Woke up two hours before my alarm clock today for some reason and couldn't go back to bed. One of those times where you can't turn your brain off long enough to fall back asleep so you get up almost just to preoccupy your own mind. So frustrating. It was 0530 am.
55 degrees and raining in Estonia's capital today. Maybe not the best bike riding weather, correction, definitely NOT the best bike riding weather, but I signed up to escort a bike tour of the town. 12 guests signed up for the tour, but only 6 hearty guests actually braved the rain and showed up: a Swiss couple, and an American couple from New Jersey with their teenage son. I will admit, part of me wanted to throw in the towel but the other part was not about to appear soft in front of the guests and especially not in front of our Estonian tour guide. We threw cheap clear plastic ponchos over our heads and took off. I was literally soaked in less than ten minutes. We all were. There was a small section of my upper body that wasn't wet and that's where my iPhone lived. We made some quick stops along the way, she'd give a quick animated history lesson and a quick anecdote and then we'd peddle on. She was fairly knowledgable. She is the first tour guide in the former USSR that ive encountered that was born after 1991. She has no personal history with living in the soviet union. She is the first generation removed from that part of history which amazes me.
After about three tour stops, now oblivious to the rain, we rolled into a cafe for a hot cup of coffee and warm cinnamon bun. It was amazing. Like that first sip of hot chocolate after skiing an entire day. By now of course it had stopped raining, the tour ended, and I walked back to the ship. I took the kind of shower where you stand directly under the shower head for 10 minutes trying to simultaneously cover all parts of your body with hot water. If I had a tub, I would have done that instead. I can't remember the last time I biked in the pouring rain... Now I can say my last time was in Estonia.
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