As I was leaving Tartu and got on Rt2, I picked up this hitch-hiker. I'm well aware that young girls hitch-hike long distance all over Estonia. She gets in, and as she does I ask her if she speaks English ( naturally she does ) but seems a little surprised to be riding with a non native. I ask her were she was going and she said "just this side of Tallinn". Well... that's a two hour trip, (but where I was headed also)  I enjoyed her company very much, because like most Estonian girls I've talked to, she was extremely bright. Spoke 4 languages and her mother was a physician. Did I tell you she was only 15?

We stopped for gas and it was raining a bit. I asked if I could take her picture. This is what's so funny: This girl had been oh so serious for an hour during our conversation. She answered all my political and cultural questions with ease. But when I pointed the camera at her, she turned into the biggest girly girl you ever saw.  Most Estonian and Russian girls love the camera. She posed and she flirted with that camera like she'd been doing it for a long time. I asked her where she learned to do that.  She said that Americam music was a big factor, and so was things English.  Anyway... I found her to be charming, to say the least. And the two hours spent with her really helped pass the long drive.