When we last left Kristy and Thom, they were in Helsinki Finland digesting Reindeer, while Reese Bonkers was back in Stockholm hangin' with Linda & Lena. On the next leg of the Stockholm to Helsinki Finland>Helsinki to Tallinn Estonia>Tallinn to Riga Latvia>Riga to Stockholm journey, they would be leaving Helsinki for Tallin.
We woke early, had a quick breakfast, and started walking towards the Helsinki boat terminal. Took us about half an hour to get there and find our boat. This boat would be different than the first, because it was only a 2 1/2 hour trip to Tallinn, and we wouldn't have a cabin of our own. So when we got on board, it was like musical chairs when they stop the music. Everyone was scrambling to find a place to sit down. We went to the front of the ship, and after rejecting a couple of seats due to a strong B.O. smell in the area, we found a comfy little booth to make our home. Other than a Cliff Claven lookalike staring at Kristy most of the trip, it was a relaxing time to get our stuff organized. Looking at most of the people on board, I was already creating an image of what Tallinn was going to look like. The first term that came to mind when I looked at most of the clientele on this boat was "vodka dipped". A lot of sketchy looking dudes on board that I would picture as typical for this region, with their Adidas sweatsuits, "Lloyd Christmas" haircuts, and cold hard stare. The kind of guys I would glance at, but wouldn't make eye contact with for too long. Something about them spooks me a little bit. I wonder to myself if that might have a little bit to do with growing up during the Cold War. You know, think of every movie with the evil Soviets in it. Either they were invading small towns in Idaho, or they were genetically engineered to beat Rocky Balboa. I had already decided that Estonia would not be my first choice of places to go, but I will also go just about anywhere once, so I tried to keep an open mind. When we got to Estonia, we started walking in the direction of our hotel. And the further we went, the more I realized that it was a pretty normal place, with pretty normal looking people. Nothing like the people we saw on the boat. I didn't see even one donkey pulling an old wooden cart, or any stocky women with scarves around their heads hiding toothless faces, which I fully expected to see. It was a pretty modern looking city, except for maybe the street cars. We got to our hotel, dropped off our bags, and decided to play it safe for lunch by doing the buffet in the hotel restaurant. We figured that this was a great way to taste the local cuisine. We could take as little or as much as we wanted of a wide variety of things. After lunch, we were headed to what's referred to as Old Town Tallinn. We had heard so much about it, and were looking forward to seeing it. We were not disappointed at what we found. Cobblestone streets, well preserved old buildings, and people in front of the businesses in medieval costume. We grabbed our cameras and turned into Japanese tourists as we explored the streets with their historic buildings, restaurants, bars, shops, churches, business, and even a few Embassy's mixed in.
After we felt like we had seen everything we wanted to see, we made it back to the main square, found a table at a cafe, and had a beer while we enjoyed the sunshine. It was a little chilly, but the sun felt good. As we're sitting their enjoying the view, here comes eight to ten guys across the square. While that was not unusual, what drew our attention to this particular group was one of the guys dressed in a giant white afro wig, sunglasses designed in the shape of money signs, sandals, and a big white robe. We noticed, but we didn't really think a whole lot about it. About fifteen minutes later, the same group came over and grabbed a couple of tables next to us. As we're sitting there, I just happened to say to Kristy "I wonder what he's got on underneath the robe". He was blocked from my vision for the most part, but Kristy could see him. She said "he's got a Borat swimsuit on". Just about that time, he got up from the table to reveal that he indeed had on the very revealing bright green thong swimsuit that was worn by Borat in the movie of the same name. Other than losing the robe, he now had a fistful of flowers. He started going from table to table trying to sell the flowers to anyone who would buy them, explaining that he was trying to get enough money together to buy a beer. As he was doing this, his friends are all laughing and taking pictures/video. I leaned over and asked one of the guys if he had lost a bet. The dude explained that this was the bachelor party of their underdressed friend, and his wife-to-be had come up with this idea. All I could think is, he must really love this woman to make such an ass of himself.... pun intended. I asked the guy where they were from, and he said Norway. That explained a lot. Anytime Norwegians were mentioned around Swedes, the constant comment was "Norwegians are crazy". We finished our beer, and headed off to see if we could find the bus station, since we would need to be their early the next morning. According to the map, it was not too far from where we were, and was located along with the central train station. We walked quite a way before we finally found what we were looking for. Unfortunately, this was not the bus station we were looking for after all, but a depot for the local bus. Looking at the map again, we noticed that the bus station we were looking for was on the exact opposite side of town. Oh well, this gave us the opportunity to see the seedy side of Tallinn that I expected to see, including a couple of Vodka swilling gentleman pissing on the side of a building next to a busy street in broad daylight. In all fairness to Tallinn, you seem to get the same kind of clientele hanging around bus stations in any city you visit across the planet. We stopped at a grocery store on the way back to our hotel to pick up some stuff for the bus ride the next day, and then off to dinner at an Italian restaurant recommended by the woman at the front desk of our hotel. We had some pretty good pizza and some Chianti, but nothing like the pizza place up the street from us here in Stockholm. I'll miss that place. Second time I ever went in there on my way home from Bandy, the guy somehow remembered what kind of Pizza both Kristy and I had ordered when we were in their the first time. Should I be worried that he remembered?? But we don't need to talk about that right now, because we're in Tallinn. On our way back to the hotel after dinner, we walked past a strip club complete with a TV monitor in the window showing you what you're missing inside. Very educational for anyone walking by. Back to the hotel for a shower, some relaxing and organizing, and then to bed. Early the next morning we woke, showered, and caught a cab in front of the hotel to the Bus station....the right bus station. This signaled the beginning to the next part of the trip that I was not looking forward to due to preconceived notions, the bus trip from Tallinn to Riga. I have never really wanted to ride the bus anywhere, except when it comes to riding a team bus, like the trips with the Bandy team, or something along those lines. I have heard too many nightmare stories about bus travel, so I was once again expecting the worse. Other than the bus driver being a little rude, it was not bad. One oddity I did see wile on the bus was a destroyed car in the middle of the street on the other side of the road as we drove out of town. It looked like the driver had hit a post in the median, and thrashed his/her car, as well as the median. There was debris everywhere, but nobody in sight. Looked like it had happened maybe a couple of hours earlier, but they apparently forgot to drag what was left of the car away, and clean up the mess. Strange. Anyway, we were on the road to Riga with our Diet Coke, bananas, and digestive crackers. We should be OK.
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