«In Germany, the train broke down and the people commanded to exit,» he recalls. «We had to walk along the highway and hitchhike the 30 kilometres to the airport. When travelling from Stockholm to New York, the US East coast was threatened by a blizzard of the century. My flight was almost the only one that landed there. Due to the blizzard, the flight back was 12 hours late. Unexpectedly, the plane took a stop on Iceland as the pilots’ working time ended. For three hours we waited until the new crew was flown in from Stockholm and Oslo.»
As Mr von Wirén loves to study plane ticket prices, he was so able to plan the budget that only €500 were spent on plane, train and bus trips. «Big trips like this can be done real cheap if one wants to,» he says. «I wanted to prove it does not take €10,000 to put together a long trip like this.»
Having graduated from Gymnasium in Estonia, for four years Mr von Wirén studied politics and English law in England. During the time he took a year off to do conscription in Tapa, Estonia, in anti-aircraft unit. Last August, he returned to Estonia. «It’s interesting abroad, but better in Estonia,» he states.
Recently, he passed reserve officer training and became an Ensign on the Anniversary of the Republic.
Born October 17th 1989 in Stockholm
Studied at Universities of Tartu, Oxford and Essex
Has worked at Government Office, Foundation for Investigating Communist Crimes, European Parliament, Estonian representation at UN, and defence ministry.