travel journal

Shaping up

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4

It’s been about a week-and-a-half since we joined the gym. I’m starting to feel a bit of muscle growing back, albeit ever so slowly. Hopefully I can bulk up a bit just so I look nicer in my Spider-Man t-shirts when the weather warms up again.

Speaking of weather, it’s actually snowing again today! Yay. The snowflakes are rather large at the moment. I can see their shapes and patterns with relative ease. Tallinn looks so nice when it’s covered in white. I’m sure it looks nice when it’s bright and sunny too, I either just can’t remember or came here too late. Summer will return soon enough.

The worst thing about actually exercising regularly now is that I seem to be eating a lot more. It kind of defeats the purpose in a way but I’m not really eating too badly, either, so hopefully I’m still shedding a little bit more day by day. Except for today. I had popcorn. A whole bag. To myself. It was good.

I watched Ghost Rider last night. It wasn’t as bad as I expected. Sure, there were a few cheesy lines (ok, awful) and Cage looks really strange when he points but it was still fun. I don’t know a whole lot about the character but he seemed pretty cool in the movie, plus his bike looked funky.

Time’s going quite fast these days. I don’t feel like I’m doing a whole lot but I somehow seem to be. It’s hard to work out. It’ll be no time before the 12 bottle of juice we bought in a crate runs out. We thought they were on special for 70 EEK. Turns out they were actually going at 200 EEK instead. Whoops. We were too embarrassed to take them back from the register when we discovered the truth after it was swiped. Never mind.

I’ve started reading The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham. I’m only a few chapters in but it’s enjoyable so far. Unfortunately it’s an old, paperback edition that is literally falling apart. If I speed read it might completely disintegrate. Wish me luck.

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This isn't winter

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I don’t think it’s even hit -20°C here yet. Not without the wind at least and even then I’m not sure. I’m too lazy to check the weather websites to be certain.

Sure, we’re getting a bit of snow now and then. It might snow for about 2-3 days with temperatures in the negative teens but then the next day the sun comes out and everything warms up, turning all the snow into dirty brown slush that just makes everything wet.

I did, however, nearly freeze my toes off when I went out with some folks (including Hugo’s dad) to have a look at Paldiski. We didn’t get to check everything out but since I thought I was going to have to surgically remove my smaller toes I didn’t really mind.

It was a pretty interesting day. I took plenty of photos if anyone wants to take a peep. Unfortunately most of the ugly old buildings that the place is known for have been torn down now as its begun being redeveloped.

Emily got her hair cut quite short. Looks pretty cool. I think mine might even be longer now. Well, not quite. I still have nasty, skanky roots.

Happy birthday to me

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Yep, 24. Thanks.

It’s good to be alive. I’m not sure about being older, though. Well, I guess 24 isn’t so bad. I’m approaching the age now where people start taking you more seriously and don’t consider you the bad kind of “young adult”. I hope.

There was no party. There never is. We did have cake, though. Pizza too. I went out with some kids from the hostel the night before and it turned into a quasi-birthday celebration after midnight, then Hugo came around on the Saturday for a beer and the aforementioned pizza and cake.

I’ve been plowing through my salad sandwiches with Emily these last two weeks. Quite nice. Especially with mayonnaise and mustard. We were planning on joining the local gym this week to really kick up our “healthy lifestyle” binge but we’ve been too lazy.

I have to admit, I really miss going to the gym. I really miss exercise, basically. True, I haven’t actually lifted any weights for about 7 years. Since high school, in fact. I enjoyed it a lot at the time though. Still, I’d give it all up for a new season and team of action ball.

Hostel life is continually surprising. Just when you think it’s a really boring period a weirdo will check in or something else will happen. It’s always got you on your toes. Emily’s enjoying it as well and she’s still doing some networking with the locals in an attempt to get work somewhere.

Snow’s still falling. Gradually. My fingers nearly freeze off every time I go outside because my gloves are crap so I don’t bother wearing them. It’s only a few more weeks of coldness though so I should be able to cope. I’ve gotten this far.

I have to think of a place to go for Valentine’s day, or for our anniversary. Choices, choices.

Movie marathon

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I’ve been gathering a decent little collection of movies these last few days. It’s beginning to get quite a lot colder and combining that with the lack of daylight makes a big incentive to stay inside.

Since we’re all lazy we just watch films on the projector, in between foosball matches and maybe the odd gin and tonic.

I’ve been re-educating myself about Dirty Harry and its sequels; modernising the vigilante in The Punisher; trying to share the beauty that is the Evil Dead; finding new perverted cult films like Frankenhooker and reliving the glory of the 80s with The Goonies, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and of course, Ghostbusters.

The cool part? Dirty Harry the video game.

The scary part? Dirty Harry would have been the lamest character ever if this happened: The first choice for director was between Irvin Kershner or Sydney Pollack. Kershner ended up getting the job, only to be let go after Frank Sinatra declined the role of Harry Callahan.

Tallinn trapped

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Yep. I’m back.

Got my visa. Emily and the boys never made it to Riga. They barely even made it out of the hostel. Lazy buggers.

So, I’m here until July. Well, I’m allowed to be here until July. That’s not a bad shake. Maybe we’ll leave earlier, I dunno. Don’t really care at the moment because it just feels so nice to be back in my chilled out little place.

Rob’s gone, the German bastard. We have some new kids volunteering here for a while now. It won’t be long until Hans leaves as well. I’ll miss his warm hugs.

There’s still no fucking snow. It’s ridiculous. I don’t really mind that much though because it makes it easier to get around outside. Speaking of which, I still have to pick up my clothes from the post office. That should be tedious enough to last me a few hours if I ever get around to it.

Typing on this laptop keyboard fucking rocks. I feel like I’m burning it up. Sick.

Hi Heli.

Still in Funland

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Emily and I are still here in Finland. Still in Lahti, in fact. Unsurprisingly, palmy and Dylan came back for New Years and have been staying mainly at Heli’s, although they were meant to stay with Krista’s parents.

It’s been fun having all these little bastards around. The party on the 31st was good. It was some dress up party so I went as a genie again. Inspiring, I know.

The party was some weird old house on the side of a railroad. I had no idea where we were but it seemed pretty cool. I can’t remember much from the night apart from running around being silly and dancing for a couple of hours. There was even a band playing earlier in the night but I was too lazy to check them out properly.

When we got back home, palmy and I tried to stay up all night. We ended up getting bored around 7:30am or something and crashed. I woke up with a hangover and with 3 other people in my bed. Too bad that doesn’t happen more often.

Yesterday was Emily’s birthday, the big 19. What started as a quiet affair ended up reasonably well. Heli’s folks made a nice big meal the day before for her even though it was Seija’s birthday, then Em spoilt us all by taking everyone out to dinner the following night.

After din-dins we had a mini round of King Cup and then hit up Rock and Molly Malone’s. Em needed a bit of convincing to come out as she wasn’t feeling 100% but I think the cold air did her good.

The other bastards went off to Onnelas later on but didn’t get in, so the night was effectively over, for me at least, by 4am.

Tomorrow we’re all leaving Lahti, bound for Helsinki and Tallinn. I’m going to stay at Suski’s and try to get my Eesti visa. Hope it doesn’t take too long.

Lapknob

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I bought my first laptop today! Well, Emily bought it for me because I don’t have enough money in the one account to have paid for it. No, I’m not broke, I just have my finances scattered.

So, this is my new little friend:

Intel Core 2 Duo 1,66GHz processor
1536MB 533MHz DDR2 RAM
100GB 5400RPM HDD
nVIDIA GeForce Go7300 256MB with 15.4″ display
CD-R/CD-RW 24x/4x
DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD-DL 8x/4x/2.4x

Not godly, but goodly.

Now I don’t need any other friends. Hurrah!

Sup, Suomi?

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It’s good to be back in Finland. I forgot how expensive it was. I always feel like a real tightarse wherever I’m paying Euros.

So, I caught up with palmy and Dylan again and they even brought Heli down to Tallinn with them. That was fun.

Emily’s been having a good time in the hostel, too. She even does a little bit of work, thank goodness. She likes Finland, too. I think.

Back to the present, though. We tried to get the working holiday visa in Helsinki but the silly bitch at the embassy didn’t even know what I was talking about. I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a real hassle to get back into the country if I want to stay for a long time legally.

It even seems mandatory to get travel insurance, for God’s sake. Bah. Either way, I have to get back in there because all my possessions are there and I’m meant to have more mail arriving from Benecke, too. I hope it fucking shows up.

For now though, I’m just going to try and enjoy Christmas and probably New Years now, as we’ll be kind of stuck unless I just go back to Estonia like a ferry ninja and overstay my 90 days. I could probably get away with it but I’d prefer to be legal. We’ll see.

Integrated, finally

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Well, I did it. I managed to migrate my WordPress blog onto Drupal.

Now I have a reason to visit this site apart from clicking on my other links and perhaps listening to some embedded music.

Now you have a reason to visit, too.

Yep, still in Tallinn. I’m in the private rooms today instead of in the dorms. That’s why I’ve been enteretaining myself with my site instead of doing any work. Speaking of which, it could be time to scrub the toilets.

Emily arrives tomorrow. :O

I should brush my teeth.

Tossing coins

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So, apparently I’m employed here now. I don’t get a lot, but I’m getting enough to help me get by much more comfortably.

The problem now is trying to get myself an Estonian visa. Yes, to stay. Apparently I can visit the Australian embassy in Helsinki to try and get either a working holiday or residence visa. Christ knows. I’ll work it out when Em gets over here.

That’s right! Emily’s soon to be on her way. Thursday is E-Day. Things are going to be much more interesting around here, and life is going to be a lot more challenging. Only in regards to having to worry about the fates of two people instead of just my own. Oh, I’m so grown up.

So, I’m thinking about buying a laptop, too. A good one. Yep. Great news.

My last dilemma is what I’m doing for New Year’s. I could stay in Finland but they need me here to work but it depends if I get my visa back fast enough. So much to think about.

So little to worry about. Probably.