Friday in Tallinn, Estonia

While all of you have enjoyed your morning coffee and started your day, I've already completed my vendor site assessment and travelled 2 hours back to Tallinn from Valjandi in southern Estonia. Visited a candle and match factory that was surprisingly automated for such a small rural town.

So...let me update you on the last couple of days...hit the Columbus airport at 1:30pm on Wednesday to get on a flight to Chicago, then spent about 2 hrs in Chicago waiting for my flight to Frankfurt, Germany. Boarded the flight around 6pm and headed across the pond...business class is a great way to fly (BTW)....especially when the company is picking up the tab. Had a nice meal of filet and shrimp along with a couple of gin and tonics, watched Better by the Dozen 2 (not a great movie, but passed the time). Crashed around 11pm est and was able to get about 3 hrs of sleep prior to waking about 2 hrs outside of Frankfurt. Cleaned up as best I could before landing in Germany.

Spent about an hour trying to locate Loren (from NJ offices of LimitedBrands) and we then made the Lufthansa Business Class lounge our home for 2 hours before heading to our gate and the flight to Tallinn, Estonia. Arrived here at about 4pm and waited for about an hour for Jan to arrive from Stockholm. Then met with our local driver and headed 2hrs south to Viljandi. Met with Harri (part owner of the manufacturer), who treated us to dinner at a local pub...very good food and some great local beer. Then back to the hotel and a deep sleep.

So..woke up this morning at 7am (midnight back home) and promptly turned off the alarm and fell back asleep until Loren called me from the lobby at 9am with Jan and Loren waiting for me in the lobby and the driver due any minutes....good thing I had showered the night before. Tossed on some clean clothes, packed everything and off we went across town to the plant.

So..that catches you up to now...sitting in the Radisson, listening to VH1 from Eurpoe (ugh) and getting caught up before heading out to dinner here about 7pm. Oh, and I'm killing a $5/10 table as well...up $214 as I type this....wheeee.

ttfn.