Actually leaving my parents' house on this picture because we don't have any pictures of arriving (we arrived in different airports at different times) |
At
the time of writing the last post, we had already had our first
obstacles on the journey back which we thought that we had tackled as
best as we could. What was about to follow was something that we
simply couldn't have predicted. It seemed as it either the American
continent didn't want to let go of us or the European continent was
not yet ready to receive us back. Or maybe we had hurt the feelings
of Europe by staying away for a total of 21 months.
Taganga, where we started encountering our problems in leaving the continent |
We
were in Taganga (North of Colombia, on the Caribbean coast. A small
fishing village invaded by tourists) with the purpose of having a
week of rest and selling our motorbike. We had already bought our
tickets back to Estonia and didn't have much worries in our head.
Most if the flights going from Colombia to Europe fly through the
USA. So after a bit if research and finding out that Estonia is part
of the visa-waiver program we did not think twice before buying our
tickets through Miami and Providence. The visa-waiver program means
that even though you don't need a visa, you can apply for an ESTA
online, which is basically a fast and easy online permission to enter
the USA for tourism or transit reasons (yes. you still need it even
if you don't leave the airport) easy enough right? Well apparently
not.
Selling our bike |
We
applied for ESTA online and being from the Almighty Leader of the
Free world (can I please laugh), it demanded some pretty specific
information. I filled out most of it (didn't give them my social
media accounts that they also asked for) while Erik was a bit more
reluctant and filled out only the required fields. Because why should
he give them his former employer's phone number and address if it is
not compulsory.
The
answer for the application came back within minutes and as it turned
out, I had been granted the permission to fly through the great US of
A but Erik had not. So at this point we (he) had two options. The
first option was to go to Bogota right away (a 16-hour busride) to
try and apply for a visa. That option would have meant that we
wouldn't have sold our motorbike, would have had to pay for the visa
even before finding out if there was a visa-interview time available
and then they still would have had 60 days to decide whether they
would give it to him or not. So wasting all that money and still
probably not getting the visa on time and having to buy a new ticket
(so actually probably spending double the money). The second option
was to spend the same sum as the visa-hustle would have taken us and
just buy a ticket that doesn't fly through the US. Which is what we
did and got a ticket from Bogota through Mexico (I was still flying
out from Medellin).
So
we stayed in Taganga and and extraordinary thing happened. We were in
the only club-like establishment that this little town has when
during a casual conversation (in Spanish) a girl asked Erik where he
was from. Erik's answer left the girl with such a surprised
expression and open mouth that we were both quickly weighing the
options in our head: is she Latvian? is she Finnish? But what had
happened was something that we had completely given up hope for. We
actually met another Estonian in South-America. Less that two weeks
before leaving the continent it finally happened :D So we could
actually celebrate my birthday speaking (part of the night) in our
own language. I just thought I'd bring out one positive thing about
our final weeks before I go on to the obstacles thrown in our way. We
actually did have a good time as well and did end up going to the
beach almost every day. Something that we hadn't done the whole trip.
Three Estonians in one picture in Taganga |
Since
I had not been to Bogota yet and had kind of developed an obsession
of finding a nice warm poncho (so many cool ones in Bolivia and Peru,
only very thin warm-weather ones in Colombia so far) then we
attempted to buy two plane tickets to the cool and mountainous
capital of the country. That turned out as expected - the web page
announced that the "payment was not received" followed by
"the booking is canceled" but when I decided to check my
bank account on a hunch, the money had disappeared. I, of course,
sent them an e-mail trying find an answer. They managed to send me an
electronic, automated reply three days later. Another few days later
I was sent a form that I had to fill out with exactly the same
information that I had already given them. They literally didn't ask
anything that I had already told them. I sent the filled-out form
back to them almost immediately and have been waiting for either a
refund or a reply for six days already. Customer help my a**. If
possible, avoid VivaColombia, because I later found out that they are
known for causing problems. (after all the hustle, did manage to get
the money back)
Dancing on the bar did occur at my birthday party. Luckily Erik\s broken phone is hiding the rest of the pictures :D |
With
that much money lost already I decided to go straight to Medellin to
wait for my flight. Now of course the trouble didn't stop there. When
Erik was trying to take his flight from Bogota, it was canceled with
not much information given for a very long time. When they finally
git him to Cancun (almost a day later), with a promise if a new
ticket to Manchester it turned out that they were not exactly keen on
keeping their word. With a lot if hustle, he did finally make it to
Manchester (kiwi. com does keep its promise and gets you to the
destination and even covered some food and accommodation so another
tip – feel free to trust them. They actually do keep their
promises) it was almost two days later. He also managed to drown his
phone in the hotel that kiwi had given him for one night and they
threatened to send his last plane to Riga instead of Tallinn because
of extremely thick fog (which they had done to all the morning
flights arriving in Tallinn) It took him “only” 5,5 days but he
did finally make it back to Estonia.
When
Erik had just finished arguing with different airport officials and
gotten a ticket to Manchester, I reached the airport in Medellin.
They scanned my passport through, immediately announced that "you
will not be able to fly through the US. not with us, not with anyone
else". They were unable to give any explanation but "the US
immigration has decided not to let you fly through" and "you
have to go to the embassy in Bogota to find out any information".
On the ESTA page, I still had "application approved" so I
refused to leave and demanded to see a supervisor. The supervisor
came, asked me quite a few questions, spent half an hour on the phone
with someone (presumably the US immigration office) but I finally got
on the plane.
My
journey back was actually quite uneventful. They only confiscated all
my palosanto because apparently it was a threat to the nature of US,
when I carried it through their third-world-country airport.
Colombian and Mexican airports had functioning wifi. Miami and
Providence airports did not.
On
the second night back home my mother came into my room and said “I
have someone in my ear. Come with me”. I got handed a pair of
tweezers in the bathroom and the chase begun. I managed to catch a
1-2mm black little insect from inside my mother's ear. Unfortunately
I didn't get a good and long look at it because when I caught it, it
was not very securely held with my tool, so I had an immediate
reaction of running the water tap and sticking the visitor under the
running water.
A few weeks earlier (if I should guess then since the night in
Popayan when we didn't get into our hotel for the night and ended up
sleeping in tall grass next to a park), I had had a tickly feeling in
my ear. I even mentioned to Erik after seeing that one of our friends
had caught an insect under his skin that “I should get a thorough
check-up when we get back because I have a paranoia that there is
someone living in my ear”. Although I did say that I was always
quite convinced that I had caught a cold or something like that. But
coming back to the moment of discovery, I still had a couple of hours
to wait until the morning (my mother is a doctor and actually shares
the cabinet with a nose-throat/ear doctor) and my mothers “Let's go
and sleep some more before morning” wasn't very convincing. Instead
I spent the remaining hours trying to google about insects in ears,
but the closest thing that I found were videos of an Indian woman who
had a spider pulled out of her ear. So I had these horror-film
scenarios running through my head, with a swarming nest in my head
with tunnels going into my brain and so on. But after all the tests
(including a small microscope in my ear and a pressure test) the
doctor concluded that even if there was something before, then my now
it is gone and there are also absolutely no signs of anyone moving
past my eardrum (the pressure test showed that) in the past few
months at least.
My "little" sister and brother |
Had to pose for many pictures before we were allowed to leave Parnu |
My mother was in a happy mood :D |
A big part of the family |
I
spent a few days in Parnu, visiting my parents, who had organised a
birthday party as well, as I wanted to see all the relatives and
friends of family and they wanted to see us as well. It is easier to
do the first meeting with a big group. Since we are only renting a
small room in Tartu at the moment, we are meeting all our friends
one-by-one which is better because we can actually talk to the one or
two people more but it is also tiring as we are meeting someone
almost every day. We are both also trying to find a job as the
mishaps on our way back drained us of a big portion of the money that
we intended to use for living in Estonia. Actually Erik already found
a job but I haven't found anything yet.
Maybe
I am being a bit picky but I really want to find something that I
could enjoy doing for the next couple of years at least so I don't
want to settle for anything less than what I am looking for. It is
made harder because I am not entirely sure what I want to do. At the
moment I don't see myself going back to a big public school for
several reasons. The biggest being that I believe that Estonian
educational system is a bit too fixated on learning grammar and
instead of testing and ranking students all the time and giving too
much attention to grammar, the students are not developing to be as
good and confident speakers as they have the potential to. Other
reasons are not wanting to be in the same classroom five days a week
and not wanting by schedule to be that determined by the schoolbell
ringing in my ears. I would still love to work with young people and
language but I am hoping to find something where all my international
experiences would be useful (I have visited all the continents by
now). So if anyone has any organizations in mind, let me know. They
don't have to be looking for a worker either, I would contact them
anyways.
So
what about first impressions since coming back to Estonia?
*the
first time I felt warm water coming out of a tap, I almost jumped
back. For nine months, the only place you SOMETIMES encountered warm
water was in the shower. Even if you did have the electrical warm
water shower, it was occasionally a good wake up call, when the tap
electrocuted you every time you touched it.
*I
thought I would blend in a bit more, given that I now have a similar
skin color to the locals but not really. Almost everyone is wearing
black or grey colors and I am still at least as colorful as before,
if not more :D
First meal: buckwheat, black bread, kefir and sour cream |
...and more sour cream. Estonian sour cream is definitely the best. One thing that I didn't have false memories of |
Parents' fridge. A picture on the first day - look at all this food! :D |
*The
other day we were driving past the most popular place where Estonians
go to downhillski or snowboard. When Erik finished the sentence “So
I guess that there is Kuutse mountain” we both looked at each other
and started laughing. Although the sentence was not meant like that
(to mock anything) it feels really strange to call any of these bumps
in Estonia “mountains”. The highest point of Estonia is 317m from
sea level, the highest we reached with our motorbike was 4600m. We
had a half-kilometre drop next to the road more than once or twice or
ten times. Estonia is so sweet and small.
*It
is true that you could eat much cheaper in colombia, for example,
than you can is Estonia. But in Colombia it meant eating rice with a
little salad and meat. Even if you found a big supermarket, you
usually just had a lot of the same thing, sometimes by a different
company. And if you wanted to have anything different, then the
prices were ridiculously high. Over here, I can spend an hour in a
grocery store, exploring all the interesting things. You should see
the selection of cheese! And so much ready-made stuff (don't really
buy this stuff often. Maybe once a week but it is so good that you
have choice to buy something when you really don't have to time or
the energy to cook and can't afford a restaurant).
*The
spring is here but the leaves are not here yet. So it is strange to
see how empty and bare everything is. Strange to see through bushes
and trees.
*The
technological advancement is loco. I only need my smartphone and I
have already done all my banking or other legal stuff. It takes me a
minute (maybe two the first time) to transfer money or check if I
have a valid medical check-up for my drivers license. And it is much
cheaper as well. I managed to get a deal where I pay 2.5 euros to get
a deal for my phone with 15gb of internet, 1000min of calls and 1200
messages. Beat that.
*For
the last ten months my only electronic device was my phone (so all
the texts from South America were also written on that). When I got
back, it took me 1,5 weeks before I discovered that “Hmm... maybe I
can open my Facebook in the computer as well”. But now that I did
switch over (typing this text on a laptop already), I think I will
get used to it quite fast.
*It
feels wonderful to have a home, although we are not at our home yet,
but are renting a room for two months until we can get to our home.
But just the feeling of not having to pack and unpack your stuff
every day. Wearing a new pair of underwear every single day is a
luxury. Having a frying pan that doesn't decide for you that “Nope.
You are not making an omelet today. You are making scrambled eggs”
(every single frying pan in the hostels looked like it had been used
to hit nails into the wall)
*Walking
on the streets and seeing familiar faces. My face lights up even when
I see a familiar bum begging money on the street :D And having actual
friends is a luxury. Some have moved on, some have actually done
something with their lives, some are still the same, some think they
have gone somewhere with their lives and feel like they are better
than the others because of that... we still have to figure out where
we belong. But before we begin figuring that out, the first aim is to
meet all the ones who want to meet us.
*Dressing
for the weather is impossible. It was 20 degrees one day, then
snowing on the other. You go out and it looks like autumn and then it
turns into Spring. Then you enter a bus and it is so unbelievably hot
that I don't understand how people can ride them without taking all
their clothes off.
*The cars stop to let you cross the road. The pedestrians actually have some rights in this part of the world - like a right to exist, live and even cross the road. I usually stop to let the cars pass in front of the pedestrian crossings and then I am surprised when the cars actually stop.
*The cars stop to let you cross the road. The pedestrians actually have some rights in this part of the world - like a right to exist, live and even cross the road. I usually stop to let the cars pass in front of the pedestrian crossings and then I am surprised when the cars actually stop.
Our house for the next two months and our new ride. A bit more comfortable than Starcraft |
Snow was threatening to cover the ground again |
New wall-art in Tartu |
And some new walkways |
Leaves are ready to come out |
Don't
get me wrong. I do not regret any part of the trip that we did. We
had so many cool experiences that probably for the next months and
years to come, many of our stories will start with “This one time
in Bolivia/Paraguay/Peru/...”. And there are many to tell. So many
that already now we have forgotten and rediscovered some of them. We
have both grown as a person and learned a lot about ourselves and of
course about the world. But the last few months were very difficult
because we were physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted. Now
we just need to rest and process it all because this was not one
trip. This was ten different trips coming right one after the other.
So we are just really glad to be back home as well. But the
travel-bug is still within us, hibernating for a while now. Although
it already woke up last weekend when we visited Latvia :D
Visited a Latvian castle. Half of it had been carried away in the soviet times |
I
have been writing in English so far so that the people that we met on
our way could also keep an eye on how far we have gotten and so on.
And I am definitely planning to make at least one more big post in
English about South-America, where I compare the countries and try to
make an overview of what is similar and what is different (tried to
find something like that before the beginning of this journey but
didn't find one). But after that... how many people are there, who
don't speak Estonian but would be interested in reading about my/our
doings in English? Please let me know under the comments of this post
or write to me on Facebook. If there are enough of you, I will
continue in English (probably if 5-10 say that they would keep on
reading, I would already write in English). If there is not much
interest, I will switch over to Estonian after the next post.