I came there quite unsure what I will find and how will I be greeted. But it turned out to be the best thing I could do. I was met at the door by Mr. Fashion, a guy full of charisma and self love and not to mention amazing style. He immediately took me as one of the group, and for that I am very grateful because if he wouldn't have, I wouldn't have had those all night long talks and I wouldn't have my best friend (or babes, or Black Swan) now. He was the one who made me realize that life is only bad when you allow it to pull you down and you should not let that happen. You should walk proud like the diva you are. He certainly was a diva and that was probably what attracted all the girls to him. Later he introduced me to Mr. French and oh boy, if you think about the typical arrogant, stubborn, excellent chef, with a very strong French accent, expert of wines, but damn cute and somehow lovable French person, you are right. It is him. Those two argued all the time like a married couple or sometimes seemed inseparable. Or maybe they were like brothers, you know: can't live with them, can't live without them. There were also two Estonian staff members, who were typical Estonians: blond, not very talkative, but smiling. Of course, there was our Ms. Manager, who was always down to business or party depending what time of the day/night it was. For a short while that was it, I still wasn't very open about myself, I was just hanging around and trying not to bug everyone too much. Later, more staff joined us. Here came the Australians: one was our staff member and the other was almost staff member as he booked for three nights and ended up staying for two months, and everybody was so used to having him around, it was weird to see him go. The parties turned up a notch when Mr. Army arrived. Now that guy was serious about parties and every day was a fun day if he was around.
I started being more open and trusting people. We would be going to Shooters, to Paar Veini, Studio.With a new staff member, our Don Juan from Mexico, my sister and her friend showed up to have a bit of fun with no supervision. I gave them freedom, we went to see Tallinn, we went to the Patarei Prison (which is very interesting and a must see), we ate elk soup in Draakon, we had a night in the hostel. We ended up having two nights in the hostel as they misread their bus ticket and didn't want to sleep at my place again (because it was very far away from the bus stop and it was super tiny and it didn't have the hostel people) they booked a night in the hostel. I ended up the only one of them sleeping in their booked bed as they were sitting in the common room all night. It was great of her to come here, but her small vacation ended and I had to put her and her friend on the bus (again) and watch them leave.
 |
| Patarei prison surgery room |
Everything seemed to come into peace again: I would go to the internship at days, I would spend evenings with my friends at the hostel and I would go to sleep in my apartment at night. We would have our staff meetings and decide what do we want to do. I really wanted to do a pub crawl as I knew that there are more good bars than just Shooters. We started out in Shooters, then had a Flaming Jellyfish shot in a bar that was left from Soviet times (really great) then we had a stop at Wolf's Hunt and we proceeded to Noorus. The pub crawl was moving slowly and was quite boring...until the Australians arrived. We had a few shots at Noorus and went to Paar Veini. There we pushed over some tables together and if you know Paar Veini, you know you can get crazy chairs there, so when I saw the swivel chair, I just HAD to sit there. That's where I mostly talked with Mr. Bond (no, he wasn't in the movies, but following his life, he might end up playing Bond soon enough) who seemed like a person who can't really settle down. He metaphorically kicked me in the ass for not sightseeing as he saw more in three days than I have in one and a half month. He was charming, always kept talking, making me smile and laugh (I also made a fool of myself when I said I can speak German and couldn't remember how 3 was in German. Drei).
At this point I met another staff member who became a very good friend of mine. She was also the one I would end up talking to about everything, we had little talk nights, and she was the one who accompanied me to have my first tattoo done. She was also a little crazy like most of us. And she was always there if you need advice, a drink or just to talk everything out.
We had a little mishap with the system as one guest had a different name written, but everything turned out fine. It was a German girl who stayed in our hostel for a month. We became very good friends and roommates on the nights that I would be spending in the hostel. We would go out to party and boy, did we party. Every week we would have a staff party and the party would be so great that on Sunday evening we would still feel quite woozy and thinking that maybe we shouldn't have alcohol related activities next week. This notion would last until Monday night.
For a week I left my friends and went to have holidays with my parents in Hiiumaa. During this time a lot of staff left. But Don Juan was still here, and we had some addition: a Serbian guy, Slovenian girl, two Austrian girls, a German girl and the Polish 10th Doctor (seriously, he had the same hair and attitude). They fitted just right in. The Polish 10th Doctor and I (the companion) quickly became dorky friends always ready to geek out over movies and TV shows.
On the last day for my precious roommate staying in the hostel, something bad happened: her wallet got stolen. She had to call her embassy and make a travel pass quickly as she had a flight in the morning. Everything worked out.
During August, I was busy sightseeing, and Tallinn really had what to offer. As a lover of high places, my absolute must see was St. Olaf's church roof and the top of town hall. Then it was the panoramic places. On one of them I saw the sunrise. I explored museums, the KGB one was great, their stories are amazing. Tallinn has beautiful parks where you can go relax, read a book or just go spend time with someone. And the beaches... If there was sun, the staff and guests would end up playing volleyball in Strome beach. I learned the little streets so well, I could go back in the middle of the night (and we ended up doing that quite often). By the way, it wouldn't be a mistake to call Tallinn "Little Australia" as I have never met so many Aussies anywhere as I have met here. We even had a joke at our hostel, that the cycle of Aussies cannot be broken: when one checks out, another MUST check in.
The hostel always created a friendly atmosphere with its staff and events. We had dinners together, we played games, had movie nights. We talked, people opened up and usually people ended up staying for longer than they intended to. And that was great. The staff team really became like a family (with constantly changing members). The summer memories still put a smile on my face.
I tried to do my tasks quickly in my internship and I was eager to talk to interesting travelers at the hostel. August was different than June. I think everything there changed me, I became more open, more eager to explore and I wanted more experience, to see something more, something bigger, something grand. I started searching for something, maybe myself, maybe a goal, maybe a feeling, I can't really say what, but I guess I'll tell you when I find it.
I am very happy that I decided to go to Tallinn and to work in FeelGood Hostel. And yes, this long post is just a small portion of every experience in Tallinn. I have met many amazing people there, and don't you think I forgot any of them. I remember each person who made me smile and made me feel better. When I feel bad, I just remember the summer and those memories power me up with good energy to keep going, to keep searching. After all, as somebody said, "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end".
No comments:
Post a Comment