2013 JGP Tallinn Blog: Safe and Sound!

Well here we are safe and sound in Tallinn, where airports look like libraries and casinos look like arenas. Our trip in was fine (except for the screaming baby on the flight from Frankfurt to Tallinn). I met a talking penguin robot in Frankfurt who liked my hat (for those of you who don’t know I have a white hat with little ears on top and a Velcro strap that can latch around my chin. It makes me feel pretty).

Once we got here we were immediately thrown onto a bus of skaters and hauled off to the hotel. Our driver was truly a daredevil. He sped down narrow streets and got extremely close to the cars in front of us (I am 147% positive that he hit someone on the way here and kept driving).

The hotel is nice. Even though the bathrooms aren’t the size of a cathedral, I guess I’ll live (especially since the toilets aren’t square, here). However, there is a slight problem. Our shower is just a shower head on the wall with a drain on the floor, and the entire bathroom floods if you want to bathe yourself.

We had our team meeting pretty much as soon as we got in. We had enough time to get our things to our rooms and charge first. It’s kind of strange having so few team members. There are literally only three male skaters for the U.S. here.

At first there was an idea for a team dinner in the restaurant downstairs, but it turned out that the food was not very competition friendly. The dinner in the mess hall was awesome. We got a buffet with pork and salmon! Along with the good food we also got some entertainment. We’re still not sure why but there was a group of girls in long polka dotted skirts doing a hoedown. All of the girls seemed utterly miserable except for one girl who was intent on keeping that dance going no matter what.

We found out that there’s a mall attached to our hotel (dangerous, I know), We were told that on the basement level is a supermarket. So Max (Settlage) and I set off for it while all the girls browsed 17 stores all at the same time. However. We ended up in a bus stop… Still not entirely sure how that happened.

~ Daniel