The way I remember it we went literally from the Spring Ball to the bus bound for Tallinn, Estonia. But that might've not been the case. It was a little over a year ago so maybe I'm forgetting some details.




Definitely still got eyeliner on from the night before. Just a side note about this guy: What a fucking champ. I met him briefly at second semester orientation at the hotel. My gaydar is pretty off mostly because it's just not a thing I'm thinking about, but he was enough that even I could tell. My immediate thought was, "Dude. Really? Russia?" But I got to know him well later on, and let me tell you that he rocked it. And also led basically directly to me meeting those gay Russians that I did meet. What a bummer all that business is. I hope it gets better over there.




We spent the first few hours after arrival half-sleeping on the hostel's couches until our room opened at 10 or 11 or whenever it was. After dropping things off it was time to hit the town.




My view through most of Tallinn: following the asses of these three through the windy, cobblestoned streets. I was always behind on account of the stopping to photograph...




The seams on my shoes started splitting on day one.




I thought Russia's cities were pretty old because, you know, Europe and stuff. But Tallinn's town square was downright medieval.












One of the recommended activities was a tour of this old Soviet prison, which I'm going to save for its own post.


Day two:







Tallinn felt small and manageable (especially compared to St. Pete) but still interesting in a lot of ways: historical and modern, geographically and culturally intriguing. Being a former Soviet country it has all the baggage associated with that, but is also pulling hard (with success) to distance itself from Russia and other former Soviet countries. A woman at the hostel talked to us casually about the Estonians' dislike of the Russians, and the difficulty of learning the Estonian language (16 cases, while I struggled with Russian's six). She spoke easily in English, but it's not a sure thing. Tallinn (like the Riga airport) was a place where, when I didn't know the country's namesake language, I'd try English first, and Russian if English failed.




I enjoyed this phrasing from Wikipedia: "Tallinn occupies an area of 159.2 km2 (61.5 sq mi) and has a population of 431,184.[2] It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, 80 km (50 mi) south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg." So I guess it's equidistant between the three then, making it a popular stop for a lot of Russians I talked to, who liked doing a ferry-centric tour of all three cities.






Your faithful narrator and photographer, in the merino sweater + coat + scarf-I-can-no-longer-find combo that got me through so much of my year abroad.
















This dude selling the mint-your-own-coin thing was also totally selling the medieval look thing, what with those Vans and all.








I do believe we closed this evening with wine before heading back to the hostel for probably more alcohol and some card games.