gmt + 2in’ it

if anyone is still wondering where i have disappeared to...it is a secreto

Maybe you are wondering. Geez, where has Stephanie gone.

Did she:

a) get eaten by a bear at Olde Hansa?
b) freeze to death in a blizzard?
c) eat too many pickles with sour cream and honey and choke?

The answer is NO to all of the above.

I am still alive and well. Living out of my second home here in the Merchant’s House Hotel in Tallinn. Getting to know my fellow Skype peeps. Getting to wander around and acclimate to the cold weather. Learning the ins and outs of cold weather tires. It is all a fascinating new experience for me, to be perfectly honest.

This last weekend I had the pleasure of being invited along on an Estonian birthday extravaganza on a train that consisted of drinking lots of vodka, eating pickles with sour cream and honey and also shot of vodka with onion (I didn’t try this due to my ultra-sensitive tummy). Don’t get me wrong, this was a Soviet style trip – but with a bunch of Estonians. Just to confuse you. But if you know my fondness of vodka then you can imagine that I was thrilled to find a trainload of really cool people that aren’t afraid to slam some shots (in fact they totally outdid little wimpy me).

Other things that I have become fond of in my time here:

  • Heated bathroom floors (awesome feature!)
  • Wifi access points everywhere – seriously it is such a wired place. You walk into any cafe or pub and there are a bunch of geeks on their laptops
  • American style shopping centers – ok, this isn’t something that I should be fond of, but I can’t help but being amazed by the fact that they have these huge grocery stores that totally outdo anything that I have seen in Europe in years
  • Good food and bars – this place abounds with really good (and terrifyingly hip) bars and restaurants that serve up great (and cheap) cocktails
  • Cheap taxis – well, I guess cheap because I am in the old town so the only real need for a taxi is to get to work and back – the rest of the time I can walk to wherever I want to go pretty quickly and easily