Tallinn, Epilogue

First, I'd like to apologise for my absence, the previous month has been a whirlwind of activity and drama. My father passed away and the experience wrecked me far more than my emotionless facade would care to admit, I didn't feel I had it in me to make a proper commentary on what was happening here.

It's been a long time, much has changed, much has remained the same. Little went entirely to plan, but at the end I consider the experiment a success, were it within my power I would choose to remain here. Unfortunately I must take my leave, at least for now, due to a mistake I made in underestimating the amount of time it wold take to process the 2 year residency permit. A tip for anyone considering the experience for themselves, start it as soon as you arrive, if you organise it up front and decide it isn't for you, at least you will have the option when the time comes. Health insurance alone has taken on the order of a month to get sorted, and is a prerequisite for the application process.

I've had a few e-mails from people requesting useful resources in planning their trip, finding a place to stay, etc. I can say that I find the best airfares using tripeedo.com, if you're looking for accommodation you'll want to start here, but if you're specifically looking for short term accommodation for periods under one year, there is this. For furniture I found the best range / price at Mööblimaja Tallinn, for computer hardware / accessories your best bet is Ordi but generally speaking Tallinn prices for high tech equipment run higher than their UK/US/AU counterparts, so you might want to stock up on whatever you can before you get here. There's no ebay here but the closest similar site is this.

Other advice I can offer; if you're not a plain old Java or C# .net oriented coder, you might want to line up something to keep you going while you're over here. It has been my observation that the local work is heavily focused on outsourced projects which are without much variation firmly in the realm of "enterprisey" (read: old) technologies. I think this wouldn't be much of an issue for most people, but if you're fussy and insist on more modern languages (read: ruby / python / groovy / scala / clojure / erlang / anything of this genotype) you might want to organise something remote, I was unable to do so in the time I was here and mostly lived off work I had already organised from back home, all the time getting a ton of offers while over here from back in Sydney.

I was warned firmly about this little aspect of life here by Estonian natives but I didn't take it to heart as much as I think they hoped I would, and I still don't think I'm comfortable doing so. However, I would feel remiss if I did not pass on this advice especially with my experience directly confirming it; Be very careful with overly friendly, attractive, seductive but somewhat klutzy Russian women.

Although I didn't run at the first sign of this as I was warned, and to some degree I fell for the long con I was subjected to, when I finally caught said subject red handed attempting to steal from me she refused to leave my apartment and would not do so until I had called the police (at which point she collapsed in tears, when I showed no further sympathy stormed out the door in a huff claiming I was "not normal", my friends let me know at this point they could have told her that to begin with and saved her a few days effort, thanks guys). It's a long story, and perhaps I'll go there some day, but for now suffice to say this is a reiteration of the warning you'll get if you bring up the subject with the natives.

And for the record, no, I didn't end up losing anything at all to this particular episode, I wasn't prepared to be a bigot on the recommendations of others, but at the same time I never let my guard down and was very suspicious due to said recommendations and my observations. This quite literally saved my backside, I advise you to be likewise.

Last of all, my place is going back on the market when my current rental period expires on the 10th of May, I know that this is somewhat close to the target period for at least one of my readers so if you're looking for a nice place in the heart of Tallinn, let me know and perhaps you can take this one over. I'm sure it would make the landlord happy, and my experiences with him and his daughter have been nothing but excellent.

I'll return in the future, and next time I know what I'll be looking out for to stay here permanently, as that's definitely what I want to do after this experience.

Many thanks for your time and I wish you best of luck in your adventures, fellow traveler.