Bonus Videos - The Best Moments

I finally got round to uploading videos of some of the most memorable moments of my trip:

Singing a national song during a graduation party in Estonia

The annual diving contest from the Old Bridge in Mostar, Bosnia

Standing on top of a hill in Prizren, Kosovo during the call to prayer

I have also added some of my photos to a collection on Flickr, so please take a look.

Estonia - Tartu

I arrived in Parnu in the afternoon and headed straight for the university dorms where I would be staying. They were brand new and very nice, but I had a room to myself and knew it would be difficult to meet anyone. Luckily, fate would intervene.

Main square of the old town

I set out to do some sightseeing and almost immediately on the bridge into town I bumped into someone I had met in the hostel in Tallinn. We had hung around together quite a lot there so it was quite a surprise to meet up again, especially as he was supposed to be going to Russia, but in fact ended up coming to Tartu first.

Inside the KGB cells

He had been in Tartu the day before so knew the town already and showed me around. Later, just after we sat down in a cafe another person we knew from Tallinn walked past, again much to our surprise!

Peering into the war-damaged church

Now the first guy I had met was doing the 'couch surfing' thing where you stay with a local at their place for free. He was with a university lecturer so we decided to meet up with him and go for dinner. Being a lecturer in Political Science he of course knew a lot about the history of Estonia and we were able to ask him all the questions that had been bugging us about Estonian life and culture (this was good as he was pretty much the first local we had contact with).

Estonian graduation party

The one thing that I had been wondering about was why there were so many well-dressed people walking about carrying flowers. Well the answer was that it was graduation week for the Estonian students, and the teacher was invited to one of the graduation parties. Of course, he brought us along!

The view from the party

The party was amazing. It was held in a luxurious loft of a tall building, with lots of people there but it was pretty much 100% estonian students and me and the 2 Americans huddled in the corner feeling like impostors. Luckily we mixed in pretty quickly and ended up taking a sauna with a bunch of them, which was rather random, and then sitting out on the roof watching the sunset over the city. The best moment came when the Estonians, and us, all held hands and sang a national patriotic song. It was very moving indeed and not a moment I will ever forget.

High up on the roof, sitting on the neon sign while drunk. Probably not a good idea...

We were out pretty much the whole night, which wasn't my original intention as I had to get an early bus in the morning, but it was definitely worth it. Onwards to Latvia!

Estonia - Saremaa and Parnu

The bus to the island of Saremaa took about 4.5 hours, including an hour on the ferry, which was quite pleasant. Except, that is, for the enormous dragonflies the size of small birds swarming all round the decks. I've never seen any this big before and would be seeing yet more of them on the island.

On the ferry to Saremaa

The island is quite special in Estonian culture because due to its isolated location it was always the last part of the country to be invaded and occupied so traditions and culture that were lost elsewhere could be kept alive.

The castle at Kuressaare

The weather was great as I arrived and after dropping my bags off at the B&B in the capital, Kuressaare, I set off to explore the town. There wasn't too much to see, with the exception of a great medieval castle which houses the museum of the island. Otherwise I spent the day relaxing at a slow pace as I knew the next day would be quite tough - I was going to rent a bike and cycle down the Sorve peninsular.

A strange centrepiece for a harbour

Unfortunately by the morning the weather took a turn for the worse and it was raining on and off all day, but I decided to risk it and cycled about 20km south along the coastal road to see the WW2 remains that the island was well known for.

The battlefield site

Some of the heaviest fighting in Estonia during the Second World War took place on the island as the Germans retreated in the face of the Red Army. At the present site of the battlefield now there isn't much to see, except a typically drab and tasteless Soviet war memorial.

'Banned History'at the modern art museum

I cycled back and spent the rest of the day relaxing before catching the bus in the morning to the coastal resort of Parnu, back on the mainland. This is apparently the place where Estonians go on holiday and is known as something of a party town, although I didn't see much evidence of that. It was all a bit eerily quiet but the town was very pleasant with lots of historic buildings.

It's possible to walk the 2km breakwater right out into the sea

I was only there for a night as I wanted to squeeze in one more stop in Estonia before leaving. It was definitely a nice place with a great beach but once again the weather was against me and it was quite cloudy and windy at times.

On the beach

In the morning a grabbed another bus, this time Estonia's second city, Tartu, and my stay there was I'm glad to say, much more exciting!

Estonia - Tallinn and Laheema

My trip to Tallinn was a little more hectic than I had hoped. I managed to miss my train, which already was a dangerously late time and had to get the next one, which meant I had just 20 minutes to make it from the station to the port with my heavy bags. The problem was the port was on the other side of the city and much further than I expected.

Leaving Finland

Thankfully, I made it to the boat with just 1 minute to spare and was the last passenger to board. That's me I guess, always leaving things until as late as possible. The journey itself was very relaxing and gave me time to catch my breath and eat some breakfast before arriving in Estonia.

Arriving in Tallinn

Once in Estonia, it was exactly as I remembered on my two previous trips last year. I headed straight for the hostel, which was one of the highest rated in europe according to the booking website I was using. I dumped my bags and from the outset started meeting lots of different people.

Walking around the edge of the old town

I was quite nervous about my first time alone in a hostel, but I soon learnt to be as open and friendly as possible as everybody else was in the same situation. Most of the others seemed to be from english-speaking countries, namely Australia, Canada and the US, so it was easyt to communicate and get along.

The only reason they put the sign up must be because someone already did it...

I did some quick sightseeing, although having already been to Tallinn (twice!) there was little I had not already seen in the old town so I took a walk further away to the new town with its gleeming skyscrapers.

Old meets new

Later that afternoon I went to an Estonian restaurant with a couple of people from the hostel. It's true what they say about Estonian food, it was full of meat and quite bland but as I hadn't eaten all day I didn't really mind.

Out on the town

That night a big group of us went to a bar called Hell Hunt, which was much nicer than it sounds and even claims to be Tallinn's first pub. After it closed we wandered around until we found the holy grail - a 24 hour bar! The beer was so cheap that I ended up drinking far too much and couldn't get up the next day.

Former KGB headquarters with bricked-up torture basement

The problem was I was supposed to get up early and head for Saarema national park, but I didn't wake until the afternoon and by then it was raining heavily, so I decided to stay in.

Walking from Palme to Vosu

I decided to extend my stay from 2 nights to 3 and got the bus the next day to Viitna. I then stumbled across a local bus which saved a 7km walk to the tourist information office. The driver spoke no english when I asked where it was going, but the passengers seemed to know english and all helped out. In fact, when I nearly got off at the wrong stop seemingly half the bus stood up and told me, which was quite a nice experience.

On the beach at Vosu

I walked about 3 hours to Vosu, getting lost several times on the way along lanes that were unmarked on my map, but eventually I made it and relaxed on the beach for a while.

Still painting the lines...

It was a nice little village but there was little to see so eventually I got the bus straight back to Tallinn and collapsed into bed.

I guess there are ACDC fans even way out in the country

I had a great time in Tallinn and a good experience on my first time in a hostel. I'm currently on the island of Saremaa, which is where I headed next. Hopefully I'll have time to update this again sometime soon!