through it, trying to see everything, and not miss our boat back. It's now marked as a place to return to.

I don't think I'll talk about injuries. It's better to talk about good things. For instance. The most wonderful discovery on this Baltics trip, was this thing called couchsurfing. It's a website that connects people with couches to people who need a place to crash. But it's so much more than that. We tried it in Riga and in Tallinn, and both times, it felt like we were staying with good friends we never knew we had.

In Riga, we were staying with a woman who fed us, and gave us the keys to her apartment. Can you imagine? Giving your house keys to complete strangers! Incredible. She said that normally, she showed people around Riga, but she was unavoidably busy on the one day we had. So she gave us a billion maps and brochures, and left us to our own devices.

In Tallinn, it was even better, although a bit complicated. To sum it up, we were hosted by two sisters, who made time for us while coordinating their vacations. One of the sisters turned out to be a tour guide, and gave us our own tour of the old city. And, she was really cool, so it was part tour, part just hanging out. In the evening, we made her latkas. She also gave us keys to the apartment (an incredibly nice apartment, I should say,) and left us there when she went to her parent's home in another corner of Estonia. So essentially, we got the apartment to ourselves until her sister came home the day we were leaving, just in time to give us a ride to the bus station. Honestly, I didn't realize that this sister wasn't going to be there. She'd said there was a chance she wouldn't be, but I thought it might work out. Oh, well. Another thing to save for next time.

In any case, that was couchsurfing. Mind you, this was all free. Just so much kindness and generosity . . . it blew our minds.

Two stories. But there are so many more. They're getting saved for next time. Now, I'm going to try to get some sleep. I've only got an hour, but it's better than nothing!