Well, me and Stephen (sadly minus Chris, Vicky and Bonnie who were all original party members, and my sister Jodie who couldn't go - wish you were all here! Same goes for my two pretty pets - shana cat and mrs wombat, both of whom I'm missing already, aww!) proceeded to set off on our travels at around 6pm on Friday. I'd just had about 3 hours sleep the night before and spent all Friday at work so the long journey ahead of us suggested that several hours of sleep travel might've been on the agenda xD

However the 6 hour-ish National Express coach journey down to Stansted Aiport in Essex via Birmingham and London Central passed by virtually sleep free (mainly thanks to running an hour late for our changeover coach - which thankfully wasn't a problem in the end, and also a rather irritating quartet of Magners drinkers sat behind us who went over the same topic of irrelevant conversation loudly and inebriatedly for a duration of what must've been at least an hour and 45 mins).

Anyhow we reached Stansted well before time, at which point I think its fair to say we were both fairly shattered, or at least the dark rings round both our eyes cared to portray (mind you, wearing contact lenses doesn't help). So we made the best of what our exhaustion could afford, and sat down for a nice brew in some Italian coffee bar in the waiting area before the check in desks opened. (NB:- This was just after we got lost in the aiports seemingly deserted Resident Evil district, and just before we found ourselves embedded inside the computer game Half-Life - seriously, you have to check out the little bus shuttle things that take you to the terminals, you'll see what I mean!)

And entertainment was therein provided by the legend that is Stephen, a new laptop of his screening Jackass 2, and also some nearby chanting Germans who must've been learning their times tables, a disturbingly ugly couple who liked the taste of each others faces and a large woman with a full beard! xD I really didn't need to see wee man naked though...

Anyway check in ran smoothly, went through all the metal detection and baggage checks with a hitch (although taking off both my jackets, my belt, my phone, my money, camera, shoes etc was a bit of a hassle - I know this is procedure but come on, I haven't been abroad properly in probably ten years so cut me some slack! :D ). My luggage went flying off into another dimension and my poor little new suitcase has got a rip in it already :'( - still, better than most peoples suitcases later on that just flew off the conveyor belt at great pace and ended up a bit of a pile-on of both people and luggage! xD. Me and Stephen could do nothing but stand back and snigger at the resulting hilarity xD

We then had a quick Full English in Wetherspoons and it was time to board. I was a bit more nervous about the flight than I thought I would be (though I suppose it has been a long time, and I've been having way to many apocalyptic dreams recently! xD) but in all honesty it was a really smooth journey and you couldn't even feel the wheels touch the floor when we landed! I had the most horrible popping sensation in my ears though, and a really sharp pain spread all the way down the sides of my neck, but thankfully it didn't last long and our journey was over.

We got a bus across from the airport bay into the arrivals lounge, and collected our baggage (mid all ensueing chaos as I mentioned before), and went through passport check so that we could leave the airport and get our first glimpse of Tallinn itself outdoors. The weather was slightly breezy and only 5 or 6 degrees C, but the sun was out and the sky was almost completly clear blue, so I didn't really feel the cold. So off we got into an Estonian Taxi with Christopher Walken and we were on our way.

Driving through the city was like Soviet Central, like driving through downtown Russia!! (which I suppose makes sense as Estonia used to be part of Russia before it got its independance, along with the other Baltic States). We arrived at the Hotel Metropol, only for some reason I thought it was the wrong one as it didn't look like it did in the photos. However when we got inside it was now clear as k2 glass (well unless you order one of the tinted blue products, but why have a blue conservatory I ask?!) that we were in fact in the right place. We had done it! We had gone abroad all on our lonesome without screwing up royally! :D The interior of the hotel was as beautifully regal as the photos I had seen previously and the staff were all multi-lingual and could all speak fairly fluent English, Russian, Estonian (obv!) and Finnish, all of which I tested them on ;-) *goof*

We got up into our room, and its pleasant enough, a lovely view, and the free WIFI network is obviously very handy ;) We still need to get our mini bar stocked up tommorow though, you should see what they're filling it up with! :O Someones gonna be drunk by the end of it, thats all I can say...

Anyway we had a little snooze, woke up to find England beating Estonia 3-0 back home and subconsciously fearing for our lives if any livid Baltic football fan decides to exact sweet revenge via a swift stab in the gut xD but we decided to go out for a wander anyway, mainly as we were both starving!

We rambled about the Medieval Old Town (which was extraordinarily picturesque even in the dark) and came across an Irish pub going by the name of Molly Malone's, which I had already swatted up on and knew that not only were they English friendly menu/language wise but they were dirt cheap! After the obligatory Pint o' Guiness, I had a three course meal of Fried Baltic Herring with a cream dip, Hot Potato, Mushroom and Bacon Salad, and a mixed meat fried rice dish, all served with some delightful Estonian bread, and for the combined amount of approx. £6.50!!! :o They were all delicous!

Since then, we've had another little walk around town and made our way back to the hotel, and I gave my mum a quick call on Stephen's phone, watched a bit of a film on Sky and started work on this blog. Well thats all for today, hope it wasn't too boring (if you managed to make it all the way to the end). Tommorow we shall be getting up first thing for our free continental breakfast in the Hotel Restaurant (which btw looks gorgeous! / expensive :D ) and we'll be buying a Tallinn card each which will get us free public transport and entry into all Tallinn's tourist attractions for the next three days. Not sure where we'll be going after that, but we'll be using our cards for sure! We also plan on taking a ferry over to Helsinki in Finland for about £30 return but we will probably do that later in the week when our Tallinn cards have run out (poss Thursday).

Good tye! xxx