Nearly routed
Guess I didn't realize how good I had it weatherwise in Week 1, because a blast of sideways snow off the Baltic Sea hasn't let up for the past 24 hours and might not for another week. Feels like 12F, the weather app says.
As soon as I stepped out of the apartment today I wondered, "Can I do this?" Picked up some stuff at the grocery store instead and scurried back home to reassess. I'm plenty toasty, but I do worry about my electronics getting wet.
After pondering the desolation that is Netflix (and uttering a brief apology to my ancestors for even considering surrender), I head out again with just the Flip 3. Even the Tallinners are grimacing today, which gives me some solace. After a 15-minute walk I am not alone atop Toompea Hill. There are other tourists here with internal clocks. Gotta make hay.
Finally I step foot in Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, an onion-domed Orthodox Russian church I suspect many here wished simply didn't exist. They instruct me not to take pictures, and I do not for fear of ending up dead in a ditch. The tourquoise ceiling surprised me.
Poked around where the intercity buses line up and asked a crowd of people where to buy a ticket. One woman stepped forward and said, "Talk bus man." This is actually very helpful ― there is no ticket counter, she's saying. These folks try so hard to help me. You can see them wracking their brains, trying to retrieve what English they learned in school. I would like to apologize to each of them for being such a poor visitor.
A 20-ish girl overhears and approaches, confirming what the other woman said. "You pay on de bus! But only cash. No card." So maybe I will make it to Viru Bog yet, but only if conditions improve a little. I envision myself sitting by the side of a road 50 miles outside Tallinn, frozen in a permanent grin like Jack Torrance in "The Shining."
