On to Estonia....

After leaving the fabulous city of Riga in Latvia, I hopped on a bus and headed for the city of Tartu in Estonia.  Tartu is a University town, with the 100,000 people consisting of a large number of students.  Kinda like San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara for us.  I caught the early bus and arrived around 1pm in the afternoon.  I figured    I would head straight to my hostel, dump my stuff off, and then head out to explore the town as I only had the one night there before I was off the next morning again.

My plan seemed good in all logic.  I headed out the door of the bus station and got my bearings as I had to figure out what streets I was on and such.  Once that was accomplished, I was on my way walking to my hostel.  Now, I booked one that happened to be in my guidebook and it warned that it can be tricky to find, so either print a map or call if you get lost.  Seems easy enough.  I found the building that my hostel was in, but could not for the life of me figure out how you are supposed to get into the building.  The bottom floors were all lined with shops that were closed as it was Sunday and there was not any type of door that I could find with a bell to ring to enter the apartments on top.  I walked entirely around the building 3x checking to make sure I wasn't missing anything.  Not a big deal, I told myself.  I will just find a pay phone and call, so off I went in search of a pay phone.  Now it took me about 15 minutes to walk to my hostel.  I went wandering in search of the pay phone and a good 30 minutes later, still had not located one.  I thought they were becoming scarce in the US, but this was a bit ridiculous.  At this point, my back was ready for a break as I had been carrying my 20lb backpack for a while now without a rest.  (I swear, I think I am going to be a hunch back by the time I am 40 from carrying the backpack around).  I figured I would head to the tourist office in the off chance that they happened to be opened on a Sunday.  Thank goodness they were.  I entered and asked the nice woman where the nearest payphone was.  She replied that Estonia does not have any pay phones any longer.  Seriously?  We're not even at that point yet in the US.  She informed me that I could make a call from there and gave me the rates for international.  When I told her that I only needed to call my hostel, she said she could do that.  I dug out the paper I had written the information on and she knew right where the hostel was (which incedentally was litterally a half a block from the tourist office in the main town square).  Apparently they moved, but in my haste of booking a hostel for that night at 1am in the morning after being out, I didn't pay attention that there was a different address.  Needless to say, I found my hostel, threw my stuff down, and then was off to explore the town.

It was a great city to just walk around in.  There was this old town square as all the cities here seem to have with cafes filling it.  I walked around the university botanical gardens filled with every type of flower immaginable and sat in them for a while just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful day.  Next stop was the museum of Estonian history regarding all of the history of this country condensed into a nice museum.  That was great as it gave me a better understanding of everything.  After walking all over town, I ended my day by sitting next to the river that runs along the city, wacthing the ducks swim by as I wrote.  This again seemed like a good idea, but I ended up being eaten alive by mosquitos.  Ugh!  Now I am itchy all over the place.

My friends keep telling me that I need to go shopping more and while I usually don't think that I do....I think that it may be time for some new travel clothes for me.  I brought several of the same things that I wore 5 years ago when I was here.  My jeans now have 4 holes in them (which I plan to patch when I get home).  The soles of my shoes are litterally coming off (I plan to invest in some shoe goo when I get home to remedy that situation).  I spent the other night sewing up 2 holes in one of my tops.  Another top has a hole, but it can't be sewed as it is not on a seam.  My skirt is extremelly faded and is edging closer to dark gray than black.  Perhaps it is time for a few new clothes, even though I often don't like to have to shop.  

After Tartu, it was on to my last stop, Tallinn, Estonia before heading home.  Here will be a few of my final counts on things once I head home:

Countries Visited: 6
Cities Visited:  Not sure on that as I have to total them all with Tina and Jessica...we saw so many in England and Ireland I couldn't keep track.
Currencies Used: 4
New Languages I can say Thank You in: 4
Airports I was in this Trip: 7 (which seems ridiculous when I was only gone a month)
Favorite Places:  London (most of you know that I love this city) and Riga, Latvia (I enjoyed this way more than I thought I would)

So much fun in so little time.  I wish I could stay longer, but unfortunately, it is back to real life for me in a few short days.