After a relatively good nights sleep (the best you can have in a tent) we got up for freshly made porridge with breads, cheese and meats. We then chatted to the family and listened to authentic Estonian music before saying goodbye to his wife, Katerin, and her sister, Reet. In the town we visited the museum. It was another castle built by the Teutonic Order during the 13th century after Estonia was conquered. Again it had suffered damage from leaving soviets. In the Second World War German and Russian troops met there and 75% of the town was destroyed in the [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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Hello, hello, Where to begin with Estonia... I cannot possibly ever explain this country. It is filled with the more wonderful people I have ever come across... So, John and I decided to hop a ferry and check out the small Baltic country after our long train escapades. We arrived in the main city and were marvelled with the charm and quaint beauty of the old town. After a few days and searching out each little nook and cranny, we were ready to move on. We had a choice, east to the national Park or west to the beaches. Well, having [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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Tallinn is a medieval town situated at the top of Estonia and is similar in building appearence to Riga but with a lot of the shops, restruants and local clothing taking on a medieval theme. I stayed in old town at the Tallinn backpackers which was another social spot for heading out with loads of other travellers to hit the pubs at night. Our hostel had a underground pub which was once an old war bunker. This was quite a common sight in Tallinn and many cellers had now turned into restruants, shops and bars. It also had thick walls around [View Full Entry]

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Hi Everyone. Well after hot footing into UK for 1 and a half weeks I am back on the road. It really was a quick stop in the UK for a wedding and so my apologies to everyone I missed while I was there. However, my flight out of Stansted on the 6th Aug proved to be one of the hardest connections to make. Arriving in Heathrow from Beijing was just the start of the UK transport issues. I could not get off the first plane to get to my Manchester connection as they had only laid on 1 bus to [View Full Entry]

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Here i am, one more country on the list, Estonia. I went to Estonia one month ago to deliver a TTT, the impressions that Tallinn left...cool city, well preserved and beautiful in the same time. A city full of tourists and glamor...old glamor. Loads of green areas in Tallinn and the feeling that i had Lounge....Chill out...people are enjoying...Enjoy the pictures as i don't want to make you read a full page with words that will not be able to express the value of a picture... PS: Thank you Alisa for the city tour and have fun the remaining 10 months [View Full Entry]

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