Tallinn, Part Two

I know you are all tired of hearing my apologies for the frequent gaps between posts, so I won't bother wasting your time with them. As a consolation, however, I promise to post TWICE today, one to wrap up my Tallinn experiences and the other to update everyone on what I've done since then.

So, down to business: aside from all the Hesburger and honey beer, I spent a majority of my time wandering the previously-described Old City, looking at the various examples of medieval architecture and trying not to get rained on. This was a considerable problem, because it basically rained the entire time that we were in Estonia. I understand that this is merely a byproduct of being in the Baltic region, where nice weather is an exceedingly rare phenomenon (for example, in St. Petersburg, it is estimated that there are only 60 days a year when they don't receive at least some sort of precipitation), but I have gotten so sick of Russian rain that it was utterly dismaying to realize that, weather-wise, Estonia was no better.

Still, even in the pouring rain, the Old City is utterly charming, and the view of the Tallinn skyline from the top of the castle is absolutely magnificent. See for yourselves:

Both Friday and Saturday night, I spent a fair amount of time at Beer House, although, despite what pictures may indicate, I actually didn't drink THAT much. Beer House is a Germanic-themed bar/restaurant, indicative of the strong historical influence that the Germans have had upon the upper Baltic region. The beer is expensive but good, as are the appetizers, and the entertainment is great...believe me, you have not lived until you have listened to an Estonian band perform "YMCA" in Estonian. I even danced at one point, shocking as that may seem to anyone who knows me in the slightest.

On Sunday morning, after a little souvenir shopping, we all got back on the bus for Narva, an old fortress on the Estonian border which has historically changed ownership more frequently than Shaq changes teams. After a three-hour ride through the Estonian countryside, during which I had to grit my teeth and endure watching the film "Confessions of a Shopaholic", we arrived in Narva and ate lunch in the old fortress. The subsequent tour of the fortress was quite interesting, even if the view from the top was a bit difficult for photography, due to its narrow windows.

Once we left the fortress, we got back on the bus...and stayed there. For about five and a half hours. The Estonian border guards took forever to process our documents, and once they let us across the border, the Russians took even longer (although they did have an adorable little cocker spaniel sniff our luggage for drugs, which was hilarious). All this while, I was stuck on a bus with more than 70 American students, most of whom are pretty okay, but some of whom are incredibly loud, rude and annoying, so much so that I was seriously considering asking the Russian guards to shoot me and put an end to my misery (I would still have to endure another three hours of this once the Russians finally allowed us to reenter their country).

And so ended my Estonian vacation.