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July 23: Back to Helsinki

Got up early and had breakfast sitting in the sun outside a café. Couldn't help noticing that, while we were having coffee and danish pastries, most of the other people there were enjoying their first export-strength beer of the day. Went to ``Kiek in de kök''⁴⁴, a tower on the city wall which has been turned into a museum of Tallinn and its fortifications. Tallinn, it seems, has a long and proud history of being fought over by Estonians, Germans, Swedes, and whoever else happened to be passing at the time, with the occasional plague stepping in whenever things were too quiet.

Took the hydrofoil back to Helsinki in the afternoon. Checked into hostel, showered, ate, went out. Found an excellent⁴⁵ bar: the only clue that it was a bar was an A4 sign, in cyrillic, reading ``Café Moskva'', and when we went in it was completely empty. The decor was shabby, and behind the bar was an old record player playing even older songs by Russian crooners. The stuffing was coming out of the bar stools and the barmaid was sitting in the corner, reading a magazine, smoking, and looking surly. It was all so flawlessly shabby that I loved it, though I suspect the effect was deliberately manufactured to attract those who go in for this kind of thing. Got back to the hostel relatively early and found that half the ceiling lights wouldn't switch on (the ones in our half of the room, naturally). But there didn't seem to be a switch for them in the room, or in the next, so we accepted the situation.

Footnotes

...ok''⁴⁴

Low German (or it might be High, I forget) for ``Peep in the Kitchen'', since it offered a good view of the kitchens in the adjoining section of the city fortifications.

... excellent⁴⁵

Depending on your definition of ``excellent''.