The last day in Estonia

Meredith: [voiceover] In the practice of medicine, change is inevitable. New surgical techniques are created, procedures are updated, levels of expertise increase. Innovation is everything, nothing remains the same for long. We either adapt to change, or we get left behind.

On the 27th of October, I woke up at 7:19. The alarm was set to wake me up at 6:30 and it did, I just chose to ignore it and kept on hitting the snooze button. :)
Usually when I got up (if it wasn't a weekend) I'd hit the shower, make breakfast and eat (while watching a TV show or a cartoon from my laptop). On that day all I was thinking about, was how to finish packing, get all my shit to my mothers place and get back into the city to reach my flight, which was due in 8 hours.


So I got up and continued packing straight away. I had packed already over half of my stuff on the previous night, but I was too lazy to finish it off and left it for the next day (as usual for me - leaving things on the very last minute).
Between stuffing things into bags while trying to figure out what should I throw away, get to my mothers place and what should I pack with me to go, I also had another thing hanging on my mind: how was I supposed to do all of that. For the past couple of evenings, I had contacted a few friends who had a car, but by that morning and every one of them had been unable to help me out.
And on top of all of that, I had previously agreed with the broker, that she, the new renter and the owner will meet me at the apartment at 10:00 to make the exchange of the keys. When the arrangement was made, the broker said that we can change the time later on, but that part never came.

So there I was: packing as if my life depended on it, while panicking that I won't finish it nor have the chance to take it to my mothers place and still have time to get back in time for my flight.

At 9:08 I texted the broker in hopes of delaying the meeting for about 4 hours. I was hoping that in that time I could have had my sh*t together and away from here.
But that was a failed attempt, because at 9:25 she texted me back and said that the owner and the new renter are already on their way there.
I looked around the room and all I could see were mountains of stuffed up plastic bags and a few luggages that were waiting to be stuffed, and plus the kitchen hadn't even been touched yet (at that point I had no idea of how I was going to transport all the cutlery and the dishes back to my mothers place without shattering them into a thousand pieces).
So I picked up the pace and within half an hour I had everything(ish) in the living room and the bathroom packed up and I was able to start throwing things out. Since I still hadn't come up with a way to get all my things to a some sort of a facility where you can dump a lot of sh*t all at once, I just packed them all in plastic bags and dumped them into a garbage bin next to my house.
So many things got thrown out, some I had cherished, some I had just collected and some just needed to go, because they couldn't go to my mothers place. :(

While making one of my runs from my apartment on the fourth floor to the garbage bin around the corner, I ran into the new renter, who was standing in front of the house. I recognised him, because he had come to see this place with our broker about a week ago.
I greeted him and asked where the owner was and he said that she's on her way. I finished my "rounds" and waited outside with him for a bit. It was a quiet wait. Both of us seemed to be the quieter types, so we only said a few words. All I found out was that he was an Estonian guy living somewhere close by and he just wanted to also stay in the same are, but find a bigger place for himself.
After 5 minutes had passed and no owner was in site, I invited him upstairs, where we waited for another 10 minutes (mostly him standing in silence and me trying to find someone to take all my stuff back home).
At 10:18 the owner finally called me. She said that she's at work and couldn't get off. She asked me to translate some stuff to the new renter (the new renter didn't speak Russian) and apologised for not being able to be there in person and wished me luck in my ventures.
Luckily the new guy was an understanding person. He also didn't understand why the meeting was set up for so early in the morning, because he would have moved in only in the evening anyway. So he agreed to let me finish moving out and left for work. We agreed, that I'd give him the key to the mailbox and when I'm done, I'd drop the keys to the apartment in there.

As soon as the guy had left, I started calling local transporters, who had an ad online. It was my very very last option, because it was an expensive service and I had to keep my money for my trip, but at that point I was desperate enough to give it a try.
The first two couldn't make it right away, but luckily the third call was a success. The guy said he'll reach my neighbourhood within half an hour.
At 11:02 he called me to say that he was near, but thanks to the road construction that was on the main street near my building, he had troubles finding a path to my house and needed directions which I gave and ran out right away to greet him outside.
My apartment building had four stairwells and I since I had given the apartment and the lobby key to the new renter, I had to hook up the front door and pray that no one goes by and unhooks it, because I was waiting for him on the other side of the house.
I stood there until he called again at 11:08, still not knowing how to get near my house and I tried giving another set of directions. Finally when he called me back three minutes later, I just told him to go to the nearest store and wait for me there.
Generally I'm not a runner (unless I see the bus approaching and I know by walking I'll never make it), but this time I ran, like I had never ran before. The shop was (according to google maps) 650 meters away and even though it seems like a short distance, for a non-runner that felt like miles, so by the time I had reached the parking lot, I was ready to pass out and sweating like I had just spent the last three days running. A guy in a white van waved at me. While praying that it's not a child molester, I got in, directed him to my place and we started loading the bags in the van right away. He was a pretty decent looking Russian guy. When we had loaded half of the things in the van, he left me to load the other bags, while he took care of the kitchen part. He had special boxes for cutlery and dishes and looked like it wasn't his first rodeo.

At 12:18 I texted my friend, that I'm on my way to my mothers place, which was about a hundred kilometers away. By that time mother had already called me ten times and to her knowledge, I was on my way already before. During my drive to the village where I'm from, she called me a few times more. I actually really had hoped a lot earlier, that I'd be able to spend more time with her before I left, but now timing was everything. Plus she was getting ready to go to work and didn't have much time either.

While I was driving, I quickly made the online check-in to my flight and started worrying if I'll make it on time to the airport or not.

At 13:41 mother called me to say that she has to leave the house, if she wants to catch the bus that'll take her to work (which was about a kilometer away on a lonely countryside road).
We caught up with her, when she had walked half of the way. I hadn't even gotten out of the car yet, when I saw her already crying. I got out, gave her a big hug, confirmed that everything will be okay and got back into the van. My heart broke a little when we were driving away, mostly I was a bit sad because I didn't give her the chance to spend more time with me before I left.
When I got to the apartment I grew up in, only my brothers girlfriend was home and she helped us carry everything inside me and my brothers old room. She had been dating my bother for a few months now, but since we don't see each other that often (only when he and mom come to the capital or when I go to the village (which so far had been about twice per year)), so this was the first time I met her. Seemed like a keeper. I gave her a big hug, thanked her and off we went.

One would guess that now it was a smooth ride back to the airport? Oh no, life would be so boring if that would be the case. At 14:16 I sent a text to a friend: "But of cooourse!! We are running out of gas and the gas-station is not that close."
While we were driving to my mothers place, the driver held his phone on his dashboard, that would give him directions to my childhood home and that blocked his view of the blinking gas light, which was indicating that we're running low on gas.
On our way back, we didn't need google maps' guidance, but still oddly enough didn't notice the flashing light only when it was almost too late.
For about 15 minutes we drove around basically on gas fumes, praying that we'd get to the nearest gas-station (which wasn't so near at all). Luckily we reached some local gas stations in time and there was no "pushing of the car" involved.

So with that problem solved, I was able to continue to worry about if I'll make it on time to drop off my bag and catch my flight or not. When we called the airport, they said that if I'm not at the check in at least 40 minutes before the flight (which would have been 14:50), then I won't be able to check my bag in. But that seemed a bit impossible, because it was already 14:35 and google maps said that I'd reach the airport in 45 minutes.

The guy drove as fast as he could (without breaking the speed limit) and we still reached the airport around 15:10. While he looked for a place for the van in the parking lot, I half-ran to the check in point.
Voila! Within 5 minutes I was done, with my luggage checked in and a boarding pass on my hand. I thanked the guy for helping me out, because without his help I don't think I ever would have pulled this off.
Passing the security check was relatively easy, once the queue had reached me. Though I did have one of those tiny heart attacks, when for a second I thought I had lost my passport, because I couldn't find it and guessed I had left it on the other side of the security check (when in reality it was in my back pocket the whole time).

By 15:40 I was safely on the plane and could finally breathe normally again. I was praying that I didn't stink much, because in the morning I had managed to wash only my teeth and head and there was no time for a shower during the day, but there was a lot of running up and down the stairs with heavy bags.

Though! :P Arriving in Frankfurt, I did get another surprise - my bag was put on another plane. Because I was so late in arriving in Tallinn, the woman wasn't able to check in my bag with the same flight and she didn't say a word about this. All she said was that she could check the bag in and that's it. Luckily the other plane arrived about 20 minutes after my flight had landed, so I didn't have to wait for it for long. :)

Meredith: [voiceover] Change; we don’t like it, we fear it, but we can't stop it from coming. We either adapt to change, or we get left behind. And it hurts to grow, anybody who tells you it doesn’t is lying. But here's the truth: The more things change, the more they stay the same. And sometimes, oh, sometimes change is good. Sometimes change, is, everything.

Sia - Unstoppable