Everyone we had talked to about Estonia had told us only good things about it - namely, things are cheap, the chicks are hot and the nightlife great, an undiscovered diamond in the rough. So needless to say we were keenly anticipating what may be waiting for us in Tallinn. Our ferry to Tallinn was going to be something a bit different - we were going to take a hydra-foil, which is basically a tanked-up inflatable raft that goes very fast. OK, so it’s a bit more than an inflatable raft, but you understand the principle. However, given the relative size [View Full Entry]

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The historical city of Tallinn is pretty much untouched (bar the odd renovation or paint-job) since the middle-ages. As a result, the medieval buildings, misshapen cobble-stones, houses bunched one upon the other, impressive town-halls and churches that appear half western, half eastern, are most evocative and intriguing. To describe it as Disney is to do exactly the wrong thing, undermining its authenticity with a commercial brand, so I’m sorry, yet it is like something from the pages of a fairy story, down to the old well in a street off the main square where you can imagine Cinderella going about her [View Full Entry]

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Baltische trip, Episode 3. De laatste stop van ons avontuur. We vinden dat het ondertussen wel eens welletjes is met al die slaapzalen in herbergen en besluiten om een tweepersoonskamer te nemen in een hostel in de stad. Nog steeds heel goedkoop, maar dan een plek voor onszelf. Heerlijk om zo tot rust te komen en daarmee besef ik dat ik een goede keuze maakte met mijn kot in Warschau, waar ik koos voor een eigen kamer in een apartement in plaats van een gedeelde kamer in een studentenhuis op de campus. Soit, die eerste namiddag gaan we gezellig en lekker [View Full Entry]

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Dear All, Our travels have taken us via London to Eastern Europe. Apologies to all of our friends in London, but we sent those photos home on our computer, so none could be uploaded on to our blog. We had an awesome time catching up with mates in London, and wish them well. We have made it to the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania... all quite similar but with their own individual charms. Here are the photos from our journey through these countries... [View Full Entry]

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Well after Stockholm, which Mel and I decided was our second best city.(My first but after Mel's Sex in the City weekend in New York with her girlfriends, any city would be second to New York) We boarded our "ferry" to Tallin, Estonia. We obviously had to book another broom closest with no window, it was the cheapest room and Mel's in charge of the cash. No luck with an upgrade this time. It was a ship!! 3 Bars, 1 two story night club about 5 places to eat, and a duty free that was so large it had full size [View Full Entry]

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Today I woke up when Eero's mum walked into the room where we were sleeping. Not being able to speak Estonian and she not speaking English we stood and waited for Eero to call and explain why we were there. We spent the morning packing up our stuff and tidying up a little. Eero came round and helped us pick out a cheap hotel for parnu, which if everything goes ok we should be there tommorow evening. Rob and I caught our now familiar bus no.6 into town and then jumped on a tram to kadriorg which is the park in [View Full Entry]

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Early this morning we were woken up by the most tremendous thunderstorm I ever heard in my life. The whole building shook with the thunder and the lightening was so bright and frequent. I was rather scared as the storm was right above and it was so loud. When we woke up again (Rob woke me up) it was rather bright so Rob got up and checked the time. It was just before nine and we had planned to sleep in till eleven. We got up leisurely and had a mixed breakfast of bread, cheese, yoghurt and fruit. We then slapped [View Full Entry]

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Today we had no plans to do anything but we did have a well needed sleep in till eleven. We walked down to the local shop and bought some fruit, bread and juice. Eero came and joined us and we had a quick look around a Russian market before going home to eat breakfast. We then looked on the Internet for tickets to Helsinki and bought some for approximately twenty pounds for a return journey for the both of us. Rather cheap for a two hour journey. In the afternoon we went to the Tallinn open air museum and spent a [View Full Entry]

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Not quite the cosy hideout we had in mind. After trying to get some sleep for a hour and a half we gave up. Every single person in the airport wanted us awake. They had a noisy crane thing, people dropped things, wheeled rattling trolleys past us etc. So instead we decided on a film. We switched on the pda, plugged in the headphones and started the film. Slowly bit by bit more people began to impede on our hide out. Around half three we were made to move by an airport official wanting to open a gate. Seeing as though [View Full Entry]

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"Europe on a shoestring" - is the title of my lonely planet guidebook. We've had some good times together, my guidebook and I. But, suffice to say, it has let me down on more than one occasion. In fact, many of my "trusty", backpacker essential items have let me down. There's the shorts that were so handy, with the big zip-up pockets, but would not stay up with the added weight. There's the trusty camera, which every now and again decides to turn itself off and not turn on for a few days. And most recently there's my beloved daypack, which [View Full Entry]

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