Estonian pics! (to be continued)

The trip to Estonia was born out actually from an outing to Caio. Lander just casually mentioned that he and some others were going to Estonia and I was like, "I want to go too! When?"

“This coming Thursday.” It was Tuesday. Well at least I had 2 days’ notice.

Come Thursday, and it was a hectic day for me. Luckily I packed the night before. We went downtown to get the train tickets cos some of them hadn’t made their student train passes which entitled them to a 50% discount on train tickets. We got our train tickets for midnight (with sleeper car).

Sidetrack: The good thing about Finnish trains (I don’t know about other European countries) is that you can even buy your train ticket on the train itself. Or you could buy it last minute too. Or you could change the timing of your ticket by going down last minute to the train station too (this I learned from WL, cos she had a ticket for Wednesday, but she decided she was going to visit ZM earlier on Tuesday, so she just went down.)

OK back to the trip, on the day itself, just before I left for Estonia, Thomas (one of my other flatmates) decided to have an Austrian dinner cos his friend was leaving Oulu for a period of time. So of course I got to join in. Yum yum.

Lotsa good ol' Austrian food (mostly smoked meat) and also lotsa alcohol. In Finland, if you aint got alcohol, you aint got a party. I might come back a drunkard. Nah, just kidding. But my alcohol limit will be definitely given a huge boost.

Then time passed so quickly. At 11pm, Matt knocked on my door. “You ready yet?” then stared at me as I was still wearing my berms. “You gonna wear that to Estonia?”

“Hell no!”

After a frantic last minute packing, with Manu, Nima and Thomas laughing at me, I was finally done. As I ran down the stairs, the rest came back in from the cold. “We just MISSED our bus. Thanks to you. Next bus in half an hour.” Aw man, I felt like shit. Not like this! I didn’t want to start the trip like that!

We got a cab later and I paid for it because I was feeling really guilty. (But I didn't know they were going to leave at 11pm. I thought since the train was at 00.20, ... aiya never mind.) But the rest were nice and some of them bought me some drinks and food later to “pay me back”.

Look at the price list. It includes prices for pussi-s. Nope it isn't what you think. Pussi in Suomi means bag. Wonder why the Marianne pussi is more expensive. HAHA.

From left: Eder and Lander. From Spain.
Me with "goldfish" eyes. Time to sleep.

The train ride to Helsinki was quite ok cos I spent most of the time sleeping. Haha. After we reached Helsinki, we toured around a bit. Went to the Old Market Hall which I didn’t get to see in my short stay of 4 days in late December.

I look like a ba-zhang (Chinese dumpling) with full of stuffings. But it's cold and you get to appreciate the clothing for what they're worth.

Pics from within the Market Hall.

De-skinned dog? Cat? Ferret? Mini polar bear?

Chocolates!

The above 2 pics are of the Old Market Hall when it was in the 1885. Looked like a real busy place to me. But today, it's more of a tourist attraction more than anything else. It looks so forlorn now. But interesting stalls within.

View of the outside from a window of the Old Market Hall.

View of the harbour from just outside the Market Hall. OK sorry not a very good shot. =S But try to imagine the sea and harbour just beyond the line of cars and phone booths.

After that we headed for the Helsinki Ferry Terminal to get our ferry tickets to Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia and has several well preserved buildings from the Renaissance period. At least the City Hall is well-preserved. Pics later will reveal what i mean.

Pics in the ferry terminal.

Damn bored can. Wait and wait for the stupid ferry to board. (That's Tracy behind me.) And yeah, I know my hair is messed up. Looks like shiet. I shall cut my hair to GI style when I have the opportunity. Then no need to comb hahahaa.

The rest of the pics of within the ferry and of Estonia will be updated when I return from class later.