After another 30 minutes or so of waiting (during which Grant almost ended up REVOKING presents), the gang all finally showed up and we headed down to Chinatown for Chinese Christmas Dinner!
After we'd finished wrapping all the gifts, Grant and I decided that we were going to go out and buy a Christmas tree! Rather than just simply bring the tree to either of our apartments, we decided it would be way funnier to break into Fatty's apartment and set the tree up in there. We did this for two reasons: 1) Despite being Jewish, no one seems to love Christmas more than Fatty and we figured he was long overdue for a tree. 2). We'd already broken into his apartment to paint a mural in his backyard and he didn't get angry OR take away Grant's keys to his apartment...so why not! Here's the view of the Christmas Tree place on Ave A & 10th St. all draped with lights!
Somewhere back during the middle of October of 2005, Meredith and I, who had been fighting a lot, decided to break up (don't worry, we've long since gotten back together). Right when we broke up, I started going out REALLY late and partying pretty hard to take my mind off things. I'm guessing this photo might have been taken right around when that happened because I can't think of any logical reason why I'd have taken (this totally emo) photo that's time stamped at 4:36am on a Wednesday.
After finishing my lunch, I set out to do more exploring and to try to find a set of electrical adapters so I could recharge my cam batteries before they all died.
Walking down some twisty back road on the way back to my hostel from the pub, I came across these disco lights being projected on the wall across the street. The international sign for only particular thing....NOOOODIE BAR! My pockets bulging with literally THOUSANDS of Estonian Krooni (which is like TENS of US dollars) I was feeling like a tycoon ready to shower bills on hundreds of svelte, exotic, cock-starved Russian teens looking for handsome Amerikan man. I paid the cheap cover (1 drink included!) and parted the curtain into the main room ready to break some hearts (or at least see some sweet, sweet boobs).
I woke up around 9pm and decided to go out and explore the Old Town area with my cam. It was exceptionally cold outside (probably around 10° F) so the streets were hushed, empty and bathed in amber light.
I'll spare you more pics of abandoned buildings. After I started to freeze my ass off, I looped back around and headed for Old Town to look for something to eat.
Then I wandered outside the walled area of town and explored the old Soviet-Era industrial buildings (from 1944 until 1991, Estonia was part of the USSR) near the water (Tallinn sits right on the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea).
I skidded my wheeled suitcase through the windy streets looking for the Vana Tom hostel which seemed like one of the better deals (at less than $50 a night) in this section of town. It also had the added perk of being located...
...Tallinn's "Old Town" which is one of the most well-preseverd medieval-era towns in Europe. See that tower? It's one half of the "Viru Gates," one of the main breaks in the huge wall that surrounded the entire city.
It's weird traveling alone. It's even weirder traveling alone in a Baltic country in the smack-dab middle of winter on a Monday afternoon. The place was utterly devoid of tourists. The only other people walking around were Estonian moms running errands.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)