Booze-cruise to Estonia

So it's been a pretty crazy weekend (again). On Thursday we went out exploring Helsinki looking for good clubs. Problem is we spent ages walking around as nobody would agree on where to go. We walked in a massive circle and finally went to Fever, which is where most of the exchange students seem to end up anyway, despite their intentions. As it was already late we stayed a few hours and I caught the last train home at 2am and went for classes at 9am.

On Friday we went back to Fever (see what I mean about that place), as all the other clubs seemed to have massive queues or high entry charges. A few of us stayed until closing time, 4am, then I stayed at a friend's apartment in Helsinki until 6am and headed straight for the ferry to Tallinn in a daze with about an hour of sleep.

About 17 of us went, gradually meeting up on the massive ship. After breakfast consisting of coffee and doughtnuts I met up with the others on the deck and we lay in the early morning sun for the 3 hours it took to get there.

Chilling on the boat

We got to Tallinn at about 11.30 and headed for the old town, which we walked around for most of the day, stopping to eat in McDonalds of all places. As I've mentioned before, it's a lovely place, very beautiful and well preserved (Tallinn, not McDonalds).

Sightseeing in Tallinn

Outside the big church at the top of the hill (can't remember the name) we bumped into Robin's indentical twin, which was nice.

Robin with his twin

I feel sorry for the 'twin', he must have been very confused when a group of foreigners decended on him asking for a photo. He was cool about it though and saw the funny side. Apparently his name is Joe and he is from Germany!

We then walked around some more and finally headed to the biggest supermarket we could find. Tallinn is where the Finns come to buy alocohol. It is very, very expensive in Finland but Estonia is like another world. It is insanely cheap. Coming from London I could not believe the prices when I first saw them. We just could not understand how the prices could be so low and ended up walking round the shop for ages unable to decide what to buy. I bought pretty much everything I could carry - 9 x half-litre bottles of Carlsberg for 50 cents each (!) and 3 bottles of vodka for just 4 euros each (!!!!). In Helsinki, at least in a bar, it would cost you about 4.50 euros for a half litre of cheap beer, whereas I bought eight and a half litres of one of the best beers for the same price!

Looking cool on the boat

On the 3.5 hour journey home we consumed some of our alcohol to lighten the load (ok that's a really bad excuse). Watching the sunset at sea was really nice. We also started to debate where to go when we got home but as usual nobody could decide, except for 'anywhere but Fever'.

The survivors on the boat home

I went back to Pasila with Simon and some of the others, because I didn't want to go all the way back home to Leppavaara just to come out again later. After eating pizza on the roof a large group of us went out back to Helsinki, to a reggae club night of all things. I seperated from the group and went to a friend's birthday party at her apartment in the city centre - I wanted to go to both but it was late so I had to skip the club. I stayed at the party until 4am and headed for the night bus. At the bus stop things took a turn for the worse as I bumped into all my neighbours and my friend Rob from England (we came on exchange together). They had been clubbing (I had been invited too but couldn't be in 3 places at once!) and were heading home for the afterparty. I ended up in Rob's flat until 6am being force-fed yet more beer and finishing the night with an unusually-large shot of vodka, thus ending my 48-hours without sleep.

I slept until about 3pm, woke up to find a Frenchman had moved into my flat and am about to attempt studying for the first time, before we go out tonight to the 1 euro bar!