Hollywood to Hollywood

Tallinn, Estonia

After taking it relatively easy yesterday, we decided to sample a bit of the famous Tallinn nightlife. Chris C suggested the unfortunately named Club Hollywood where Wednesday is "ladies night". We put on our going out clothes (much like our staying in clothes, but with more hair gel), had a few drinks over a light supper, and set out for da club. Club Hollywood opens at 10 so we arrived at midnight thinking that was ample time for things to get rolling. First impressions were very bad - a room full of lights and house music and a few overweight English guys sipping pints.

Things changed quickly. While we communed over vodka tonics, the daughters of Tallinn started to arrive in first a trickle, then a stream, and finally a torrent. Before I could say "tere!" the place was filled from floor to rafters with tall, thin, fair-haired Estonian beauties who are not shy dancers. It was not long before Jason's 16 Dexterity and my 17 Charisma landed us in the company of two demure sisters and their impish friend. The next couple of hours flew by in a blur of drinking, dancing, sweating (in my case - Jason does not have sweat glands), and having a properly good laugh.

Come about 04:30, the lights came up and we were back to being in an empty club but this time in the company of 3 of Estonia's finest and a long jumper from the national track team. He suggested that we all go round his for a gourmet Estonian breakfast. A short cab ride later, I was BBQing marinated pork on the balcony while our host assembled a fry-up and Jason entertained the girls by break-dancing to the Ace of Bass.

We made it back to the hotel for about 09:00, had a bit of sleep, and checked out at exactly noon. Since then, we've been drinking recovery tea, exchanging kroons for rubles, laying around in the park, and playing hacky-sac with some drunken Finns and a few locals. I have come to believe that all Estonian women are beautiful all Estonian men are friendly - making this perhaps the nicest country in the world.

The boat for St. Petersburg leaves in 2 hours. It's an overnight trek that apparently features a massive Nordic buffet. Huzzah! Despite efforts, we do not have solid hotel reservations and have acquired only about $50 worth of Russian currency. Out guidebook says that hotels can book up in the summer, so I'm a bit nervous that we might spend much of tomorrow struggling to get accomodation at a reasonable price. I'm curious to see how my half learned and half remembered Russian will stand up to the test of actual natives.

In closing - it is agreed that the first stop on The OC has been a success. We were thinking of Tallinn as a bit of a test case for the trip. Test passed with flying colors.