[ESN EVENT] Sea Battle

From 18 to 20 November I participated in the Sea Battle, an ESN trip to Tallinn and Stockholm. Sea Battle has probably been one of the most widely advertised events by ESN (Northern countries).

''Imagine - more than 2000 international students together having fun on a cruise ship, dancing all night long. Does it sound impossible? Not for us! Does it sound crazy and lots of fun? Yeah, it will be!!''

What can I say, rather than that it was indeed crazy and lots of fun. To already make all our (Facebook) friends jealous and aknown that we were out partying, we did a major Flashmob on Facebook before our departure.

This departure was on Sundaymorning early, around 6:30 AM, at the Economics & Management Faculty at the University of Latvia (our usual departure location for ESN trips). This was the meeting point for 170 exchange students from Latvia. All ready to go to battle!

After having occupied 4 buses we headed to Tallinn. Halfway, just after the Estonian border, we had a break. There was a canteen and a small shop, where they actually sell Riga Black Balsam?! A friend of mine told me that it is really normal and that they sell it everywhere. ''Learned something new already on this trip'', I thought. Maybe it is also no coincidence that it is standing next to Jagermeister. I don't think I have ever had Jagermeister, but they say Riga Black Balsam tastes kind of the same.

During our break we also got a bottle of water and a nice sandwhich from ESN. Better than the 'on the go' sandwhiches from RIMI, I would say. The ESN Team really takes good care of us! After our 2nd breakfast/early lunch it was another 1,5 hours before we reached Tallinn, our first destination.

In Old Town we had a guided city tour, provided by ESN Estonia/Tallinn. Unfortunately, our guide was hard to hear, so making notes was not an easy task. I simply opted to make some pictures instead, whilst following the pack. Most of the people found it to be cold to pay any attention anyway. One of the Latvian Erasmus students and friend said that Tallinn has very much a medieval style (not so much reflected in my pictures). Having had a look around I can only conclude that he is right and that Tallinn looks very nice.

At the 2nd building seen from the left (bottom row) you can read ''Kalev'', this is an Estonian sweets company. Where Riga has Laima, Tallinn has Kalev. I didn't go in to buy a piece to compare, maybe I should have done this (In Riga Laima is sold in every supermarket, and having bought it quite often I know its taste already).


Moving on and going up the hill you will be able to get an overview of Tallinn. After the tour, which lasted longer (1.5 hr+ instead of 1 hr) than planned, there was not much free time left for lunch & free time, and it was not long before we found usself back in the bus. Next destination, Stockholm.











As you can see from the picture, I was excited to get on the boat! :D

The ferry that we would use to get from Tallinn to Stockholm was the m/s Baltic Queen. Being a cruise ship there were some things on the boat which you don't expect to find on a normal ferry. Of the 10 floors, 5-9 were with cabins. These floors also had party areas.

I believe all Latvian exchange students were located in cabins on floor 5, being very close together and sharing bottles of alcohol sooner than I could imagine (Alcohol in the supermarket was cheaper than water!!!. In the end I spent more money on non-alcoholic
beverages....)

Not long before we went on board I decided to take out my camera, as I knew this was most likely the only time where I could still make pictures without people blocking the view or being in the party area 24/7.

At first, our cabin looked quite small, but I would use the word compact after having lived there. Enough space to move and a comfortable bed! Another cool thing was that we had cameraview on different party areas (Seapub, Ibiza Disco, Starlight Palace) on channel 1 of the TV.



There were more party areas, but I basically only went to Starlight Palace and Ibiza Disco. There was enough choice for anyone, so all is good.

On the top left we could already see the video of the official Seabattle dance, which we did many times on the boat. In the beginning everybody thought it would be stupid and that nobody would do it (evidenced by demonstrating the dance 1 week before Seabattle at a party and everybody looking at you like O_o). In reality almost nobody cared. People were even enjoying the dance!
It was also one of the first activities we did during the information meeting in the Starlight Palace.

These were the instructions to the dance, performed by Oscar, the head organizer of the ESN Seabattle.
Related link: http://vimeo.com/52676252

Since each ESN section seemed to do some (combined) performance with the students, we also did a weird 'Ram Sam Sam' dance and being asked to first hugging 3-5 persons and then later on 20 persons at the time. A bit over the top for me, and to quote my friends, ''I am too sober for this'' :D. When I then noticed that we were going to start the (egg) -> (chicken) -> (dragon) -> (superman) rock paper scissors game, I knew it was my time to flee to the supermarket (while it was not so crowded yet).

Coming from the cabin, and on the way to the supermarket, I was also able to ''play'' accordeon once more.

Furthermore, for the first night buffet on the boat was included. At this time Spanish people were already going crazy (and making a lot of noise) once more (we are used to it by now - however, the Tallink personnel looked surprised) during their meal, not only hungry for food, but for party as well.
I guess I was guilty to the latter as well. That is, it was only around 4 o'clock that I got back to my cabin to get some rest. The Movember Party (1st theme party) was a bigger success than expected. It also didn't matter whether you were in fact drunk or not (sometimes people think you have achieved ''party success'' when you are drunk - I don't understand why?!), since the water swell made you feel drunken even if you didn't have a drop. It also forced people to move, even when they were sitting down on a chair.

Having surpassed the stage of fun and entering the stage of simply being tired, I realised that that I could set my watch and cellphone back to 3 o'clock (Swedish time, one hour more sleep!). Then I woke up around 9 to still have breakfast before we would arrive at ''Vārtahamnen Stockholm'' just after 10. Unfortunately, this also meant missing the opportunity to make some nice photo's of our arrival at Stockholm (the only one I took was from the harbour at arrival - see picture). But then again, I also wanted to eat to not be out of energy for the only few hours that we would be there.

Surprisingly, I was the only exchange student at the breakfast buffet (???). Perhaps the others thought 11 EUR was too much to pay. There was quite many food to choose from, so it was also already a semi-dinner for me.
I can say that the black bread (combined with vegetables), fresh orange juice and deserts were delicious! Most others ate at fastfood places later in Stockholm, to still find themselve hungry late in the afternoon. For me a snack from the supermarket sufficed.

Upon arrival it was maybe 10 minutes to walk to the Metro Station. The tickets on the boat for the metro were 36 SEK, already stating that they would be more expensive when you had to buy them later on. I was a bit ignorant in thinking that I could join the walking group, but not contacting/ keeping track of them. As a result, paying 44 SEK (~5.1 EUR) for just a small ride with the metro. It was also not that I had much of a choice, as there was only half an hour left before I had to be at 'Sergels Torg' in Old Town. At 11 o'clock the Old Town Tour (provided by ESN Sweden/ Stockholm) would start here. Having signed up for it I didn't want to be late.

At the start of the tour one person of each group was giving a viking helmet, he/she had to keep track of the group not falling apart. Whilst the helmet was put on the head of one of my friends, he quickly put it on mine! I was okay with it, so I kept it on. I could even keep it! (I wasn't able to find a Viking outfit in Riga, and that evening we would have the Pirates vs Vikings theme party on the boat, so this was just perfect).



During the tour we were able to see a few things. First of all, the only liquor chain that is allowed to sell more than 3.5% alcohol in Sweden (Systembolaget, also see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Systembolaget.


Moreover, we saw the changing of the guards. I was also able to ''see'' my ex-roommate Gustavus from REZNAS dorm (who left me 1 day before the start of Seabattle) on monument(s) in Stockholm, he is a big celebrity here! (picture bottom right)

The most photographed street in Stockholm and another monument of my ex-roommate.

Unfortunately shortly after this part of the tour my DSLR camera did not function properly anymore. As later turned out, by the help of a friend, my AF (auto focus) stopped working.
Luckily she was able to point out that the MF (manual focus) was still working! I will have to sort with this problem soon, as AF really is much more easy and gives more guarantee for clear pictures. If it turns out that my objective is a goner, I was ''happy'' to find out that a new one is ''only'' 75 EUR in the cheapest webshop in the Netherlands. I don't know about the prices here, but I'm guessing it is much more. I will see what to do.

Anyway, since I could still use the MF function I could still make pictures, which was enough satisfaction at the time. From The Katarina Elevator (Swedish: Katarinahissen) I could still make the following shots.






To my surprise, there were a few girls there who asked me to take a picture of them, which I did. When I asked whether they were from Sweden they said they were from Latvia! Later, from my CLP buddy, I heard that more Latvians have visited Stockholm by taking the ferry. Somehow it makes sense to visit places when they are close. All Erasmus are also doing it.

In my few hours of free time I still took some more pictures, including that of some nice (street) art. During this time there were also people
laughing at me, because I was still wearing my viking hat. :D

However, not much time for this as we had to return quite soon to the (return)ferry to Tallinn.
In total we were no more than 5 hours in Stockholm, of which roughly 4 hours in Old Town.

When going back by metro my viking hat led even street artists to stop singing for a second, as they also couldn't help to laugh about it. ^^

Then, when waiting in line for our second boarding, I saw and heard how Scandinavian exchange students were forced to hand in food and drinks. Even their lunch and water bottles, from what I heard! From Tallinn to Stockholm there was no such control, policies seem to be different!! (Eventhough officially we were also not allowed to bring own foods & drinks on board). Later on the boat Scandinavian exchange students were waiting 20 minutes in line before the supermarket even opened. I thought ''we didn't do that..'. Tax free must have been seen as something coming straight from heaven.

Back on board I also joined the second Information Meeting. After having a small chat with exchange students from Sweden, they asked me where my (Latvian Erasmus) friends were. When I looked around I saw none!, only hundreds of new faces. Indeed, now it was also made clear that the boat had more than 2000 students on board. However, most of the Latvian exchange students were already resting in their cabin. :') I did the same later on, to prevent any total breakdown. During my attempt to sleep I already heard on the television that we had the opportunity to do various things, such as treasure hunt, sex quiz, speed dating and tango classes.

I did the treasure hunt, which was a list of tasks you had to compete.
My friends asked me to join, when I asked them ''Do I have a choice?'', they of course said no.
Since we had limited time it was time to get to work.  Whilst we didn't (or didn't want to do - shaving of one eyebrow? - no way) do all, we still gained 96 points in the end (each activity being between 5-15 points), a great team effort.
One of the tasks we had to perform was ''as many sex positions as possible''. But because the girls in our team didn't want to help, we had to help ourselves.... It must have looked funny, guys doing the 69 position and (Swedish) doggystyle. Maybe good that I didn't view the video (that acted as proof) clearly later on...We also sang the national anthem of Sweden, a Swedish (childsong?) about frogs, found out that a few words in Swedish means ''six salmons in a box'' and that walking as a wheelbarrow in front of the reception made them question what we were doing (they were like 'wtf?'). We also taped the asking for a condom at a random cabin and acted as we met a celebrity. The poor guy thought we were serious, and later he frowned his eyebrows when he saw we ticked it off from our to do list, hah!

Later that night there was the Pirates vs. Vikings Party, ESN Glow Party and Latin Party.
Not many people were dressed up like Pirates or Vikings, I myself didn't even wear my hat.
But it really didn't matter, everybody was having fun. Normally when nobody is adhering to the dresscode the atmosphere is less than optimal, I feel. However, during this trip the atmosphere had been great on the boat the whole time. Sleeping late on both the first and second day, simply because there was no wish to sleep yet.

My 2nd night in fact ended with doing Yoga in the corridor at 6 in the morning. Whilst the morning is the best time to do Yoga, it is assumed that you at least slept before...  It is good memories like these that I will take with me from this trip.


Once back in Tallinn we had a 2nd chance to explore the city. The time was shorter than before,
but still I saw some new things. I was surprised how some Estonian (?) words share similarities with Dutch words? (kelder en kloostriait). Also, I noticed once again how in both Tallinn and in Riga TNT is still driving around in their vans, me in the past always thinking of it being mostly a Dutch company.... (especially since they have changed their name to Post NL in The Netherlands).

The building behind the TNT van also reminds me of the Karosta Prison, Russian influence of architecture maybe?

Things to wonder about when dreaming on the way back to Riga, as it was time to regain some sleep in the bus once more! Even in the two days that have past, I remained a bit tired from this trip, but a good trip it was!