Seedetrakti päev

Friday night was beer night long before the marketing men thrust lager into the English consciousness. Since the Industrial Revolution, men and beer have been inseparable on pay-day, arriving at the locals and chucking it down their necks so that they have to loosen their belts, ordering a few more just before the bell declares chucking-out time at 11 p.m. and cries of 'Time, gentlemen, please' are heard all over England from throaty, rotund landlords or their feisty wives. The doors open, and men spill out laughing and joking.

'Going home to give the wife one, then?'
'Leave it out, it ain’t Christmas, is it?'

These one-liners are repeated again and again as England gets set for a cholesterol-slammer supper of late-night fish and chips, pickled gherkins or, better still, a greasy kebab or a Ruby Murray. Alcohol really kicks in hunger, after eight pints of liquid fizz, making you crave belly-swelling food that will sit on the stomach until the fry-up the next morning and ensuring that the middle-aged belly strains against the shirt button.

- Colin Ward, Chris Henderson (2000) "Who Wants It?", London, Mainstream Publishing -

Õppisin siin oma viimaseks eksamiks, mis algab 2 tunni pärast. Teemadeks sedapuhku spordimeedia suhe rahvuslusega ning minu suur lemmik - jalgpallihuliganism. Ja just sellest viimasest räägib eeltsiteeritud raamat, ent põhjus, miks selle lõigu siia toksisin, on see, et see lihtsalt võtab nii hästi kokku inglise rasvast ja kontinentaalsest õllest läbiimbunud töölisklassi kultuuri, millega nelja päeva pärast pikemaks ajaks hüvasti jätan. Kas mul ka kahju minna on, võib igaüks ise arvata, kes mind natuke tunneb ning ülalolevat teksti loeb.

Vahepeal on veel juhtunud see, et käisin viimast korda Manchesteris, sedapuhku Tigat ja Erol Alkanit kuulamas. Ei jäänud rahule! Sest Tiga on palju paremaks suuteline. Yorkis käisin ka, see oli tore. :) Meelde jäi meeletu arv linde ja absoluutselt arusaamatu ülesehitusega campus. Ja linna peal nägin John Terryt. Ja külastasin koos Carolinega, keda oli väga meeldiv üle pika aja näha, kolmandikku linna klubidest (arvake, palju neid siis kokku on). Tagasitee oli paraku küllaltki mitte-meeldiv.

Caroline juurest lahkusin kell 9 hommikul, tagasi enda juurde jõudsin kell 23.30 õhtul. Kus ma vahepeal olin? Noh, bussis ja rongis põhiliselt. Jah, oli küll kurnav! Aga ei ole minu teha, et Yorkshire Londonist nõnda kaugel on ja et odavamat transporti ei leidu. Samuti ei ole minu teha see, et Liverpool St. rongijaam pool tundi enne mu rongi väljumist kõik reisid ära jättis, sest mingi sild kukkus läheduses kokku. Ühesõnaga, askeldamist jätkus. Tänaseks eksamiks olen aga valmis ning nädalavahetus möödub eeldatavalt hüvastijätmise ja pakkimise tähe all. Teisipäeval olen kodus.

Pealkiri on seepärast selline, et eile oli esimene rahvusvaheline seedetrakti päev ja see tundus lihtsalt liiga robustne, et kasutamata jätta. Lisaks ei osanud ma miskit muud sinna panna kah.

Concluding thoughts

It has been a while since my last entry.. and I have become increasingly lazy to update. But now shortly before new year I have the chance to tie together all the loose ends.

Basically what i did for the next 30 hours after the rave was sleeping and travelling. Sometimes both at the same time. During the 2,5 day weekend I spent about 21 hours sitting in some mean of transport, be that bus, train or airplane.

Besides sleeping and travelling I also managed to meet two good friends of mine in London and make some photos of more or less spooky posters at the Victoria Coach Station.


Matt and Tarmo. Thanks for the quality time spent!

A warning for innocent Lithuanian girls


and again for their English-speaking counterparts


This is just spooky



And last but not least. Merry Christmas holidays to you all! I will now continue in Estonian.. but all you internationals keep checking back for updates in my photo album.. and perhaps one day I will once again find a reason to blog in English. Till then... take care, have fun and dance!

20 Years Since Acid House

Once again I write you in a Megabus. Currently we are stuck in a blizzard and terribly slow traffic on a highway about 20 miles from London. My brother has a train to catch and I have to catch up with my friends. Hopefully we'll make it.

Without getting into details I can say that the event at Manchester was just excellent. If you fancy an idea of 2000 people in an old warehouse dancing to loud quality electronic music along with flashing lights and weird outfits then do not miss it! Just jump in, disappear into the colours and enjoy music.











Mikk also had the patience to film a short clip:

Vitalic performing Anatoles:


Exactly at 5 AM the lights were put on and the show was supposed to be over. But the crowd demanded an encore so enthusiastically that he did indeed return. Despite the lights being left on the encore was just fantastic:

Vitalic - Newman


It was great. And still I cannot understand why some people need drugs to enjoy this.

Uku in Norwich

Hi! It's me on the Megabus again. This time riding from Norwich to Manchester. Unfortunately via London... a long ride. Perhaps we should have taken the train :p. Anyway at least I have time to blog.


Norwich is a nice small town about which Mikk already has written a lot. I won't be repeating his work... I just say that it is a bit like Konstanz... if you remove the mountains, Swiss influences and the lake and add red-brick buildings, rabbits and loads of shops. A smallish city which where everything seems to be about the university. For example the university hosts the best gigs in town. We managed to catch Calvin Harris there. Which was terrific.

The university seems to be much more organized than the huge labyrinth in Konstanz. Unfortunately there is no psychology department. But besides great study and sports facilities and not so great eating facilities the university also houses its very own art gallery. Visiting recommended! Should you happen to visit this city do not walk past that!

It appeared that my brother is living in a red-brick terrace house (surprise-surprise) with three other people. They seemed to be nice people... although I didn't really see them much. (At least one of them agreed to let his bike for one day. Big thanks, Ben!). Mikk's room is small but cozy. I slept on the floor on sofa-pillows which turned out to be the best I had ever slept on.

In sum I had wonderful time in Norwich. More important than any bar or shop was the chance to spend quality time with my brother. Experience like no other!


I will end now and prepare my mind for the oncoming rave already today night! Meantime you can check out the pictures and watch Mikk enjoing quality Estonian bread and liqueur.




Photos from Norwich

Take care!

Caerdydd

14.11.07.

From Cardiff to Norwich (through London)

Right now I'm riding with the best (i.e. the cheapest) bus company in the UK – Megabus. As bonus these buses are also relatively empty. Which is nice. I hope they stay that comfy as a ride from London to Manchester and back on the weekend (they did not!). Just before getting on this bus I tried out crossing the street under the nose of traffic wardens with a red light. In Germany it would have cost me 60 €. Here it was perfectly alright.

Currently I'm riding through Bristol that seems like a nice city as well. They seem to have mixed old and new relatively well... if you ignore some buildings... that is at least how it seems from the bus window.

Anyway as I'm blasting through Bristol suburbs I look back at the few nice days I had in Cardiff. I was taken there by a small propeller plane organized to me by Aer Arann. Weather wise it was such a lovely a day (hum Sinatra's Come Fly With Me while you read it) and so I took off into the blue. Up there I could see Ireland (and later Wales) in their true beauty.



After landing the first thing I noticed about Wales was the language they have their signs in. If the irish version of Celtic could be perceived as a language (the wovels and consonants are pretty much combined into word-like words) then the Welsh language is foremost dominated by consonants. In a way resembles Polish :).

Secondly, to my discontent the British are using the old-fashioned two-tap system even in modern toilet facilities. A perfect example how sometimes traditions outweigh innovation :(

Thirdly I found out that people here (actually in the whole UK) really dig CCTV. I saw this combination of letters in Ireland as well, but there I didn't really notice them. But here already in the first train I took I was told to smile and to know that these cameras are here for my safety. Later on I learnt that they are pretty much everywhere one can imagine (three on this very Megabus) and London has half a million of them. At least it seems relatively easy to run a Big Brother show here. At this point I really advise you to read the "V for Vendetta" comics. Or see the movie. Or do both.

Fourth it appeared that red brick building is undoubtedly British' national heritage. It is everywhere! But as I was riding on a train from the airport to central station I had to admit that all these red-yellow-brick chimneys really added up to the beautiful sunset at the Bristol Channel.


The reason I came to Cardiff were two good friends of mine (Tatiana and Tajo). Great people! In fact they are so cool that even my brother studying in Norwich decided to visit them with me. For the two evenings spent there one could go to see 50 Cent and/or Foo Fighters. But we decided to spend the evenings enjoying the fabulous company of each other.

We even tried to go clubbing on a Monday evening, but the club was too crowded. Instead we enjoyed the spectacular masochistic freak-show of some half naked people waiting in the queue. Despite the fact that it was around 3 degrees Celsius some people still didn't seem to know the terms "cold" and "cloakroom" and were waiting outside, dressed up the way I would feel cold inside. Probably it had to do something with the alcohol..

Later that night I was reminded how small the world is by accidentaly meeting a guy from Konstanz in a random Cuba-bar.


Now I will end my blogging here and use the rest of my route to Norwich (as long the battery lasts) to finish my homework due to Friday.

Tatiana & Tajo: many thanks for hosting and being with us! I'm looking forward to seeing you again!

My pictures
Tajo's pictures (browse left)

Ireland

12.11.07

In a plane from Cork to Cardiff

To honour Mark and other English-speaking people I have met/will meet on this trip I decided to continue writing in English. So they would know how odd the countries are they live in (just kidding). I'm sorry for the mistakes I make but it's been a while since I last systematically studied English. Take the whole thing as a demo version of our blog. After this trip I will continue in Estonian... If you want some more, learn it :p.


In the previous post I described how I flew from Tallinn to Stansted and from there to Cork. The flight was alright. Typical Ryanair... a bit too tight for the legs... a magazine advertising some island around Cork about which the locals have no idea... and a really odd announcment at the end of the flight reporting that "this flight arrived TWO MINUTES before time which is yet ANOTHER ON TIME FLIGHT FOR RYANAIR!!!111. HOORRRAAYYY!!"

Anyway, at the moment I met my Konstanz friend Mark at the Cork International Airport started a fabolous weekend full of unexpected experiences. My flight to Cardiff is a bit short for describing all of those so I just try to note down the most colourful ones:

Well I did expect the traffic to be the other way around. But it appeared to be crazier than I thought. Besides driving on the wrong side all the inhabitants in Ireland seem to be suicidal by crossing the street whenever they want (ignoring red light) and wherever they want (ignoring the foreseen crossings). When walking around the city and blasting over crossroads with Mark I felt like toddler trying to stay close to someone who knows the system. I obviously didn't know the system and felt like risking my life at every other junction. Later it appeared that the cars are not particularly angry about pedestrians wandering around. They even stop at pedestrian crossing with red and let them politely across. Moreover, Mark reported crossing the street at a wrong time and place just under the nose of a policeman. So on my last day in Ireland I realised that this system might actually be more human than our car-centered survival battle in Tallinn. At least pedestrians seem to have equal rights with cars.

Another familiar topic – the taps. I managed to get Mark to agree with me that the two-tap system is odd and old and cannot be reasoned. He said he realised that only after talking to outsiders... I hope the Irish (and British) will eventually learn from the international experience.

If you walk in a bar in Ireland do not expect them to have a variety of different Irish beers. It appears that actually there aren't any good Irish beers besides Guiness and its local little brother Murphy. Instead you'll be offered a variety of choice from American and Frensch beers. Unbelievable!


I had timed my visit just right as I arrived on Mark's 22nd birthday. This meant getting to know Mark's fabulous friends and several downtown bars. Slainte to y'all!

But visiting Ireland was not only about learning to cross the roads and getting to know the real taste of Guiness. On Satyrday Mark surprised me by taking me out to a bike trip to Killerny National Park. This meant cycling 50+ km through picturesque hilly Irish landscape. Superschön! The day was made complete by a small local restaurant serving excellent (and big portions of) local food.

I have to end for now as my plane from Cork to Cardiff is landing now. But I thank Mark from the bottom of m hear for this superb prolonged weekend full of fun and enriching conversations. I wish you all the best. Mark, don't forget the Estonian you learnt. You can never know when a (fucking) Estonian is about :)


I also made some pictures:

A walk-about in Cork
Mark's birthday party
Bike trip in Killarney National Park

Stay tuned for more updates soon!