Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Estonia (continued; finally complete!)

WARNING: Picture overload. Your computer might crash. LOL.

On the ferry operated by Viking Line. Ferry ticket about 12 euros (student price).



Outside the ferry. Looks damn cold.


Outside the ferry to get some fresh air. The wind was blowing my face until it became frozen. ARGH. Cheeks can't move. Like kena injected with some Botox.

Reached Tallinn in about 3 hours. Was a little tired after the ferry ride. So we reached at about 3.30pm++ and trudged about the city centre trying to look for a comfortable and inexpensive accomodation. After walking aimlessly for a long period of time, we finally found a hostel named Eurohostel, which was located smack in the middle of the Old Town. Very convenient, no need for much travelling about. It was 500 Estonian Kronors (1 euro = 15 kr, 1S$ is about 0.5euro, so go do your math).

O yea, did I mention Tallinn is damn cold. It's very very very cold. I think it's because it's quite humid (I think), but there is no snow around. Suzie said that's because there's a draft of wind that carries the moisture away from the city so it doesn't snow. But the place is still damn cold.

What kinda face is that.

We were tired so we lay down for a bit. Until our bodies were warmed up. Then time for dinner!


Eder took the photo for all of us. Cool eh?
From left: Matt, Suzie, Tracy, Lander, me and Josh.

This dinner was quite expensive so I must take some pictures of what we ate. This was Gumbo soup. Very nice, rice with some meat (I forgot what), but it's nice la. It's supposedly some Estonian cuisine or something like that. 250 kronors. ARGH. 50 euros gone like that, after paying for the hostel and the meal. Well.

Eder's meal. Dunno what salaati with meat. Looks good.

After the meal, the others went to R-Alko to get lotsa alcohol. Mad men. They said the beer and spirits were so cheap, so must buy more. Those beer guzzlers. Haha. I just bought a small bottle of choco-alcohol (21%). Haha. It's sweet I hope. Haven't opened it.

Then after drinking (a lot of) alcohol in the hostel, we decided to go the the local favourite club, Club Hollywood. It's supposedly the favourite club of the youngsters there, and yeah, it lived up to its name. There was a lot of eye candy around. Had fun there, superb music, beautiful people. Was having lotsa fun there, dancing to the cool music. In Singapore, you could almost never hear music that good. I was a little disappointed when the rest decided to leave (cos they were not having fun like me.) I mean when you don't drink alcohol and don't dance, how you wanna have fun in a club? I club cos I like dancing, and I save money cos I don't drink haha. Sorry for this part I aint had any pics. Wasted man. LOL.

Next morning we decided to walk around the Old Town. Enjoy the pictures.


Along the streets of Tallinn.

Town square. The building in front is the Town Hall. Very nice right?

This was the castle in which Rapunzel lived in. Nah joking, this is still the Town Hall, another view of it from the side. Nice little windows.

St Nicholas' Church peeping out from the other buildings. The churches here are very pretty looking.

Sun is setting, uh oh. It's almost 4+pm.

Illegal pictures taken within the Niguliste Church. I didn't know it was illegal until later when I got stopped.


You know the pics are illegal when I take such blurry shots and I can't take better ones. I just had to take this pic. It's of Jesus Christ the Almighty, Son of God being crucified on the cross.

There was this very very famous and ancient and well-preserved painting called the Dance of Death, where Death appeared beside a pope, king, emperor, queen and it pretty much described how death is a leveller of all beings. You come into the world with nothing, you leave with nothing. I wanted to take a picture of it, but damn the security guard was just outside. And I already got a warning. Poof.

Below: these "badges" are just too tempting not to take pics of them. So I die die also must take some pictures. But the quality of these pictures are so bad. =S I din even look at my camera screen, my eyes were on the security guards instead. LOL!



I think this is the Russian Orthodox Church. Yea I think. Sorry it was too cold, I almost died taking these pics, and you can't imagine how much pain I went through to take these pics. I had no tripod with me. All with my bare hands.

Went inside but didn't take any pics cos it's not allowed. Anyway, it was a nice little church. Small nice and cosy. Jesus was everywhere.

I hope this is artistic enough for you all. Seriously though, I think my picture taking skills are not good enough. But the camera couldn't capture the whole of the church. Not my fault. I was twisting and turning the camera around. Still, this is the best I can manage.

Peeks of the castle. I dunno if we got into the castle proper or we were still outside of it.

Look from on top one of the castle peaks. Very nice right? Was worth the climb up the stairs and slopes. But it's very cold up here. Wind's very strong. I feel like I'm in a super duper big freezer which takes up 1000MW of electricity to freeze all the human meat in it.

The stupid chimneys with smoke mar the landscape, otherwise with the sunset, this would be perfect. Walking down from the castle high up. The wind is cold cold cold. How I wish I were in Singapore. Just kidding, I rather be cold than to return to Singapore. At least not now.

Tracy and Matt. Americans from North Carolina.

Josh the nice guy, also from North Carolina. Well so many of them. Suzie the crazy German looking bored for one second. The minute the flash went off, she was back to her crazy self again. HAHAHAHA! She almost never gets drunk. Drinks beer like a camel drinks water.

Waiting for Nate to come have lunch with us. We were all hiding in the basement of our hostel. Who wants to go out and freeze?


Night view of the Town Hall. Has a romantic aura about it.

Had dinner at an Italian ravintola (Finnish for restaurant). Another nice meal, but no pics. Heard that ZM and WL only spent like 50 euros for the whole Estonia trip. I feel very guilty. =S

Next morning we were preparing to leave Tallinn for Helsinki. What a nice 2 days.

Macs breakfast. As I was taking pics, the manager "yelled" (ok la not very loud) at me not to take pics. What! Is this a museum or something? Macmuseum? Macseum? Oh please.

Another church we didn't get to visit.

Tallinn Ferry Terminal.

Our ferry, which we were supposed to take.

So, Estonia was fun, a place of cheap booze and liquor, beautiful people and nice churches. When will my next trip be to? Only time will tell.

Yours truly.

Signed,
Clarence.