When I recall that Bryan’s idea of approaching this woman was as a potential “partner” I watch this video and accept that I am probably, no, certainly the worlds worst wingman. In fairness, things quickly changed when she started asking for money to “save the dogs” she had offensively white teeth and sure as hell didn’t seem like she was interested in this “charity” business.

As there is no translation, it goes a little bit like this, she writes on a sign she needs money for new summer shoes in Latvian, she hassles us (tourists) for money to save the dogs, we are totally sceptical and a tiny bit obnoxious and she comes clean admitting shes trying to scam us, there is a camera over there and we win.YAY. I’m sure it says I am a Brazilian  will have to get it translated.

SKIP to 21 minutes.

Tikai ar ielūgumiem TV3 Play – 1 from Paul Gaston on Vimeo.

Just a few thoughts, this country only has a couple of million people. It’s quite a crazy thought! Seems to be a good mixture of Russians and Latvians here with the Russian women fairly noticeable about town, its like the idea of a sexy western woman gone horribly wrong but I guess it works for them!

I hung out with my host who is friendly enough but when his friend joined us he was a bit concerned about his English, well being in Latvia, what job do you think this girl had? I don’t know if you are familiar with those online video casinos with the women welcoming guests to the virtual game in a rather fetching outfit and dealing cards or spinning roulette tables” but if you are, you will know that 90% of the time they feature an Eastern European! Well now I have met one in real life, I am very happy to cross it off my list.

Onions – Not quite figured this one out yet but the country seems divided on this one. About half the population HATES onions, not managed to trace the origin of this one yet.

Birch tree Juice – Think council pop only filtered through a tree. Actually this home made drink is probably the freshest tasting water I have had in my life and a tiny bit sweet. Apparently good for hangovers. Tap a birch tree, collect the juice.  Job done.

Big lumps of ice floating down the river and you have everything you could possibly need from a city. Sold!

View at Picasa 14-Apr-2013 15:40, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.063 sec, ISO 640	View at Picasa 15-Apr-2013 16:06, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 64	View at Picasa 15-Apr-2013 16:07, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.002 sec, ISO 64
View at Picasa 15-Apr-2013 16:08, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 64	View at Picasa 16-Apr-2013 11:41, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 64	View at Picasa 14-Apr-2013 15:32, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.063 sec, ISO 320

Think I will get myself back to Poland as my wonderful toe op is coming back to haunt  me.

I am going to love this city, I can already feel it. It has a lot more life than Tallinn.

I arrived at my hosts only to discover he lives in a fantastic old building, its ancient and absolutely huge with a miner style lift that I will most certainly never be going in. The flat is gigantic and empty and it seems this is an Artists place given all the easels and paint pots every where. An overly friendly cat has also been hanging off my arm since I arrived. Hopefully me and my host will get along as I already feel quite comfortable here.

I guess a crack den is my natural habitat.

I’m the worlds worst fugitive today, fleeing across the border to evade my 12 euro bus fine.

View at Picasa 06-Apr-2013 22:40, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.063 sec, ISO 800

The venue was right in the old town and pretty nice actually. After watching Brian Smith / Biological Lovers (Nice) I was able to enjoy the streets of Tallinn which on a Saturday have a closer resemblance to English cities than anywhere I have previously visited in Eastern Europe. A good amount of heavily intoxicated blokes screaming and falling over combined with women wearing far too little in temperatures cold enough to freeze the sea!

• If you put the bread upside down, its  disrespectful for the bread
• If you slice bread and the sliced side faces the door, your family will go hungry
• If you put your wallet on the floor you will be poor

And a million others.

I’m going to give Tallinn/Estonia a Stare Rating – 8 out of 10 (Very high for a white man visiting a white European destination)

Oh yea and after hearing about the free transport in this place (for residents) I took advantage… until I got yanked out a bus and fined by this lovely woman. I have 15 days to go to a bank and pay my fine…. what happens after that is anyone’s guess but I sure as heck won’t be paying!

View at Picasa 30-Mar-2013 15:17, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 64	View at Picasa 30-Mar-2013 15:30, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.003 sec, ISO 64	View at Picasa 30-Mar-2013 15:31, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 64
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View at Picasa 31-Mar-2013 12:02, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 64	View at Picasa 31-Mar-2013 13:48, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.001 sec, ISO 64	View at Picasa 31-Mar-2013 15:20, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.01 sec, ISO 64
View at Picasa 31-Mar-2013 20:00, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.063 sec, ISO 640	View at Picasa 01-Apr-2013 10:38, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.031 sec, ISO 125	View at Picasa 30-Mar-2013 10:21, Sony Ericsson SK17i, 2.6, 3.5mm, 0.02 sec, ISO 80

View at Picasa

Apparently the ice roads (and unofficial ice roads) open in winter and are good for action as long as they are over 70cm. You have to have your seatbelt unbuckled and your doors unlocked.. its the law!

They are still good at the minute but I will save an ice road adventure for the deep winter.. it’s April tomorrow.

I bumped into someone I know today… well actually it was my hosts, but then I ran into Bryan and his lady a few hours after that..  Tallinn is pretty small. I think I have seen everything this city has to offer, I’m just going to stay here and work for a couple of weeks before heading south.

Dinner was a spot of elk/moose soup for the price of €2! No spoon allowed only medieval methods.

Had a spot of Estonian cake for tea but have forgotten the name of it…

We popped out for breakfast this morning and I got myself fixed up with an Estonian sim… life wouldn’t be the same without a constant internet connection! After breakfast Bryan advised me on the benefits of vitamin d3 as he washed over 5000% of a daily allowance down with his breakfast cider. (Not normally one for drinking but options were limited)

I indulged in 20 or so tablets too after persistant requests, I guess I have missed out on a lot of sunshine recently.. what is the worst that could happen?

Back to the flat for some precious computer time and then he shows up from the airport with his latest Russian squeeze, she showed concern at me being kicked out which was nice… seemed like a reasonable human being, apart from her attraction to this troubled soul.

Managed to find a place to camp with a Spanish chap and his Estonian wife, in the old workers district just outside the centre  The building is immense. Very old wooden building, wooden walls, rackety wooden stairs and log burner! A lot of the buildings around this part of town are a bit older and have a nice wood thing going on. Much better than the typical communist concrete blocks in this part of the world.

They fed me up and I headed to the coast. You know its silly cold when the sea is frozen and people are walking on it for a spot of fishing. Then I headed back into the old town for a gander, will give it a bit more time tomorrow as I have a whole Sunday to kill before I return!

I quite like it here, but its pretty dead, maybe because of Easter..  Considering jumping on a ferry to Helsinki, will see if the Wikipedia page can tempt me.

Riga however looks very promising!! Its dirty, run down and communisty but I have a very good feeling about it and imagine the old town will be pretty!

ONLY 5 more hours to Tallinn!