tallinn

on the coach to riga, i texted liis in tallinn to let her know i was on my way, but she texted back to say she could not host me that night. so in riga, i went straight to the backpackers hostel near the bus station. of course there was someone using the wireless internet and i asked if i could also use it. no problem. straight onto hc website and to compile a list of likely hosts with phone numbers.

after three goes, i get a reply... 'meet in front of the central station clock at 9p.m.' that's how i got to meet liga and her boyfriend marius, also hitch-hiking backpackers fresh from a trip to cyprus, turkey, bulgaria etc... and also last-minute hc host finders!!! they were also hosting toni, cycling around europe from germany, and they took us to a concert in a bar in the old town before we went back to liga's parent's house just outside riga. and finally a good hot shower again, a hot meal, and a warm bed for the night. such a good night's sleep i had. toni cycled off for tallinn, and

i took a bus into the centre to book the coach to tallinn, and then straight to rimi to buy a whole lot of food and use up all the latvian money i had saved from busking last year! the last coins i dropped into a busker's hat in the underpass before taking the coach to tallinn. i couldn't get through to liis, i thought she had switched her phone off, but when i get a text from her asking where i was, i realized that maybe it was a problem from my end. and sure enough i realized i didn't have any credit left on the polish sim. or the german sim. the ukranian sim was also definitely zero credit, maybe the moldovan one.... yes, finally i get a text through to liis. we're to meet at the coach station at 8p.m. the coach is early and i'm hanging out in the waiting area... 8p.m. and no sign of her. i stand and look around... i see someone walk past me, but no, it's not her... but then this same young woman turns around and slowly slowly walks up to me and i'm looking at her asking myself the same question... "sat?", she says. "liis...? have you changed so much, i didn't recognise you...", i started. we smiled and hugged. "and have i changed so much you didn't recognise me!", i asked. "look, rucksack, drum, brown-coloured skin...!", i teased her a bit. fair enough, we hadn't seen each other for a year and a half.... "yeah, there's not that many indian-looking guys that you can mistake...!"

i had met her on the ferry coming back to tallinn from helsinki last year. she had sat at the same table as me, and for most of the journey i saw that she was busy with some studies and computer work... and had munched away at most of my chocolate bar before i remembered some manners and offered her some.

now she had graduated from her bachelor's studies and was enrolled into a master's program, and still working in the same european union funded office in tallinn. for the moment, uma is hosting me as liis has gone to stockholm for a couple of days. uma... now a kindergarten teacher, still the same manic-depressive personality i knew when i first met her and agnes the very first time i had come to tallinn in that hot hot summer six years ago.

then i was busking in front of mcdonalds near viru gates and two girls sat opposite, watching me play. the blond-haired one finally comes up to me and asks "do you speak bengali?" "no, i replied, "i speak punjabi". "oh, that's a shame," she said, "i'm going to bengal next year and i need to learn some of the language." "sorry," i replied, "but i can teach you drumming if you like". and so we agreed that she would host me at her mum's place in exchange for drum lessons.

and that's how i got to hang out in tallinn for a couple of weeks with agnes and uma and their friends kirsti and krystal, and agi's brother meelis. talking of whom, yesterday i was sitting in the national library using the internet when meelis comes over and surprises me. "what are you doing in estonia", he asks. "well, you know, i just love this place, the people, the busking is great.....". we catch up on each other's news since last time i saw him in tartu a year and a half ago. agnes is now living in manchester and working in wigan since two years already, a long complicated love affair keeps her there. at her and meelis's mum place on kentmanni, we talked (via skype) for the first time in years.... funny to hear her with a strong mixed mancunian/scouse accent! i had another surprise encounter yesterday too! toni had made it to tallinn and emailed me and we met at the library. after helping to find him a new host with the uusmailm crowd at their community house, we went to the arch at viru gates to do some busking, with toni on harmonica.

after an hour there, i notice a tall dark haired girl looking at me as she approaches us, she has a quizzical look on her face but she walks on by. we are still playing as toni looks at me and shrugs and i look at him and shrug back. and then this girl comes back, about to drop some money into the 'hat' and says to me: "i know you from somewhere..." and then it clicks! "yeah, i know you too.... from greece, right?" it was katrin, we had met at the turkish/greek border last year. we were taking the same bus from istanbul, and we were the last two standing in the queue for passport control on the turkish side. i had said to her, " you're not from turkey, are you?". fair enough, it wasn't the wittiest piece of ice-breaking i had ever come up with, and so i wasn't surprised when she turned round and answered back very dryly in english "no, i'm not". we moved onto the greek side, and undeterred, i asked, "so where are you from then?" "estonia", she replied. "ah, tere", i said. i could see she was surprised. "oh, you have been to estonia", she said. "yes, of course", i replied. "mis su nimi an?", i asked. now her eyes really lit up with shock. "you can speak estonian", she cried. " a little.... mis su nimi an?" "oh, katrin", she replies. "tere katrin, minu nimi an sat", i reply. we talked on the coach up until alexandroupolis where i got off. she, like the rest of the coach passengers, carried onto thessaloniki, but we met up again there too a couple of days later.

as we took a tea in her favourite cafe, she said to me she had spent the summer working at olde hansa pub/restaurant. it seems to be a rite of passage for young estonian girls in tallinn to have worked at olde hansa! and soon she would be off on her eu-funded 'travels' once more. it was a real surprise for both of us to have met again here in tallinn, but then again, i shouldn't be too surprised. this sort of thing happens to me all the time!