Mahinda’s Little World

A month after the event, and I’m still writing about it!

Afternoon II

It’s later in the afternoon, and I’ve returned to the hostel. Spent a while chatting to Mylo, who was sitting in the courtyard rather forlornly, foot up on a chair with a tea-towel cold pack.

Eventually, I decided to head off in search of alcohol. Rather than go anywhere in Old Town, I decided to head out and find somewhere non-touristy. Which I did, close to the Mexican restaurant we’d visited the night before.

I ended up buying loads:

• Vana Tallinn Cream
• Vana Tallinn Original
• Vana Tallinn "Export Strength" (45% rather than 40%)
• Honey liqueur
• Cherry liqueur
• Cigarettes for the parents

I rounded it all off with a Hesburger, and home I went. When in foreign parts, I usually try out their equivalent of a Big Mac or Whopper, just to see the difference. You’d be surprised at how much McDonald’s varies, never mind using other chains, e.g. Burghy in Italy. Hesburger is Finnish, and therefore inherently much more civilised than anything the Americans have to offer.

Indeed, the Big Hess was a mighty affair - exactly what a Big Mac should be! The lettuce was plentiful and crisp, the burgers themselves meaty, and the sauce rather tasty.

Now, Lawrence (I think) had a theory about why the Estonian women are just so damn gorgeous - it was because they didn’t partake of processed food. Sensible, I thought…until I walked into Hesburger, fully expecting to find Estonia’s entire quota of larger females. Nope, all still gorgeous as they chomped down on their Hesburgers, delicately wiping away stray globules of ketchup from the corners of their perfect little mouths……and I’ll stop there.

Suitably fed, I headed back to the hostel for a lie-down.

Evening

Peppersack was the plan. Phil couldn’t quite manage to get us into Olde Hansa, so second-best would have to do.

Mediaeval themed, and touristy, but good. We had a waiter who looked a bit like Luke from Star Wars IV: A New Hope, and a belly-dancer who bore more than a passing resemblance to Leia’s outfit in Jabba’s palace…Return of the Jedi? Either way, we weren’t complaining.

There was a swordfight too, and a strolling mariachi band.

The food was excellent, and of course the beer was tasty. I had Kesseler, mainly because I couldn’t figure out quite what it was. It turned out to be grilled smoked pork, and possibly my best meal of the trip.

After dinner, it was out on the town. Various locations were sampled, including Nimeta of course, before we headed down to Venus, just out of Old Town. Now, a proper nightclub with a rather Russian crowd, this promised dance and Europop until the wee hours.

Much silly dancing was done, complete with Iri and Wilko’s "fire in the hole" routine. Nice. Definitely of note was the quality of the two dancing girls…well, one in particular. The other one, well, let’s just say that we spent a while looking for evidence of an Adam’s apple

A rather pathetic 2am came, and most of the group had either left, or were leaving. Lightweights!

Hometime…Or Not

It’s about 3.40am, and the last four of us leave the cheesy dance and sultry dancing girls of Venus. Think it may have been Mark, Little Paul, Iri and I, but I really have very little idea.

3.55am and we’re almost back to Raekoja Plats…when I realise that they’ll still be serving at Nimeta Bar!

"Come on lads" says I, "we can catch last orders!"

So we did. I had my usual dark beer, and got some beer for the others too, I think. We just start drinking, when Mark gesticulates towards someone and says "Isn’t that the bird you pulled last night?"

I look round, see Piiya talking to some blokes, and reply "No, that’s just her mate." It took a couple of seconds for me to twig that, where Piiya was, Jenita was likely to be too. It took a couple more
seconds to spot her, after which I toddle over and say hello.

We talked. She seemed quite happy to see me. I turn round and see that the others have scarpered back to the hotel. Makes a change from the night before!

It turns out that Jenita and Piiya have got chatting to a bunch of Northern Irish chaps, who were staying at the same hotel as them.

I can’t remember the exact details, but the four of us ended up outside, Northern Irish chap and me chatting to each other while the two girls had a bit of a conference.

Oh yeah - Jenita led me outside so we could be away from the others. This time, I do get her email address - RESULT!

Anwyay, the conference ended. Piiya took NI bloke’s arm, Jenita mine, and we headed out of Old Town, towards the girls’ hotel.

It was quite a walk. Jenita and I chatted away happily. Her father, it seems, is an engineer, civil I think, so would approve of me. My father wouldn’t approve of her, I explained, but I certainly didn’t care.

We got to the hotel, Piiya and bloke a fair bit ahead of us. Jenita and I stopped by the water cooler in the hallway for a bit, kissing away contentedly, before heading back to the room she shared with Piiya, who’d gone to NI bloke’s instead.

It was lovely. I’m not going to detail what happened, suffice to say that we didn’t go anywhere near as far as some people have suggested.