Sunday, September 9

 

 

We woke early this morning, thanks to the chilled water, and had a highly entertaining morning. Everything seemed amusing and changing the sheets entertained us more than you might think possible.

After breakfast Irma drove me to Itäkeskus metro station before heading to Lidl to replenish our stocks of crispbread.

I got the metro to Rautatientori and changed to a number 7 tram. I got to Terminal 2 in the West Harbour almost an hour early.

I sat and read until Micke joined me and we started comparing symptoms. My cough started up again briefly and his back ached so that he could hardly walk. His cough had got better. My back felt fine.

We boarded the ferry and headed straight for the business lounge, which only had six other users. We examined the wide range of “free” food and drink (the cost of the business lounge tripled the price of our ticket) and Micke started working his way through a pile of babyback ribs. I still felt full from breakfast.

I failed to find out why my ClubOne card wouldn’t work, and failed to find the lip cream Irma wanted, before settling down and spending most of the trip writing.

As we got off the boat we remembered why we had paid for the lounge. We threaded our way past people who could scarcely stand up and people who simply couldn’t stand up. I pointed out to Micke that they had probably spent more on alcohol than we spent on our tickets for the lounge – and the lounge offers unlimited alcohol.

Micke suggested that we should pray that they never work this out.

We walked from the harbour to the bus station, using the live map on Micke’s phone to navigate. The map said we should get there in seventeen minutes. An hour later Micke realised that the journey took seventeen minutes in a car.

We arrived ten minutes later.

Outside the bus station stands an old coach from the Soviet era, completely renovated. I wander over to look at it and take a photograph.

Vera and Hafdis will appear as we queue for the bus. We had thought they would arrive later and so they did. However they got their dates wrong and arrived later yesterday. They will fall asleep on the bus, and Micke and I will continue writing.

The two hours on the Lux Lounge coach will pass quickly, the wifi will offer a strong signal and, once we reach Pärnu, we will walk ten minutes to the hotel, where we will check in at exactly the same time as Eija, who got here by flying to Riga and then taking a bus from there.

We will all meet in the restaurant at 20:00 to eat hamburgers too large to eat, and to drink a glass of A. Le Coq beer: an Estonian beer that Helen will tell us the Finnish brewery Olvi now owns.

By 22:00 I will be back in my room – 317, fact fans – where I will discover it has a balcony and a very large shower. Leaving both for tomorrow, I will brush my teeth, climb into bed, exchange WhatsApp messages with Irma, and fall deep asleep.