Baltic Tour Highlight #4: The Fab Four

The fab four: B, Estonian Buddy, Amazing Roommate and me in Tallinn's Raekoja Plats.

While there were many wonderful people on this tour, the four above were my standby, stalwart, Baltic pals. I’ve already blogged about my Estonian Buddy, and my Running Buddy, but rounding out the four was my Amazing Roommate.

She and I braved many things together, including, but not limited to: cold showers, sinus infections, early morning excursions in the cold, strange jet-lag, masses of black clothes, oddly-shaped key chains, sleep talking, and a conspicuous lack of clocks (apparently they don’t believe in having them in rooms in Estonia, Latvia, or Finland). To top it all off, we had some great late-night talks, and found we had more in common that we may have thought. Sharing a room with her made this trip just that much better.

All together, the four of us explored the Baltic cities, tried to make the bus rides less boring, did our best to stay warm at all times, endured each other’s humor and hand gestures, and somehow ended up in leadership roles none of us had particularly planned on.

The four of us in front of Tartu's Kissing Fountain.

The best parts, however, are the unplanned ones. After singing for the president of Latvia, all of us were tired and semi-cranky and we chose, instead of going on another group outing, to sit down to dinner together in a random Riga restaurant. We sat there for over three hours, gratefully next to a heater, talking about all kinds of things, but NOT about school. It has been some time since I have had a discussion like that, with people of that intelligence and caliber, where everyone left the table feeling enriched and happy. And full. Of really good food.

Thank you to the three of you. When people ask me what I loved the most about this trip, I say you.

Three of the four of us at a Latvian castle.