Thursday- Thursday we got up at 4:00 am to take a taxi to the airport and head to Tallinn, Estonia. What an amazing experience. This is going to be a long post, so get ready. We go to the Vilnius airport and its around 5 am and people are in the bar/lounge getting wasted. And the stores in the terminal were almost all alcohol and it was unbelievable. So wierd. Then the airplane itself is really empty so we all try to sleep but the flight is only a little over an hour long so we cant really sleep. Then we get into Tallinn at about 830, and jump on a bus into the heart of the city. This is me, nick, and brandon fyi. We walk around the city trying to find our hostel and eventually get to the place where it should be. only problem is its not there. We can't find it at all. Then we realize we completely missed the sign for it and went upstairs. There was a guy sleeping in a bed where the checkin desk was... very strange. And we had to take our shoes off, and we all know how i feel about feet. Turns out because we have a private room were in a different hostel. So we carry all our crap and go back in the direction we came to where we're supposed to be... only the hostel isn't there. This time it takes us literally a half hour of wandering around. We asked people working at stores, random people on the street, we could not find this place. Then as were about to head back brandon sees this tiny sign, with tiny font (about the size of this font on the page) that says tallinn backbackers... so we found it... and we go upstairs and get our keys and change into bathingsuits and head out to meet annie, a girl we met in vilnius, who took a bus to meet us out here. There is a medieval fair going on by the town hall and we all get pizzas in a restaurant right by there. The festival is really cool. Everyone is dressed in traditional clothes and selling traditional goods (see webshots) Its really cool. So we finish eating and head to the beach, which is really crappy. It consists of dirty, grainy sand, a lot of old people in revealing bathingsuits, and seaweed filled water. But it was the Gulf of Finland so I swam in it anyways. It was actually really nice, much like home. There was a sandbar really far out so that was cool. Then afterwards we walked to a Soviet monument. What happened was the Germans buried a lot of soldiers (?) here. Then when Estonia was occupied by the Soviets the Soviets bulldozed the graves and put up this piece of crap. Soviet architecture is just not very pretty. Then we took a bus home and passed by this beer festival that brandon read about on the airplane. Ironically we picked the weekend of a medieval fair and a beer festival. really lucky. So we plan on going there tonight. On the way home we buy groceries and cook dinner at home. Then we realize how tired we are. The other three smoked some hooka. We ended up not going out and just go to bed.

Friday- today we wake up around 12 and meet Annie at 1 at the other part to our hostel. We were late in meeting her because we were talking to some cool norweigan guys and making lunch... oops. So we talk to the people at the hostel and find a much better beach to go to. Beforehand, we go to the harbor and buy our tickets to head to Finland tomorrow. Now, onto the beach. This time we found the real beach. I was wondering, with summer vacation, why there were no high school or college aged kids at the beach we tried yesterday, they were all at this beach. It was much better. So then around 530 or 630... i forget... we go home, cook some dinner, and head out to the beer festival. Its called Ollesummer. Now, when I say beer festival, I do mean there are lots of kinds of beer. But there are also tons of stages with live bands like warped tour, and stands selling crap like the Marshfield fair, and bungee jumping and things like that, and vodka and other drinks. There are old women, kids in strollers, college kids, and whole families wandering around with topless dancers on stage and drunks stumbling around. There are real french fries. That deserves its own sentence. The festival gave out free t shirts if you bought 6 beers, so that happened quite frequently. We went to this thing with a bunch of people from the hostel. Andrew... 19, vancouver canada. has been travelling for 6 months, goes home in 2 weeks. Chris, 21, australia, has skunk like hair and lots of tattoos, smokes a lot. Jules, unknown age, new zealand, black and dred locked, stands out. Alex...?... california, kind of a tool, talks too loudly about things that he knows nothing about, going home on saturday another australian... unknown age and name, works at the hostel to pay for his stay unknown name, 34, geology teacher in boise, idaho, keeps a patch for everywhere he's been, including bosnia and herezegovinia... juan, unknown age, father is spanish, but he lives in london... makes for a cool accent, leaves tomorrow, i think thats everyone... anyways, most of these guys were really cool, and got really drunk. it was fun to have other people to hang out with. so at 12 the 4 of us from vilnius went home so we wouldnt miss our ferry to finland in the morning.

Saturday- we get up at 9 to meet annie at 915 to go to our jet cat ride to finland. we go to rimi and buy foor so we wont have to spend a lot in finland... because its expensive and on the euro. ironically, andrew from last night is on our ferry and so we hang out with him. basically, this jet cat gets us there in a little over an hour, so its about 11 ish and we walk around helsinki. ironically again, we picked the weekend of a rock festival. there is live music everywhere. its really cool. and in their town square they have much the same types of shops and botths as tallinn. the guys all buy these shirts that say helsinki fuckin city. and brandon buys a sticker that says i like finland. now think about this one... because its really funny. the sticker doesnt say i love finland, like i love new york or i love london its like i like finland... its ok. i dont love it, but i dont hate it. yeah, i just like it. its alright. apparently they dont like commitment in finland. so finland was really cool and had really cool old buildings and whatnot... again, check out the webshots. then at 445 we got back on our ferry and went home. We get there, eat some food, and head over to the other hostel to watch soccer, then we just go to the hostel to go to bed... or at least we try to. there was this finnish couple in our hostel who kept saying how safe finland was and how estonia isnt safe at all... whatev. but they locked the door to the hostel that always stays open. see, we have a key to get in this big iron gate on the street. then we walk up to the 3rd floor and theres the door to the hostel thats always open and leads to the hallway and the front desk, then we have another key for our own rooms. they locked the always open door and were the only ones inside. so were banging on the door and then the worker comes up the stairs and sees that shes also locked oout.... so she walks back to the other hostel to get the keys. then we follow, and come back later and shes trying all the keys and were sitting on the stairs and no key works... so she goes back again and we stay and bang on the door and nothing happens... then the lady comes back with more keys and none work... and the owner comes and cant help so were banging on the door, ringing the doorbelll, and calling the front desk trying to wake these people up... finally they get up and say they thought we all had keys blah blah blah we just glare at her. then we pass out

Sunday- again we sleep til about noon, and go to a russian (soviet) flea market. they have old soviet war helmets, soviet passports, army uniforms, etc etc. its amazing. i buy a book of stamps for about 18 dollars that hopefully will sell for a lot more when i go home. then the guys head to the beach again and annie and i stay behind because i have a rash from the sun. so i get some medicine, go to the other hostel to hang out, then go home, shower, and read. the guys come home, we make dinner, they smoke hooka, and we go to the other hostel to watch a horrible world cup with zidane going crazy. then we go home and go to bed... we have to be up at 7 tomorrow to go home

im not putting pictures up for this one because theres too many just go to http://community.webshots.com/user/JAKBELLE