Great Laughs with Great Company in Estonia - with Margus and Teele

28/8/12

2031 (localtime)

Tallinn, Estonia

Written in: Margus’s lovely apartment in Tallinn.

What a action packed last few days I have had. I arrived into Tallinn on Saturday the 25^th. Margus, who I met with Teele in Dahab, Egypt on a windsurfing holiday.

So I met Margus at the bus station, and I threw my bags in his lovely Audi and we went for lunch, dumped my bags and was then picked up by one of Margus’s friends, Arko.

That’s when the drinking started. It was great though, we had a few beers and then we saw some old school country singer, stayed there for a few hours then headed back to Arko’s lovely house for more beers and food.

Sketchy Country Singer...

After a while the guys, started telling me about theres this ‘thing’ about going to the sauna. So basically because Estonia gets so cold in the winter (and the summer) that in most of the semi-modern houses they all have a built in sauna, so that they can get their warmth no matter what time of the year it is.

So after a few beers, we all got naked and jumped in the sauna for a 5 minutes and afterwards played some knockout basketball. After 15 minutes of playing knockout we all hit the saunas!

This happened like 3 – 4 times! It was actually great. After this we hit the club… it was 4am until we got home.

The next day was pretty slow, but we went to Margus’s parents house and I ate so much!! But the food in Estonia is amazing, so I couldn’t help myself.

Monday the 27^th I spent exploring the city… Tallinn is a nice city, a lot of churches,…  Check out the photos!

One of the main squares in Tallinn.

A look over the city!

A russian church

More city, and yep... the baltic sea!

The beautiful colored houses near the coast

little laneways and coffee shops of Tallinn

Ferry Port!

One of the castle walls!

A little park outside of the castle walls!

The Russian church!

I took Margus's bike for a ride here... really enjoyable!

Tuesday (28^th) rolled on in, and this was a day of doing things. As I going to the post office to send some stuff back home and also to see if I could get a Russian Transit visa!

Well I managed 1 out of the 2. Post was fine, it was the visa that was the issue. It looks like my 23 hours in Moscow will be spent in Terminal D Moscow Airport! Cant wait… not!

On Wednesday Margus had a meeting in Tartu which is about 2.5 hours south of Tallinn. Whilst he was in his meeting, I spent about 3 -4 hours cruising around the small but pretty city. I went to the info centre picked up a map, and walked the ‘tourist’ route! It was nice, going through the parks. In fact after all my hardcore walking, I found a nice bench in the park near the river where I fell asleep for about 30 minutes.

After I finished exploring the city I wandered on back to where Margus was working. I met all the lovely colleagues who work for Click ‘n Grow, and even helped them with some translating! As night came along, we went out with all the guys and had beers and food! I was chatting to the owner of the company and we were talking about our favourite movies. Expendables 2 came up in conversation, and we were told the cinema was having a deal on tickets – 2 euros EACH! After we finished our meal we went to the local bottle shop, bought 2 bottles of Liquor and then bought tickets to Expendables 2. So apparently this is a common thing to do, sneak in alcohol to the movies. Crazy Estonians! That night we had a party, where I hung out with the locals it was awesome.

Main square of Tartu

Tartu

It was a slow start to Thursday (30^th) but when we eventually got moving we were driving for about an hour to a cool adventure park/ropes course. Having to do physical activity blew away any hangover that we may or may not have had! It was great, having to walk across sketchy bridges.

There was even a couple of huge zip lines that I loved! It was awesome.

The rope park!

and a ski jump very close!

doing the ropes course! ROCK ON!

WOO HOO! HANGING UPSIDE DOWN!

After the adventure park, myself and Margus had an epic drive to do. We were driving from down in the south in Tartu up to the north west to Saku (Margus, correct me if I’m wrong) where one of Margus’s friends live – Ago.

Ago spends the summer in his awesome summer cottage located right next to the sea! Pretty much as soon as we met, he showed us his new toy… the WATERSNAKE. The water snake is this tiny little RIB (or boat) that has a tiny little electric motor. We took them all to the water, brought a dozen beers with us and set off, on an adventure around the island.

It was great, we parked the boat up, and climbed up a kind of scaffolding lighthouse and watched the beautiful sunset.

The beautiful sunset!

The scaffolding tower we climbed up!

Margus on the right, Ako on the left!

The head of the Watersnake!

Huge Engine!

THE WATERSNAKE

so much fun!

hows that for a sunset!

the bbq after the watersnake!

After we got in touch with our feelings… we drove the watersnake back to the pier, took it out of the water and had an amazing BBQ. It was an awesome way to end a great evening.

It was Friday the next day, which means it was the 31^st, and we were heading from the north west to the south west, to meet up with Teele and then eventually drive on down to Parnu to spend a night and to also hang out with Teele’s family at their summer house!

It was a quiet evening, but lovely nonetheless!

The next day which happened to be a Saturday (funny how that works) we were heading to Teele’s summer house. It was really cool spending time with Teele’s family, it kind of opened my eyes a little bit, as no one really spoke English it made me realise that all family gatherings are very similar, and it made me think about my family gatherings.

Just before lunch Margus, Teele and me went for a bit of a easy hike in the forest around the swamp! Great chat and a few beers and we were all content.

On our easy hike! Teele in the foreground!

Margus, Me and Teele!

Teele and Margus!!

When we got back, we were greeted by some of the most amazing food I’ve eaten in quite a while! We ate and ate and ate until we could eat no more. I then practically passed out from a food coma! Next thing I knew Sauna was the next topic of conversation so me and Margus headed out the back to a very special sauna called a Smoke Sauna!

So once again, all the boys got naked, and we sweated it out in the smoke sauna, once the heat was to much we walked/ran down the the freeeeeeeezing cold lake out the back of their summer house and jumped in!!

It was so cold, but you don’t stay in it for too long, then you jump back in the sauna or grab a beer.

The sudden change in temperature makes your skin get pins and needles, im not too sure if its good for you, but it feels pretty good!

It was a Saturday night, but we were all so tired so we called it an early night!

And then there was Sunday! Sunday was the family gathering… again! More amazing food! Some great RIBS! And now im officially fat!

All in all, the week with Margus and Teele and all their friends and family was amazing! It was great just having a bit of a holiday from your holiday!

Honestly it was great fun, now I’ve got some pretty intense travelling to do! Japan and then South East Asia!

Its going to be a very interesting couple of months! So stay tuned!

Goodnight and adios!

PS: Thanks again Margus & Teele! You were a great host, and I cant wait for you to come to Melbourne!