Jul 2005

Well yesterday i walked around the city and took some pictures and tried to find a place to have a glass of wine and damn it if i couldn't find a little bar to have a glass of wine in that was away from the tourists, it was impossible. Tallin is very small and very very touristy, i thoguht it would be less touristy then other places but i thought wrong, and i couldnt get away from the tourists at all so i ended up going to a bar across from my hostal called "Tapas y Vinos" which was an obvious spanish place but i knew they would have a glass of wine in there for me, so i went in and had a glass of wine and sat outside on the chairs and tables outside and made friends with the local pigeons that kept flocking to me for some unknown reason. after i finished my glass of wine i went back to the hostal and gayorg was there talking to a girl sitting on a bottom bunk. So i hung out for a while and we were talking about all kinds of stuff then decided to go for a walk around the city and go for a drink. The girls name was ana though her real name is "Chaka Wula" which means white cloud. she's mongolian and currently lives in New Zealand. so me and my 2 new friends went for a walk then went to this super cool modern estonian bar/restaurant where all the locals hang, it was cool we ate and had something to drink. then we went back to the hostal to change and to get ready to go out. We went to some cool places then ended up in a flashy cool disco that played a mix of hip-hop and techo and then out of nowhere they played the jackson 5, i was in the bathroom when i heard the song and came flying out of the bathroom and nearly slid across the dance floor on my knees ready to get down. Everyone was dancing on the dance floor, it was a nice change from Spain where few people dance, especially the women, here everyone was dancing and didn't care about what people thought. They played "summertime" from DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, i was so happy i was like aaaahhh yeahhhhh summertime baby woo hoo, because i was like it's summertime i know i'm not cruising in my ride with the top down and i'm not looking fly from the beauty salon, i was in estonia, but it was summertime to me and i was having a great time. after a while we left and ana went back to the hostal, she was tired. So me and Gayorg went out for another drink and discovered that the crepe place around the corner from our house is a stripclub at night, very interesting, we also discovered that our hostal is underneath a stripclub, that was also interesting as well. anyways we came back to the hostal went into the kitchen and gayorg had some food so we ate and talked and he told me all kinds of stuff about a professor he had in college that was really mean to him and we exchanged stories and laughed. little did we know what was about to happen next. We went up to our room where there are 3 bunk beds, each bunk bed has 3 beds, okay, get the picture, well i sleep on a bottom bunk and gayorg sleeps on the bunk above me, and above his bed is another bunk. well we walk in our room and find 2 stinky jamaican guys sleeping in our beds. i mean stinky, like armpit stinky. now i left my bed made with my mickey mouse pillow case over the hostal pillow and my little twin star travel pillow on top of that and my pajamas and bottle of water on the bed, well this stinky jamaican guy was asleep on all my stuff and had his stinky nappy head on my beloved little twin star pillow. the guy on gayorg bed was like is this your bed mon? and gayorg's like yeah mon that my bed. and then the guy on the bottom bunk asked me if this was my bed? i was like "ummmm do you own a little twin star pillow and a mickey mouse pillow case and wear penguin pajamas, well I do that's why they are on MY bed. there was only one spare bunk in the room and they both jumped in the bed together, and the WORST part was when they got out of our beds one of them was naked and the other one was wearing his briefs, it was like oh no buddy, naked stinky jamaican man in my bed, with his stinky nappy head stnkin up my treasured little twin star pillow my beloved brother gave me. i was livid, then some guy from the top top bunk, the one above gayorgs bed sticks his head out and says "that's what happens when you stay in a hostal" i was like "Who are you man from the top bunk that was not invited into this conversation and has nothing to do with anything?" so i went down to reception to get some new sheets and give the stinky ones back, i go back to the room, get my toothbrush and stuff and go to the bathroom and gayorg was in the bathroom laughing his ass off, he's like man okay i know we have to share showers and stuff but at least for 15 euros a night, i shouldn't have to share my bed! i was sooo pissseddd off cause now my pillow was all stinky and now i have to find a dry cleaners to clean it. I went to bed all mad and trying to ignore the intense odor of B.O. surrounding me. the next day i stayed in bed till 11:30 and Ana was still in the room working on her laptop when i woke up. she had to go down to the internet cafe so we decided to meet in an hour to have lunch. i took a shower and went out to meet ana, we had a nice lunch then ran into gayorg who was buying a newspaper in the plaza. we all decided to go to Riga tommorow together cause we all wanted to go but at different times and ana was going to go to russia but is now going to riga tommorow. so we are trying to work out the details on where we are all going to stay. so anyways Ana tells me that one of the guys in our room is goign to Riga tommorow and knows of a really cheap hostal. so we all go down to the internet cafe so i can write this and find a place to stay. and it turns out the guy who is knows of the cheap hostal in Riga is the Smart ass fromt the top bunk who is now sitting next to me and seems like a nice guy.

SWEDEN

First impression: "Damn look at all these white people!
Last impression : Damn look at all these white people!

ESTONIA

First Impression: "Feels like you are walking through a Disney Fairy tale with cone shaped tops on all the old buildings"

Well i have been travelling for 2 days and i have finally made it to my destination. I left Madrid on a train to Girona, it was an overnight train and i didn't have a bed, there were seats, it was horrible and the trip took 10 1/2 hours!!! my ass was flat as a pancake when i got off the train. i had to sit with 5 other people, they were all nice and we talked about where we were going and so forth. Then there was a man who got on and sat in our cabin and somehow we found out he was into crystals and rocks and he busted out all these rocks and was telling us how they heal or whatever then somehow we found out he reads tarot cards and he had them on him so there was a tarot reading card session in the cabin, it was all very interesting. then from Girona i had to take a bus to the airport where i caught a flight to Stockholm, when i got to Stockholm i had to catch a bus to Stockholm cause the airport i landed at was no where near flippin Stockholm, was like AARRGGHH i'm so tired i hadn't eaten anything since the day before and now i have to sit on a bus for and hour and a 1/2 to Stockhom (by the way countryside in Sweden...beautiful, and there are Volvo's everywhere)when i got to Stockholm i had to find a way to get to the harbor to catch the boat to Estonia, i didn't have any swedish money on me cause i thought sweden was using the euro....guess not..... so i had to first ask a taxi how much it would it be to the harbor and he said 160 swedish crowns, okay i went to change my 20 euros and i got exactly 160 swedish crowns, perfect, so i went back to where all the taxis were and i asked a driver to take me to the harbor and he said it would cost 260 crowns, i was like no no, this is all i have and your little friend said it was 160, i don't have anymore money, if you want these 160 crowns you can take me to the harbor, so he agreed. when i got to the harbor i went to buy the ticket and they wouldn't accept my card, i freaked out cause the boat was leaving in 40 minutes and i didn't have enough cash on me for the boat ticket and i didn't want to get stuck in stockholm cause it's really expensive. the lady told me there was an ATM like 15 minutes away so i ran with my HUGE backpack uphill to an ATM that took me forever to find and ran back to the harbor, paid in cash and i was one of the last ones on the boat, i was sweaty and stinky my back and knees hurt from my trek to the ATM with my HUGE backpack. They took a picture of me before i got on the boat which i saw later and i looked like a disheveled rodent, all i wanted was to shower eat and sleep lying down not in a chair. The boat was huge it looked like the love boat, i was hoping to find gopher so he could whip me up a martini. anyways they showed me to my cabin which was the lowest deck next to where they park the cars. it was small and quaint. i took a shower and changed. now i had to figure out how to get around this boat thing and find food. i found a cafeteria and ate a veggie pizza. i really wanted a whole pizza to my self cause i was soooooooooo hungry but i didn't really know how much anything was cause they were using two types of currency on the boat, neither of them being euros, so i got the cheapest thing. i walked around and went to the bar and had a beer and participated in a quiz game they had going at the bar. then i sat at the back of the boat for 2 hours and watched the sunset behind the thousands of islands in the Baltic sea. I just listened to the water turning through the rudders and watched all the islands dissapear into the horizon, it was very nice. i thought about where i was on the map and thought about how i got there and how cool it all was that i was cruising through the baltic sea on my way to Estonia. well i was very tired and went to bed. i didn't sleep very well cause my room was next to the engine room nd i kept freaking out cause there were all these horrible noises and the boat would start to really tip and i kept thinking we were going to sink and i kept hearing water rushing everywhere and i was just waiting for it to come under door and i would be trapped like the people on the bottom floors on the titanic. I would wake up and forget where i wast or if i was with anybody and kept thinking i had to get the kids to safety still thinking i was working with the kids still, it was horrible i kept dreaming about the kids and getting them to safety i was still being pursued by the Segovia Camp kids. anyways after all my late night sinking scares i woke up like an hour and a half before we docked. i had breakfast and packed my stuff. when i got off the boat i asked a taxi driver to take me to the street where my hostel was at and he said it was like a ten minute walk which was very nice of him cause he could have charge me all kinds of money to take me 10 minutes away but didn't. i walked (much further than 10 minutes) and i finally found where i was staying at. i couldn't use my card again so i have to call my bank and see what's going on. i paid cash for the room and took my backpack to my room where i am sharing with 5 other people! not to keen on that idea but it's affordable so i have to share. i met a guy in the room whom i asked if he knew an internet place and he said that he was going in 2 minutes and he would go with me. We walked to the internet cafe and i sent an e/mail to spain regarding my card not working. My new friends' name was Gayorg and he's from Austria. I nearly fell to my knees when he told me that i was like oh my god austria, i love austria, one of my dreams is to go to austria, and he was like why? but i was to embarrased to tell him it was because of the sound of music. we went to have lunch where I asked him about Salzburg and he said it was full of japanese and american tourist buying sound of music t-shirts and staying at sound of music hostels and how annoying it is, as he keeps expressing his love for people visitng his country because of that movie, he said something very interesting which i didn't know. He said no one in Austria has ever seen that movie, including himself, that nobody really knows who the von trapp family were. As i kind of sank into my chair debating whether i should express my deep love for that movie he asked me if i ever saw the Sound of Music i was like "Okay I loooove that movie and that's why i want to go to Salzburg, because i want to run on a little green hill and sing the sound of music, it's one of the best movies EVER, i watch it every month and i know all the songs!" he couldn't believe it, he starting laughing and he asked me what the movie was about, i vaguely explained it and I mentioned that captain von trapp's name was gayorg like him. he's really cool anyways we had a laugh and then he went to do some shopping and i came here to write this. i am going to explore the city of Tallin now. i'll get back to you tommrow

well i leave soon, i just finished packing and am trying to get everything sorted. i am departing tonight at 10:00 from Madrid to Girona, then catching a plane from Girona to Stockholm, then catching a boat from Stockholm to Tallin (Estonia), very excited!!!! can´t wait!!

Bueno me voy pronto, acabo de terminar de hacer la maleta (bueno la mochila) y me voy esta noche de Madrid a Girona, luego desde Girona voy en avion hasta Estocolmo, y luego voy desde Estocolmo a Tallin en un barco!! no puedo esperar!! que aventura!!