This is a forwarded message, Chris has asked me to insert. Okay, since I did not participate in the last travel, I will do so. This report of hers is dated two days ago, so you will read about my other experiences later. I hope you still enjoy her writing


Hello to all of you:
I am sorry I did not email you any earlier, but to be honest, I did not feel like wasting my time in front of the PC. Now here we go before tomorrow¡¦s Chris de Burgh concert sees two more critical spectators.

As most of you may know, this time Khodadad and I went on two journeys. The first one was a rather short one, by train to Dresden, a beautiful city in the South of our republic, not too far from the Czech Republic. We found a nicely located youth hostel. And because they were not sure of the other guests¡¦ reaction to Hapoo, they asked us to have breakfast in the staff room, which I did not mind. Khodadad enjoyed the glimpse of Dresden we got in only one day and decided to come back for a longer trip to Saxony. Then of course we went to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. The trip was nice, but on the way back the train broke down in the middle of nowhere, the rain came through the roof, and Hapoo was wet. We got home safely anyways, though with one hour delay.

We did not take Hapoo on our next tour, which covered several countries, and meeting all their requirements in this short time would have been too complicated. Further I don¡¦t think Hapoo would have enjoyed running through cities all day and spending a night on a ferry.

We started in Sweden, or better said Stockholm. People were nice, and we found everything we wanted to find. The bad side ¡V or semi-bad at least ¡V was that all youth hostels and reasonably cheap hotels were booked, so we ended up in a really good and expensive hotel. It was only one night, for the next afternoon we went to see a friend of Khodadad¡¦s. For that we took a normal bus and were relieved to see that we were probably the only tourists there. The friend was really nice, showed us really ancient stone carvings an d then took us to see an old city. Staying with him was real fun, and at night he served us the ever-famous Swedish meatballs with a certain jam and delicious mashed potatoes.

We left Sweden the following afternoon and spent the next 18 hours on board a ferry to Finland. This was a new experience for both Khodadad and me. We had never travelled on a ship that was huge enough to have two elevators operate ¡V there was even a Sauna, two restaurants and a buffet. We were on the second-lowest deck, nine on top of us, while we were sleeping in a really nice cabin for two. Thanks to the smooth and comfortable ride we arrived cheerful and awake in Finland the next morning. Helsinki was nothing compared with Stockholm, but we spent a nice day there anyway, before we met an internet friend of mine in the evening. She and her guide dog took us to a nice restaurant ¡V where I with all self-confidence chose the most expensive and most exotic dish ¡V reindeer. I tell you, it did taste good! My friend¡¦s boyfriend and his dog joined, and after dinner we were invited to their apartment, where I had the chance to play with the dogs. It was interesting to see one of Finland¡¦s only two trained Lapland reindeer dogs. While Khodadad was looking around and finding interesting CDs, the dogs and I decided it was time for a bit of playing.
Finally ¡V besides my friend¡¦s kindness and hospitality ¡V there was a little telephone number that made my day. She managed to find the phone number of a friend I had not seen since 1996. And when I called this friend, we decided to meet the following day.

We spent the next two days with Hoppie and her husband. The first afternoon we had a good and detailed look at a fortress that includes more than one island. We went into tunnels, side roads and up walls to get a better view. Of course in between we had enough time to share memories of the past. In the evening we saw another major event, a free open a9ir concert of the Leningrad Cowboys. Khodadad and I had arrived too late for a good spot, but we did not stay until the end.

The next morning we visited my friend in her home, where I met her huge dog. He is huge like a pony but has Hapoo¡¦s affectionate and playful character. It was really funny when the 65 kilos of dog decided to sit on the lap of Hoppie¡¦s husband. After a walk and an excellent lunch it was time to leave both my friend and Finland. Khodadad and I took a ferry to Estonia, where we stayed two more nights.

Tallinn is a small city you can walk through easily. However, we did have fun there. We had originally planned to go to Riga, but that was cancelled in favour of an extremely cheap flight to Berlin with Estonian Air.
In Tallinn we spent some time shopping for little gifts, looking at a church and at the town hall, and then it was time to go back home.
I took the opportunity to sleep late the next day, because Hapoo was not there yet. But when I picked her up, she was excited and well as always. It is nice to have a reliable kennel. Hapoo had another play mate, this time it was a Husky, whose company she really seemed to have enjoyed.

If I bored you with all my talking, I hope you did not read this far. I just wanted to tell you what a wonderful time Khodadad and I have spent during the past weeks, and there¡¦s a bit to come.
Have a good time all of you and tell me your news, byebye from Khodadad, Hapoo and Chrisļ