Estonia

We left Helsinki on Tuesday night, after spending the afternoon at the City museum.  We were headed to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, 2.5 hours south on the ferry.  The crossing commenced at 9.30pm and we were one of the last to drive on the car deck, which was full to capacity.  We arrived at midnight and parked in a carpark near the old town for the night.  We set out the next morning for a day of exploring.  The old town is beautiful, we saw St Olavs church, Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, and the town square which had a bustling souvenir market, which I really enjoyed.  We had decided to miss the tower at the St Olavs church, and instead seek out our own views over the city.  We spent the afternoon at the Museum of Occupations.  It focused on the three occupations of Estonia- 1940-41 and 1945-1990 by the Soviets and 1941-45 by the Germans.  They gained indepence in 1990, and joined the EU in 2004.  There were a number of interesting objects there, and over 3 hours of video- even we couldn't stay and watch it all!  It was sad to read the hardship and oppression these people have faced up until recently.

We arrived back at 5.30pm to find our van had been broken into.  We were overcome by anger and sadness.  I found myself confused as, only an hour before I was trying to empathise with the Estonian people, however they could have been any race.  The carpark was on a busy road and there was a security camera pointed right at the door they gained access to.  We reported everything to the Police, without much hope that our goods would ever be found or the perpetrators.  It turns out that it is a major problem in Tallin, and it seems there is a group of people going round targeting foreign vehicles.  We have heard on the news since, that the Police have since formed a new unit to patrol these areas.  Our netbook, my prescription sunglasses and some St Petersburg souvenirs (5 euros worth) were taken.  We tried to look on the bright side, as we still had our passports and other belongings.  We spent that night in a daze and slept outside the Police station- the only safe carpark in Tallinn according to the police.  We were joined at midnight by a French family in a German hire motorhome, who had also been broken into at the port and had their computer/s taken.

Broken mirror in the van due to the cupboard being forced open.

Meanwhile, our friends Matt and Sarah had arrived in Tallinn.  They spent 2 years working in London and are camping through Europe.  You can read their blog here: http://europebyyaris.wordpress.com/  We met up with them the following day and joined them at a campsite on the outskirts of Tallin.  They helped take our minds off the situation and it was great catching up with them.  That afternoon we walked to Kadrioru Palace and Gardens, and the following morning before check out we saw the St Bridgets Monastry ruins nearby.

Our next stop was the Lahemaa National Park, east of Tallinn.  The campsite in Palmse was a field behind a restaurant, with good facilities and we had it all to ourselves.  We visited Rakvere, as the campsite owner had told us about a secondhand computer shop.  At this stage we had already been to 2 malls, and were weighing up buying new, secondhand or online.  The shop didn't have any computers, and before heading home we saw the Rakvere Order castle and the Bull statue.  The following morning we headed to Vosu and Kasmu, which are on the coast.  The boys had seen on a map, that the highest concentration of erratic boulders are located on the Kasmu peninsula.  So after a walk around Vosu, a pleasant seaside community, we headed to Kasmu.  These 'erratic' boulders were formed 10,000 years ago when the glaciers retreated during the last ice age.  Some were around 20 metres in circumference, and we had a great time exploring along the coast and back through the forest to the van.

Sarah cooking at the campsite

Building new road

Boulders!

It was here that we said goodbye to Matt and Sarah.  They were headed back to Tallin, to catch the ferry and spend a couple of days in Helsinki.  We continued east and stayed the night just outside the National park.  The next day we headed east to the Russian border.  We went through Sillamae, full of Soviet style housing blocks and crumbling roads.  Right on the border, is Narva, Estonia's third largest city.  At this stage, we were still very uncomfortable about leaving the van.  We headed to the information centre, and then on to see Narva Castle.  The castle looks out on Ivangorod Castle, which is on the Russian side.  Next to the castle is the border checkpoint.  Upon entering Narva, we felt as though we were already in Russia, due to the vibe and outlook of the place, but it was interesting all the same.  Sadly, a lot of the roads and buildings are in disrepair, however that also means there are lots of roadworks!  We headed south to Tartu, Estonia's second largest city, that afternoon, as we had decided in advance that we didn't want to spend the night in Narva.

Border Crossing

Narva Castle (Estonia) on the left and Ivangorod Castle (Russia) on the right

The following day we solved our computer issue!  Dale had found a secondhand computer shop on the internet in Tartu, so we set about finding that.  We had seen the cheapest small laptops in the shops new for 300-350 euro, which we knew we wouldn't get back from the insurance company, as our netbook was 2 years old.  We ended up buying an old Acer Aspire one, and is the best for us considering the circumstances.  Dale did a great job bringing everything back up to date for us.  We have lost some photos from Denmark and all from Sweden, and we spent an hour or so re inputting our expenditure sheet into Excel.

In amongst this we managed a good walk around Tartu, a University city.  I felt it had a good vibe to it, and was full of University students.  It is known for it Town Hall, leaning art museum, main University building and a statue of two lovers kissing under an umbrella (which is in the Town hall square).  There is also a Botanic Garden worked on by the University students and ruins of a Dome church.  My favourite part of Tartu was the fun we had at the Market hall there.  We were parked in the carpark, so thought we would go in for a look.  We came out, having spent 11 euros, which got us 1kg mince, 4 drumsticks, 500g pork, onions, plums, pastries, bread, 10 eggs and 1kg potatoes.  Raspberries that we had seen at 5 or 6 euros in Helsinki were 1.80 euro!

Town Hall and Lovers kissing statue

Main University building

We finished our time in Estonia that afternoon by visiting the towns of Valga, Estonia and Valka, Latvia.  The towns are separated by the Estonian/Latvian border.  It is a fascinating place.  We saw the old border crossings, which recently were in force between 1990-2007, after independence and before both counties because part of Schengen.  They were also unified during the Soviet time.  Stopping here gave us an opportunity to walk between tourist information centres in both counties and to get some Lats at the ATM, for our venture into Latvia.