OTHER SIDE OF ME: Trip to Estonia and Finland

It has been almost two months since I was here in Latvia. I didn’t go out much because of my love to stay in my apartment or if I put it other way round, my laziness to go out. So when my other Erasmus friend from Nepal and Germany came up with the plan of visiting Estonia and Finland, my laziness evaporated. I agreed to join with them after discussing with my other Bhutanese friend here.

So on 10^th October 2014 we took a bus from central station, Riga at around 2 pm in the afternoon. We nearly missed the bus as our bus from the dormitory got late. We had to run to central station after bus dropped us at local bus terminal and it was such a funny sight to see all eleven of us running. People were literally staring at us. I just could not help laughing.

After 4 and half hours ride, we finally arrived in Tallinn the capital city of Estonia. We stayed in a hostel as it was much cheaper for us. We didn’t have much difficulty in finding one as the organizer has already inquired well about the hostel. We kept our luggage in hostel and roamed around the Tallinn city. There were so many people in the street despite the late hours. We had late dinner in one of the German restaurant. After dinner we again roamed around. My legs were hurting because of walking a lot when I got back to hostel. At around 2 in the morning we finally slept. We got up early in the morning and headed for breakfast in one of typical restaurant of Tallinn serving their traditional food. I thoroughly enjoyed it. After breakfast we roamed again. Brother Sangay and I nearly got lost when we were taking pictures. As a result they had to search us and again we got late. So we had to walk very fast to reach harbor on time to take ferry to Helsinki; Finland. They would tease us that brother Sangay and i will be lost if we go together again. They would remind other friends to keep track on us. May be because both of us like taking pictures so we halt each and every place unlike them.

At around 12:15 pm we boarded ferry leaving to Helsinki Finland. It was my first time in the ferry. I have always imagined about staring at the vastness of ocean and thought about how it would feel. It was not ocean but Baltic Sea but I did feel happy. I felt happy to see my dream transforming into reality. I wished to freeze the time to have that feeling forever. But time waits for none and I didn’t have anything to freeze that moment. All I had was to enjoy that moment fully and carry those beautiful memory and feelings with me. I will always smile remembering my first ferry ride. After 2 and half hours we reached harbor in Helsinki .We went to hostel that we have booked by taking a tram. We roamed around the city that day. We went to Irish bar to relax ourselves after having light dinner at Mac Donald. There were eleven of us so finding a place to sit together was quite difficult for us. There were small cubicles where people can sit and talk. After waiting for some time we did get a place to sit. Some of them drank beer, some fizzy drinks and I and my roommate drank tea. We talked and it was such a good place to hang out. All the people were talking, some ladies group, some gents groups and some mixed. I really enjoyed the atmosphere. People were talking and laughing. I missed my other friends.I thought about how beautiful that moment would have been if they were here with me.

Next day after having heavy breakfast in one of the restaurant serving their traditional food, we headed to National Museum of Finland. Shame ran through my spine when I realized that I have never been to the national Museum of my own country. I promised myself that I would visit it as soon as I got back to my Beautiful country Bhutan.So after that we headed to ferry back to Tallinn and from Tallinn back to Riga. It was 3:47 am when we finally reached our dormitory fully exhausted. But it was worth it in a million ways.

I enjoyed every bit and pieces of those trips thinking that maybe I will never get this opportunity again. I won’t be staying here in this foreign land for long time. I usually sleep whenever I travel around Bhutan. I never enjoyed the beauty around my country because I took it for granted and I am not proud of it.I always thought that I will always get to see it other day and in this process I never tried to look. Who knows what will happen tomorrow; all we have is now. This trip taught me to value what we have at the moment. Because good things comes slow but they go fast..I heard it somewhere probably a song.