Leaving Russia, Entering Estonia

Leaving Russia, Entering Estonia

Tallinn, Estonia, Europe

Today was mostly just a travel day. I left St. Petersburg this morning and hopped on a really nice bus to go to Tallinn, Estonia. The bus had tv’s for each seat, and a coffee machine on board. I was impressed for €20, it was a nice way to travel. The only problem was that this was the first kind of non-stop bus I’ve taken. Since there was a bathroom on the bus, we never had to stop for a break. The only time we made a stop was at the Russian-Estonian border, and the only shop there was a duty-free shop. This meant that there was no place for me to buy anything for lunch, unless I wanted a six pound bag of M&M’s for lunch.

It was a nice ride to Tallinn, nothing special, but lots of farms and rivers on the way. We arrived at about 4pm and I jumped on a tram and headed into the old town to find my hostel. It was easy enough to find, I checked in, got to my room, and two minutes later Dean walked in. He was the Israeli guy who had been on my walking tour in St. Petersburg. It’s a small world. He was taking a rest and I was starving so I headed out to take a walk in town and grab some food. It looks like a nice little town, with the emphasis on little. I think it will take about two hours to walk down every street in Tallinn old town, but there’s something nice about that after being in such big cities for a while.

I met up with Dean at a bar called Nimeta Baar to watch the European Basketball Championship semi-finals. It was Moscow vs Tel Aviv and when I showed up Dean had already met a couple of Moscow supporters and we all watched the game together. It looked like Moscow was going to blow out Tel Aviv, but the Israeli team made a run at the end and won it at the last second 68-67. It was incredible! We hung out for another drink at Nimeta Baar and then came back to the hostel.

Dean is leaving first thing in the morning to head to Riga, and I’m staying in Tallinn for another night. We have a similar itinerary, but it looks like he might just be a day ahead of me for now. We also met an English girl at the hostel named Lucie and she’s heading to Latvia, Lithuania and then Poland as well. She and a friend are driving the route so there’s a chance I might meet up with them at some point and join their road trip. But first things first, I’ll be checking out Tallinn tomorrow with another free walking tour.

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