i've been wandering around in the light rain all morning listening to joy division because they are playing control at the theatre here and i keep passing posters, getting the song stuck in my head. yesterday it was depeche mode because there is a 'depeche mode baar' up the street from my hostel and everytime i walked by it a different dm song was pouring out of the doorway (shanna, stop looking for a job and open a morrissey bar- then we won't be limited to sunday nights only!). needless to say, rain and jd and thinking about my impending journey to russia make the mood a little heavy, even without my backpack. then again, heavy in a medieval town doesn't feel so very out of place.
wandering through the handicraft market in the middle of old town where they sell overpriced souvenirs (nice ones, though) and through the real market out across the train tracks where old russian women sell soap and underwear, ducking into little overpriced cafes for coffees and postcard writing and drying off, slipping on wet cobblestones in back alleys while trying to avoid hordes of people with their protuding umbrellas...thus ends the first half and solo part of my journey. in two hours i shall once again don my turtle shell of a backpack and walk to the harbor, hop on a ferry, and ride the waves from estonia to finland, where melissa will have arrived from the air. everything will change with a traveling companion, and a photo workshop, and a steady home for more than four days. but, i must say, i could go for a laundry machine and time in the evenings to read and project to keep me busy. i don't want to leave the baltics, i've had nothing but great experiences here, but i am excited for imatra, and for st petersburg.