30/07/08 Warsaw Wow!

Warsaw, never a city on my list, but one of my favourite yet! I'd always assumed that Warsaw whould be a bit war sore (pardon the pun) but the beautifully restored old town is testiment the Polish people's spirit. Once a prospering city, things drastically changed in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Warsaw and began rounding up the large Jewish population of Warsaw and terrorising the city. Then in 1944, the Warsaw uprising lasted 63 days and eventually the Home army was forced to capitulate. Hitler, ignoring the agreed terms of the capitulation, ordered the entire city to be razed to the ground and the library and museum collections taken to Germany or burned. 85% of Warsaw lay in ruins and half the civilian population had been killed in the fighting.

Through the efforts of the entire nation, and the support of Polish communities abroad, the precious castles, monuments, cathedrals and government buildings that were -and are- the heart and soul of Warsaw were meticulously restored and in 1980 Warsaw's historic Old Town was inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. As a result, the city we were able to witness was a far cry from the dramatic history that Warsaw has endured.

Once we had negotiated the northern suburbs of Warsaw, we finally found the right bridge over the Wisla River and into the old town for a parking place. First stop was the Warsaw Hisotrical Museum where we learnt the above history lesson. Then, trying to find as much shade as possible we headed through the old town square and onto the Royal Way - are large, wide street full with churches, the old royal palace, Presidential palace, coffee shops and boutique stores. At the end of the Royal Way, we found the museum of famous composer Chopin - but unfortunately it was closed for renovation. Never mind, back down the street for a nice cool ice drink before we made it back to the old town square to sit down and take in the Warsaw atmosphere.

27/07/08 - Exploring the countryside or getting lost in it?

Our sleeping spot was another random place dictated by a 'point of
interest' sign off the main road. This point of interest was a
memorial obelisk in the middle of nowhere. To add to our lack of
understanding was the fact that the words on the obelisk were all
Lithuanian (fair enough I guess). The only words I thought I
understood were okupantais (occupation), partizanu (partisan), and
1944 - 1953. Something to do with a partisan movement against the
Soviet occupation between 1944 & 1956 perhaps?

We made it to Aukstaitijos National Park, an area dotted with lakes,
hills, old farm houses and little farming villages all around. We
soon found a nice shaded parking spot and enjoyed a bit of time just
chilling out away from the heat, before climbing a short path to a
hill where we apparently could see 6 lakes from the top. It was quite
difficult to work out where one lake stopped and the next started -
but we think we sorted it.

Deciding that going back down the same way was too easy, we headed off
in the opposite direction to the van to have a bit of an explore. It
was a very pleasant walk along the edge of a lake, up a hill, along a
dirt road with some very authentic looking farm houses, and tiny
little crops or gardens scattered about with scare-crows looking over
them. Soon Marea began to question the direction we were heading.
After we both drew maps in the dirt to try explain to the other where
we were and where we should be going - we agreed that we were a little
lost!! A bit of cross country and bush-whacking later we were back on
track. But to be honest, if we went the way I originally thought - we
might be still walking. My excuse is that their are too many lakes
that all look alike!?!?!?

It was only mid-afternoon when we found our sleeping spot - right by
the lake where the water was beautiful for a swim!!! Also, after
Marea's doom and gloom prediction that our lap-top will never work
again turned out wrong - maybe my un-educated diagnosis that it was
just having a bad day could be true?? In saying that - we can't have
all good news. Now the leisure battery seems to have stopped charging
while we drive! It still works, and can be charged using jumper leads
- but thats just a pain. We will have to turn into mechanics again
;-)

26/07/08 - One last dip in the Baltic.

We'd parked up late last night in the Keremu national park among some
trees overlooking a small fishing lake. When I got up at 0430 this
morning there was already a fisherman trying his luck! Not me (Marea)
though, I went back to sleep and awoke at eight to yet another perfect
day. Our 4th in a row of 27ish degree blue sky days. It seemed a pity
the plan for today was to put a few miles behind us, but first we
drove to the beach for breakfast and a much needed swim/wash.
On realising that this 32km white sand beach might be our last view of
the sea until we reach Italy or the South of France, we decided on a
side trip to the same seashore at Jurmala.
So it would seem did everyone else in Latvia as we almost gave up on
finding a park. I'm glad we did eventually find one, because walking
on this beach was certainly an experience. The natural scenery was
beautiful and golden, though the same can't be said for the all pasty
fellas in their speedos. Daniel was no fun, he doesn't approve of my
rude, people watching commentary;-)
After we'd dipped our feet into the Baltic sea for probably the last
time, we headed south to Lithuania and the city of Sauliai.

The first thing we saw was four limos all decked out for a wedding. It
must be a very posh wedding, we thought. Incorrectly, as it turned
out, because then we saw at least four different brides, it was as if
everyone in town was either getting married or was a guest.
Sauliai is apparently known as the city of the Sun, because of the
13th century 'battle of the sun.' So as we we walked around the town
we took in all the obligaory sun related sights... Sundials, a 'Dawn'
statue, a cockeral weather vane... you get the picture.
Around 17:30 we headed out to the Hill of Crosses, our real reason for
visiting Sauliai. No one knows when crosses first started appearing
here, but their appearance is related to the 1863 rebellion and
repression. During the Soviet occupation it became a symbol of the
Lithuanian people rebellion as it survived several unsuccessful
bulldozings by soviet authorities from 1961 - 1985. Today over 100,000
crosses from almost every country in the world commerate people's
suffering, hope and gratitude. It is also a very popular place for
wedding photos and we saw at least another 4 wedding parties whilst
there!
With Marea at the wheel for a change we headed east toward the
Aukstaitijos National Park, or at least as close as we could get
before sunset. Along the way we picked up a couple of Estonian
hitchhikers. They were on their way to Germany but we were only able
to help them out with 55km of their >1000km journey!

25/07/08 - Occupation stories in Riga.

Today was the Latvian capital Riga's turn to be 'ticked off'. We
negotiated the bumpy road & traffic into town, and chanced upon a very
handy car park very close to the information centre where we didn't
find alot of helpful information - so set about seeing the sites with
our very large Europe lonely planet book that only had a couple of
pages dedicated to Riga's sites.

Like Tallin, Riga's development since being 'born' in 1201 has had a
large influence from the German based Hanseatic League, then over
later years Polish, Lithuanian, Swedish and Russian rule. Latvia's
run of independence between the 2 world wars and then Russian and
German occupation follows pretty much the same story as Estonia's.

Getting lost in Riga's medieval streets we explored; The largest
church in the Baltics - the Dome Cathedral. The 14th century Powder
Tower apparently has 9 Russian cannonballs still embedded in its walls
- we saw 2, although I find it hard to believe that they weren't put
there just for us tourists. The Swedish gate - built in 1698 while
the Swedish occupied Riga. The large Freedom Monument, built in 1935
to celebrate Latvia's independence. While under Soviet rule until
1991, leaving flowers at this monument base was punishable by
deportation to Siberia. Walking around the very pleasant gardens
circling the old town we found the memorial stones commemorating the 5
government officials who were killed on 20 January 1991 by the Soviets
during Latvia's ultimate move towards independence. Some of the
buildings around looked as though they had been there for centuries,
but they are actually replicas built in the last 10 years after being
ruined in World War 2, then flattened by the Soviets.

A highlight was the visit to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.
While shown from the Latvian point of view, meaning there could be
some bias - the museum showed the struggle that the Latvian people
endured from 1940 to 1991.
Stories included how the world saw footage of apparently thousands of
Latvians attending pro-Soviet rallies, where infact the majority of
supporters were Russian navy personal who'd sailed into Riga the night
before.
During the war between Russia and Germany, Latvian men were
conscripted to both sides - meaning inevitably brother was shooting at
brother, or father at son.
Any crime, real or imagined, was punishable by imprisonment in soviet
gulag prison/forced labour camps. There, due to unhygenic conditions,
the harsh winters and lack of adequate food and clothing, few
survived. Of the Latvians sent to Siberia only about 1% returned.
Finaally the eventual decline of the Soviet Union the finally brought
Latvia's independence on 21 August 1991.

24/07/08 - Red sandstone, Livonian castles and lots of sunshine.

Its not as though we slept in too badly this morning, but a mixture of
beautiful hot morning sunshine, blueberry omlette?? (Marea's
creation), and just a general relaxing morning - meant we didn't go
anywhere till about 11 o'clock.

Our first stop, came recommended by the tourist office - was the 9th
century Âraisi Lake Fortress. It is one of 10 lake fortresses that
have been discovered in Latvia and sits on a small island in Lake
Âraisi. Excavated and reconstructed from 1965 to 1979, the island
fortress was made of logs and no nails (that we could see). It was
amazing that the excavation was able to reveal so much about the
building techniques and site plan of the fortress. It was a bit tricky
to walked on the raised fort floor over the uneven logs though. We
did think that it didn't look some much like a fortress, but instead a
cute little island village. But I guess the mere fact that it is
surrounded by water was enough to make it a fortress?

With the sun getting hotter we found another dusty road and headed for
Zvãrtes rock - a large red sandstone rock jutting out over the Amata
river. Apparently, as the story goes - this was a meeting place for
Witches on important days. We walked up the river for aboit an hour,
had a sleep on a sandy beach by more dramatic red sandstone cliffs,
before returning home.

Final stop for the day, and for the Gauja National Park was the
Turaida Castle near the town of Sigulda. This Livonian castle,
founded in 1214, is made of red brick that left us a little confused
the castle ruins appeared alot more modern than something built in the
13 century. We did find out that the top half of the castle's
centre-piece - the tower, was restored in the last century. But the
bottom original 27 metres still has this modern looking red brick that
would have been sourced from the red sandstone in the area. The view
was certainly worth the walk to the top!!

29/07/08 - A hitchhiker friendly van.

It was to be a bit of a travelling day today, but first, since we had
found another national park to sleep in - we'd better at least explore
it just a little bit. The park was Dzûkijos National Park - right in
the bottom corner of Lithuania, next to Belarus.

We chanced upon one walking track that took us through some forest,
then into a village of farm houses, at which point we lost our trail
markers. Preferring a round trip, we wandered aimlessly for a bit and
chanced upon some markers for a completely different trail that lead
us back to the van via some raspberries for Marea to pick!! Sweet :-)

Time then to spend the last of our Lithuanian money on gas (just less
than one pound per litre and the cheapest yet) and head for Poland.
Along the way, we picked up a hitchhiker who didn't speak any English
and seemed to either still be going from a night of celebrations, or
had started drinking for the day already!! It was very hard for all
of us to make sense of what each was saying, but we got him a couple
of towns along the road, so he was happy. Then undeterred by that
experience, 5 minutes down the road we picked up two more!! These
young Lithuanians could speak English and were planning on hitching
all the way to Italy to see a friend for a couple of weeks then hitch
all the way home. Crazy!! We dropped them off at the border, where
they hoped to catch a lift on a long distance truck or car heading
south. They were working on the theory that a Lithuanian car crossing
the border would be likely to be travelling a long way because they
wouldn't be crossing just to go shopping in the nearest town in Poland
as everything is cheaper in Lithuania - maybe they are not that crazy
after all... We couldn't really offer to take them further, cause we
weren't actually 100% sure what direction in Poland we were heading.

A little trick for anyone who doesn't want to show their passport at a
border - tell the customs official that your passports are locked away
in the van and it will take a couple of minutes to get out. He might
then just say don't worry and drive through?? At least thats what
happened to us today ;-)

After stopping off at Augustow for some late lunch and a walk around,
we headed south-west in the direction of Warsaw. I'm afraid Poland is
not really going to get a fair visit considering its size. Still - you
can't see everything... Talking about seeing stuff, tonight is the
first night since somewhere in the south of Scotland that it is
actually completely dark!!

28/07/08 - Lithuanians are crazy.

It was our final Baltic capital city today - Vilnius. In our usual
unorganised fashion of showing up to a place without a real clue about
what we actually wanted to see - we headed straight for the
information centre to find out a walking tour was starting in an hour.
We thought that would be something different to do - so with our hour
of free time we roamed the streets before finding cathedral square and
Gedimino Hill with Gedimino Tower sitting on top. We took in the view
a little too long, and as a result were about 3 mins late for the
start of our tour. After eavesdropping on who we figured was our
tourguide, we found her voice projection sadly lacking, so decided to
forego the tour and continue exploring on our own.

We made our way circuitously to the Hill of the Three Crosses.
Lithuania was the last European country to convert to Christianity and
here 3 large crosses remember 14 missionaries who were murdered by
pagans in the 14th century. These symbols of Lithuanian pride were
yet another example of ending up buried under a Soviet bulldozer for
50 years. The current crosses were erected to 1989.

We also found the 'Republic' of Uzupis. It has its own anthem,
constitution, president and bishop. The constitution states that all
residents have the right to : take care of the cat, live by the river,
be happy, be unhappy etc...
Uzupis is quite the fashionable place for artists and also it would
seem, town drunks. Marea had a shoving match with a couple when she
dared to try and go out the door of their local as they were coming in
for more supplies.
After hoofing it back to Pat, via the old town we headed to Trakei
amid rush hour traffic. Lithuanians are crazy I tell you, they are not
described as the Spanish of the Baltic for nothing. They'll pass,
making a two lane road into three, they certainly won't give way and
they have zero patience for slow traffic, even passing Pat on blind
corners.
This, in a country where we've seen people get round in horse and
carts and we've also seen horses being used for field ploughing!?!

23/07/08 - Taking on the dusty roads.

First job for today was to find out what was so great about our
parking spot that caused it to have a place of interest sign pointing
off the main road. After a pleasant walk up a hill (yes believe it or
not, Estonia DOES have hills) and through some forest we didn't find
anything until we were almost 'home' when Marea spotted what she
thought was some sort of fish digging into the sand in a beautifully
clearlittle pond. Watching it for a bit we decided it was a spring
coming up out of bottom, causing the sand to dance about - similar to
the Pupu springs near Nelson in New Zealand.

Time then to head for our next country on the list - Latvia. Looking
at the map it seemed pretty obvious what road to take, but Tomtom had
other ideas, wanting to take us on a big dog-leg. So we ignored him
and went our way, soon realising that Tomtom is not that dumb after
all and he was trying to avoid the dusty gravel road that we had
found.

Any how, we made it to Latvia alright, only to find that we had
brought half of Estonia with us in the form of dust in the back of the
van!! So at our first stop in Valmiera, Marea went nuts on a big
cleaning mission. We figured the dust was coming in via the back air
vents, so we blocked them off with tin foil, and after a quick walk
round Valmiera we were off to the Gauja National Park confident we
were now dust proof!!

11km of dusty road later, Pat again was covered in dust!! Oh well -
at least its sunny aye ;-)

We stopped at Sietiniezis, where you can walk around the white
sandstone cliffs that drop down to the Gauja river. Our walk also
came across lots and lots of blueberries scattered about the forest.
This made Marea happy, and we set about picking our desert/breakfast
treat!!

More dusty road later, we made it to Césis - a very charming medieval
village with an old town square, and large castle looking down onto a
medieval pond complete with old fountain, walking paths and an
amphitheatre with the castle as its back drop.

Our camping spot was just out of Césis on the banks of the Gauja river
- perfect for a swim and BBQ!!

22/07/06 - Teamwork in a canoe?

Today was our last full day in Estonia and we had a bit of a problem -
too much money! Estonia do not use the Euro and as of this morning we
had 1300 kroons or about £65. Our old trick of using superfluous
currency to buy gas seemed a bit misguided as we have it on good
authority (The Lonely Planet) that gas is cheaper in Latvia and
cheapest in Lithuania.

After another lazy morning we checked the Soona National Park
information centre and took a quick walk around the 'Beaver trail'.
Again we didn't see any Beavers (I think to have any luck at all, you
need to be looking for them at night). But we saw lots and lots signs
that this was definitely beaver territory. Trees were felled all over
the place, other trees still standing had almost half of their trunk
eaten away, there were piles of branches on the banks of the river
which was a beavers home, and last but not least we found a real
beaver dam!! The dam had risen the water level upstream by well over
half a meter. What we learnt was that beaver's make their home on the
side of the river, with the entrance on the river side, then they dam
the river up downstream which floods the entrance - meaning the only
way they (and not predators) can get into their home is by swimming up
into the flooded entrance.

To continue using up our money we went on a self guided canoe trip.
We were driven up stream, then dropped off with our double canoes
along with 2 Estonian & 2 Austrian girls and told that to get back to
our vehicles with was a 12-13 km paddle 'that way'. Easy aye!!

It wasn't too bad, although there were a few arguments about who was
meant to be steering, and dis-agreements about which way round some
obstacles we shoulds be going. However, we made in one piece and it
was nice to take in the scenery from another angle. Our arms might
feel it a bit though.

Back to our money situation - with our canoeing not finishing till
20:00 we then had to make a mad dash down along 25km of dirt road to
Viljandi, in order to visit a grocery store before it shut. That took
care of 500 kroons and with the 247.5 kroon left we topped up with
gas. This is art itself, since should we overfill and put more than
247 kroons worth in, then out would have to come the credit card and
we'd still have a suplus cashflow problem. Daniel managed to get 246
kroons worth, thus leaving 1.5 kroons (7.5p) in the miscellaneous
currency bucket.

21/07/08 - Estonia's leading seaside resort town.

It was a good thing we went for swim last night, cause our beautiful
camp spot was just a little windy this morning. Never mind, good
excuse for another sleep in then we were off down the road to Parnu.

The guide book described Parnu as Estonia's leading seaside resort.
More interested in old medieval towns, this didn't really tickle my
fancy too much, but nonetheless we had to go see for ourselves.

While it was not up there with Tallin, is wasn't exactly that bad. A
nice predestrian main street and huge beach to laze about on. It
definitely wasn't a resort town by standards round other parts of the
world, but I guess it is heading in that direction.

Once we had spent an hour or two looking around and done a bit of
internet banking, we headed for the Sooma National Park. Under the
watchful eye of a big black storm cloud, we took the risk and headed
out on a 5km boardwalk over peat and moor land. Unfortunately Marea
did not find any more berries to feast on, but at least the storm
cloud didn't come any closer, so we stayed nice and dry.

20/07/08 - Our laptop dies.

Haapsalu is a town where until 1943/1944, there was a large Swedish
population that has been around since the 13th century. Parts of the
town definitely still have a Swedish feel to them. It has beautifully
kept tidy streets with lovely parks and promenades but sadly is in
need of some investment, with faded buildings some even right in the
middle of town badly needing painting and repairing.

After parking up where we could borrow a wifi connection we discovered
we are now the proud owners of a very dead laptop, Which means that
this blog will probably be sadly lacking in photos for a bit:-( We
can't watch any movies, we'll probably have to listen to the same
music for the next 3 months, and have to ration the number of photos
we take. Arrrgh!

So we got on the road again heading for the Matsalu National Park
which is a huge birdwatching sanctuary for migratory birds.
Lunch, a snooze, then a walk with the mosquitoes before we headed
south again. Tomtom said it was 3 hours to our next destination so we
looked for something closer and headed toward the Matsi beach in the
Varbla district. We made it to this beautiful calm sandy beach beating
Tomtom to this destination by an hour! I think Tomtom expects the
roads to be a dirt track - but really, most of the Estonian roads
haven't been too bad - maybe a little bumpy. We parked among the pine
trees with a view of the setting sun, lit a fire, went for a late
evening swim and again enjoyed a fabulous BBQ complete with
marshmallows.

19/07/08 - A birthday on the beach.

My birthday was less than an hour old when I got the first of many
well wishes, Thank you Mum for getting the time difference all wrong
;-)

By the time morning came, the blue sky was out and everything was
looking very promising for a nice hot day!! After a fantastic BLAT
breakfast, we were on the road heading for the only thing you should
be doing on a day like this - the beach!!

Our drive south-west was interrupted by the spotting of a massive
storks' nest sitting at the top of a 10-15 metre tree. Whats more,
there were 3 storks perched up there taking in the view. We pressume
it was a family - Mum, Dad and baby, although they all looked the same
size??

A million photos later, and no further interruptions we made it to a
very nice golden sand beach at Roosta, where not alot was done except
lie in the sun all afternoon with an occasional swim!! Very nice.

We finished the day in Haapsalu where the mission was to find a nice
traditional restaurant to celebrate the thirty years. I'm not sure
how traditional we got, but we definitely got the perfect spot looking
out over a lagoon, watching the sun make its way down to the horizon.
And somehow the waitress even knew to put candles on my
white-chocolate cake!!

Thank you very much Marea, and thank everyone for your texts and
e-mails. Unfortunately if you sent a message to my number I used
while in the UK, the sim card doesn't want to work in Estonia - so I
will have to wait and see whether this is a problem for just Estonia
or if it is all of the Baltic countries (I know my phone works in
Poland at least - so I'll get your message sooner or later).

18/07/08 - Stepping into a time machine.

For once we sort of had a plan and it was going to be a long day!!!
Alarm at 7 am, the first order was to take in the bog lands of
Lahemma. What should have been a half hour of boardwalking over
swampy terrain, took over a hour as Marea was on the look out for all
types of berries and trying not to get her feet wet whilst picking
them. The biggest find was the ellusive Cloudberry we'd thought only
exsisted closer to the Arctic Circle and which we'd not seen in the
wild. They are very yellow, juicey and tasty, although the pips are a
little big.

Back to the van, it was time to return to Tallin to get a proper
look!! Overall impression of Tallin - its one of those cities where
the old town layout hasn't changed in centuries. Because it hasn't got
too big (like London or Budapest), as you roam the streets, you feel
like you've stepped back into any number of the centuries that have
shaped Tallin's past.

The Old Town of Tallin is split into two sections - the upper town
called Toompea, and the lower town (it doesn't seem to have its own
name) Over the centuries the two towns (separated by only a few
metres of big thick walls) existed as separate political states.

We purchased a 24 hourTallin Card which gave us free tour and entry to
all the Museums etc... Using this card we hired a city audio tour
console and went off exploring the narrow streets, city walls, towers,
churches, town hall, market squares and old old old houses.

Since the 13th century, Tallin and Estonia has been in the hand of
either the Danes, Germans, Swedish, Polish, or Russians. It was not
until 1918 that Estonia decleared its independence. This lasted until
World War 2 when the Russians forced Estonia into occupation, then
Nazi Germany invaded and took over (which the Estonian people at
first, did not really mind cause it got rid of the Russians), and then
at the end of the war Russia drove Germany out which began the period
as part of the Soviet Union and Communism. Finally in 1991 Estonia
again declared the independence it enjoys today.

Our tour was interrupted halfway was as we had to make a mission back
to the van before the shops shut in order to find some camping gas.
This was sucessful though they only had one canister and we have two
empty ones. But one canister will keep us cooking for the next 5
weeks at least. Whats more, the same bottle that we'd declined to buy
for €40 in Helsinki - only cost 159 Kroons or a little over €10!!

To make the most of our Tallin Cards, we also hired bikes and went for
a bike ride along the waterfront, before returning to town square to
finish our tour, then a beer and a bit of people watching - just like
they would have done over the centuries past. The only difference was
that the main attraction in the square now was an English stag-do
party!!

17/06/08 - Pat gets stuck but a Berry berry nice day.

Today turned out a lot better than it started. First of all it was
raining again. Then Pat got stuck! After rejecting a number of camping
spots last night for just that possibility, we found ourselves a
lovely spot (if we ignored the now derelict Soviet era observation
tower) at the northern end of a peninsula in the Lahemma National
Park. However, this morning, as we were leaving, we were so busy
talking that Daniel's 3 point turned right into a sand hole - oops.
We do have one tire grip mat in the van so immediately positioned that
under the tire which looked the most dug in. Then with me pushing, we
succeeded in digging the other wheel in even further. It was time for
some serious digging of our own. We got down on our knees digging sand
out with our hands. A couple of locals seeing our plight helped us
pack stones and branches on the sand, and then helped with the
pushing. We were joined by another two, and with Daniel at the
controls Pat finally jumped right outa that hole. Phew! Unfortunately
both Daniel and I were now wearing, not so clean, beige shorts. Woops!
Not a good look when it will be another three weeks before we do
anymore washing;-)

We then drove around to Palmse where the information centre for the
park is located, we watched a slide show from which really inspired me
to want to get in there and explore.

After lunch, a snooze and a couple of very false starts we finally
found the right track through the forest - an hour later, turning for
home we came across little miniature strawberries, that we were first
introduced to at Magnus and Cina's, and taste fantastic. They are
about the size of a pea, so its not exactly a quick job to fill a
500ml empty drink bottle, but after a hour of searching we had us our
desert - yum yum!!

Our camp spot for the night had a fire place to make use of - but due
to the intermittent rain showers we'd had all day, the damp wood
required lots of huffing and puffing before we had a roaring fire. I
think the extra effort made our sausages and marshmallows taste even
better - then of course there was the miniature strawberries!!

16/07/08 - Welcome to Estonia in a monsoon!!

After scouring Cina and Magnus's house for all our clothes that were
scattered about busy drying, it was time to say goodbye and end our
period of luxury from yet another fantastic host. Then it was onto
the ferry, across the Baltic Sea and into Tallin, Estonia. From the
top deck as we sailed in we were greeted by overcast weather, 20
minutes later as we drove off the ferry we were in the middle of a
torrential downpour!!!

Never mind, quite happy to drive streets of Tallin for a while, we
decided that supermarket shopping is best when the rain is like it is.
At the supermarket complex, Marea's nose sniffed out a very nice
smelling fish soup that someone had from the food court area.
Unfortunately either the Estonian server had no idea what fish soup
meant, or the fantastic smelling food was something entirely
different. I thought poor Marea was going to find and chase down the
unsuspecting person and find out exactly what she had on her plate!!
Nonetheless, without our 'fish soup' we were still able to find some
very nice food to each with a little pointing, charades, and watching
what the other customers did. It was definitely a bit different to
the easy ride we had in Scandinavia where everyone seemed to
understand English.

A little tired, and still digesting everything we took in from
Helsinki, we decided a trip out into the Estonian countryside was in
order for a night before we return to Tallin to explore it properly.
So we have headed east to the Lahemaa National Park, where we have
found a little spot by the sea at the end of a peninsula that is
shared only by a big monstrosity of a brick structure that would have
only been built 30 years ago, but now lies in ruins. My guess - a
Soviet Union look out point from Communist times?? The graffiti
inside definitely refers to Russia.

15/07/08 - The sea fort of Suomenlinna.

After saying goodbye last night to Magnus who headed back to the
island with Luftsen, and this morning to Martina who's off on a
sailing trip down the Gulf of Bothnia, we were off into the city to do
some more exploring.

First point of business though was to find an all elusive store that
sold the right kind of cooking gas. The price here for a 3kg bottle
was €40 whereas in Ireland we'd paid €21! So we decided we weren't
that short after all, perhaps we'd have better luck in Estonia.

A quick stop was made at the very impressive Lutheran Church which
inside seemed quite small compared to the outside. We figured that
it's construction is probably similar to St Paul's cathedral in London
where the high dome on the outside is too big to hold itself up, so a
smaller and lower inside dome supports it.

Our trusty public transport ticket seem to take us eveywhere including
on a ferry out to the island of Suomenlinna (translates to Finland's
castle). This group of islands makes up what was the largest sea
fortress in the world. First built by Sweden in the 18th century,
bombed and damaged by the Russians in 1808, then rebuilt and improved
by the Russians over the next century until the newly independent
Finland nation took control in 1917. The weather was sunny and it was
a great place to get lost among the old streets, coastal paths, gun
emplacements, and tunnels weaving around the old military sights. The
locals too seemed to be enjoying the weather and were sunbathing,
while we tourists trudged about.
Also on one of the islands was a Church/ Lighthouse. Makes sense
really - if you're going to build a tall building, stick a light and a
cross on top killing two birds with one stone.

Back on the mainland, and weary from all our walking we caught a tram
to the 1952 Olympic stadium. We couldn't go inside, but got a glimpse
of the track before checking out the statue of 9 times Olympic Gold
medalist, the Flying Finn, Paavo Nurmi. Marea knew who he was, but
not I. Over three Olympics from 1920 to 1932 he numerous medals, and
during his time broke 33 world records (I presume breaking his own
records) in middle/long distance running.

With our last ounce of energy we stopped by the National Museum of
Finland finding out that we had come at the one time in the week that
the museum was free!! So a quick loop following the Swedish and
Russian reigns was done - then it was time to head 'home' for yet
another yummy meal thanks to Cina!!