Estonia
8th - 20th September 2000
Bogside lake, Estonia
At three in the morning, we were awoken to go through the border procedures. On the Russian side this was not a problem, although inevitably the whole process was excruciatingly slow. Once we reached the Estonian side though, the guards were not sure about Veronika. Evidently unused to Slovenes crossing from Russia to Estonia, they were not convinced that Veronika didn't need a visa, and kept us waiting for almost forty minutes while they made sure, much to Veronika's irritation and discomfort. Eventually however her passport was returned and we continued on our way to Tallinn.
We arrived in Tallinn at just after six in the morning and shared a taxi to the hostel with Ram, an Israeli we had met first in Moscow and then again in Petersburg. We checked into our room, which was again pleasingly spacious, and planned to lie down for a brief nap before hitting Tallinn's old town. It was not to be however, and we soon headed into town. After the ridiculous heat of Beijing, Tallinn was cold and windy, so much so that for the first time in almost a year I had to wear my jacket and woolly socks.
Tallinn's Raekoja Plats
Paul Martin had told me that I would like Tallinn after he visited it a couple of years ago, and he was not wrong. The old town is distinctly Mitteleuropa and remarkably well preserved, and is one of those towns where it pays to wander around aimlessly, as there are many beautiful buildings to see. We wandered around happily gazing at mediaeval architecture, before going for an excellent vegetarian lunch in a little underground café, where the soup had a very welcome warming effect. We then continued our explorations, stopping in at the Estonian History Museum, which was fairly interesting in an understated sort of way. Tired from the previous night's journey and walking around in the cold, we then went to pick up our laundry (first wash we'd done since Hong Kong!) and to check our email. On our way back to the hostel, we came across a band playing in a park, so decided to stop for a moment to check it out. It turned out to be a Scottish quasi-folk band complete with two bekilted dance demonstrators; the locals were delightedly reeling and twirling to some excellent electric folk. On our return to the hostel, after a pleasant beer and a confused non-conversation with a slightly drunk Russian-Finn, we went to sleep.
The next day we took things relatively easy, sitting around the hostel for a while until we met up with Ants, a friend of the Seins from Tartu. We explored the town a little with Ants, and had a pleasant conversation with him which helped provide some background on Tallinn as a whole from an Estonian perspective. The day after we caught a bus to Tartu, and were then met at the bus station by Kati and Kaisa, who drove us back to their house. When we arranged to come to Tartu, we weren't planning on staying more than a couple of days, but the Seins immediately invited us to stay at least until the next weekend to go "bog walking", apparently a popular Estonian past-time, a proposal to which we readily consented. We didn't see much of Tartu for the first couple of days, as every time we would head towards the bus stop, the heavens would open and the temperature drop considerably. However, on our third day in Tartu we finally made it into the town for a quick exploration. We checked out the Raekoja Plats (Town Square), location unsurprisingly of the Tartu town hall, and also of the leaning house of Barclay de Tolly, a famous Colonel in the Russian army considered by many (but not by Tolstoy, who considered him to be a pompous German fool) to be the prime architect of the Russian victory over Napoleon, and the scion of a Scottish émigré family in the Baltics. We also checked out the interesting ruins of the Cathedral on the hill overlooking the city, and I bought a book on the "Estonian Vikings" in the university bookshop while we were sheltering from the rain. Other than that, we simply enjoyed home comforts courtesy of the excellent hospitality of the Sein clan, although we did go for a walk in the woods beside a lake where Enok was giving a brief talk to some city kids about hiking.
Barclay de Tolly house (the lean is real, and not my bad photography)
The weekend came, and it was time to hit the bogs. We stopped off to pick some apples in the garden of Mikel's grandmother, and then it was up to Keila, where we spent the night. Early the next morning we drove off in a small convoy to the starting point of our trek. The first day's walking was bascially fairly easy (not many bogs), and after lunch beside a beautiful lake, and picking many various berries (blueberries, cranberries, red currants), we arrived at a sandy beach overlooking a beautiful lake, where we decided to camp for the night. After a fireside meal and some pleasant conversation, we went to sleep. The next day was a bit harder, as we finally reached the bogs. The spongy, uneven ground was playing havoc with my ankles, and Veronika was so tired that she kept falling over, much to the amusement of the Estonians. By this stage my feet were cold and soaking wet, despite the preventive measure of several plastic bags worn outside my socks and inside my boots. We eventually got back to the cars and returned to Tartu, tired, but pleasantly refreshed by the beautiful albeit bleak Estonian countryside. We then spent a couple of days recovering and cleaning up, as well as waiting for our clothes to dry, before catching the bus to Riga in Latvia.