a bit of a surprise...

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hi guys,
made it to tallinn and was a little surprised by how expensive everything is here. the room that i am staying in costs more than my room in edinburgh and its not nearly as nice. Truth be told i haven't done too much sightseeing here in Tallinn. I have just walked around the old town center which is really nice and tried not to eat because i haven't found a grocery store to buy food at. Last night i was walking down the street with my redsox hat on and a guy stopped me and asked me if i was from boston, i said no but i like the sox and he invited me to sit down and have a beer with him. one beer ended up being a meal at a nice resturant and about 5 or 6 more beers!!! Looking like an american has it benefits!!! besides that nothing really intresting to note, i did laundry and met a few people who i'm going out with tonight. Leaving for Latvia tomorrow and hopefully its not as expensive as Tallinn. I am surprised at how many finnish people there are here. I met one last night and they said that they come here to buy beer because i guess that its really cheap compared to finland. there's lots of russians too. the good part is that most people here speak english but i got kinda lost looking for my hostel the first day and couldn't find one person to help me. poor guy. You must have a map on you at all times in this city because its so confusing. I got lost last night trying to get back to the hostel and didn't make it back for an hour!!! it could be the beer but i'd like to think that i have a pretty good sense of direction. Hopefully have some better news to report from Riga. I bought a spanish text book in london and have been studying it, its kinda funny since i never studied when i was in school, so I've been practicing a lot before i go to bed. I got to practice a lot in Edinburgh, i was one of the only people staying there who didn't speak spanish. Speaking of edinburgh, I met a girl from Toledo who said that i could stay with her when i am in spain, so thats a bonus. all right gotta get ready for tonight. talk to ya soon!

Mike

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