After a great week in Sweden, visiting Sigvald Homann, whom I'd not seen since travelling in Switzerland in 1991, I took the ferry from Stockholm on Friday night and had an overnight crossing to Tallin, Estonia. Got into a bit of the Karaoke scene there and seeing as there wasn't anybody prepeared to get up and sing, I was well received with my Meatloaf - B52 set. The only alternative was the hostess in Estonian fleet uniform, who'd already scared the majority with her rendition of Delilah.

Saturday 4th August

Slept for a bare minimum and as soon as there was motion around me in the cheapseats I went to retrieve my baggage from left luggage. Even the Norwegian ladies had heard of my musical renditions from the previous night, ah, fame at last!!

After disembarking, I was finding my bearings and heading for what I hoped would be Tallin city centre, I saw Kariina, a young Estonian who'd also come over on the Stockholm - Tallin ferry, struggling a little with a large duffle bag. Being the gentleman, samaritan and saviour of young damsels that I am, I of course helped her carry the bag to the bus station. We took the same bus and Kariina gave me directions to the city centre and although she had to take her bag home we arranged to meet up in the town square under the clock at 2:00.

My first priority was to find my way out of Estonia and on to Lithuania. I only had until Wednesday to meet up with Susanne in Kiev, Ukraine, so I had to plan my schedule fairly carefully. I found the international lines bus station (with Kariina's help) and proceded to book my seat on that night's overnight bus to Vilnius (unfortunately bypassing Latvia completely.)

It's funny how you meet some people who turn out to be travelling companions. After I booked my ticket I found the lockers to stow my rucksack until 10:00pm that night, where I met Jamie doing exactly the same thing. The funny thing wa we'd both just booked on the same night bus to Vilnius, minutes apart, and we even had neighbouring seats. We met around 12, lunchtime, I guess and we had until ten til eleven that night to hang around Tallin. So we left the bus station with a map and the general directions of the town square and went to find something for brekkers. Jamie (last name, alas lost!) had worked in Russia as an English teacher and was keen to hear my experiences as an English teacher in Asia, as I was interested in working in Russia - so we had a lot to chat about.

We found a market and had a look around the interesting stuff - cakes, pastries, soviet memorabilia, etc... while trying not to get too wet from the light drizzle. This was only the third day of rain I'd had to contend with in the eight weeks I've been out of Taiwan, and even this wasn't too heavy.

Kariina had taken her bag home and we met as arranged around about 2:00 under the town hall clock. She was to be our guide to the city, which was funny in itself as she'd only moved to Tallin from another city about six months ago to study. We were making jokes about her not quite knowing where we were going, and Jamie asking questions like, "Do you live in a castle?" with a totally deadpan expression cracked me up. We walked around and 'did' Tallin (or what was definitely in the vincinity) for two or three hours, and as Kariina had to leave just before five to catch a bus to her hometown, we went for a coffee in a 'hip' cafe that she knows and exchanged e-mail addresses. After she left Jamie and I walked around a little more, trying to find the flagstone in the town square where many years ago a monk had killed a serving girl on the spot because of poor table service (no, true! Honest!) It took a while but we found it! As we didn't want to get too wet we ducked into a couple of pubs. Jamie had the guide "Tallin in your pocket" which had the best deals, such as the pub with the two for one Guiness happy hour between 5 and 7. Invaluable information!

Even after visiting a couple of bars, such as the one that's decked out like a combat zone, complete with camouflage netting and mannequin's in army uniform, with real guns (moving parts removed - I hope!) dotted around, we still had more time to wait. At the bus station I found an internet cafe and got online for a bit while Jamie waited downstairs.

The bus took us from Vilnius at 1050 and we chatted and joked for a while before trying to get some sleep. We passed through the exit customs at Estonia and then again for Latvia and yet again for Lithuania. Awoken enough times, but as it was pitch black outside, didn't get much of a view of Latvia. I do remember the bus passing through some very foggy landscape. Nice effects.

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Last updated 29/01/2002- Created using Tripod Freeform by Rob Price.

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