Blood and Water

So I´ve decided to camp out in Tallinn for a couple more days than I had originally planned.
A) Because I´m too poor and can´t afford pricey Helsinki and B) because I´m EXHAUSTED and very probably malnourished. So I figure it´s time I spent a couple days relaxing and getting my health back up to snuff.

Speaking of health issues... I don´t know who I´ve offended but my luck with mosquito bites has officially and emphatically run out. Good Lord! Between Riga and Tallinn I´ve literally been eaten alive. I think my total is running at about 43 bites over two days. They´re greedy little bastards! I spent a good 15 minutes sitting on a park bench yesterday scratching my legs like a woman possessed. Must have been very amusing because I kept having little old Finnish or Estonian ladies coming up to me, muttering something in their own language and then going "Ouch ouch ouch!". To which I could only smile weakly, sigh, and resume my scratching. At this point I´ve resorted to coating my skin in 100% Deet. It´ll probably kill me, but at least I´ll take some of those blood sucking demons with me!

While I´m ranting, I´d like to mention a bit about the water in the Baltics. To put it bluntly... it stinks. Literally. I find myself hopping out of the shower, having a whiff, and wondering whether I´m actually clean or not. Truly, it´s awful. And then last night at dinner while I´m blissfully drinking a huge glass of tap water one of my hostel mates pipes up and says "So I hear the water here won´t be completely safe to drink until 2010." Speeeeeeeeeew! Thanks mate. :P

So if I return home with deformed lumpy skin from the bites, and a third arm and purple hair from the water, you´ll know why.