Part 1 about the Steemit meetup in Tallinn, Estonia.

I stand in a train waiting to arrive at Helsinki, only 20 minutes so I don't bother sitting down with my bag. I listen to a podcast - makes finding a suitable glancing spot less awkward while purposefully avoiding eye contact.

Outside the railway station I take my steps to the tram stop - last turn had missed so it's full of people navigating to the terminal also.

"Surely I fit in", an old man steps in on a stop and pushes people even further the limits of density I didn't even know was possible to break in public transportation in Finland. I balance my way through the turns like a surfer because reaching for closest pole would've required me to stuff my armpit to someone's face.

Finally stopping at the terminal was like letting one's stomach overflow when unleashing the belt after a buffet; fresh air at last that hasn't been in someone else's lungs already.

Nice and slowly I walk to the terminal knowing I got plenty of time, also knowing I'm soon to meet @eveuncovered and @escapist, two other Finns that I'm going to take a boat with to Estonia. Check in was simple only requiring the booking number the machine giving out the ticket - convenient!

I take the stairs up (because escalator was stuffed with people) and I slide my card through the reader - I'm inside the waiting room ready to aboard the ship from Gate 3.

Thinking I should call @escapist where they are, I suddenly hear a greet and before I realize, @eveuncovered, famous for her nsfw modeling in Steemit, is running to hug me with her bff, @escapist, the Queen of Steemit rants.

Being the first time ever meeting Steemians (or Internet people in general!) it was quite surreal at first when for months I had been used to seeing them only via screen.

Still baffled and getting used to the situation we quickly found our common ground from our shared hatred against humans that already was there to begin with (while going to meet more humans, ironic, I know). Waiting for the bottleneck to ease on Gate 3, we finally marched to the boat ourselves. It didn't take long until I was already comfortable in my own skin realizing Eve and Esc weren't actually going to throw me into the Baltic Sea! Yeah, they were actually quite human-like in real life, believe it or not.

Soon we were already like three Finns on a holiday, hiding in the corner behind an arcade machine, later heading to the deck holding our grumpy faces while shivering in the cold wind outside (luckily the weatherman was wrong the day before promising rain and instead it only got warmer throughout the weekend).

_{Credit to @escapist, like I could even plagiarize a selfie...}

The Finnish squad is now ready and set to conquer Estonia

^{...and awkwardly meet the rest of Steemians in Tallinn Old Town Hall Square, it was awkward for everybody though, not only for us Finns, we're not the only socially cripped animals on the planet.}

How to shelter as a tight ass

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When I learned there was a meetup coming up in Tallinn, the first step was to find a place to sleep. "Oh, meetup, alright I guess I'm coming, let me look a place..." Didn't really know what I was doing, but I ended up at booking.com, searched Tallinn and right in front of me was a tasty looking offer: 2 nights in a 6 bed room in Fat Margaret's, 18-20.5, 28€.

28 FUCKING EUROS! Now, that's the kinda price I'm happy to pay! I saw couple pictures inside and it looked decent, I was so happy to spare a buck that I honestly didn't pay much attention to other details such as user reviews... like you'd need those, nah, I guess I like the unexpected. Oh, the things that I get satisfaction from, with saving, while others find it in their comfortable hotel rooms/apartments - "200 euros?! (I don't remember exact prices because of the trauma hearing them caused me, they were too big, that's for sure) Per night?" I shivered in horror while hearing how much other places cost. But theirs were indeed fancier than mine.

Ok, I know what you thinking: a) hostel b) whose name sounds like a cider whale (though comes from an old town tower near the hostel) c) costs 28€/2 nights d) in with complete strangers with up to 5 other people. That can't possibly end well, right?

Well, you're wrong!

The sheets were clean, the nights were peaceful (except occassional snoring that I countered with earplugs) with no social interaction whatsoever between the residents in that room, the introvert's dream! Ok, I admit: one time there was a chat I had with a pussy hungry German guy the day of arrival, but even he stopped talking after the first day (maybe he got sad for not getting some).

Ok, there was also this one guy who didn't wake up despite the fucking rooster alarm going off thrice next to his ear! I was about to finally turn it off myself, but another dude got first and gently poked him: "Dude, your alarm." Then he immediately flinched awake and closed it. Guess he really likes the tones of rooster.

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I mean look at this motherfucker:

Seriously, that went on for a really fucking long time!

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But to top it all there was also a freaking sauna! And a dipping pool, with bubbles!

Morning sauna, (mostly) alone, scaring some Russian(?) girl away because instead of finding his pussy-ass boyfriend(?) who hid his genitals with orange boxers in the sauna, she saw me naked (no, she didn't see my balls unfortunately, I was sideways towards the door), then off to cool into the pool among the bubbles, letting go of every muscle in the frothing against my body. What else could you hope for, especially with 28 euros?

Totally worth it if you're traveling alone and don't need any private space, I didn't because I was out exploring Tallinn anyway, only spent the nights sleeping there. Fat Margaret's, a good compromise between introversion and compulsive need to spare a buck, can recommend. (NO, this is not sponsored, I just want to give people the chance to avoid some potential pain.)

The People

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"Latvia...", waiter in a restaurant points at @beercake, @thebunbun and @m31, "...Finland...", points at me, @eveuncovered and @escapist, "...and Netherlands", points at @rubencress. For some reason the diversity of our nationalities confused him, apparently we all looked so similar. If I'm not incorrect, he thought we were Lithuanians. Hence, we became "similar Lithuanians".

But People really were what made the meetup. Having similar bad sense of humor --"anotha one"-- while I was always left hungry--"that's a scam"--after eating or getting another one of those 2L jugs of Gin&Tonic, we really blended well (or badly) like the drinks in the "fifth most fanciest bar in Tallinn", Patcave, that lacked ingredients for their drinks. Maybe we all were missing some parts in ourselves, hence we got along so well.

Everyone else I was already somewhat familiar with from the Danger Zone group in steem.chat except @thebunbun and @rubencress, but even they felt like old friends not long after.

I haven't made new friends in forever so it's absolutely maddening to think I got several, only in a weekend, that I'd now consider as such. I'm sure many of us from the meetup agree with me: we don't make a lot of friends in real life.

You know the drill that usually things won't get noticed until they're wrong? Well, I only realized it at home that indeed, nothing really was wrong with the people. Well nevermind, everything is wrong with us like I've already pointed out, but when all are equally wrong, the outcome seems to be fine, you know, like minus minus equals plus in math. I do not know whether that makes any sense or not (probably doesn't) but that's the closest equivalent of a logical explanation I can figure out right now.

So this is the mythical thing everyone keeps talking about: Community.

Didn't even feel like a scam.

Steemit might be one big pile of rubbish - like the Patcave with a sofa whose ripped pavement was kept intact with tape, wall with pictures of nature and sunset illuminating empty promises of a bright future that didn't fit the atmosphere observed from a snutty table, and a bomb shelter to circle the horrible taste of our drinks that were given the final touch with "juices" of our own - but damn do we still love it!

It made this whole weekend possible.
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As the by now famous quote of @beercake goes:

"It's a shithole, but I like it!"

_{or something along those lines...}

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Once again: thank you @escapist, @eveuncovered, @m31, @beercake, @thebunbun, @kristves and @rubencress for the meetup! Shoutout to @greddyforce also who kept our hungry photographers satisfied with the nearby sights!