A short break from the hustle and bustle of nomadic life...

Well, it's already after 2 in the afternoon, and I haven't even left the apartment. At some poinit I'll need to run over to the bus depot at the very arrange my ride to Riga tomorrow (um, I'm in Tallinn right now by the way). I'll probably also pop in at Stockmann a block away to take advantage of their wifi connection. Actually, one of the neighbors in this building seems to have one, but for whatever reason I can't send emails out through it, I can only receive -- it's very remniscent of my experience in Sweden...
So what have I done today? Mostly veged out. I actually planned on doing this yesterday and then seeing the town today, but, well, things don't always work out the way you want them to... I slept in until around noon -- a luxury which I was greatful for -- and then decided to make a pot of coffee when I remembered there was no milk in the fridge. I decided to make a quick run over to Stockmann (a large department store with a grocery section on the first floor). It's only a block away from my friend's apartment, so I didn't bother to shower or change. I just hopped into my jeans and off I went -- well, for some odd reason I did decide (almost presciently) to throw the few city walking tour guide books Rene had left out for me into my pocket. You see, Rene had explained the night before that there was a slight issue with the key situation. His door has two locks -- one which works, and one which kind of works. Unfortunately the one that works well only has one key that also works well. The only lock with two good keys was the lock that doesn't work well... So we risked it and decided to use the questionable lock -- I wasn't even sure I'd be able to get out alright! Getting out turned out not to be an issue, but when I came back with my liter of piim (milk) and bottle of water, I put the key in the lock, turned it without any trouble, but still couldn't open the door. Had I forgotten to lock it in the first place? I tried to turn it back to it's original position, but now it was stuck! After a good ten minutes of jiggling, twisting, pushing, pulling, and anything else just short of kicking I finally turned it back to its original position, but that didn't help either. It was indeed still locked. I gave it another 10 minutes or so of frustration and finally gave up with the lock in such a state that the key wouldn't turn more than a few degrees in either direction. I later heard when Rene came back, it took him a good 15 minutes and some blistered fingers to finally work it open. After that ordeal, we decided to stick with the good lock today -- that means I'm here with the key and just need to make sure I come back before Rene does tonight.
So here I sit, already 2:30, soothing my throat with a nice warm bowl of seljanka -- apparently one of the few russian things the Estonians had the composure not to attempt ridding themselves of -- and watching my clothes hang dry right beside me. Yes mom, I took advantage of Rene's washing machine. There's no dryer though, and even though I'm sure my jeans would probably be dry by tomorrow morning, I decided to help them (and my oxford shirt) to dry a little faster by applying a heavy dose of hot iron. It may sound odd, but after two weeks of running around, it's great to just sit back and pretend like I'm not leading a nomadic lifestyle. I'm greatful for the opportunity to sit around in the privacy of an empty apartment and do nothing for a day. Like I said, I was hoping to do just that yesterday, but sometimes you just have to see the sites in day (or two) old dirty clothes and a slightly stale body that wants for a nice hot shower.
Tallinn is a cute little town, and under other circumstances I would be out and about wandering around aimlessly as usual, but I'm once again feeling a bit under the weather. I think I caught another cold in Helsinki and this one's hit my sinuses harder than the last one. Since getting to Tallinn my nose has been stuffy, runny, I've had a cough, and my heads a bit cloudy in general. Actually, part of me wonders if slowing down is exactly what brought all the symptoms on. Adrenaline is a great antihistamine and it's possible all the running around is the only thing that kept me from being more stuffed up earlier on.
One of the best things about sitting around here is the chance it gives me to listen to the local music. Rene left the radio on when he left this morning (lucky for me because if he hadn't, I probably wouldn't have thought to turn it on myself). So while jotting down whatever crosses my mind, sipping down my seljanka (oh yeah, I forgot to explain what that is -- it's a bit hard to explain, but for those of you who know what rouladen is, imagine a soup with the intense flavor of rouladen only maybe a litte bit sweeter. For the rest of you, there's no way I can explain the exquisite flavor, but picture a russian bachelor who wants to make soup for guests, but opens his fridge to discover all he has is an assortment of salami and other sandwich wursts, a jar of pickles, a jar of olives, an onion, a lone bell pepper -- I know, what bachelor would have that in his fridge... And maybe a hunk of some other bargain basement meat of questionable origin. Cut all those condiments up, throw them in a pot with some water and a healthy dose of paprika, and I imagine that's how you make seljanka! No, it doesn't sound particularly appetizing, but then again I'm sure I'm leaving something out of the preparation because trust me, it tastes great!) Man, that was a long parenthetical -- so long I'm sure not only I, but you too have forgotten where I was and feel the need to backtrack. Don't worry, I'll just cut the train of thought whereever it was and move on with another one =) Anyway, oh yeah, the music =) It's fun to take some time and listen to the local music, because well, it's not really as local as you might think. I mean, I'm not listening to traditional Estonian village music (if that happens to exist) but rather just whatever the popular top 40 mainstream type radio station happens to play. Radio uno -- or that's what they just said in the call signal. It's mostly english music, but with a distinctly european twist. If you haven't spent much time here, that can be hard to explain. Ok, here's an example. Most people have probably heard the comment that "Germans love David Hasselhoff". While that may be a bit of an exageration or overgeneralization, there is a bit of truth to it. How many americans have ever even heard a song by David Hasselhoff -- yes, he sings, and as I alluded to, even has a successful career in singing thanks to the European market. Chess pointed out another example in Helsinki. Saturday we went to a football game -- and yes, I mean an american football game, not soccer! Um, here's a quick aside, I think a good highschool team could have beaten either of these teams... But then again, I don't know much about football... Anyway, at half time the cheerleaders did there little cheers and a song came on that I vaguely recognized, but couldn't place. It was Man-eater by Nelly Furtado. In the US here ubiquitously unmistakebly recognizable first release would be promiscuous girl, but here she (or I should probably say her marketers) decided to release man eater instead. I can see why too -- it just fits better to the european market. There's a certain plastic overproducedness to the music that makes it here. It's almost cheesy by american standards, but it's also kind of feel good comfort music if you can get past the cheesyness. There's something else about the music here -- they never stop playing certain songs. Where else (aside from some strangely mixed up specialty oldies station) would you still here Phil Collins and Michael Jackson on a regular basis. I just heard a song by Marillion -- a CD which I actually have, but a band which very few of my friends have ever heard of. Thinking back it makes sense that I first heard the band in the room of a german exchange student who spent a year at my highschool. I've actually heard a lot of Juanes which shouldn't surprise me too much, but I was a bit surprised to hear Monchy y Alesandra's Obsession this morning on the radio. So I imagine none of this really has any significance to most of you, but having lived here (well in Germany anyway) for half a year, it's always oddly comforting to hear the music that I've been missing for the last ten years. It's just part of being "home" again. So for those of you who asked if I wasn't going to miss my home while I'm off traveling the world, yeah, sure. Of course I'll miss my friends and certain conveniences, and my favorite places, but like I've said before, when I'm at home, I miss all my other homes. Ha ha, sorry, had to laugh, they're playing Juanes again -- tenga la camisa negra. They seem to be overplaying this and a dios le pido everywhere.
Ok, I know I haven't said much, but I'm going to leave it at that for now before too much of the day slips away from me. I do after all need to run out and check on fairs and bus schedules for Riga tomorrow. As always though, I swear I'll go back and catch up on just what it was I spent my days doing in denmark, sweden and finnland =)
Until then, happy trails!