End of Estonia and Berlin
The remainder of the Estonian trip was much more of the same, drinking at 4pm as the cold settled in (we wanted to wait for the sun to set - so we sat and watched the dwindling hours of daylight before going to the beer hall; only alcoholics drink during the daylight.)
Our last night was filled with karaoke (as befits a choir tour) and a few more pints (as befits a former Soviet republic) and I said goodbye to the choir on Saturday morning. Due to the vagaries of flights I stayed an extra night in the northern land, with the intention of travelling to Berlin on Christmas Eve.
So for the first time in ym shltered life I stayed in a hostel on my own, as it were. I only had one night there, but I managed to meet some characters. There were three others in the room - one bloke, an Englishman, turned out to be quite the traveller and had been to most of Africa and the Americas. He and I had a beer Saturday night and infact he leant me some Estonian Kroons for the bus to the airport - which I caught, but didn't know where to get off, and thus ended walking for an hour to get to the aiport, which was fine in the -4 environs. The second bloke was actually from Estonia, and from Tallinn as well. The reason he was staying in a hostel and not at his home was that he was recovering from an operation on his head (the language barriers prohibited a more indepth analysis) and there were many family members around at his house, partying for the festive season which would not aid his convalescene. The third man was a sex-obsessed Swede called Timo, who, in a rather comical accent described himself as 'complete heterosexual, in fact, perhaps even 300% so.' He kept talking to me about wanting to marry bartenders that he met at the pub. There was only so much I could do to prevent reaching for my suicide pills...
I arrived into Berlin, out of the aiport and into the hostel, by around 7pm Christmas Eve - the day for my rendezvous with two of ANUs finest, Ross Townson and Richard Morton, who were catching the train in from Prague for a Christmas gathering.
They have taken some good photos (recall that my camera suffered the fate of Trescothick and cracked) and I will certainly update this post to include some audio/visual, although mostly, well entirely, visual supplements.
Christmas was, for the first time in my life, spent in a pub. We went to a newsagent (the only shop open in the near viccinity) and bought each other presents which we wrapped in Der Spiegel, Germany's finest newspaper. We went into the pub about 10 minutes after it opened (11:10am) with our Christmas hats on and cheer on our faces. The other patrons in the bar appreciated our jolility, and we had an efficient Teutonic lunch with several litres of beer. Then the presents: Ross was given four blocks of German chocolate and a packet of tic tacs, Richo received a tube of Pringles chips and a bottle of German beer, and I was fortunate enough to open a bottle of Chilean Merlot. That night was spent walking through town, telling stories of old, and of new - quite a nice way to spend Christmas, even moreso when you can't be with your family.
On Boxing Day we walked around town doing the tourist circuit, which I would like to do again and have a little more time. But we managed to see and go into the Riechtstag, look at the Brandenburg Gate and enter the oldest chocalatier in Berlin for some sampling. As we were quite laid back we didn't hustle around, which meant we had more time to eat/drink and be merry, but less to visit individual landmarks and the like. Omnibus aequis it was a thoroughly enjoybale experience, good times, good friends.
I left R^2 to arrive back in Blighty on the 28th. As they were still traipsing around Europe we thought we would meet up again, and indeed this was the first of our three meetings....
New Year's Eve was relatively quiet here at the Manor, with many people back home or out in major cities for a party. Ben and I went to the local pub where they put on some free food at midnight, and the idea was hatched to write a sketch comedy act for the Edinburgh film festival... one which is cooking over in my mind at this moment.
Up until week 0 (the one before the start of term) I was mainly lounging around enjoying a break. And then the second leg of the Rendezvous was realised...
Our last night was filled with karaoke (as befits a choir tour) and a few more pints (as befits a former Soviet republic) and I said goodbye to the choir on Saturday morning. Due to the vagaries of flights I stayed an extra night in the northern land, with the intention of travelling to Berlin on Christmas Eve.
So for the first time in ym shltered life I stayed in a hostel on my own, as it were. I only had one night there, but I managed to meet some characters. There were three others in the room - one bloke, an Englishman, turned out to be quite the traveller and had been to most of Africa and the Americas. He and I had a beer Saturday night and infact he leant me some Estonian Kroons for the bus to the airport - which I caught, but didn't know where to get off, and thus ended walking for an hour to get to the aiport, which was fine in the -4 environs. The second bloke was actually from Estonia, and from Tallinn as well. The reason he was staying in a hostel and not at his home was that he was recovering from an operation on his head (the language barriers prohibited a more indepth analysis) and there were many family members around at his house, partying for the festive season which would not aid his convalescene. The third man was a sex-obsessed Swede called Timo, who, in a rather comical accent described himself as 'complete heterosexual, in fact, perhaps even 300% so.' He kept talking to me about wanting to marry bartenders that he met at the pub. There was only so much I could do to prevent reaching for my suicide pills...
I arrived into Berlin, out of the aiport and into the hostel, by around 7pm Christmas Eve - the day for my rendezvous with two of ANUs finest, Ross Townson and Richard Morton, who were catching the train in from Prague for a Christmas gathering.
They have taken some good photos (recall that my camera suffered the fate of Trescothick and cracked) and I will certainly update this post to include some audio/visual, although mostly, well entirely, visual supplements.
Christmas was, for the first time in my life, spent in a pub. We went to a newsagent (the only shop open in the near viccinity) and bought each other presents which we wrapped in Der Spiegel, Germany's finest newspaper. We went into the pub about 10 minutes after it opened (11:10am) with our Christmas hats on and cheer on our faces. The other patrons in the bar appreciated our jolility, and we had an efficient Teutonic lunch with several litres of beer. Then the presents: Ross was given four blocks of German chocolate and a packet of tic tacs, Richo received a tube of Pringles chips and a bottle of German beer, and I was fortunate enough to open a bottle of Chilean Merlot. That night was spent walking through town, telling stories of old, and of new - quite a nice way to spend Christmas, even moreso when you can't be with your family.
On Boxing Day we walked around town doing the tourist circuit, which I would like to do again and have a little more time. But we managed to see and go into the Riechtstag, look at the Brandenburg Gate and enter the oldest chocalatier in Berlin for some sampling. As we were quite laid back we didn't hustle around, which meant we had more time to eat/drink and be merry, but less to visit individual landmarks and the like. Omnibus aequis it was a thoroughly enjoybale experience, good times, good friends.
I left R^2 to arrive back in Blighty on the 28th. As they were still traipsing around Europe we thought we would meet up again, and indeed this was the first of our three meetings....
New Year's Eve was relatively quiet here at the Manor, with many people back home or out in major cities for a party. Ben and I went to the local pub where they put on some free food at midnight, and the idea was hatched to write a sketch comedy act for the Edinburgh film festival... one which is cooking over in my mind at this moment.
Up until week 0 (the one before the start of term) I was mainly lounging around enjoying a break. And then the second leg of the Rendezvous was realised...
posted by Tim Trudgian | 9:07 pm
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