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Blogs from Tallinn, Estonia, Europe - page 7
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July 11th 2010
Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to travel around the Baltic states as the entry date on my Russian visa was fast approaching. The area’s quite compact though and it’s extremely easy to get around. Buying the train ticket from Minsk to Vilnius was a bit of an ordeal but the surprisingly friendly staff and a Russian phrasebook got me through. It’s only about 4 hours from the heart of Europe’s last communist dictatorship to the edge of the EU. The border crossing was relatively easy and unlike the last one did not involve me standing shirtless in the middle of a packed train carriage. Vilnius is a small city but the old town area is the largest Baroque old town in Europe. It’s literally impossible to walk for 5 minutes without passing a church. You ... read more
July 11th 2010
It was redic hot in Riga this morning when I left this morning… I thought I was going to melt into the sidewalk waiting for the bus to show up. I bussed to Tallinn, Estonia - about a 4hr ride. I couldn’t sleep because the guy beside me decided he needed to take up 1.5 seats… which left me .5 up against the window. Lovely. That being said, the bus had A/C, so I was still a happy clam. It’s funny seeing how things are done here. We had a 5min stop just past the Estonian border - he clearly said only 5min… 5min later he drives off without even checking if the bus was full..!! As we’re about to pull out of the parking lot you see these two ladies and this guy madly dashing ... read more
July 7th 2010
Well dear blog readers, we have to admit that we knew nothing of Tallin, Estonia before today! ;-) We were so surprised at how much we loved it. Talllin is on the Baltic Sea and has an “Old City” behind walls and a new city with skyscrapers. We walked through the old city with a guide taking us on a tour of places where Peter the Great had impact on Tallin. Peter was 6'7" and could speak their language which helped a great deal as they could communicate. Tallin has had many ruling countries and only recently got it’s own money back…..now so many people here do not want to give it up for the Euro, but that is coming in a couple of years, despite the resistance. We also visited Peter the Great’s small home ... read more
July 5th 2010
It began rather ominously. We slept straight through our alarm and wouldn’t have made our flight if it wasn’t for our persistent taxi driver. On arrival in Tallinn we managed to get out more money than we meant to and then make my card mysteriously disappear. We had to wait at the airport and buy cokes in order to get change for the bus ride into the city centre and then we walked in the completely wrong direction looking for our hotel on the edge of Tallinn’s old town. We were hoping this wouldn't be an indictation of things to come. Bright blue skies and long twilights proved we had nothing to worry about as we spent the next three days in Tallinn. Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, the northern most Baltic State. It sits ... read more
July 4th 2010
Sunday July 4 - I work up this morning covered in red welts. Good news - it's not bed bugs. Bad news - it seems there are mosquites in the dorm and they are eating me alive. And I must be allergic or something to this particularly beasty. It hurts and they are everywhere, including one on my forehead. Lovely. Today was my bike ride through Lahemaa National Park. I had to be there by 9am so I thought I'd get up nice and early at 7:30. No need to worry as I woke up at 6am and then couldn't sleep as the four Spanish guys from the next room got up then, had breakfast, blah blah blah. The problem is that the wall my room shares with the kitchen area is only have a wall, ... read more
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July 3rd 2010
Friday July 2 - Today I left Helsinki behind for Tallinn, Estonia. I got to the ferry early, before 9am and checked in. The boat left at 10:30 and we were allowed to get on at 10am. The thing was more of a cruise ship than a ferry. Enormous. I went straight to the top and pulled up a chair to the railing to watch the world go by. Unfortunately it was cloudy and freezing once the oat got moving, so that only lasted about 30 minutes. Then I moved to a more sheltered area, but still in the sun. About forty minutes into the jouney it became sunny, which improved my mood dramtically. Eventually it felt a bit warmer so I moved again, but not into the biting wind. We arrived and I could see ... read more
June 26th 2010
Het waren bewogen dagen. Zeer goed gevuld dat ik geen tijd had om de blog bij te werken. Na men vertrek uit men tuinhuisje fietste ik nog een flink stuk tot Tallinn. Het vinden van proviand duurde een tijdje, ik kocht wat spaghetti voor ’s avonds of later afhankelijk van de situatie. Aangekomen in Tallinn vond ik men slaapplek via Warmshowers, een website toegespitst voor slaapplekken voor fietsers. Ik ontmoette Ardo die me wegwijs maakte in het huis. Het huis was in hout en nogal aan de bevallige kant. Ik sliep samen met een Duitse fietsers die van het Noorden kwam en nog 2 Duitse meisjes. De zolder was heel rommelig en gaf een raar gevoel. In de woonruimte praatte ik bij met de Duitse fiets Jörn. We wilden samen ons spaghetti maken toen we werden ... read more
June 19th 2010
Excerpted from my book; OUR SUMMER IN ESTONIA: AMAZON.COM A famous practitioner of sauna culture was the Cold War Finnish President, Urho Kerkkonen. He would assemble his Soviet counterparts in the sauna at his estate and not let them out until agreement was reached on the items being discussed. A famous story surrounds the visit of Dean Rusk, at the time US Secretary of State. Rusk had previously removed from the agenda a visit to the President’s sauna. Perhaps it was not his sort of activity. Kerkkonen, being the host, persisted, and besides, it was his sauna time of the day. He showed Rusk around his estate and they ended up at the sauna. They, along with their ambassadors, sat for while. The heat came on and Kerkkonen took off his jacket. Naturally, Rusk did the ... read more
May 24th 2010
THE BALTIC COUNTRIES – (September 2007) - (Tuesday 11th September to Thursday 20th Sept 2007) - As I sit here trying to write this blog in May 2011, it’s now such a long time since my trip that I must admit that this next stage of the journey has just blended into one. The cities I visited, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius are all beautiful cities, but I can’t really remember too much about any of them and it is proving very difficult to distinguish in my memory between each of the cities. Therefore, in the interests of my fading memory and to try and get this damn Travelblog finished once and for all, I’m going to try and keep the following as brief as possible. I have therefore combined my time in Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius ... read more
May 20th 2010
The only thing more beautiful than the city of Tallinn is the women. I mean I didn't talk to any of them , but if you are able to talk to beautiful women, like techno music, and can handle seizure inducing lights then Tallinn is the place for you. I was propositioned twice. The first time I said that I didn't pay money for women I preferred to pay in emotional heart ache. I don't think she got it. The second time I asked if it lasted under a minute was it free. I laughed, she walked away. I don't think she got it. But the city really was a great place. I couldn't find the first couple hostels that I tried but eventually ran into one and booked a couple nights that I would later ... read more
