Barracudas in Tallinn

Tallinn, Estonia

3rd October 2007

Thursday I woke up feeling sick as a dog from the night before. I packed my stuff and got to work. I lasted about 20 minutes before I went back home. I was so sick but I had to get my strength together to get back to the office in time for the bus to the airport.

By the time I made it back to the office, I was feeling better but still looking rough. We caught the coach out to Gatwick and after some McDonalds, caught our flight out to Tallinn.

During the flight I watched a movie with Diana and we made heaps of funny faces into the web camera on my laptop. It felt good to fill my passport with yet another Estonian stamp, the 3rd one in a week, and see Norris and the others waiting for us at the airport. I was buzzing with the energy of an elephant to be back in Estonia.

We all were driven to the hotel and then shortly after, made our way to a buffet and casino. Martin gave everyone 250 EEK in chips to play blackjack and roulette. I eventually managed to break even in blackjack though I was sweeting bullets trying to get there.

The next morning we had breakfast and headed over to the Tallinn office. From there Martin gave a nice speech and we headed to a cafe next door for a morning coffee and pint. After that we did a tour of the old town. From there we went to an open air museum where we had a traditional Estonian meal in a wooden hut. Afterward we did a treasure hunt followed by a pub quiz later on in Scotland Yard. My team came in last but my boss assured me that I was a winner in his eyes and that the prize was shit anyway.

We had dinner at Troyka, a Russian restaurant in the old town. I thought that this place would be full of Ruskies serving us dinner but all the staff members I saw or heard were ethnic Estonians. It's a bit ironic really ;)

The waitresses were pouring vodka from as high as they could reach and there were dancers doing traditional dancing with the whole restaurant clapping along. A lot of my colleagues got absolutely pissed and lost the plot early on. Afterward, we had some speeches in the town centre when we got into a dispute with some young Russian kids who were trying to start a fight with us. Eventually they pissed off and we headed up to Hollywood. I didn't like the club and headed off within an hour back to my hotel. Some of my colleagues went off to other clubs, I wish I had thought of that.

Some people ended up loosing there stuff that night, one colleague lost his shirt and shoes while another had her bag go missing. I got woken up by the group when they got back at 4:30am and started having a party in there room. I helped one of them cancel their credit cards, ect...

The next day, I woke up and ate breakfast with Norris and Marko in Scotland Yard. After that, I went with them to the office. They played some games while I did some work. Following that, Norris, Gert and I went to the cinema. When that was done, I got back to the hotel and went out to Scotland Yard again with my colleagues. From there we went to an Italian restaurant, then back to Scotland yard again before going bowling. I ended up bowling 2 strikes which is really good for a crap bowling such as myself.

After that we headed to club bonbon which was really good. I thought my bad experiences at Terrarium and Hollywood would put me off from clubbing in Tallinn but bonbon was wicked. The only thing I hate about clubs is all the uncivilized perverts running around hitting on women you know and not taking no for an answer. It's cool for people to pick one another up in clubs but some men act like women don't have a choice about who they pick and reject.

After clubbing we got some "shit food" and headed back to our hotel. I wanted to have a party in my room but when I opened the door I could see my roommate sleeping, making horrible noises from various orifices and showing waaay to much bleach-white skin for my liking. The room also smelt like tooth paste and feet. We ended up going to the room next to mine. We were going until about 6:30am with some comedy moments caught on camera. It felt like I would get bonus points for every moment I could go on for.

On Sunday, the rest of my colleagues left and I had a Spa party with my Estonian friends. It was really nice, there was an olympic sized pool, hot tubs, water slides, saunas, steam baths and a bar by the pool. They also had a really cold tank of water next to one of the saunas so you could feel like you jumped into a lake after a hot sauna.

From there we ate some really good mexican food and walked around Kadriorg park, where the president of Estonia lives and where Peter the Great built a few houses. We ended the night off relaxing for a while at Norris' before finishing off with a movie.