I'm a Kind of Mechanised Tramp...

"If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

After a good 80 miler yesterday I landed in Tallinn last night, looking for a campsite called 'Tallin City Camping' that apparently didn't exist. Luckily there was another campsite down the road. I gave the bloke at reception my passport and paid the pricy sum of 6 euros for two nights. 
"United Kingdom, thats a long way away"
"Only about a month by bike" I grinned, looking like a sweaty, physically broken spasdic. 
As he was leafing through my passport he noticed the visa 
"ah you've been to Russia" he said
"no, going to Russia" I replied.
His face dropped, "What, on your bike?!"
"Yep"
"Well, I know a few people who have survived trips like that..."

The guy was a Russian citizen living in Tallinn, from the Urals (middle part of Russia) and a few of the stories he told me over the next twenty minuites kept me up last night. Stories of muggings, tourists getting beaten up etc. 
"But I'm sure you'll be fine...."

The old Ruskies really arn't that popular in the Baltic states, to be honest pretty much everyone who shares a border with them seems to hate them. Belarus being the exception, Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko and Mr Putin are apparently pretty tight.

Lithuania became independant from the USSR in 1990 with Latvia and Estonia gaining independance a year later. Despite distancing themselves from anything remotely Soviet there are, of course, still Russian influances within the countries. In Riga, where I was a few days ago, 50% of the population are Russian.

A Lithuanian bloke I spoke to at a guest house said that to this day Russian officials go into the poorer towns along the borders Russia has with countries that were in the USSR and give out free Russian passports to the people, trying to saturate the land with
Russian citizens.

The Finns have also fought with the Russians, as recently as Nov 1939-March 1940. The Soviets tried to recover Finland which had only gained independance from Russia in the Russian Civil war of 1917! The Soviets claimed the attack was necessary to ensure the security of Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) which is only 40km from the border.

Interesting stuff. 

So Tallinn, or 'The Jewel in the crown of Estonia' as I heard it described the other day.
Super city, spent most of today just monging around having a look at the churches and other buildings.

Notice the cheeky Union Jack. Its pretty hard to get a good picture from street level because of the height of the buildings.

 Yes, that is an Irish flag. Mad Murphys, the local Irish pub.

The main exports from Tallin seem to be Wool and Amber. I bought a piece of amber about the size of a 50p piece and it was £20, I think thats actually quite expensive for over here. I went to a little shop over the road and bought another smaller piece with an insect in it for like £4, so I'm pretty sure that first place saw me coming. 

 This is the big piece, on closer inspection it has got an insect in it aswell. Over fourty million years old the woman in the shop said. Knowing my luck its probably plastic.

 Its market day and the traders are out in their droves trying to sell you their hand made traditional Estonian clothing, made in China, of course. One shop was selling polo shirts with Estonia written on them and the three lions symbol. I asked the lady what the relevance of the three lions was as I thought this was an English symbol, suddenly her understanding of the English language deteriorated rapidly but amazingly her ability to count money was unaffected.

Got a nice slow few days planned now, take maybe two days to get to Narva, the last big town before the Russian border, then maybe another day to get to St Petersburg. A day off and a good poke around St Petersburg and then make a beeline for the big one, Moscow!

If I get into Russia and its as bad as a few people have made it out to be I'll be swinging a left at St Petersburg and going to explore Finland, Sweeden and Norway.

Pretty boring post, but hey thought I'd better update this while I've got the chance.

Thumbs up to the chubb meister too for sticking to his diet and loosing a stone and a half. 

Got a missed call off Mr Bayliss last night, I think somebody had a bit too much of the old sauce and started to miss his old pal. Good luck to 'Abu Hamzas Cock Puppets' mate and I'll be back before you know it.
And on my blogger dashboard its saying you wrote a new post last night, but when I click on it it won't let me read it, not sure why. Drop us a text while I'm still in the EU.

And the prize for best place name on the trip so far...

 Bartmannshagen, classic, got to love Germany...

And please leave me some comments, I've had over 800 views on this blog so far, so people must be reading it. Apparently even a few people from Russia and Poland have been on it. I don't care if your my Grandma's long lost cousin twice removed, a bit of conversation in English will help keep me sane.

Peace out.