So Monday was a write-off… I woke up early after having a few brews in Tallin and my TV was still on showing the super bowl so I got some water and started watching a bit of it. When I checked my watch it was only 1:30am and I was wide awake. I thought I could have beaten the jet-lag but it was no use. I stayed awake until around 5-ish and then woke up late after everyone ate breakfast. They phoned my room and apparently Richard was pounding on my door but I was out like a light. After I got up we had a few more hours in Tallin so I took a quick walk back to the old town to see it in the daytime. Tallin is very beautiful, one of the few old cities to be unaffected by war. An old church still stands from 1627.
We didn’t get back to Helsinki until 5:30pm and by that time the jet lag was beginning to take its toll again. I found the Hostel Mekka, an old building right in the heart of Helsinki. There were some drunk Italians singing down the hall but it didn’t matter, I think I was out when my head hit the pillow, I woke up on my bed with my shoes still on. If it wasn’t for Italians still singing 3 hours later I may have slept much longer. I didn’t mind though, there are so many worse ways to be woken up from a slumber than 3 italians singing “Uno, uno, unoooo, Momeeeento”. I wish I could have slept longer but I didn't mind. They stopped about a half-an-hour later and by that time I was awake again, and hungry.
I went out to get a bite to eat and I didn’t get 20 meters from the front door before my pants were frozen and I could feel the heat escaping through every weave of my clothing. It was -20 with a wind-chill and I had to find someplace to eat. I went up the block and took a look down the streets and couldn’t really see anything to make me want to walk further. I turned back and went into a metro station just under my hostel to warm up again. I haven’t been 5 minutes from leaving my hostel and I’m freezing. The streets were dead so I went to the train station to get something from the same place I went my first night in Helsinki. I ate it inside the train station but the security guard was clearing everyone out so just headed back to my hostel.
I woke up at 3:00pm Tuesday afternoon after Melissa phones my cell. It’s a good thing she called too because I was out of it when I picked up my phone. I have no idea how long I would have slept if she didn’t call me. Panu and Melissa called my Hostel earlier and I was supposed to go sightseeing with them and another couple from Britain (Chris and Jemma) but I missed it. Nearly an entire day in Helsinki gone!
I got out and saw as much as I could while there was still some daylight left and eventually met up with Panu and Melissa. We went over to Panu’s brothers place, Toni, to warm up in the sauna. After that we went out for dinner and then to a very tacky America style bar with tractors and metal buckets for lamp shades and lost a little money playing some kind of Plinko game, like the one from The Price is Right. Toni won 20eu playing but the rest of us lost, fun game though...
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