So, after exactly 20 minutes of flight from Helsinki the plane touched down at Tallinn Airport. Excited as always, I jumped out of the plane, and ready to embrace this part of the world. While crossing immigration, the line was solely consisting of Estonians who are returning back to their country and I was the only Asian looking character who was queuing with them. Again, like entering Helsinki, the border check was very smooth. With a British passport, they just looked at my passport, handed it back to me and pretty much waived me through.
I arrived at Tallinn past midnight and there were no longer public transportation to the city center. The only way I can get to the center is by taxi. However, the taxi journey was a nightmare. Not only the taxi driver did not know where I want to go (but pretended he did know,) but he also talked on his mobile phone to his friend on the way there, while the taxi metre was running (and yes, the fare amount jump like heartbeat.) At the end, he dropped me right next to the train station and told me, "the hostel should be around here..., and please 130 Kroons."
"What? You charged me at least 10 kroons more by stopping on the side of the road talking to your mobile phone. No way, I will only pay you 120 Kroons, and that's it." I shouted. "Ok, sure." The taxi driver replied helplessly.
Yes, sure. The hostel "should" be around here. But where was it? It was already close to 1:00am and everywhere around the train station was dark. How could I be able to find the hostel? As I was walking around the houses near the train station, no where could I find a sign nor a house that looks similar to a hostel. What should I do. As I was sitting on a bench near the train station, I saw a sandwich shop nearby and went in and asked the the people there.
"Would you please help me, is there a hostel nearby? Here is the address, you know where...?" I asked desperately. I gave my Lonely Planet guidebook to her and she asked her other friends, but seems that no one knows where it is.
Man! What can I do? The worst is I would have to stay the night outside the pavement near the train station. Quickly, I pulled out my mobile phone and tried to call the hostel.
"Hostel Alur..." The voice came. "Yes, I have reserved a bed at your hostel and I am now at the train station. Would you please tell me how to get to your hostel?"
"Err....err.... we are just nearby." The voice replied in a very broken english. "Sure, I know, but where?" I asked...
"Err...err.... near the train station."
"Yes, I know!!! But where?" I nearly shouted in exclaimation
"Near the train station..." the replied...
"But...."
The phone then cuts off. I tried to call again, but the dialogues pretty much repeats in itself. Eventually I shouted to them and asked, "Would you PLEASE come out and look for me? I have no idea where your hostel is! It is already late at night and I can't see anything!" Again, you could guess what the replied was. "Near the train station!!!" And the line cut off....
I tried to call again, repeatedly for at least five times, and eventually, fear that I was really lost, she pursuaded me to hitch a taxi. There, I handed my mobile phone to the taxi driver and let the hostel receptionist talk to the driver. Then I hopped onto the taxi.
As we drove off, the hostel sign finally appears. Hey! Here is the hostel, I shouted. The taxi driver nodded but kept on driving until she reached somewhere seemingly trying to make a U-turn. However, unfortunately she seems to get onto another road and within minutes I was lost again. Suddenly, she seems to go crazy and try to drive her car backwards in an unbelievable speed. The further she drove, the more scared I became. Suddenly I reached the point, and told the driver to drive me back to the train station instead.
As we drove back to the train station, we pasted through the hostel again. This time, I shouted to the taxi driver, "STOP!!!!!" The taxi driver seems to be scared of my shout and finally agreed to stop, right next to the hostel. I paid the taxi driver, and I got into the hostel. Later, I found out that the hostel is just exactly 100m next to the train station.
As I got into the hostel, I broke into anger, and nearly sweared at the receptionist, criticising her that, despite I was right next to her hostel at the train station, she refused to come out of the hostel and look for me, letting me going through all these troubles and wasting all these money just to find them. This experience had pretty much ruined my first expectation of Tallinn, even though at the end, the real beauty of the Tallinn old town has winned my heart back.
It was close to 2:00am, and after nearly 26 hours without sleep, I dropped straight onto my hostel bed and called it the night.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment