DreadDog @ Trippin'!

2009.08 Lithuania - Poland - Ukraine - Romania - Hungary

2009-08-23T21:00:00.025+02:00

ATTENTION! This blog entry is not yet complete. Have to correct errors and re-read it. Patience :)

August 1st, Saturday
I woke up not very early in Tallinn, took a tram to Viru center for currency exchange and bus terminal. In currency exchange they said: "no paying by debit card. Credit cards only ". I don't have one. So I went to a bank machine, took money out and forgot my card there... luckily there was a woman with kid right after me and she ran after me and gave me my card. I would have canceled my trip without the card...
Then sat on a bus to the hitching spot in Laagri. I hitched the first ride in less than a minute. Opel Vivaro van. Unbelievably comfortable. And I was taken to Pärnu. The driver offered to take me "over the bridge". Actually that's not very good offer. It takes you to big shops but for good hitchhiking spot you need to walk through half of the city. It's better to stay at the start of Ehitajate road.
I had to wait there for a while and a car stopped. A woman and a child in it. The ride she offered was to intersection of Kilingi-Nõmme. As it was only 14km, I politely refused.
Right after that an SUV stopped. Two women and one kid were in the car. And they were going to aerobics-trainings as trainers. Anyway, the offer was again to junction of Kilingi-Nõmme. I didn't refuse the second time and hopped on. The women were very interested in CS and I gave them Internet links to Hospitality Club, CouchSurfing and HC Eesti and my user name (they haven't contacted me so far).
The ride ended soon and I was standing on the highway, only fields around me. The weather wasn't the best - chilly, cold wind over the fields, no sunshine and rain started to drizzle.
After about 30 minutes of standing and feeling cold, I was offered a ride. To shop of Uulu. It was only a couple of kilometers but still very great, as standing between forests is better than between fields - at least no wind.
In that car were father and son. My bag was on the trailer during the ride. I have such a good rainproof backpack. :)
There I stood for a while and one lady stopped. It was a beige Nissan Primera. Quite new. She told she stopped out of reflex and needs to make a stop on a cemetery. (Fine by me.) She had been traveling quite a lot and she planned to go to Madagascar as a freelance tour guide.
I don't know is it was an omen or something... but I had been thinking about Madagascar lately myself. I haven't seen the cartoon... but I guess I felt fascinated about this island already in primary school.
After visiting cemetery we were also talking and she missed the road she was supposed to turn off. And she took me to last gas station before the border. I guess our conversation wasn't the most boring :)
Next man who picked me up was a Latvian. He took me to the Estonian-Latvian border.
From that point the long-long-long waiting began. The weather was sulky, my mood was down, I had every warm outerwear on that I had with me, also the cape but still felt cold.
I was very seriously considering turning back, going to the country to refurbish the flat. But decided at least one week out of three and half I have to hold on, even if I can't get further from that border. I definitely didn't want to refurbish the apartment whole 3,5 weeks. And then wait for another vacation for a year. And I had hosts waiting for me...
The next ride started quite late in the evening but it was still light outside. It was for a few kilometers to a big restaurant by the road. Then (if I remember correctly) to the junction to Limbaži. It was a very (Cili Pizza) small car, full of stuff me so far.
At one point some young guys passed me (coming from where I was going) and yelled something. It's really unpleasant. But after some time they came back and offered me a ride (in Russian). Quite short ride they offered so I refused. The car was overcrowded and old.
I walked to get some warm and at one point one van passed me, stopped, came back picked me up. It was getting dark already. It could have been 10 p.m. or later...
Woman was driving, man was next to her. I'd rather call it a driving lesson, because sometimes there were mistakes like... but respect for the man for teaching. This is the job of Hardcore Men.
In Bauska we made a "coffee-tea-buns" stop. And changing drivers - the man continued driving. Their destination was Vilnius, mine used to be Panevežys to do some sightseeing and/or relax in a park and have a beer. But as it was dark, sightseeing not possible and I didn't have a host (looking for a place for tent isn't that easy in darkness) and I decided to go to Vilnius.
Especially as from Vilnius to Lublin (my destination for the next day) is as much as from Panevežys. And I started bugging my friends with "Emergency Couch Request" by SMS. But almost all of them were out of town (it was Saturday, after all) or other things to do (quite popular during whole trip was the sentence "my friend's wedding". Sounds like the classic wedding thing is back again :)
The (super) positive response I got from Kinderis - no problem!
We arrived to Vilnius and as Kinderis is living in such a comfortable place, the driver dropped me very close to it. The clock showed about 2 a.m.
Even though Dainius had to wake up early in the morning he didn't make a problem about it.
Only yeah... sorry we didn't talk for longer. I was hoping to get to his Entertainment Camp in September (but I didn't make it there).
Kinderis gave me instructions how to get out of town next morning and... sleeping time arrived.

August 2nd, Sunday
I woke up after 8 in the morning. Kinderis had gone already long time ago. I had a breakfast and continued my path (streets actually).

As I wasn't listening Kinderis' instructions very carefully and I felt I have time anyway... I passed my roundabout walking (where I should have taken a trolley). The weather was nice and I went to the Old Town. I went up to the Hill of Three Crosses (I didn't know it's that small - compared to the one we have in Tallinn - but at least they have a reason having it there).
/Now I know we have a reason too - it's actually grave marker for Ivan Orav/

Then I drank a beer, donated to a street musician and was listening to her concert.
Quite many people were passing as she was playing. They also donated but didn't listen. Come on! A street musician is not a beggar. Listen!

Later I walked to my trolley stop and went to the city border.

The spot was perfect and my destination - Lublin.
The ride didn't begin that quickly but it was interesting - little old car, bohemian-looking man, a bit over 30 who drove... quite badly : ) At least in good speed.
On the road he picked up one more hitchhiker - an Ukrainian living in Vilnius and going to see his girlfriend. He was only a couple of kilometers with us.
The ride ended little bit after Alytus. Perhaps near Seirijai.
There I was walking and hitchhiking... two cars passed me and in one the driver was showing with hands (spreading them - don't know the expression in English) can't take me.
Actually gestures of drivers is one of the hardest things to understand (that was one of the few I do understand. Sometimes). They wave to the right when there's not going to be any road to the right for a long time and so on. But they have so many different...
Funny drivers... are the ones with country flags waving on the sides of the car. "Patriots" (actually another expression for patriots is "flag-waver") :)
I'd understand if their "fellow-feeling" was greater than others... so I'd expect them to stop more easily if I had name of their capital city on my hitchhiking poster...
Anyway... after a while one of the cars just passed me, came back towards me, sounded horns, turned around and picked me up.
These two cars were together and 7 women in them. They didn't talk to me much but before Via Baltica they asked if I was in hurry or would like to got with them to a lake to visit their friends for a while. I had nothing against seeing a lake in Poland, I was in vacation. Especially as they promised to take me to Bialystok later.
The lake was very nice and one girl was quite interested in conversation in English. She was telling she'd like to go to Barcelona (which was desired location for many I met on this trip), telling me autumn in Poland is depressive... I advised instead of Barcelona take a trip to Estonia in the autumn so she could appreciate living in Poland :)
Anyway I suggested her to check out CouchSurfing.
Then we left for Bialystok. They let me out on the south-eastern side of Bialystok in a gas station. It was dark outside. Lucky me, there were street lights.
After some time a truck stopped. General questions about my age, crisis in Estonia, etc. And as he was bored, asked me to talk something. As neither mine or his skills of Russian language were so good... I couldn't say much. He offered, he'll tell me something.
And the topic was - Prostitutes! About some kind of whorehouse that's close to his road to work, prices there, "cheap offers". And that his wife does not know about it... Then the prostitutes on roads, prices... I pretended interest, wondering about something and a couple of questions...
The ride ended at a gas station near Bielsk Podlaska and he advised me to continue in the morning.
I tried also that eveningto hitchhike for a while but then put up my tent in the forest near there. Rain was drizzling...
Because of spending (too much? No!) time in Vilnius, I didn't make it to Lublin that evening.
It wasn't that bad because Michal who had promised to host me was away from the city anyway (but he had found me another host). I sent him a message I'll arrive the next day.

August 3rd, Monday
In the morning I didn't wait for my first ride very long time. The driver had just finished technical school as water systems engineer and now driving to a job interview. He told he doesn't know if he wants that job or not. I guess the economical situation is not that bad if you can choose...
I guess it was Miedzyrzec Podlaski where my ride ended. I was standing, waiting, and got hungry. I walked back to the town center. Absolutely no place to have lunch... or anything.
I went back to the town border. Quite a long time I stood there, finally a van stopped.
He was growing champignons as work. The ride was nice but for his question "how much is a kilo of champignons in Estonia" I couldn't answer.
The ride ended (I guess) somewhere near Radzyn Podlaski on the highway. He gave me a pack of juice for the road. This was perfect. The day was hot and I drank it quickly. He promised to ask someone to pick me up by the radio...
The next ride stopped quite soon. And I guess not because of the last driver had asked people to stop.
The car was quite new and fancy SUV, a businessman behind the steering wheel. He took me straight to Lublin, to a very comfortable corner.
While on the road we had to stop a couple of times because some groups of pilgrims had conquered half of the highway. Nice weather for walking but I guess highway is not the place...

I got to Lublin, walked up to the Palace, contacted my host Niyi and he suggested me a place for eating and a place we could meet later. As I wanted to have dinner with my host and to relax a bit, I went straight to Litewski Square (Lithuanian Square, for Union of Lublin), there were fountains and sun was shining that day. Chill out. As it sometimes happens in Poland, two guys came to ask me money for vodka. No way...
Then I met my host. Not very hard to recognize a Nigerian in Poland :)
We went eating to Irish pub. Good enough the food was rather Polish style. Then small sightseeing tour (including "inside" of the Palace) and we stopped at a monument. It was for victims of communist and fascist crimes but we wanted someone to translate it word-for-word.
So we asked passers-by. Then one drunken over-middle age man stayed with us. He was very keen in shaking hands, hugging... especially Niyi. Telling that girls love blacks there :)
Most Polish we asked help with translating this really simple text just ran away. The best explanation was from a young man with a guitar (actually that's not the first time when only person who's helpful in English... carries a guitar!) who translated from up to down. But not the full lines. The text was on the right and left of the picture on the monument.
Then I changed some zlotys and we left to Niyi's place. That was (at least) a two-family house. Three floors if I'm not mistaken.
I got to use computer. I logged into FaceBook and Laura asked me: "nu, sa polegi Africas?". That would mean "Well, you're not in Africa?". But the "Africa" was not written Estonian way. I was confused, because I told my friends I'll go to Ukraine and Romania... and my host was confused.
Then Laura explained that she didn't know about my travels and she meant restaurant African Kitchen in Tallinn.
Niyi was a wonderful host - knows a lot about Lublin, about Poland, have been traveling a lot there and generally having a very broad field of view. And has been hitchhiking in Poland.

August 4th, Tuesday
That morning my host made breakfast and as he had free day from work (gosh, it's great when people are not in hurry!!!), we went to outskirts of Lublin to see old concentration camps.
An excursion group of Israeli police officers was also there. And Jewish clerics.
We were walking around, stepping into buildings (except where they held shoes - the stink was horrible).
We were discussing about the smell which must had spread to the city when the furnaces were working, generally about World Wars and the people who made biggest profits from misery of these people who suffered.
At some point two Jewish clerics walked toward us, talking something and one of them laughed. I didn't feel it like a place for anecdotes... they greeted us quietly.

We left the place and I felt like having a beer. We went to a bar quite close, I paid for beers and bought "zapiekanka" (white bread, pizza-like coating). For some moments Niyi's girlfriend appeared who was spending time with her friends.
Then I decided to start hitchhiking. Niyi tried also. But it wasn't the best road for Lviv. I thought the better road is just over the field and left Niyi goodbye. It really was over the field but further than I thought. And there was no hitchhiking spot. I had to walk back to the center. Damn, it was long way.
After long waiting dusk arrived and I got a ride (again - no logic in hitchhiking. Kind people appear chaotically). The driver, one of the Jehovah's Witnesses, in cool pick-up truck took me to Krasnystaw. The weirdest during this ride was... the driver made happy sound when he drove over a frog...
We arrived to Krasnystaw, he offered to make quick sightseeing tour in the town in car. Nothing special there but it was totally dark already so I wasn't hurrying anywhere.
He dropped me off to very good hitchhiking spot under street lights.
About 1,5 hours of waiting in darkness, only street lights showing light a small truck stopped. In it was a couple from Ukraine. They were over 30 years and actually Polish but I guess they were already born in Ukraine. Wonderful people! They fed me with bread, cooked warm meat, juice, peaches and our conversation was smooth and fun. No problem understanding each other in Russian. And one question they asked (not surprising at all, it occurs in ex-Soviet countries) was in the form of an anecdote:

- Who are these walking there?
- They are not walking but running, they are Estonians.

"Why do people say Estonians are slow?" And they added an apology they don't mean to insult me. Of course I didn't take it as offense but gladly brought out all I had about this topic:

a) Actually Estonians arethinking also before doing (sarcasm about asker's nationality - quick, but not thinking). Actually we do have a proverb - "nine times measure, one time cut".

b) Tell an Estonian, Russian and Spanish (no offense, please) to do a job. Probably the Estonian will be ready first. Then comes the Russian with "почему Я... блин" (Why me... fuck). But the Spanish has only "siesta", "fiesta", "mañana". I got laughter on this one. Actually the "Soviet Estonian" born "Russians" I've seen in Estonia (in the army, for example) were mostly just like I described.
And one Spanish guy I told it before... he said they are only fast in talking.
Stereotypes... but it's fun :)

c) I gave historical reasons why it has been smart not to speak out what you think but delay...

The actual reason is probably The Soviet Army and Soviet times, where decidedly all Estonians and other nations had to speak Russian. But our Russian accent is "slow", clearly recognizable.
At least in the Baltics when I start speaking Russian, people tell I'm from Estonia.
We got to the border. The woman gave the man money several times. I didn't understand it...
At some point one official ordered to take out all stuff from the truck (my couple were shopping in Poland) and then even didn't look at us.
Then the passport check. Almost always one border guard calls for another to check my passport. Because of cool security stuff it has.
When looking at my passport, the border guard asked if I had the immigration card. Of course I didn't, I was supposed to get it there. The official said: "it's a problem". I got interested - some suspense? And I asked: "how come it's a problem?" No answer. I asked again and without getting the answer, I decided to leave him alone.
He gave me a piece of paper and asked to fill it out. Apparently these guys don't understand neither Russian nor English (the piece of paper is the Immigration Card, written in two languages) because they asked me to fill also the "leaving section". So the leaving section also had stamp with current date and name of this border, number of the car that brought me in. That was a hitched car and I had no plan leaving on it. Especially on the same day and same checkpoint.

August 5th, Wednesday
We got over the border and the woman asked if I wanted some tea. I did. She gave me some grivnas and indicated to a bar: "you'll get it there. I asked if she wanted anything. She wanted coffee. "With cream and sugar?" Yes. (By the way, I am always suspicious these moments as I have all my life on their car).
I went to the cafe, ordered tea and coffee. Then cream for the coffee but they wanted extra money for that. I didn't have enough. And she had coffee without cream. She stayed positive: "we'll have it black then :)"
When I was ordering in cafe, then characteristically to Ukrainian servants (probably because of our accent again) bar maid asked if I was a tourist and from where.
While talking she used the expression "na Ukraine" (on Ukraine) and when I corrected her "v Ukraine", she agreed with me.
My driver's wife gave me grivnas and promised to give me some more after she's been in currency exchange. I told her I can exchange my money also and went along.
Fortunately she didn't offer more. It's quite impossible to refuse with these people when they want to do good :)
The ride continued. We made it to Lviv, time was about 2 a.m. It was hard to understand road signs but they wanted to drop me to the center. They asked directions once. Before railroad, on a very bad street they stopped because driving around railroad wasn't reasonable, we were so close anyway. They pointed which way is the old town and left.
I walked to the city council building, along quiet dark streets in the center when suddenly jumped out aggressively several street dogs yapping and barking.

As usually in these situations I bowed, showing like grabbing a rock from the ground and rock-throwing motion (that's the best help against aggressive dogs. Actual throwing doesn't help). And got away like this. Then I heard somebody saying something and I saw from pile of carton boxes (where the dogs came from) is looking out a homeless person. The dogs pulled back there. I was really upset.
I walked around more and went to theatre park. Little further in front of me I saw some cops walking in neon vests. I followed them a bit saw some more and turned away before some kind of statue. Suddenly I heard holla behind me. I turned around and suddenly there was a cattle of cops around me.
One relatively swellheaded-looking stripling tried to be wicked, showing attitude. But I didn't give a F.
So they asked questions... several questions in row and two-three at a time. Probably some scaring-strategy. But it worked the other way. I got to pick the questions I wanted to answer :)
The "brightest" questions were: "What are you doing here?". My answer: "walking, looking around". Question: "Why at night?" Answer: "Why not?", etc.
For the question "do you have a gun" I used expression "well, no..." using the advantage I'm not native Russian speaker and having weird accent I could have the fun adding words which actually change meaning of the sentence.
The question "do you have vodka?" I replied "no, but I have rum!" Question: "How strong?". I couldn't remember excatly, but knew it's not exactly 40%, so it took a while but already one asked "40?". "Almost 40", I replied.
So they left, advising not to sleep on the benches in park - it's dangerous (later I found out why it's dangerous - actually only because of the cops themselves). I said I won't, rather go to railway station. Of course they used the chance to check my passport.

The morning arrived. As I had the book "All About Ukraine" Dima from Zaporizhzhya had given me last year I thought I'll make a touristic tour.
When staying in Lublin I made Emergency Couch Request for Lviv. I got one reply and I sent her a message in the evening that we could meet next day. I sent her a message again but no reply. Then I looked up hotel Lviv. Already two years I had been writing on my Immigration Card (the officials told me to. Even though I told I'm going around in Ukraine) that I'm staying in hotel Lviv so I had to see it. Boring and ugly Soviet architecture. One dude (young, bad clothes, drunk) came to me, telling do I need help (I was taking picture of that hotel) and he's glad to meet me, etc. To be polite I answered something but (of course) he didn't understand why I just wanted to look up hotel and that's it.

On my way to Lviv I heard somebody mentioning hurricane in Lviv or something

In fact I did see in one park fallen trees and stuff but that was it, if not to mention streets on Lviv, in shitty condition and almost-fallen-apart old buildings that used to be very nice. Now it's the moment to thank Soviet system again that liberated us from nice buildings.

And one sad but nice situation I saw... one trolley bus driver. Woman. Was looking really hot. Like a club-chick or something. But the trolley was in such crappy condition that in 20 meters she had to come out three times and put the "horns" back on the lines, because of short circuits and "horns" came off with "lightning and thunder".

Another situation: and old lady, "road mender". The lady was kneeling between two tram rails, a couple of road bricks were removed and she was digging sand or something. A tram stopped behind her, old lady digging - tram waiting. Then lady bowed, put tools to the hole, stood up, stepped aside and tram left. Old lady returned. Then cars stopped behind her. She didn't care so they maneuvered away somehow. New tram... the story continued.

Even though I felt really tired, I went up and down and did serious sightseeing tour. Then I stayed at one monument, raised by patriots of Lviv, trying to take a nap... then left to theatre park, sat onto a bench and sent my emergency host another SMS.
I put on my sun glasses and started taking a nap, also waiting for reply from my host.
I guess it took about 15 minutes when I heard someone talking next to me. I scared awake and saw... fucking cops! Different ones at least. La-la-la, here we go again...
Where you from? What are you doing here? Show the passport, etc. Said I can't sleep in the park (what's actually the fucking difference if I'm sitting with my eyes closed or open.
I told I'm not sleeping, just... ( couldn't say the right word in Russian). I told I didn't sleep last night and eyes just closed. They threatened (not warned) they'll be back in 15 minutes and if I'm still there... I told they won't.
Still interesting... on what basis would they arrest me... serious violation of law and order? Unfortuntely I didn't have time to find out...
When they asked for my passport, then as usually, I took it out between my mother's old passport covers with Soviet coat of arms. But one guy was attentive. He pointed to the covers and asked "What's that". I didn't know Russian word for "passport covers". So I said "simply..."
One of them also wanted to ask something but was too slow thinking out what exactly and they left.
I decided to leave Lviv and find hitchhiking spot for Ivano-Frankivsk. So I started walking out from the city. For a moment I went to a shop and bought a bottle of Mernaja (based on milk something) vodka. Also the last cops had asked if I have vodka. Next time...
I guess they all felt a bit sorry I was hanging around, totally sober.

The streets to the South were very shitty (as everywhere), street markets without counter tables, houses in bad shape... prices not that cheap... the question stays: if there are similar prices here and in Ukraine... how come their salary is so... nothing?! Who gets the money then? We know... damn politicians who think their work creates security for whole nation... and their salary is great!
Also I saw a bread delivery van, which was operating just like here in Soviet times - bread without plastic bag, smelly... nostalgia :)

I made it to the city border and felt quite hungry - couldn't see any eateries in Lviv - like last year - quite hard to find and kind of weak... of course they won't get anything from the tourists like that.
My way out from Lviv went over a hill. Narrow road, asphalt with holes in it and no hard shoulders... speeders, big trucks (in bad condition).
If I'd knew before... I'd never take a bus there! And definitely not on a bike. On the side of the hill, next to the road below were people's houses. It could feel interesting if a truck would fall in through the roof...

Then I wasn't sure if there's going to be any village soon to buy some food but I saw an old lady and asked about an eatery, she showed below from the hill. I went this direction and saw a lake and resort. I think the entrance was 5 grivnas and two men at the gate. I explained them I just want to eat and not going to pay money for entrance. They told me something and I understood I can enter. But they didn't look very happy.
I had a hot dog in small kiosk and drank kvass, which was from plastic bottle but tasted almost right.
Then back to the hill and farther from Lviv. On the other side of the hill was nice little town (officially these are mostly villages, but when comparing to Estonia, they are towns). At least in the centre the place looked maintenanced - eateries, market full of fruits, good road (at least the main street). I bought peaches and tomatoes and went to the end of the village to hitchhike.
I waited for a while and two Uzbeks offered me a ride.
They were businessmen and moved to Ukraine two years ago. Their best question was about religion in Estonia. The answer was... we don't really care about it. Their attitude was like "this is really bad..."
The ride wasn't very long, they dropped to to next junction for Ivano-Frankivsk (near Kurovichi).
There weren't many cars going, rain was drizzling. I stayed more in a bus stop.
At some point stopped Niva "off road car" (in weird colors) in front of the bus stop and men with automatic guns jumped out. Then Niva backed half of it to the booth (where also I was standing) and the driver started to change tire. He changed it and they left. Said no words during staying there. I guess I just didn't want to risk taking a picture.
I waited for some time and as mini buses were passing all the time, I decided to take a bus.
I stopped one but it went only to Peremyslyany and turned other way. I went this few kilometers by bus. There one chick told that right away will be a bus for Ivano-Frankivsk. I waited for a couple of hours there. None of the buses had sign "Ivano-Frankivsk".
It's actually not that easy to understand names of place when on my maps they are in Latin letters and everywhere else in Ukrainian Cyrillic.
While waiting I talked to a 17 years old boy, who looked like 13 or something. He promised to show which one's the right bus. We waited together... I gave him a chocolate, he asked if I didn't have any sandwiches. I didn't. He gave me Russian 10 rubla coin as a present. Then tried to give me a wallet. Weird color and empty. He asked me to take it but no... no crap needed.
To continue the conversation, I told if one's lucky, hitchhiking 600km per day is not a problem. He told he knows, just came from Ivanopetrovsk. Most rides were buses... but he made "no money" gesture and got ride for free.
I got fed up with waiting and decided to continue hitchhiking. I walked two kilometers and next bus approached. I saw on my map the only bigger places are on the road to Ivano-Frankivsk and I stopped the bus. The driver told he won't go towards Ivano-Frankivsk and I have to turn back to Peremyshlyany.
I got off the bus and was quite angry and confused. Isn't it the way then?! I decided to ask from a house and walked back little bit. In 5 minutes a truck stopped and his destination was - Ivano-Franksivsk!
There was also another hitchhiker on it - an old woman, about 80 years. Luckily she didn't want to Ivano-Frankivsk, but to a close village because the truck's cabin wasn't very spacious.
I didn't really get for what - only when road was down hill or they spotted church somewhere... but the driver and old woman made the signs of cross quite often. Perhaps being afraid to lose breaks?
For the evening we arrived to Ivano-Frankivsk. I walked to railway station. Still not good with eateries. Pizza place didn't serve me because they were closing in 30 minutes (it was 9:30 p.m.). I got a drumstick from a fast food kiosk. It was watery and bad.

Trying to find city border at night to hitchhike... wasn't very smart thing to do. I couldn't imagine the mountains at all... do they have cars there... and as next train left 3 a.m., I went for that.

August 6th, Thursday
The distance was about 20 kilometers but I arrive to Vorokhta 7 a.m. Night trains - slow and more quiet so people could sleep there a bit.

Vorokhta felt already great - mountains around, foggy morning, statues... small town. Before starting hike to Hoverla I decided to eat properly. Enough of chicken and hot dogs.
But none of the houses that looked like restaurants had opening times.

They were opened about 11 a.m. So I waited for long... In the mean times I bought apples from the market.
Then I had lunch in a restaurant near railway station. They had the best green tea I've ever had. Even though they had it in menu, they couldn't make me borsch. I had some kind of bouillon with pieces... local special food. I ate the pieces, then waited for the waitress to ask am I supposed to eat also the liquid (rather mixture of vegetable oil and fat) and with bread or how... she finally came, explained and I ask her to bring me bread then...

I had to wait for the bill... and to pay the bill... I finally went inside to pay. No tip!
Then I went to a shop to buy some food for the trip. They didn't have half of bread so I had to push this huge thick disk into my bag. Instead of small change I got candies.

On my way towards Verkhovyna (to Hoverla) I met a cow on the road. Going further I saw more cows and people in a distance. I yelled them, perhaps their cow ran away... they said it's neighbors' and it's OK.

Further I saw a sign for Carpathians Nature Park. Area over 50km². Without thinking, I exclaimed "damn, it's as big as whole Estonia!" Close to me on a road was walking a man. He approached and asked where I'm from. He had been in Estonia in military service. He told that all the signs are showing to Hoverla - no problem finding it.

Going further, the views went better and better (there's actually no point of taking pictures - you gotta see this!).

Suddenly a car stopped next to me. They offered me ride up. We didn't get to the price (perhaps there was none) and I told I thought of walking up there. Later stopped another car and driver with golden teeth offered for some grivnas he'll take me also through the gates. Then I heard the first time you gotta pay to get to Hoverla. Luckily I had this 5 grivnas or something. But I didn't take the ride. After I had walked two more kilometers another one offered me a ride. For free. Again I said "no". I thought there's not much left anyway.
I got to Verkhovyna, the checkpoint and ticket sales for Hoverla and touristic village.
I paid 5 grivnas for entrance, registered and got a map - sports resort 8 km, to the mountain 4 km and down - 3,5 km.
I thought "no problem" - 4 hours and I'm down again. The check point official VERY strongly advised to spend night in sports resort or camp there. I though "we'll see... perhaps another way to get money from tourists?
Continued gravel road and pretty quickly ascending. I thought perhaps at the end of this 8 km road there's no height left to climb. Vorokhta is 800 meters above sea level. And Hoverla 2061 meters (Buachaille Etive Mor in Scotland I climbed in 2007 was "only" 1022m).
It was nice road (despite of all the holes in it) between fir forest, river next to the road, wooden tables for picnic quite often. But still 8 kilometers up and then I got to sports resort area I was pretty tired. I remembered the official's strong recommendation.

In the gates of the sports resort was standing and old man, who started talking to me. Firstly the ordinary questions and then told me it'll be dark very soon and invited me inside so I can sleep there - at least warm and dry (rain was still drizzling). As my clothes were dampish, I accepted the offer. It was old boilerhouse. Plastic bottles everywhere, old rusty boilers, a lot of dirt. It looked like a cave of homeless drunk.

His room (actually the place which looked like room) was OK. I had seen place like that before so it didn't frighten me. Moreover, I had my sleeping bag and I didn't plan eating anything from the table. I gave old man a chocolate (had many more than I needed, because some guys failed hosting me and for myself I bought local chocolates) and a pin with Estonian and Ukrainian flags on it.

We were talking a lot. Me in my weak Russian and he in hardly understandable Ukrainian-style Russian. I had thought this is Ukrainian. For example for number 8 he said some word (not similar to Russian) but not "vis'im" as most Ukrainians I had met. I asked what language is he speaking... he told with me - Russian, otherwise - Ukrainian.
He asked "Do you have a wife? How are you going to sleep then? With him?!". Yeah... also a funny guy...
Then suddenly appeared two Polish guys and a girl - hikers. And the same guy with golden teeth who had offered me a ride before.
The Golden Teeth started giving me hints about money straight away. Then they went eating - Golden Teeth and old man, leaving us there.
The Golden Teeth had asked money from the Polish also. In the beginning as much as hostel night in Old Town hostel in Tallinn, but then the Polish refused to pay that much... agreed with a lot less.
However the Polish decided to rather spend night in tent than in this doghole. I went along because I didn't like this business - one offering a shelter and some jerk giving me hints...

It was still drizzling, the Polish had bought beer, I had rum. We made camping site, drank beer and rum, were eating, talking. Couldn't make fire because it had been raining there for few days in row. But still it was a nice time and company. Then We went to sleep.

August 7th, Friday
Probably because of soil that holds water, quite quickly my sleeping bag was all wet and my tent like a pool (my tent cost few years ago € 7,70). It was disgusting and making me mad. I decided to put my stuff together and go back to the boiler house. Not the best experience - putting together wet stuff when it's raining and totally dark.
I thought perhaps I'll just stay in the garage - at least shelter from rain. But I was lucky, because when I got there, also a car was leaving sports resort and the old man came out. I appeared. The old man was mumbling it's impolite to disappear like we did... but he was still cool and invited me inside and I put my stuff drying.
The man kept talking and percentage of his talk I understood was decreasing rapidly. He was drunk. We went sleeping. Luckily to different beds :)
In the morning he woke me up and told it's better to go it the morning. I asked if I could take a picture of him. It was OK by him. He wanted me to definitely remember his name, repeating it for few times - Дмитро Дмитрович Золочук (Dmitro Dmitrovich Zolochuk).

Last evening I couldn't take photos because my camera was complaining "zoom error". I thought it was quite weather proof and it even didn't get wet).
He gave me a wooden stick - to help me. I thought I will throw it away quite soon to no to carry it up and down.

I went to the forest and visited the Polish' camp site - they were packing up. They asked me where I had been already. I told the story and said I slept in boiler house. No Golden Teeth and no paying. Their tent was dry! I thought I'll throw away my tent... but later. At least my boots were dry thanks to heater in the room.
Further... towards the mountain. It wasn't raining any more but it was cloudy. The Polish hadn't seen any view from Hoverla because of clouds and mist. I hoped for better.

Before real climbing I made a stop to eat which is good in two ways - getting energy and getting the bag lighter. The track up was marked. Three kinds of marks, but no explanation. Two different marks lead to same spot same way.
The climbing generally was rather climbing than walk on the hills. After the trip I checked definitions of hiking, camping, trekking and so on. I couldn't understand where does my trip belong... I had my all equipment with me, even though Zolochuk had advised to leave it to the resort. I didn't worry about somebody stealing it, I just felt more safe having my tent, food and clothes with me. And the bag also blocked wind. Also I thought perhaps I won't return through the resort.
The weather was good - not too hot. Sometimes there was sunshine, cloudy but windy. The flora was firs, fireweed, junipers, blueberries, grass.
When less than hundred meters was left, it felt too often very-very soon it's the top.

Then it was finish! 2061 meters! On the top was very cold. And awful wind. Several young guys had went there in shorts, T-shirt and sneakers. Perhaps next time they know better.

There I opened the bottle of vodka I had bought from Lviv and shared it with some "for Ukraine!". I had all worm clothes on I had but still it was cold. I decided to go down. But not the same way I came up to make it more interesting. On my map was shown the other path and the way I came up... was too hard for going down anyway.

I stood up there for a while hoping to see anyone going down on easier path (where just weren't any markings). Nobody seemed to get going. So I started walking... somewhere... still remembering a sign that said "only along the marked track!!!". A couple of people seemed to follow me but they were too slow for me to wait for them. But then I met one guy who told he's up there every day. That gave me some encourage. After a while I spotted one post. "These must be the markings that way", I thought. Then another post and another until I reached the top of another mountain. And another one. I met some people who appeared from nowhere. At least it gave me feeling I'm not lost.

Then another top and another one. I got tired of it already. Fortunately the weather got better - not so many clouds any more and I could see something. The views were awesome, but not much point taking photos as getting this emotion when just looking the pictures... it's impossible.
Now I really wanted to get back t the sports resort. But no sign "down from the mountain".
At some point I heard bells of cows... what? Mountain-climbing cows??? But there they were... anyway that was a good sign. I really didn't want to go back to Hoverla to get down on the hard path.
Then I heard people yelling a way down I was a group of people. I though I'll go on straight. Even though I remembered the warning "stay on the path!" and it was pretty steep.
After few meters going fast it started raining... and impossible to see anything! I 5 minutes the rain was over and no people... and the little path I was using turned into fox trail. I was cursing and thinking how stupid can someone be to go straight... I felt quite lost and just mountains and far as I could see didn't look very encouraging... they continue through several countries...

I started going up again hoping to spot another marked spot on main path... what were these markings anyway? A never-ending path from one top to another? Anyway it was some time just cursing and climbing with my huge backpack my hands and feet on steep side of a mountain like a monkey.

But I found the top and a marked spot again and boy was I glad! From this point I saw... THE SPORTS RESORT! My mood turned 180 degrees! I started walking... along the path again.
As I didn't want to lose eye-contact with the base I decided not to got up to another mountain but turn off the path again. After a couple of hundred meters I decided it was a bad idea.
I saw some people going down now... but not to the side of sports resort. Hard decision... follow then or try to find path to the sports resort. I saw some more people but they weren't so helpful.
I reached another top (where I was also before). It had four paths to four directions. Two were main ones and one for sightseeing on the edge and one... way down!!! I thought before both side ones were for sightseeing. I had a dinner and tried the path. I thought even if the path ends, not to lose eye-contact with sports resort. The path went more narrow but still continued.
The flora - just grass - got more interesting again... first blueberry plants, then Junipers, fireweed, little pines, firs... I reached to weather station and they showed me where the way down continues.
I reached a rivulet a weather station man had mentioned and took a break for washing, enjoying the sunshine and resting. Then I met a couple of Australia - the road was closed road for some Lviv University. I got moving again. Now I was confused which was I was supposed to go after reaching the river. Both ways got little bit up. I decided to ask a couple of women who were picking blueberries. I made them compliment for nice smiles. They had been eating blueberries all the long :)
I arrived to sports resort. Took my walking stick back to the gates. This little thing was amazingly helpful all day long! At the gates was another man working. I gave him also rest of my vodka the bottle was too heavy for carrying and there was about 200ml in it anyway. It cost 2,5 EUR anyway.
Of course my flask was filled because traveling without strong alcohol is not such a good idea.
The gatekeeper was wearing the badge - Estonian and Ukrainian flags - I had given the other guy... but it was upside down. The man didn't know which way Ukrainian flag colors should be...
So... I got back two hours before it got dark. Still decided to go to Vorokhta railway station.
This time I made the 8 km a lot faster than going up but then I got to Verkhovyna - the main gate where the the registering was - it was almost dark outside.

One guy was asking from the gate officer (?) how much does climbing the mountain take time and how many meters is the climbing height.
The answers were "about 3 hours" and "about 900 meters". I felt like commenting it :)
Another guy was standing there and he came talking to me. He was from Kiev. At the end he invited drinking vodka with his friends and continue in the morning. But I felt like going.
I decided to hitchhike. Even though it was totally dark with no street lights. But I didn't want to waste time standing in the lights near Verkhovyna. After a couple of kilometers of walking - which was nice itself, because quite many people were coming on foot and everybody greeting and wishing good hike - a car stopped. A nice middle-aged couple in it. Quite happy-looking. I had a nice conversation with them. The woman had been in Tallinn. Long time ago helping a friend to write thesis in Estonian Maritime School.
They stopped near shop in Vorokhta. I and the woman went off. And both of us to shop. The woman was asking for chocolates. And I had the chance to give her one Estonian. Probably the dark cherry chocolate.

August 8th, Saturday
About 3 o'clock in the night I took train to Kolomyya. To not to waste the night. Also this short ride took 4 hours or so. In the morning I was in Kolomyya. As I was still carrying the book "All About Ukraine" with me, I had the map of Kolomyya and I went straight to town border.
It didn't take much time when I got to Chernivtsy. I had the feeling taking it easy and to walk through the city, do some sightseeing on the way, eat something and spend my last grvinas as I didn't have the feeling I'll go back to Ukraine that soon. Also... I had contacted my "host" and even though he had promised to host me, he was at Azov sea...

For me it was OK. Even good because I could just enjoy the weather - this day it was already very good. So I had the dinner, saw some monuments and reached to other side of the city. It was a long walk. So I was hitchhiking again and not to long time when a van stopped.
He was talking a lot but still listening to me also. He mentioned smuggling, pointing at his cargo - big boxes but I didn't get exactly what was it about. Anyway we were very close to Romanian border. He promised to take me to the border.
At one point we turned off the main road to a house. He said it's gonna take a while now and the driver and other guy started unloading the boxes. I stepped off the van. And offered my help. The sooner ready - the sooner on the road again. And I was unloading boxes of illegal cigarettes with my driver...
And the road again... before the border the driver also bought me a tea. He said: "life is good in Belarus and how much everything is better there - butter tastes like honey, they have good sausages (and Ukrainian ones are crap) and Lukašenka has everything under control. If he doesn't like somebody (foreigners?), they will send the one away from the country. And that's right - it's their country after all". I said perhaps Ukraine could get to EU one day. He replied "who the fuck wants to go there anyway?". I told that some of my friends would like to travel more freely... but of course I agreed about sending trouble makers away and not being afraid of the "big ones" would be good idea.
Then I asked if he had been in Belarus... as I had met a couple of Belorussians and couldn't remember then talking about their country like that. His answer was "Yes, I was there in the 80's. In the army". Fortunately we got to the border. He asked a couple of men at the border to help me onto a car, because only cars were allowed to cross it.
While waiting they were asking if Estonia was also in Schengen. I replied "yes, but for Russia and Belarus we need visa". "Who the fuck wants to go there?!", they replied.
They got me on a small car. Middle aged couple was in it. They asked if I had cigarettes... I said "no, I don't smoke". I told it also to the van driver before even tough I understood what was the question for.
But they said they have : ) I told I noticed you have and pointed under the steering wheel where I saw end of block of cigarettes. The driver tried pushing it but it didn't move.
The border officer came. Was talking something and giving the driver (!?) money. Then a couple more "checks" and Romanian border. I gave my passport. The border officer girl was asking in English where was I going. I thought of a stupid answer and said "Romania". Damn, it was the border Ukraine-Romania. But she was happy with the answer, wishing me nice trip.
Soon after the border there was a police checking somebody. Probably somebody who didn't pay.
The couple dropped me to Siret. I had decided before I'll stay in Siret, because there is a river.
I got to the river about 3 p.m.

I hanged my tent, sleeping bag, clothes and stuff on some thorny bushes and went washing to the river. One problem - no private spot there and another one - could step more than 20cm into the water because already then mud was half way to my knees. And quite hard to get my feet off of it. But I felt better after this cursory washing. I ate there and went sleeping about 9 p.m.

August 9th, Sunday
After 12 hours I woke up when I hears many-many bells ringing. I had seen many footmarks at the river, but I thought deers or something go there sometimes.
I opened my tent's door and I saw at least thousand sheep and an old shepherd coming towards me. He greeted me, saying he is Costel. I told my name but as he was speaking Romanian and me English, we didn't talk more. He left.

And I had to get going. I packed my stuff and started before town Siret. Soon the cops stopped. One was speaking also Russian. He asked for my passport. To not to make their life too easy, I gave them Estonian ID-card. He looked at it and asked for my passport. I told in EU we need only ID-card. He said it's only a card and do I have a passport. I opened my bag and gave him my passport, mentioning one more time I don't need this in EU. Later I also heard from a Romanian they can't make it clear carrying passport is unnecessary.

They stayed about 50 meters after my hitchhiking spot. Probably checking those who didn't pay for their contraband. My ride came... not too quickly. In the car was a middle aged man and an old man. First one was speaking English very well. I got to know Dacias were Romanian cars and indeed, there we so many old ones on the roads. The man pointed horses with carraiges, asking if we have those in Estonia. I said generally we have few in farms but not on the roads like that. But it's very nice to look at them like that.
"Yes, it's nice. But not in darkness when you have to drive on these roads". I agreed. this sounded fucking scary...

He took me to Suceava bus terminal even though I said I'll go hitch-hiking and we discussed taking a train of bus. He found me a bus, talked to the driver. The ticket was 19 EUR. He got my backpack on the bus and told "But you have to pay in LEI, go and find a bank".
I thanked him, took my bag off the bus and said, I'll find an eating place first, eat, exchange money and then I'll see how will I go. I asked some girls which way is the Bucharest-side of the city, found a bank which was closed and when I asked I got answer that all banks are closed on Sundays. Thanks to the driver my bag would have traveled to Bucharest without me... The driver also suggested very strongly to exchange money only in banks. Other would rob me...
I found McDonald's... which, of course didn't sound attempting but I assumed they speak English and I can pay by card. After a 37-RON lunch I felt... OK.

After the lunch there was such a garbage heap on my table I felt embarrassed.

I went towards end of the city, not visiting and monuments of churches.
While waiting I noticed Romania is extremely popular for Italian tourists - so many cars had Italian license plates. Later I heard it's because of many Romanians going to Italy for work.
Then I got my ride. It was a small van. One middle-aged happy guy and one quite young one. Neither of them was speaking English. So I just could relax. The older guy knew quite many words in English but he wasn't speaking... already these drivers made my head ache because they were honking the horn on everything... slow drivers, stupid drivers, pedestrians, workers by the road and especially girls. On half road the driver changed. Young dude was driving, older one drinking beer. When we got to Bucharest he had had 7 beers. And visiting "toilet" too often.
Both drivers were going at about 150km/h, some time even 165km/h. Even through small villages too fast. The most annoying thing... they had police radar and this thing was beeping constantly with awful noise. And second annoying - THEY were honking on every reason - nice girl by the road, somebody crossing the road... all the time. And not only them.
We arrived to Bucharest. Stopping behind traffic lights the driver suddenly put on central lock of the car. Felt weird. But in a couple of seconds one skinny gypsy man stepped to the car and tried to open car's door, holding infant in arms. I would understand knocking on cars window and begging... but this was too much!
Later they picked up a friend. And he wasn't speaking English. But they were good men, instead of leaving me in the centre of Bucharest they asked for address where I was supposed to go. And called my host Cristina. Unfortunately they didn't know Bucharest at all and we were trying to find the (actually very easy location) location half of the time we spent driving from Suceava to Bucharest.
Finally I met Cristina. I thanked the drivers and we left to Cristina's place. As I didn't have host in Lviv and in Chernivtsy, I could have extra day for Bucharest. The weather was dry, warm and Sun was shining. I checked my mail over many days and there was a letter I'm on the way in getting to be an CS-ambassador in Tallinn. I had been waiting for it all summer and in the letter it mentioned "perhaps we could get time extension as you are traveling all summer". (digression: now I've also passed the training).
It was very nice at Cristina's place. I had a shower, some conversation eating and it was already late - sleeping time. As Cristina's room mates were away I got sleep in her bed and she was in the living room - surfing the couch! :-D

August 10th, Monday
Cristina had to be at work early in the morning and it was going to be a hard day for her. Still she organized me a CouchSitter (a trademark by Janine :) ). We left together in the morning. First I made a walking tour around Parliament's Palace (before Ceaucescu's Palace - The People's House). It has a huge ugly wall around it so actually you can't see much. I heard later there is a movement to tear down that wall... I would support it! The politicians should be afraid of the people!

Then I tried to get some food. Everything seemed to be closed. And I didn't see that many eating places anyway. I found a Pizza Hut. As I hadn't been in one before I decided to have a try. Pizza sounded good. I ordered one and when they asked about salad... I ordered Creek salad from the kitchen. And tea and some juice... and the bill was 50 LEI!
I payed, left and went to a back to chance money. This was the only time in my life I had to sign some papers at currency exchange.
Then I met Dani (Cristina's brother) in front of a theatre. We made huge sightseeing tour all day - monuments, parks, old town. And a beer in very nice bar. Unfortunately I didn't remember which brand was it but it was good! So later I had to taste different ones. Like famous Ursus - it was boring! And we visited the Village Museum. This was a very nice place - by a lake, different very old machines (like booze machine) and old houses, a church. Also very green place.

We had another beer in Argentina when Cristina came from work. She looked a bit tired. So we went to her place. Some nice conversation, she made dinner for us and I washed laundry. And she gave me a present - small cup. I had to ask is it for alcohol or...? Yes, I was correct. She offered me local speciality - Rachiu. It was new interesting taste for me and I drank about 10 cl of it :)

August 11th, Tuesday
The next day I took just for chilling. I went to the centre, laying in the Sun on the grass of Unirii park. Looking beautiful Romanian girls passing, fountains, some Jandarms at work...

It was quite weird seeing all the cops, jandarms, security guys, etc. patrolling everywhere all the time and everywhere. When I left Bucharest they were also in metro trains, carrying a truncheon. The jandarms were claimed to be park guards and for helping people... damn they were carrying pistols. I wouldn't want to be helped on the other side of the street with a pistol...
Or would they shoot a pickpocket to the back with it? I didn't care much about them. They just looked inappropriate there in sunshine and green grass.

Later I read from Internet how all these "officers of law were helping people during "important" NATO meeting in Bucharest... frightening!
I went to buy a watermelon. On the way I needed bathroom and I spotted an ordinary looking pub where the sign said "a beer - 5 LEI (~1,3 EUR). I didn't ask how much is a tea, just ordered it. They gave me ordinary Lipton kind of thing and asked for 5 LEI... I didn't care, I needed a bathroom and I used it. I returned to the park, was eating watermelon and waiting for Dani. He promised to come also that day. Soon he appeared and we left to check out another park. On the way he remembered he hadn't shown me Tomb of Unknown Soldier. That was looking powerful.

Then we were just chilling there until the evening. Talking about traveling possibilities and all kinds of different things (this guy is smart!). Also making fun of special breed of people (there were also some at the park we were sitting) - listening stupid Gypsy music from cell phones, guys wearing pink t-shirts and acting quite brainless. Romanians have special word for them but I just forgot (making fun of them continued with different people until I went to sleep).
Also he told that many people think that gypsies are Romanians, but they are not. I told that at least in Estonia I don't believe someone is thinking that. Later I found out some actually are...
In the evening we left park and Dani went home, I went searching for Cristina's apartment, she had left work and went straight home.
I walked this couple of kilometers, found a block house, thinking that was the one... sent an SMS but I was wrong... had to walk a bit more and met Cristina outside.
Her room mates had arrived. A young couple about to get married and girl's mother.
It was so much fun spending whole evening with them. Cristina made another tasty meal and we stayed up quite long time.

August 12th, Wednesday
In the morning Cristina left to work early, I was still packing my things. Fortunately Cristina's room mates weren't in hurry... so I didn't have to rush.
Then I walked to the centre and next destination - Mamaia beach near Constanta. Always when I mentioned it to people and the possibility I'll also visit Vama Veche, because my friend Eve is staying there... people were heaving a sigh... Vama Veche... but also mentioning it had changed and not any more what it used to be.
I took a metro train to eastern side of Bucharest. Still managed to get on the wrong one. Had to go back one stop and then the right one... I just didn't remeber there must be graffity on the one I needed. Fortunately you have to pay only once - to get to the metro. Then you'll have unlimited rides : )

I got off the train, gave my last ticket (they are sold in pairs always) to some kind of man and went hitch-hiking. The place was perfect - slow traffic.
Quite soon I got picked up. It was a smaller truck and driver was speaking well English. A man about 35 years old. He was talking quite a lot, but that was OK, because he was interesting. Showed me some pictures about architecture in Bucharest and telling me in free time he's also doing sculptures. Then he asked me if I've heard about sculptor [name].
I told I haven't (I'm really not interested sculptors - yeah, I like nice figures, but that's it). His response was surprising... he was very surprised: "Really? You haven't heard about him?! Is that possible?!" Like he had asked "Who's the President in Estonia?" and I wouldn't have known...
That was the first time a truck driver (I don't mean to be condescending with this) made me feel stupid, but that's cool!
Our ride continued... he was playing records, asking what would I prefer but still changing too often. At some point he asked: "in what are you interested in life?" Another hard moment... this philosphical question... he was surprised when I first mentioned food. Then it got more logical... I said I like different... as much as possible. Climbing the mountains, swimming in sea, going to theatre, then sleeping in the bushes... then he told in what he's interested in.
Even if the ride was enjoyable, it didn't get easier. Next request was: "could you please describe Estonian women..."Damn, that was hard. I took several minutes for thinking. I guess the answer was quite close... as close it could be in such... irregular matter... but I'm not going to write my anwers here (I expect to be tortured so I'll just start writing my last will).
Then he told me he's not going to Constanta, but turns away from the speedway to Calarasi. So he gave me map of Romania (many thanks to him for that. It became really useful later) and stopped... just on the speedway! I thanked and all but damn... it was a speedway! Even my map showed it but the Romanians I talked to before told it's just a highway...
But I couldn't hitch-hike there. Theoretically I could have - there weren't that many cars and enough room for stopping and speeds not that crazy, but I thought it's smarter not to. Mainly because of speedway patrols. It was a very hot day and I walked... in the ditch. Lucky me - it was concrete :) it went on and on... I saw a service station sign and got happier - a place for hitchhiking. But no... as the speedway is under construction they are still building the service stations and with most of them they haven't even started and all they have is a sign.
Finally I saw one "service station". Which actually was a toilet and muddy running waters.
I tried hitchhiking next to it on a speedway, luckily gave up just before road patrol passed me.
I think it was less than 2 hours waiting when I was sitting next to the toilet building and a microbus stopped, driver went to bathroom and when coming back asked something like "where's your car?". He wasn't speaking English that well and I explained I have no car, I'm hitchhiking. He offered me a ride. There was also one woman there. All the road the old driver tried to flirt with the woman. Then asking quite many times about the money. I ALWAYS have difficulties understanding the money-related topics :) But really I didn't get it - did he ask do we have euro-money is Estonia (it's quite common question) - or that was a hint. Then asking if I had any money with me... these moments I just love that somebody who invented bank cards :) And I'm telling people I keep my money in the bank (those people who might not know about bank cards) or that I pay by card. And at least in gas stations it's possible so it's all logical.
They dropped me off in Medgidia bus station, recommending me to take a bus.
Of course I didn't. Just bought a bottle of water (this muddy water with some molluscs swimming it didn't look/taste appealing).
Next ride came very quickly. Small car, inside many bags, Romanian man from US, his wife and infant in arms on the back seat. Seemed his wife wan't that comfortable with English so I just talked with the man. About traveling - I think the first person who talked about all the fun traveling though US (his words: it's a bad place for living, but awesome place for traveling). So I'm thinking about it :)
He was really surprised an Estonian alone in Romania hitchhiking. During the ride the baby puked in the car. Cristian (the driver) apologized and said it happens to babies. I told him it's OK, it "happens" to grown-ups also :)
When the ride ended we changed contacts and they dropped me to Mamaia beach.

I ate something there, walked around a bit but saw nothing that interesting to stay for.
People had been telling it's crowded with luxury cars near that beach but looks like it'll be the picture at the weekend. So I decided to walk out from the city to have a little longer look at it.
Quite at the start of this walk I broke my blisters under my feet and that (fucking) hurt. Bottoms of my boots were so worn the road was blistering my feet. I wore slippers but it was too late...
Still I walked out of the city, hoped to find a quiet place at the sea but that was somehow impossible. It got dark so I stayed near the road at the bushes next to a field.

August 13th, Thursday
The busy road was too close but in the morning it worked like an alarm clock. I got up early and walked to hitch-hiking spot a few kilometers further. My feet were not that bad because I had bandage and band-aid with me. Also cleaning the blisters with Ukrainian vodka.
I bought some food and juice from a gas station and after some waiting a guy picked me up. He wasn't speaking English that well, but promised to take me to Mangalia. He had to deal with some problems there for half an hour or more. He stopped, I organized my bag and started walking. After about 200 meters a car was signaling - the same man again.
I sat in and we arrived to Vama Veche shortly. He was the owner of Chopper bar on the beach.
He asked if I want to help him opening the bar. I agreed to help. Why not? And I guess I owed him that. It was quite fun too.
I just wanted to point out the logo of the bar "Chopper" - this is cool art!

Then I sent SMS to Eve, drank a 5-LEI beer (1,3 EUR) and left to put up my tent. Dani had mentioned in Bucharest they might ask money for putting tent up on the beach so I just walked a bit further from the main place and put my tent up. SMS from Eve, asking where I was and then suddenly my Eve was outside! I was glad to see her! And speaking in Estonian.
She asked why I put my tent up that far... I didn't think it's that far until later I decided to move closer to her.

But first we went eating, then making quick "sightseeing tour", meeting her friends. And swimming... later they were invited to trailer park to enjoy sunset. And they invited me. That was a wonderful social event - wine and watermelon.

Next thing in schedule was movie night - watching The Illusionist. I wasn't interested in having beer. Not enough cash for a cocktail and not vodka... then Eve's friend organized Rachiu. This was serious stuff. I'd say at least 50% of alcohol. But tasted... just what I needed! And it was half full 1,5L Pepsi bottle :)
I didn't watch the movie to the end. Got tired and went to sleep. Eve promised to wake me up before sunrise.

August 14th, Friday

I woke up when they started playing Ravel's Bolero. I knew it was the sunrise. The sunrise was nice and right after it I went swimming. The water felt warmer than last day. Then having last drinks and food with Eve and I left Vama Veche. I wasn't very sure about how lucky I can be hitchhiking from Black Sea straight to Budapest.
First ride started in less than a minute. It took me to Mangalia... railway station again. Luckily this town isn't that big. I walked to the border of the town, having perfect place... quite slow traffic, trees saving me from sunstroke...
The weird picture was some small gypsy kids crossing this very busy road (weekend) with a cart in very bad shape, loaded full of scrap metal. Then also old gypsy woman doing the same. But in the middle of road, car already too close... she pushed the cart over and then ran after it... :-/ That's dangerous!
Also the people working - standing next to the road, offering rooms "CAZARE" for rent to tourists are not making hitchhiking easier - too many people waving posters by the road.

And I stayed there for hours and hours. When the Sun was shining on the other side already I decided to walk to "worse" spot. There I didn't wait that long.
A car stopped, a middle age man inside. This was a rental car and the man - a professional driver. He was telling me about his strange accident with a quality tire that morning. The tire just broke with not reason - that's what I understood.
He was telling about the people he had to pick up that day. And lucky me - stops were Constanta, Bucharest - Craiova! Half way to Budapest in one day!
First we picked up a couple of French girls from Constanta bus terminal. Can't remember on which fields they were volunteering but it sounded hard job. They took a little trip before flying back to Paris. And quite several times during our road to Bucharest Costel (the driver) offered... "let's go to Paris with the girls, OK?" Of course I agreed :) Costel was amazing. Middle-aged big man. Had been working in a couple of different coutries but knew so many different languages.
About the languages he told he knows "some", I'd say he was good...
But... waiting for the girls in Constanta airport I think it was the only time I saw real assholes in Romania. Situation: little (I'd say 5 years old, not more) gypsy girl was begging there, going around cars, looking in, trying to open doors of cars... but there were a couple of young men and a woman at one convertible car, eating cheap junk food but looking quite rich. Gold chains and stuff... the kind I probably wouldn't enjoy conversation with... anyway they were mocking the gypsy girl, throwing pieces of bread at her... the REAL assholes... 2 meters tall.
And we drove to Bucharest. Costel chatting up girls and me trying to understand French. At the end I felt I understood something already.
We dropped the girls to some church (I was offered to stay with them) and we picked up Costel's girlfriend (or wife). The three of us were waiting for next passengers at Bucharest Railway Station. Costel's girl friend was working as a nurse in mental hospital. She had poor English but she wanted to practice it because she was offered job in UK. After her almost every sentence she asked: "you understand?". In the beginning I felt like a fool but then I got used to it.
I recommended her to practice it sometimes with Costel.
I went to find some tea in railway station. At kiosks there were drink machines but everywhere I saw some weird stuff not real tea... Finally I found one machine and it looked OK. I got 100ml of tea... maybe even less. Forget about tea in Romania!
The passengers arrived and we took off. Towards Craiova. It was already dark outside and I was in resting mode, not paying much attention until we made a stop for food.
Then one passenger started talking to me. Do I like music... do I like rock... do you know Ozzy Osbourne... do you know Bon Jovi... do you know... this was quite long "conversation" (series of questions) and ending with questions (when I told I'm not into Rock that much because of every question I answered I know a couple of song but I'm not a fan): what music do you like the? I told reggae, of course. He asked "Bob Marley? UB40". And again... I told these are not my favourites...
We made it to Craiova. Costel took me to a guest house and told they also have camping field and it should be free. Well it wasn't. But the guy at the gate advised to put my tent up between road and their place. I noticed before there are bushes and place for tent hidden enough.

August 15th, Saturday
In the morning I didn't walk much because the hitch-hiking spot looked perfect. Seen from a distance and only one way to go. I stayed there for hours... no luck and I decided to walk.
Sometimes stayed on small parking grounds for a while, asking truck drivers... no luck.
Finally I reached another roundabout exiting the city and my blisters broke. That hurt and I decided no more walking. After 30 minutes or so a very small car stopped, an old Romanian couple inside. They told me they can take me to motorway. I wanted to ask how many kilometers but being too tired I asked "how much?". The gesture was "for nothing".
Near the junction were also car shops and I could refill my water bottle.
I didn't wait there for long time holding my sign "Arad". A car stopped and the driver told me he doesn't know if he's going to Arad but it's the same way. I got into the car. The driver was Ilias, a Greek elementary school teacher. Quickly I found out he's driving to Budapest and then to The Netherlands. Boy, was I happy. My way was also to Budapest.
Our conversation went smoothly... from teaching to traveling (walking along rivers), politics, religion, history. He was quite an anarchist. But I agreed most of his views. Also we were joking a lot about different folks, army... about Jesus died for my sins before I was born etc.
Our road went through the mountains and the views were marvellous... only road itself was kind of shitty. If I remember correctly this was what Costel told is better road to Hungary.
At one point we even were in quite dangerous situation - we drove up hill and towards us came truck, sun was blinding us and road was so narrow. This was close...
All these couple of hundred kilometers were "road under construction" signs. But no workers, no asphalt or other materials, no trucks... we were joking that after 10 years we're flying in cars over Romania and see the roads are still like that. Some places really looked abandoned.
As Ilias was cool and he told he has no place to sleep in Budapest and he's sick of sleeping in his little sporty Hyundai, I contacted my host Lauren and asked if I can bring my driver over.
She agreed.
Passing Arad was weird experience... we had to drive three times into the city to get out of it and I believe we went always by traffic signs. At one point we saw a car with Austrian number plate driving in front of us and on one junction they stopped, waved and yelled something. We turned there anyway. They (didn't look Austrian, rather Albanians) passed us again and at another junction they stopped in front of, one guy came out. Not speaking English, went back to his car and three guys came out who didn't understand anything and we didn't understand do they need help or try to offer us help. But it was scary! We drove away.
Finally... we got to Hungarian border. Surprising but there was border check... Romania is not in Schengen. And I guess I know why...
It went smoothly and next stop was a gas station. Hungarian language... impossible to understand anything... Ilias got fuel and we started going when one guy came our running and told it's not payed. They were rookies using bank cards.
At the time Ilias tried again to pay one guy just bumped our car by backing onto us. He didn't have a reason to back up anyway...
I caught the guy, asking to wait little bit. Driver didn't understand English so he asked his boy to come out but he didn't understand it neither and I had to show I'm not the driver and they got to wait a bit. Ilias came, looked and said it's OK and we left.

August 16th, Sunday
Finding Lauren's place wasn't that hard because we checked maps in two gas station and Ilias has good memory. Even though we got there 3 a.m. we didn't wake Lauren and Lyla up because another day of Sziget festival had ended.
One funny thing... Ilias bought candies and a bottle of vodka to the girls :) I guess they use it for vodka bandage.
Little chat and we went to sleep. I didn't feel like sharing a bed with Ilias so I stayed on the mattresses on the floor and it was good.
Early next morning Ilias left. We had breakfast and went to make a touristic tour in the city. The day was warm and nice. The city looks old and mighty but not taken care well enough. And I'd say too many violent-looking monuments.

We went through old town to fisherman's bastion. There was a man earning from the game "guess under which cup is the ball". I tried to tell him if he lifts the cup I don't have to guess, I see where the ball is. He just asked in which money I want to pay so I left.
That day Lauren and Lyla had more guests - a couple of American travelers. Also nice curious people. Because they weren't couchsurfers they felt uncomfortable sleeping in the same room with other people, I got to sleep in Lauren's bed and Lauren in Lyla's room. Funny - again me on the bed and host - on couch :)
During the days I spent in Budapest we were shopping in supermarket, eating (super-small) pancakes, eating in a restaurant, visiting market (I bought real salami), visiting Old Town, cemetery (that's a weird place - all these statues and not only the person buried there. Some have kids on it...).

Park of Soviet monuments (the old serious spy movies were one of the most funny movies I've ever seen... but also sad in the other hand), walking in Budapest during night... and meeting a friend of the girls.

August 19th, Wednesday
But the day arrived I had to leave. I was totally rested and felt good. Just because Lauren and Lyla are so wonderful hosts.
As usually I walked from the apartment to hitch-hiking place. It was a long walk but the girls walked me at least half of the road it didn't feel that long.
In that hitchhiking spot were already a couple of girls. Their method was "straight to Belgium or plane next day". "What a waste", I thought and went to next gas station. I waited there some time and as the other one looked more busy I went back. I stayed there many-many-many hours. In the mean time refilling my water bottle in McDonald's (even the water wasn't good there). Everybody else got ride quite quickly there. Even a girl with a huge dog.

Some boys...
I think it was the most busy hitch-hiking spot I've ever seen. For some time there was a Belgian woman waiting for a while trying to get a lift and she got away...
Finally... I think it was 7 p.m. or something one car stopped for me and offered ride to Györ. Yes!
And another hitchhiker came to the car and asked if he could get a ride also. The driver agreed.
Lucky me because I was tired of that day and they did the conversation :) Or... the hitchhiker was talking all the time and laughing on his text.
I got to nice gas station near Györ. And who did I saw there... the same Belgian woman!
I talked to her a bit every once in a while. This was weird... even a woman alone had to stand for hours to get a ride... where are all the gentlemen or ladies who should be worried about another woman... anyway later I made her a sign with my almost-empty marker pen. She had to catch the plane from Bratislava in the morning.
I understood why people don't stop near Budapest - because the road also takes to Croatia - but why not there... about 1 at night. I put up my tent and went sleeping.

August 20th, Thursday
Waking up early and got back to hitch-hiking spot... soon three more guys joined me. One from Germany and two from the Netherlands. They were quite together but I stood few meters further. Sometimes going around asking truck drivers.
So I did for few hours. Finally changed my poster from "Praha" to "SK" and blue sun on it. I think it was half an hour I got a ride. Nice new car and IB M Baltic manager or something. Also this German hitchhiker approached and asked if he could come also but the answer was "no".
This was quite funny picture actually - from this gas station left so many fancy cars packed full of people and bags... cars with German number plates leaving for Germany, full of Albanians, Turkish and others. Poor German guy hitchhiking but none of them stopping for him...

Anyway the ride with I BM-guy... it was nice, he spoke good English and had also his wife there.
The reason he told why didn't take the German guy was he had company's car and there are insurance-problems. He's not allowed to take hitch-hikers.
He was quite surprised Estonians are also related nation to Hungarians, not only Finns. Also... even though he was IB M representative for the Baltic States he had never been here.
In one place he had to look for a place to park his car. One old man with very expensive sports car was about to leave but still talking to a woman next to him and the driver mumbled: "will you marry her or not?" :)
They took me to Slovakian border because they didn't want to pay for motorway and turned back on smaller roads.
On the border I got confused - sign said "Slovenska". I had to check the map... I was right, I was in Slovakia and Slovenia is actually "Slovenija".

No too much waiting and I got a ride. Older man who had studied in Brno Technical University and now developing boiler systems with new technologies. Before Brno (Czech Republic) he dropped me on the motorway near the big junction Bratislava-Praha-Olomouc.
On the other side I saw there was a supermarket. I needed food so I tried to get there. Crossing the motorway when no cars were near and stepping over the road border before last road to cross it and almost ready to go when I heard alarm behind me. It was police van. One of them knew English so I explained I was dropped on another side but I can't see any crossing for pedestrians, where's the closest? No answer, but the policeman made a gesture covering his eyes and told that this time he will close his eyes (I told "okay") and that I can go this time but when they come back they don't want to see me there again. They said I should be careful crossing it. This is ironical - putting on alarm behind my back when I waiting for the moment to run over and then telling me to be careful...
I went to supermarket. First found a place to eat... but they didn't accept bank cards. I didn't want to change Czech money because I re-planned and decided - no Praha this time. Time to go home. I went to pub next to it and they accepted back cards but didn't offer food...
Then shopping... it was full of school-stuff - notebooks and stuff but the kind of notebook I needed - quite slippery paper for hitchhiking signs I didn't find.
I tried to buy some hot food from the counter but they wanted cash only. I didn't get why should I pay in meat counter anyway, why not when exiting... could I start eating there right after paying?
I got out of there, found a way around so it was kind of better place for crossing the motorway, ate and walked towards Olomouc. A few hundred meters on the side of a field. In every few meters I scared a rabbit :) the walk was nice and quickly I found a nice gas station. And there were more hitch-hikers. They looked weird. I understood they were Polish but still quite different from all the Poles I've met. Young man was very tall with a long face, woman is rags but they spoke English, were kind so I spent some time with them. I bought beer, some food and chocolate for us because I decided not to leave Czech Republic without having Czech beer.
The woman didn't know the country is famous for beer :)
Anyway these guys were hippies :) they had tried to get to Rainbow gathering in Ukraine but border guard claimed one's passport had a sheet missing. I though the border guard just wanted to "earn" some money because there should be one sheet looking like that...
Now they were trying to get to Belgium to another gathering. When I told I was going to Poland, the woman asked me to ask the guy to turn back to Poland also. When the guy refused, she didn't mention it any more. That day they had eaten only some apples. This is hard core!
One funny story they told me about hitchhiking was about a man who made and later wrote a book about hitchhiking with a washing machine.
I advised them to leave the gas station and search for another one after the big junction I came from. I guess they later went there.
There I was standing, trying to get a ride. Comfortable place and quite soon one truck stopped. With a Latvian license plate. The driver asked if I knew where I wanted to go. I got confused... isn't it the road to Poland, I thought... but answered, that I have maps. OK, I got a ride.
Step by step it got more interesting. The truck belonged to another guy in their company, he just had to take it back home. He was used to driving in Russia and Ukraine. He had no maps, didn't speak any language (not even a body language) but Russian (not even Latvian, even though he was from Latvia). He had GPS but didn't know how to use it. This thing had every other language except Russian. I didn't have time to look how it's working but I was more comfortable with maps anyway.
At some point I got hungry and took two apples from my bag and offered one to him. He took it, thanked and told he already felt hungry. I thought we're making a stop soon... but no.
Then I offered him water, sometimes candies or chewing gum... at one point we saw a cop waving to us on the road. We stopped and it was Sprava-guy (road control - weight of truck, road cards, etc.). During their argue I got to know my driver didn't have a road card, he didn't know he should have one or where to get it from.
The sprava-guys told that gas stations sell them and told him to follow them to a gas station. The place was a bit off from the motorway. He didn't understand what's he supposed to do. Even though I didn't hear their conversation I understood what's up and told (several times) to follow them.
Next to the gas station was bus station and big parking place. We were quite in the darkness. My driver and the sprava were talking for some time, then they went to the gas station to buy this road card (my driver didn't have absolutely any money, later I found out they have special "fuel and road card" bank cards. Can't buy food with those). More talking... at one point the driver came to me and asked if I had any cash with me. I understood he asked sprava if he could bribe them... but how can you bribe if you don't have money? As I didn't want to stay there for whole night and hoped to have some fun, I told I have 60 zloty's (he was blinking so I wouldn't say if I had more, because then sprava would want more) and not mentioning my Euros. Or the fact I could get money from cash machine... more talking - the driver and sprava... then he came back, asked if I have more. Sprava asked for certain sum. I told no... only coins :-D
We spent there long time... when we were allowed to leave, my driver went back to their bus for a couple of times, asking them to be gentle with fines... Sprava-man told that the fine he's get is quite nothing anyway... they could do awful fine...
Finally on the road again... my driver didn't remember how we got on the parking place and asked sprava... still I had to help him to turn down on right road to the motorway...
He was so nervous about the whole thing and kept complaining... mostly talking to himself. I didn't say anything after I told him he didn't sign anywhere, didn't give his ID or anything... they can't fine anyone by just sending e-mail to the company.
We were pretty close to Polish border when another sprava stopped us. Dude got complaining again and told we were stopped already... sprava made a phone call and let us go. Quite soon we saw another sprava on the road.
Finally Polish-Czech border and we stopped at a service station. I bought tea and coffee for him... he told that drinking coffee and then sleeping is a bit problematic but he had it anyway.
He was parking on cars lots even though trucks' parking space was in front of us.

August 21th, Friday
In the morning he went washing and I ate my last chicken drumstick I had bought last day (couldn't share it or eat in front of him), then bought us hot dogs, tea and coffee and on the road again...
I was reading a map (not that easy in Poland), he was driving.
Then I got one thing - I had been thinking I have a big problem staying awake in cars. Big ones, small ones, day or night. I used to think my eyes get tired but sunglasses didn't help either. It's just I can't sit doing nothing. My brain switches to sleep mode and eyes close. Even when I'm not tired. But reading map was totally easy - not getting sleepy at all.
On the way a couple of times he asked "should I turn down from here?" when sign showed way to some village. One time he almost took the turn... off from motorway when we actually wanted from one huge city to another... but on the last second he made (a very bumpy) turn back to the motorway then I said "straight!!!".
A few hours of driving like that and he wanted to make a stop (as I understood, he should have done it already long time ago). First thing I did - went to the gas station to find some food. Nothing interesting there... so I asked him to join me at a restaurant there. He joined. I took steak for both of us. He was doubting but thankful. Said it's expensive. Well... a bit more than 3 euros is not that expensive. Especially as he was from Latvia.
Before taking off again I bought another bottle of water. When starting driving he always made a cross in front of him.
During driving whenever he had a chance he complained through radio, on another parking space... and me about the sprava.
On the way for one slow car he asked rhetorical question: "is he alive?!". This was funny. Also for hitchhiking he used word "golosovat". It's related with "voice" just like in Estonian. I didn't know that.
When we got onto Via Baltica (road E67) I was quite happy... finally no place to get lost... but quite soon I got smarter... there were still the roundabouts and the way over Warsaw... and I kept telling where NOT to turn. Before reaching E67 again we stopped at a gas station because he had to take a break. He should have paid there for parking. Lucky him nobody came out to ask money.
There he thought it's the perfect place for shaving (dry-shaving, as he told - without gel or foam), head out of truck's window. I was glad I had bought the second bottle of water so he didn't wash his face from my bottle.
As the weekend was beginning, he wanted to leave Poland at night and decided he's not going to take full brake, only wait for the darkness and continue at least to Lithuanian border.
It went dark, we left. We we almost on E67 again and I didn't feel like I need to read the map any more... driving became boring and I nodded off... at the same point we passed a traffic sign I opened my eyes and asked "did the sign say E67 to the right?" Very calmly because I didn't want him to take sudden turns. He told he doesn't know and took turn... LEFT. I said we're going a bit further and let's see what other signs say... and yes... he turned towards WARSAW again.
Very calmly I explained we're going to find a gas station, there we can slow down and turn around.
We managed to do it very nicely. In this gas station I saw a sign "ON ON". Like Hash House Harriers run.
He continued driving, me nodding off, thinking "this is E67 - straight to Lithuania - no way getting lost". Well, I was wrong. I opened my eyes when we passed an intersection and I asked... are we going into Bialystok, because I think there was a sign "left to Augustow"? He asked "are we in the city already?". I told it looks that way because that moment we passed city border sign. And cops were sleeping in a car next to the road. Then 10 ton limit sign and we had 17 tons.
He started cursing and it continued at least an hour. I told him to calm down, told let's find a roundabout and turn back. And repeating to slow down... we managed to do it...
Guess what was his cargo? Tempered GLASS!
Leaving Bialystok... in a truck 7 tons over allowed mass... he was definitely driving faster than allowed 50km/h, not had his rest before, bad road... going over a bridge so the full truck was in the air and we passed the cops again... they definitely were sleeping because I don't believe they walked to get the donuts.
We made the right turn and he was (between cursing) the intersection was new. So he had been there before. Can he drive only on the roads he had been before?
Road again... dark, boring... I nodded off again and woke up on roundabout near Augustow. Unfortunately after the sign so I didn't know which way to drive off it. And he took wrong one. It became clear very quickly it's the wrong one and we turned around on a very small road... backing on the highway at night... and continued. I think then I didn't fall asleep anymore.
We got the border and went sleeping.

August 22th, Saturday
He was up before me. I found a way and told him I'll continue there on my own... hoping to get a ride on a small quicker car to be in Estonia by the evening. No point of getting to Riga or smaller place (I wasn't sure what's exactly his destination) by the night. Also (of course I didn't tell him that) I was tired of his cursing, complaining and being stupid. But still thankful for the ride. And I wanted to eat normally during the day. I still had something left (for extreme cases) in my bag.
The hitchhiking spot was good but I didn't have luck that much. For a while there were also a couple of Latvian girls who had been in hippie camp in Ukraine. They were cultured hitchhikers (not like the ones - different nationalities - in Hungary) and went further from me to hitchhike because they came later.
Standing there, watching the cars passing, I thought it's easy to recognize a Polish car - they have huge antenna on the roof and they are talking to aliens.
Finally I got a ride. Estonian truck driver. I got to speak Estonian again! Last time I did it with Eve in Vama Veche (and we were also singing in Estonian).
The driver was quite young man, interesting fellow and we were talking almost all the way to Tallinn. The weird thing he told was about a Polish hitchhiker he once took. The guy had a sign "Tallinn" but wasn't Estonian (weird that the driver even mentioned this story). So the driver couldn't speak to him, the driver didn't know English...
Also he had not taken his rest because "he could see the home already". And hoping on weekends Lithuanian road control doesn't work. But we was wrong...
We were stopped... and it took a lot of time until they went through all the paper and stuff and my driver got a fine... very small fine because he didn't write his company's name on some paper.
No punishment for not resting... The driver told me a story about one Polish driver who had been driving for weeks in Scandinavia and then going to Poland. Polish road control took him down and he got crazy fine. And then was allowed to continue driving. From a clean sheet.
We both agreed these guys are (fucking) dangerous and a lot better punishment would be obligatory rest until the morning, for example.
Later the truck had some problems with fuel sensor so at one point the engine switched off and last few meters we rolled to a gas station. He switched to another fuel tank and I bought us hot sandwiches and chocolate. He thanked and told "feels a lot better now". But he didn't have anything to eat...
Almost in Tallinn there was a small car in front of us having sticker "roduaknad.ee" (rõduaknad means "windows of balcony") and when the driver told me that it felt so funny... absurd humour... looks like I really was tired when this looks funny : )
We got to Tallinn after 10 p.m. and he offered his wife could take us closer to the centre, but I wanted to walk and take a tram. When I got to the centre, I felt really weird... not like home at all. Centre, the most representative area in the city was full of drunks, homeless-looking people, young "cool" assholes loud and stupid... and thought about people telling me before Eastern Europe this-and-that... dangerous and ugly. THIS was ugly!
I got home about 11 p.m. Next couple of days was still my vacation and I left for country... relaxed and grilled meat : )
Then I surfed Internet and found some interesting links to share:
Leave No Trace - how to be... I'd say proper hiking enthusiast.
Hitch-hiking tips - from an experienced hitchhiker. From U.S. but still good to know.

The pictures are in Picasaweb!

Distances per day:
Tallinn - Vilnius = 603km
Vilnius - Bielsk Podlaska = 376km
Bielsk Podlaska - Lublin = 203km
Lublin - Lviv = 216km
Lviv - Ivano-Frankivsk = 138km
Ivano-Frankivsk - Vorokhta = 86km
Vorokhta - Kolomyya = 74km
Kolomyya - Siret = 122km
Siret - Bucharest = 478km
Bucharest - Constanta = 226km
Constanta - Vama Veche = 49km
Vama Veche - Constanta - Bucharest - Craiova = 500km
Craiova - Budapest = 724km
Budapest - Györ = 129km
Györ - Drysice = 245km
Drysice - Sadzawki = 885km
Sadzawki - Tallinn = 667km
All together = 5721km
Trains+Bus = 171km
Hitchhiking = 5550km

Disclaimer: This story is totally made up and this world does not exist. Unless you just go have a look... you actually could find similar one...

2009.06.20-25 Bane's party + Midsummer

2009-06-26T19:14:00.016+03:00

As this year Midsummer happened to be in the middle of the week it required something fun had to be done. Especially because Monday was given off work and 5 free days in row had to be used.

One idea was leaving to Oulu, Finland to see even whiter nights than we have... but Bannister planned his birthday on 20th and it sounded too cool to miss it. The style was "color splash" (all in one color but one item)

Food was good, sauna was hot, Munchkin was fun and Bannister got older. Not bad price for such an evening :)
Next morning one guy compared me with Kraftwerk. Even though I had a little alcohol (perhaps just not enough) I had small headache and I only could think about Rammstein and was Kraftwerk one of their albums or not :-P

A little bit of packing (most stuff was packed already) and I took a train from Tallinn to Narva

Narva is pretty nice city with Soviet touch but clean and the Sun was shining and people seemed to be friendly also.

The castle on Estonian side didn't look that fascinating

But the view to Russian castle was awesome!

Unfortunately there was no way getting closer to Swedish-built building of clothing industry.

On the edge of Narva there were garages for boats. The sight was funny because this types of garages I had seen only for cars before. Of were they still for cars and much floods this year?
In that case it was just stupid to build garages there...

Then I rode my bike along the channel from Narva to a power plant.

And next to side of it...

My road went to Arumäe, Soldina and on gravel roads to Hiiemetsa where I spent my first night. It's a swamps district and the ground was very wet.

Next morning I woke up before 7 A.M. and next stop was Sinimäe. Famous battle fields there. Too early - the museum was closed. But I can go back anyway. Sightseeing platform was great and especially I loved the construction

Next stop - Viivikonna. A mostly abandoned Soviet mining part of city.

I didn't feel like (which is very unusual for me) going into these houses... but compared to Patarei Prison in Tallinn where still is stuff and documents around. Generally the town seemed OK. Some people walking around, some working, some having green gardens. A very green place.
Didn't ask locals though... how it feels to live there. Probably pretty scary.

Then I thought of taking a quarry road. But there are "no entry" signs (this one wasn't shown on my map) so I had to take another gravel road. At some point it turned into all-rock-road. Very hard to cycle on it (always afraid to break a tyre) but impossible to walk on it.

Finally made it to normal ashpalt road again and next stop - a gas station east of Jõhvi. I missed tea already and a beer...

Next stop - Pühtitsa Convent. Funny picture but soon became weird - everyone was taking "holy water" with tanks.

Only reasonable explanation for me was: they live 2km from this place and that's the closest well for them. Or they want eat, drink and wash in this only so even their crap will be holy.

But the convent itself looked awesome (I had been there also last year). And they sold kvass. It tasted almost like the one we had in Soviet times in big yellow metal barrels. "Almost" most probably because at the convent it was fresh ;)

I asked the girl who sold the kvass if I could take a picture. She seemed a bit flattered but answered like a nun - not this window, on the territory - yes.

Now cycling towards Vasknarva - both sides of roads swamp - nature reserves. And horseflies chasing me for kilometers.

Arriving to Vasknarva

The village is OK, many new buildings that suit with each other. Most cars - Mercedes-Benz (older one's like ex-Soviet mafia guys). I heard speaking only Russian and no way of getting on the bank of Narva river in the village to see Russia - all blocked with signs "Eratee" (private road). Probably that's the only word they understand in Estonian.

There - a place with beautiful beach, protected sand dunes - I thought of spending my next night but it was crowded with blood-sucking little fly-like bugs. As I didn't know how are these called in Estonian and never "felt" them before than in this "small-Russia" I thought of calling them Sibulakärbsed (OnionFlies - Estonians know what I mean).

It was not possible to spend night there - they go through tent's nets anyway I had to bike more... about 17 km to get rid of them. And I found an official tenting area. Another problem - some Russian-speaking guys having a party - no place to have a rest.
Another 9 km of roads and I found a nice place with quiet neighbors and not pay-n-camp area.

There I broke by bike computer. I had riden on the first day about 30km (4 hours around the city), 117km on the second.

Somewhere near Tammispää I was a tower next to the lake. Of course I just had to climb up.

I did see a car next to the tower and some people up there - I thought another tourists. But the upper trap door was closed. So I thought they come down, I'll go up. I was surprised when a guy in Boarder Guard uniform came down and asked "With whom I have the honor" (understandable - I had Estonian military boots on, U.S. military pants, Estonian military long-sleeved shirt, reflecting vest and black headscarf.
I explained I'm biking and saw a tower.
He replied that this is Border guard tower and couldn't I see the car downstairs?
I told that I saw and thought there are other tourists.
He said that there are chains and trap doors!
I confirmed I had seen the chains and trap doors were all open, no signs anywhere.
Then he asked what's my purpose and hearing just taking pictures, he said "OK" and disappeared up behind the trap door again. I had nice view abd shots.

I cycled towards Mustvee, thinking to go into the town... but somehow I didn't turn at the right point to I went to a gas station, took an ice cream and bike chain oil and cycled to next junction to have a nice break... there I saw a sign "Tartu - 61km". From Tartu go trains to Orava where were my friends celebrating Midsummer and the next one was the most important night.
And I thought it's not that far... I had 4 hours and 20 minutes to the train.

I called my friends - yes, they were there and there was room for one more. I called info line 1185 and they said the train is going at 6:14 P.M. Unfortunately they didn't check it was public holiday and no trains... but still I was happy they "lied" because otherwise I wouldn't have had party with my friends... I write about it later...

So 61km to Tartu and the only thing I was sorry I didn't see Mustvee and had pickles and fish people sell by the road there. It's local special. Have to go back!

Towards Tartu roads became more hilly and some 20km before Tartu wind raised... kind on testing my nerves. Before Tartu I took small break at a gas station. Thinking of having a yoghurt but it looked too big portion... and because of being tired and holding too many things I dropped it... and half of it was on the floor. I still bought it and my "problem" was solved.

I made it to Tartu... 61 kilometers but I didn't count I also need to ride inside the city and that takes time... I hurried. At 6 P.M. I was in railway station. Soon a train stopped and a lady started speaking to train engineer. The engineer said he's sorry but the trains goes to depot and it's holiday schedule. He's gonna call someone and asks about the situation.

The lady left but I was curious to find out what will he be told. After some time he came back and told nothing can be done. He cheered me a little and suggested to have a party in a couple other places or take train with him next morning but I told I have friends waiting. He was sorry, I wished him the best and left to bus station.

The bus was about to leave and I waited the bus driver to stop talking to a lady between the door but suddenly the driver closed the bus door in front of the lady and the lady left. I waved to the driver. He opened the door and complained it's departure time and why was I standing like this.

I asked if I could fit my bike somewhere and fourtunately it fit just perfect in the luggage room.

The bus ride - nice and relaxing - was for 40km. Lucky me - Laura's (one of my friends in Mikitamäe) brother was still sober and agreed to pick me up. So I rode about 5 more kilometers and Laura's brother 80 kilometers to pick me up.

This place looked just perfect - friends (one I hadn't seen for quite a long time already), lake water, sauna, fire, beers, delicious food!

At some point somebody had an idea to visit Midsummer celebrations in Värska. As it was already Setomaa (area with special culture) I found this idea interesting and hoping to hear local folk singing or something. But no, it was the party exactly like everywhere else in Estonia - big fire, stage with local band (playing tunes that everyone knows), Village Swing

... and folk sports and audience for the sports games just as stupid as everywhere else. One screaming that other one is cheating and then doing the "sports" and cheating the same way etc.
At least they we're not violent... this also happens to be common for these celebrations in Estonia.

Thanks to Laura's bro again we got to the party and thanks to Eve we got comfortably back. Having sauna and staying up to the morning with Ronald to see sunrise (unfortunately it was too cloudy) we had nice conversation.

The day ended with biking "only" 94km + inside Tartu and bus ride and 40km by car.

Next morning we didn't hurry anywhere - waking up, sunbathing, eating, some swimming. I didn't have much connectivity with mobile phone and after one try I didn't call to info line.
Everyone left at about 5 P.M., I cycled to closest village centre and called info line... no trains from the station 11km far, no buses from closer town and one last bus after 3 hours from Põlva, a town 40km away. I thought I could do 40km in two hours, no problem...

But the wind again... and the hills.

Finally I got to Põlva. Some time left. I thought I needed some cash for the bus so I tried one bank office but the lady that went in was surprised I also went in and told it's a private area... I told in some place bank machines are inside banks and you use your card to get in... then I chose wring way inside Põlva - downhill. I saw another lady and asked which way was the bus station. She showed up the hill... SHIT!

I worked hard to get up there, heavy backpack on bike's luggage carrier... found a bank machine and made it to bus station. The time was 8 P.M. sharp. I asked the driver if I could fit in...
He told he should be leaving.

He told I need to unscrew the handle bar and turn it. I tried just without front wheel - didn't fit. The driver kept on complaining. I found the tools, local drunks helping me (I can say thanks to them making fuss, talking "helping" and helping the driver couldn't just go.

I paid for the ticket and turned around to shake one drunk's hand and he asked for "10" I had got back from the driver. Of course I gave it. It was 6 minutes past 8.

I was happy to arrive in Tartu. I knew that even if I had to stay there to the morning (I'd put up a tent a little outside of the city anyway) still I could get to Tallinn in the morning.

I got there at 9:15. I asked about buses from Võru bus driver (he was polite and helping) and then Liis called (which was super-nice from her). Then I called info line and they told me last bus to Tallinn had left at 9:00. "Holiday schedule"! No more trains either. Last one leaves every day at 7:54 P.M.
Next option was 3 A.M. bus. Expensive (fucking twice the normal price) but fast and existing...

I got another idea. To hitch-hike on a truck at some gas station. I rode towards city border and found Tartu Brewery

Didn't find gas station there. Rode to another side of the city - found a gas station but in a couple of hours no trucks stopped there - public holiday?

I went back to the centre to waste some time and took photos. This day's mileage 40km + a few in Tartu and later a couple in Tallinn.

At some point one man started to talk to me. He was about 40. Talking he got wasted during celebrations, sleeping with about 20 years old "Russian" "girl" at a hostel for money of course but when he woke up about EUR 1.400,- was gone and the chick too...

I even didn't say I was sorry because I really wasn't. But he asked for 25 EEK it'd help him to get back to Saaremaa. He's working in Finland and can pay ma back double and when I'm going to Saaremaa (he gave me his number) I can visit him and get help etc.

I didn't give him money. Suggested to hitch-hike. Telling if I didn't have a bike I'd be at home already. He said "to Tallinn, yeah. But Saaremaa is different". I told him about hitch-hiking to Scotland. He said: "I'm not this kind of person".

At this point I even didn't conscider giving him any money because I am "this kind of person". Screwing girls that can be his daughters and being arrogant with his euros and getting drunk like shit and begging money at bus station... that's the person he is but waving to a driver and making conversation, entertaining a driver - too much for him. Live and learn, bwoy!

But I was glad the man came talking. Because it happens on every trip - an homeless, a drunk, someone random comes and makes a conversation. This trip was almost over and I started worrying :)

Then a little more waiting and my bus came. I got to Tallinn at 5:15 in the morning. Little bit of cycling, shower, one hour sleeping and at work in time. Had to leave and hour earlier in the evening because of being too tired... and then sleeping to the next morning :)

MORE PICTURES

2009.04.7-12 Riga + Aachen + Maastricht + Kelmis

2009-04-13T14:12:00.021+02:00

This trip was thanks to Baiba's camp in Midsummer last year. And to the fact Janine also took part of it. Actually it's amazingly long queue of coincidences and things went not as planned since 2007 when I quit my job to travel a bit... going to Kaunas, met REAL Hospitality Club spirits and so on.

Already at Baiba's camp 2008 I was invited to Aachen, few times through Internet conversations and of course when Janine visited Tallinn later.

It's not easy to be a working person. You only have chance to run away at vacation or public holidays. And some holidays are just not meant for traveling.
And if I didn't work... I would have no money for it.

Easter is a blessing - long holidays and not that serious religious holiday. In Estonia people only have fun breaking boiled eggs :)

For long time after trip to Ukraine I had no urge for planning travels until suddenly I felt it and decided Aachen will be my destination for Easter and also picked my destinations for SummerTrip 2009.

In no time it became clear, I have to go by plane (because not enough time for hitch-hiking) and this will be my first flying experience. Picking flight company wasn't too hard. RyanAir did sound as a perfect choice. The question was - to Weeze or to Brussels. I was a bit lazy and Brussels became fully booked earlier. This made choosing easier and I booked my flight.

Booking itself wasn't that easy - all those terms were confusing. And "hand luggage" - dimensions and weight, what can't be taken along, etc.

The holidays were supposed to begin on Friday and until Sunday evening. As I didn't get whole vacation last year, I got two extra days free with no problem now.

I decided to go to Riga in the evening before flight and CouchSurf a night. Or to stay in hostel and still have fun. Bus trip did sound a little better than hitch-hiking after working day, as it gets dark quite early.

Bus trip took 4,5 hours for these 307km. I could have hitch-hiked because the weather was fine and thanks to that it didn't go dark that early. Of course that would have required some luck. The Eurolines bus ticket was only ~12 EUR anyway.

Agnese, my friend in Riga, reminded me they have Regular Meetings on Tuesdays. I wanted to attend one for a long time already and that made my mind on taking a bus - not to be late for that too much. Unfortunately I had to skip my Finnish lesson. I didn't even think about it...

That Tuesday was the first time for me to be at work without suit (except stocktaking day this year). When doing to work in a trolley, I noticed trams have Latvian flags next to Estonian flag. Most definitely to greet my decision to visit Latvia.
Arriving to Riga was at the time the Regular Meeting had already started. I still didn't have map of Riga (it IS important to have one) so I took a couple of photos

and decided to walk around a bit and find the place by looking street names. I was successful after finding a church first from which I heard organ concert and saw light show.

As I usually walk in Riga and after some time find myself in the same spot like a vicious circle, also this time. Good thing I saw the Riga Old Town hostel, because after a couple of hundred meters I would have been in bus terminal again.

The meeting had started but everyone staying outside. That reminded me one topic in CS forums "Is Riga nightlife non-smoker friendly?". Turned out not very friendly - non-smokers have to stay outside with smokers.

After they finished painting jobs inside, we could move in. Drinking some beer, chatting, having fun
And we had to go home... sleeping. All of us three - me, Agnese and Didzis had to be up early. We took Lady Taxi - only women at wheel! I still owe part of this ride. But I'll make it even when Agnese's promise will be fulfilled and they visit Tallinn :)

That evening we had some Vana Tallinn Cream liquor, listened Roots Rock Reggae (many thanks for that!) and went to sleep. Me on air-bed and members of the household - on the COUCH :-D

Next morning we woke up, ate a little and with Agnese left to the center. I into the bus for airport on last second and to airport when it was already almost gate closing time.
I went quickly to info desk, asking where does RyanAir go from. They told "Gate B7" and showed direction with hand.

I stood up in queue. Rudely between others as my plane was about to leave. Baggage check. And not only - I had to strip there! Taking my jacket and belt off...
Then asked to open my bag. I knew pressured cans are not allowed and I was thinking I don't have any spray with me. But I had shaving cream... forgot.
And then... these perverts... told that I can't take half a liter of Vana Tallinn on board. I didn't have anybody to give it to and didn't have time to go back from the gates so it traveled to recycle bin. Hopefully cleaning lady will recycle it at home...
I was wondering if they had let me to drink it if I asked :)

I reached exit of terminal and there I saw sign "B7". Smart info desk...

Rolling to starting point took some time, I already thought we're gonna roll to Germany.

One engine was shaking a bit but it didn't make me worry. We took off. Good thing I was sitting by the window. So it was interesting. No fear for flying. I was even wondering how it would feel to have some problems up there... Of course I was glad nothing happened.

Landing on Weeze (Düsseldorf) airport didn't feel so good. Maybe because of feeling hungry my stomach was complaining.
The weather was great and I felt like walking a bit, finding place to eat, looking the neighborhood and finding out which way I really should go (this smart guy just LEFT the maps at home, only a couple of printed Google maps were with me).

The neighborhood was cute. Horses in people's gardens, blossoms, flowers and everything green. Very different was one thing - people were doing same works as here in Estonia in the country but they didn't have new John Deere tractors everywhere. Later I noticed same things with bikes - rarely I saw a new bike. But here if the bike doesn't look good, it stays in basement... "Good thinking" award goes to Germany.

I reached to town called Kevelaer (almost like the famous material). There I saw sign Pfeffer Grill and I already felt really hungry. The waitress thought I was an Englishman (and a couple of others during this trip did - not like usually - Polish).
Little uncomfortable for me is to get service and then pay. Later I found out it's like that even it toilets (which actually is great if you're really in hurry) ;)
But I'm afraid of running out of cash. Or that bank cards doesn't work.

The food was good and portion huge. The best was salad. After eating all that, moving myself was a bit hard. Recommendation the waitress made for beer was very good!
On the check the food was called "Schlemmer" (dictionary says "Glutton". But it was "daily special". There were also "pommes klein" and "speisen" in the list on my check, but not beer?!

Finished my feast and continued walking. By then already knowing which way and finding good hitch-hiking spot was my next plan. After a couple of kilometers I found it. And it started raining. Heavily. Then stopping for a while and more falling... a few times like that.

I got SMS from Janine that hot shower, some soup and cold beer is waiting for me in Aachen. From that moment a tune from Guns'n'Roses kept playing in my head "take me down to the Paradise City...".

Then I was picked up my an old man, about 80 years old. By then I had walked about 13km.

The Old man was speaking English quite well. He was showing asparagus fields and telling this is Capital of Asparagus or something like that. Then he showed towards old windmill and telling it's the oldest in Germany and about 500 years old. He was in team restoring it and now volunteers work there. He claimed himself not doing things for money... well, he was driving quite new Mercedes-Benz.
Anyway I was glad to be his "good deed of the day" as they were told when he was young scout.

He dropped me off in very nice hitch-hiking spot. I stood on pedestrian and cyclists' path and waving my poster.

Stopped a man with a van. He didn't understand English that well and looked a bit crazy. He saw my poster "Aachen" but asked about destination, talking mostly in German, sometimes saying "cows" in German and waving towards cows on field. Mentioning "cowboys". And very soon after picking me up turned away from the main road (just like in Estonian movie "Jan Uuspõld Läheb Tartusse" the milk truck driver).
I thought he just has to pick something up or to change the car... whatever.

We stopped at a warehouse of Bioland. There were more funny looking men, pretending to work and load trucks. But they weren't acting suspicious. Not talking English very well, but still understandably. Sharing me tomatoes, oranges and constantly mentioning "Bio". The tomatoes were better than the usual ones we have in supermarkets but not half as good as my mother is growing at the country. The oranges were good also.

One obvious question the man who brought me there, asked "why are you going to Aachen?". I answered "to visit a friend". "Girlfriend?", he asked. I said: "No". "Boyfriend?" he asked next.

After perhaps half an hour waiting another man told me he's ready and we left for Venlo. It was old truck, driven already 1 300 000 kilometers. The driver was cool, but not making very long conversations. Fortunately he left me on great hitch-hiking spot at the start of autobahn 61.
Something that wasn't very fortunate... nobody wanted to pick me up.
Suddenly some guys passed me, driving in small red van in distant lane not the way I needed and after some time first car stopped... they offered to take me to next railway station. I politely refused - I wasn't that bored yet and it was light outside. Moreover, it was perfect place for hitch-hiking.
Right after this one left, small red van stopped (probably the same from which they were shouting before). And they offered to take me to railway station. I thought perhaps there will be a gas station on the road and sat in the car. While driving they offered me joint... just in talk. I refused.
They dropped me at small gas station, telling trucks will be stopping there after 10 in the evening. How many times I had heard this sentence before so I didn't even consider waiting there.
The road we turned down from autobahn was one-way. So I started walking south... to find hitch-hiking spot. There were cars and nobody stopped. It got dark.
Good thing - there was hotel nearby and at one point I decided to go and ask about closest railway station (I heard trains passing before). Knowing that if you hear trains in Estonia, they can be 10 km away and closest stop too many kilometers away.
At the hotel they invited one man who spoke English very well. Others did too, but I guess they were a bit shy.
The man printed me train departure times and platforms and names of places I needed to change trains. Then he showed which way was the station - only 800 meters away. Of course - trains in Germany are as quiet as elevators here. That's why you can't hear them 10km away.

Waiting at Boisheim train stop (funny saying: "Some trains stop at every recycle bin") :-D
And finding out which ticket I needed and trying to get it from special machine... not the easiest task. But I managed to do it. One man in train even checked my ticket and it was OK.
On that train I did some "bad stuff" with my marker pen. I painted on small recycle bin... actually I just covered little "bomb" image painted on the bin.
I thought trains are very serious in Germany, but train radio surprised me - at some point heard laughter, rapping, bulls* talking from loud speakers.

I managed to get to Aachen and change train there to get to East End and find my CouchSitters - Oliver and Marianna. Even though already in Boisheim my phone said "Whatever! I quit!" and switched off...
We went together to my host's, Janine's, place. She, unfortunately, had to leave to work already few hours ago. So I was talking to Olli and Marianna until they left.

I had nice long sleep without any thought of work and responsibilities and I woke up a little before Janine. It was lovely welcome after several months we saw last time.

We had breakfast of fresh bread rolls brought same morning, tasty cheese and left to do sightseeing. The weather was wonderful! But before sightseeing I wanted to visit factory shop of Lindt & Sprüngli. Because next day it was supposed to be closed for (inter)national holiday.

It was together more than 2kg of sweets and next morning when I saw the bag of sweets next to my rucksack I noticed the bag of sweets is bigger... and there was more stuff I had to take back home. Somehow I managed to fit the sweets in it.

Anyway first object in sightseeing object was small park with tower and café at the top. We had a beer inside. The waitress was asking after ordering one alcohol-free beer "who's the poor one that has to drive?" :-D
The view from up there and the little park reminded me homeland Estonia in the summer

Then we did sightseeing tour. Janine is definitely better guide than professional ones. She took me to all important places and stories were in most interesting order - special stories according to place. Also she was worried about my health and lead me to tap of healthy water. Don't hesitate trying it if you go to Aachen. And it's for free!

And then... too bad - Janine had to leave for work. But she had found a guide for me - my CouchSitter Olli!
First I went eating before meeting Olli. It was simple restaurant, looking nice inside and service was good. One thing the waiter didn't know was name of the place. He went to ask :-P
Food was great - baked potatoes, salad and little grilled meat pieces. And not expensive.
Then it was the time to meet Olli. He planned little biking tour up to border meeting point of three counties - Germany, Netherlands and Belgium.

We would have gone there with Janine anyway, but on bike it was much more fun - inside forest. Especially coming down over the pine roots and along cycling path quite fast because unlike here in Estonia there was no need to hold back because of holes in asphalt.

And there was another fun event in plan for this day - Regular Monthly CS-Meeting of Aachen. Real CouchSurfing week - already third regular meeting in 7 days.
I had great dark weissbier (wheat beer) Franziskaner!

After the meeting was over, I left to Janine's place. There I ate the soup she had made. And that was super tasty. Spicy, but not burning like Estonian mustard, still you could feel the spices.

Next morning I also woke up little before Janine. Had bread rolls and tea on the balcony, sun was shining, birds singing and I felt wonderful.
As it was already Friday and the holiday Janine was preparing special food with asparagus, boiled potatoes and salads. Olli also joined the dinner. It tasted real good. I wonder why asparagus is not that well spread in Estonia.

As we got out quite late this evening we just walked to the center and around a bit and Janine had to leave for work...
Me and Olli continued the plan of visiting Maastricht that day. We went there by bus and I didn't even noticed when suddenly we were in territory of Netherlands.
Maastricht is really beautiful (as Aachen, of course). River (which is always nice to see) and lots of green.

Janine had advised us to go eating Belgian fries (in English they are know as French fries).
Unfortunately Reitz was closed and we had to find another place.
We found it next to a big square. There was in the menu they also serve only the fries (for two EUR). Later I found out for small (but tasty) portion of tomato sauce they charged 1 EUR. Olli was also surprised about the pricing when they asked for simple Pita (with some middle-east type things inside) a little too much.
Waitress asked what we'd like to drink. I ordered beer. And if she could recommend me one. She brought alcohol-free. Now I know - in Netherlands beer = some weird alcohol free liquid (don't get angry on me, dear Dutchmen) :-D

On our way back in the bus (we almost missed it because of trying to be smarter than bus schedules) we just laid back. We also though of visiting a pub this evening.
On web page of the pub they said "no dancing because of the holidays!"
But while being laid back in the bus, a stranger started to speak with Olli. Soon it came out he was also CouchSurfer. An Albanian.

Later we went all together to the pub. On our way was tap on the "health water" again. I suggested him to do some touristy stuff and try the water. He was very suspecting but eventually tried it. You gotta have some fun with visitors :)
At the pub. There was no dancing. Just a couple of guys making weird moves in the middle of dance floor. The Albanian bought us beers (thanks!) and I did a couple of moves (but not dancing) myself.

Then I walked to Janine's place and found out actually I don't need buses in Aachen to go to center. It was only 3km walk.
The next day I also woke up late. Not too long time before Janine. Fresh bread rolls again, tea, sitting in balcony and reading LonelyPlanet about Germany.

Again Janine was cooking and serving beer. This time pumpkin risotto. Never had it before. I know next time she will hack the recipe a bit ;)
Then her parents came visiting. This was also fun! Such a great couple! And not too serious. Quite fun loving, I'd say. I hope to host them in Tallinn one day!

The plan for that day was Medieval event, strongly recommended by Janine's colleague. Even though Olli was invited he had something else to do.
So we went, me and Janine, by car. Driving there was fun and nice. The Eyneburg castle where the event was taking place was in Belgium. In beautiful hilly area.
The only thing even with map and road descriptions it wasn't very easy to find it.

It was pretty amazing how much they had worked at this event - all the costumes, accessories, swords, decorations, songs, old style speeches, communicating with audience, tricks, music, dancers, traditional drinks (I had green herbal sweet something), traditional dutch food (something pizza-like, with crunchy onions and ham). Probably I also forgot something...

Then the sad part... we had to leave. Janine for work and me to Airport. My plane was going to leave next morning but there wasn't very good transport option for the morning and I didn't find any CouchSurfers in Weeze to come out with me. They responded me later. To bad I didn't ask more time ahead.

When we reached Janine's place we were quite in a hurry. Quick tea, a couple of bread rolls for the road, eating rest of the salads and we left.
She took me to the best railway stop and bye-bye... of course I promised to go back as there is still much to do that I didn't during these busy days.

This should be the segment here to write how good my host was. But I really can't. I have only one problem - to vouch for her for thanks. Another Aachen CS community member Chris told me: "You are staying at the best host of Aachen". I don't have any doubt. And I'm not going to ask different people for couch next time.
And not only host... she's the perfect friend to have. Especially cute were little letters she left for me to make me as comfortable as possible.

Then I experienced Deutsche Bahn train running late. About 15 minutes. That could be a problem, because the train numbers shown in Internet (but not on the ticket) doesn't match. So you can't really know it's the right one.

Then you can't know when it will arrive to your destination. Fortunately there were train stops running in info boards.
I changed the train. This one was (luckily) also late but no info boards. So I had to count stops and look out what's the current stop.
In that train I had conversation in which I used German words a lot more than in any other conversation I had these days. The conversation partner was quite drunken "local" guy. Hands pretty dirty. But he had nice attitude.
We even got that far to compare families. He also had a "schwester" and two brothers. But he was the youngest in family.

When he was leaving, we didn't shake hands - his were dirty and sinks too far. So we waved and when he was out, he (and me following) made a pat against train window.

I arrived to Weeze. It was a bit raining. Before I had heard hail falling. At the train station there were Asian looking people sitting next to big backpacks and playing cards outside under roof. I left train station. There was sign showing "to Airport". Next time I saw one was outside of town again. So in the mean time I was guessing which way I should go.
Before I left the town I walked around a bit. Very nice place. Next to big church outside some coal was still glowing - looked like someone just finished barbecue there.
Then I noticed one man going into the church with a woman. It was already passed midnight. Romance probably ;)
I walked out of the city and heading to airport. A couple of kilometers after (it was still raining a bit) a car stopped by me and asked in German "to airport?". I answered and sat in the car.
It was a few kilometer ride. At the airport I ate my breads, drank a couple of teas and nodded off a couple of times.

In the morning I went to the baggage check and no problems... this time they wanted other half of my ticket. That was weird. Now I had two different halves of two tickets.
There was still time until we were allowed to go to plane and in that time I found out how terribly annoying can be Italian youngsters after my night without proper sleep. They were loud, stupid, pushing each other...

Then the boarding. This time I wasn't lucky (fast, even trying) enough so I didn't get seat under the window. And without window flying is boring (especially when you leave headphones home to carry another bottle of Vana Tallinn which travels only to Airport recycle bin) but luckily I was so tired I slept almost whole flight. Not too comfortable though...

Landing was smoother than last time and sun was shining. Still a bit chilly. I decided to walk a bit and to see if there's good way to hitch-hike from there. I didn't find it and map didn't support me. So I took a bus. Unfortunately Agnese had left the city so in the center I sat on tram and left towards city border, the usual hitch-hiking spot. On the way there I met ticket control. They were even more funny looking than ticket controls here, in Tallinn.

Before starting, I thought of eating something and as I didn't see any place suitable, I went to Maxima and bought something usual.

I reached the spot and two girls were already hitch-hiking. I wished them luck and stepped few meters behind them. Before I got to take out my poster "Tallinn", a car stopped by me and two girls offered me ride. They also had two kids on back seat.
The ride was only few kilometers to my next usual spot. I spoke in Russian with them. At least they could understand me.

And I didn't wait for my next ride too long time. A car with British license plate stopped. Ride was offered to Saulkrasti. Quite young man was driving, mother sitting on the (right!) side. Again talking in Russian. They had come from Great Britain by car through Paris and other nice cities. Driver was also member of CouchSurfing but we didn't talk about it much. He explained some Russian web site which also deals with that. For some time he explained his mother CS-things and traveling hitch-hiking. Then he told me how some people are hitch-hiking - instead of showing thumbs, they use same radios as truck drivers.
At the end of the ride the mother offered me to CouchSurf at their place in Saulkrasti. I refused, because I had to be at work next day.
The spot was good for hitch-hiking. But again - nobody wanted to stop for long time. So I walked, sat, enjoyed the sunshine. Finally one man stopped.
Destination - Ainaži. I said "labdien" so correctly that the man started talking in Latvian language with me. Right away we went over on Russian. But didn't talk much. Bright light and the night without sleeping did their job, I nodded again during this short ride.
In Ainaži I didn't wait. Just walked to Estonia. It was a bit confusing, because I hadn't crossed that border on foot yet and there was no border - just buildings.

In Ikla I think I waited most half an hour. A car with Estonian number plates stopped. I said greetings in Estonian. The answer was a bit weird. Anyway I sat in and quite soon it came out the old man was Latvian, already from 70s living and working in Estonia. That was very interesting ride.
He made long report on topic "bringing cars from Germany as business", "dealing with Polish mafia and the connections the mafia had", laughing together over people living in huts about to fall apart but driving Lexus cars and many many more things.
Still the man was bright enough to check from time to time if I really was listening. Yes, I was and also talking. In Russian, of course.

Wonderful trip and I will go to Aachen again. Unfortunately not time to hitch-hike there.

2009.03.7-8 Riga, City of Spring and Love

2009-03-09T15:54:00.009+02:00

On the 6th of March I suddenly felt spring in my mind and weird, un-known urge to visit Riga and meet those awesome people I know there.
And in this very short time I also made plans for my summer trip.

Anyway... Friday was quiet, concerts in Tallinn didn't sound interesting so I didn't do anything special. Next morning I packed last few things and took a bus 18 to go hitch-hiking. Some candies and a bottle of liquor I bought from Viru Keskus (they have strawberry and marzipan praline candies there - impossible to find in supermarkets).

The bus went 30 minutes and at 11:00 I was by the road, poster "Riga" in my hands. In 25 minutes I got my first ride. It was green Žiguli "06". Good young fellow was driving. He had just come from Turkey working as a guide.

He was curious about the time I drove Žiguli last time. It wasn't that long time ago. I didn't mention it felt a lot more special to drive old Volga car from seventies, about to fall apart :)

So we drove to Pärnu, having nice conversation. He let me out on Northern side on Pärnu. I went shopping, walked few hundred meters and started hitch-hiking again. It didn't take long time, about 20 minutes or so when I saw one car coming towards me, passing me, turning around and picking me up. We were talking, he asked about hitch-hiking in Germany. It hadn't gone so well for him last year there. And he dropped me off at the southern side of Pärnu. And turned back to town... :-D

"Thumbs up" again. Not much longer than 15 minutes it took for me to get another ride. This time pretty new Audi A4, 3,3L engine. A woman was driving and speeding a little. Of course, what's the point of having such car and not speeding.
We weren't talking at all after I said "tere" when I sat in.
After some time of going car started to blink the headlights and we slowed down a little. Soon we noticed cops sitting in the bushes like rabbits. And our speed went up again.
After few kilometers we saw someone with magic wand waving us in the middle of road. Cops again. With car in private colors. The lady was invited to their car to spend some time...
And she came back with a yellow note in her hands. Probably cops phone number...

We continued the trip. In Latvia, close to Riga she suddenly noticed police driving at us. She quickly slowed down and as the police car passed, they also slowed down. The lady hit her hand against the wheel. But she was lucky, they didn't turn around.

We arrived to Riga and she dropped me very close to Old Town. I thanked her (in Russian, because I had understood it in the mean time).

From 2009.03.7-8 Riga Spring & Love

I walked to Old Town and around, around, around... I tried to select different random streets but all the time I ended up at the same place.

From 2009.03.7-8 Riga Spring & Love

I sat in Irish Pub Paddy's the beer was good and the guys at the pub... from Great Britain. And didn't seems so great at all... They were watching football and mainly two words I heard from their mouths.

I sent SMS to few friends and I was invited for a walk and dinner at the same time.
I chose walking to dinner to join two great things. When I realized we're not walking to dinner, it was too late and I got SMS saying like "damn, you're late, bastard!". I got some instructions how to get to dinner and phone battery got empty. I felt bad already because I was late. Now I was late, in hurry and didn't have a clear idea where to go. So I started walking quickly to direction I felt right. But it wasn't. I asked for direction from a guy with guitar who had just finished playing in a restaurant. This was great guy. And showed me exact place where to be.

I tried my phone again and battery was working (now, on Monday evening it's still working wine and battery is more than half full). Baiba came out, half naked :)
She had also another guest. American girl Tessa, studying in Germany.
Baiba offered me a lot of food and it tasted good. Fresh salad, fish...

Then we left for a party where I was also invited before. I didn't know it, because even though I wrote in forums I can't read messages in the evening, there was the invitation.

From 2009.03.7-8 Riga Spring & Love

The house party was nice. James recognized me, even though we met in 2007, April. And didn't spend much time together at Kinderis Camp. Drinking, chatting and we left for pub in Riga Old Town Hostel. There I met Swedish girls who had interesting things to say. And with Bernard I had funny conversation. I really hope to continue that!

From 2009.03.7-8 Riga Spring & Love

After a beer left clubbing. I didn't even have to buy the ticket (thank you!) :)
It was very cozy little club and during whole evening I had two beers there. And dancing almost whole time.

After my phone clock alarm woke me up at 12 o'clock I felt like I had drank half a liter of vodka and some wine. But it went better quickly. I had told Agnese last night we can go for a walk together next day at 12 but I'll SMS her before... I was late already, so I sent her a message. She agreed to meet me 12:30 and the moment

From 2009.03.7-8 Riga Spring & Love

I got the message it was 12:20 already. So again... I was late. But I took Tessa with me for a walk. I left Baiba's place. She's just perfect host and a wonderful person (take care ;) )

It was International Women's Day (not THAT international, to be honest) so while walking with two ladies I was looking for kiosks that sell flowers. None. After I sent Agnese back to work I saw flowers. I bought two.
And I took Tessa to Lido. The place looked great but it was so crowded it was impossible to enjoy the place. During this time I didn't see any sign of crisis.
The fact that government doesn't have money doesn't mean people can't have fun.
It's just politicians are too good in wasting money they don't earn or have...

We took a tram back and Tessa wanted to continue walking with me and we went along Brivibas iela. We stepped into a Cafe and ordered tea. It wasn't bag of Dust Of Lipton, it wasn't fancy cannabis - water lily - orange tea... but simple green tea with big leafs. Perfect!

We continued walking and at one point Tessa decided she'll take a tram back. I though the tram line is going to end soon so I'll just keep walking. It turned darker and I started to worry a little. I was walking walking walking... and finally made it to the edge of the city. I didn't remember it's such a long road. More than 10 kilometers was my walk.

I was hitch-hiking for some time and two more girls came to hitch-hike. The place is great - street lights, wide road and where road get more wide, it's convenient for the drivers to stop. Girls were hitch-hiking without poster. And after 15 minutes or less they got a ride even though they were standing after me.

18:35 I was at the spot and around 19:45 I got a ride. Actually not that long waiting but in darkness it feels longer. The guy picked me up. It started raining (first rain. Liga got what she asked for in the summer - Rein was leaving and rain came instead). The car had Latvian license plate I said in Latvian I wanted to Estonia. He spoke to me in Russian and he went to Tartu. I had thought before I'll agree only with "Tallinn", and I was holding sign "EST" but Tartu sounded better than going back and waiting for a bus (it it goes at all) or staying another night in Riga (not that I didn't want to, but Monday is working day). So we went towards Tartu. He offered perhaps I want to stay in junction of road to Riga and E67 but waiting in total darkness didn't sound so great.
He also offered me to stay in Valga, but Valga... :-D

In Tartu he asked if I wanted to go to center or Tallinn - Tartu road.
I chose the road, because I knew Tartu people love to go to sleep early and the buses are not going to Tallinn any more. The driver made a big detour for me around Tartu and I was afraid he'll drop me few kilometers from Tartu in darkness at the junction but no, this was wise man and took me to closest bus stop (it was raining a little) where the street lights were. I was there about 11:15 P.M.

Before midnight I got a ride. Straight to Tallinn. The driver stopped, picked me up and asked if drivers are still picking people up that late in the evening... he was :-D
On the road to Tallinn there was really rare when cars were going. Next but was 3 o'clock in the morning.
I had really great conversation with this man. He even bought me tea at one stop. Firstly I noticed he was listening Russian speaking radio. It felt odd. Then I thought I just switched off my MP3-player were was also Dub Community Of Russia playing.
Later it came out his mother language was Russian and he learned Estonian after time service in army. His grammar was perfect and even pronunciation - without accent.
Only thing that he stumbled on was when he mixed up spring and summer - which comes first. But it was after midnight and it happens to everyone that simple thing confuse you.
I was at my place around 1:35 or so. He took me where I was living and making quite a extra trip for that. Great guy!

It's great going around and watching names of small places. Like Murjani (Latvia) (murjan = dirty person in Estonian old slang); Muusika (Estonia) = music; Plika (Estonia) little girl in slang; Rebaste (Estonia) Foxes' (village). Kõduküla (Estonia) Moulder village.
One car had license plate "THC".

Rein
10.03.2009
P.S. If you want to see rest of the pictures: RigaSpringLove

"Is TV imitating life or Life imitating television?" (stencil on the edge of Stenbock house (Government) in Tallinn.

2008.09 Poland - Ukraine - Poland - Lithuania

2008-09-19T22:10:00.064+02:00

2008.09 Tallinn (EST) - Bialystok (PL) - Lublin - Lviv (UA) - Kyiv - Odesa - Zaporizhya - Simferopol - Alushta - Yalta - Simferopol - Lviv - Przemyśl (PL) - Gdańsk - Gdynia - Sopot - Suwalki - Rozalimas (LT) - Rakvere (EST)

30.08.2008 The long waited vacation has finally arrived. All together 23 days, as I hadn't been working whole year yet. Already from January planned. Even though it seemed kind of funny to plan that long before... it was smart thing to do, because all summer was fast - work, building bathroom at mother's place, HCS Camps, meetings, etc. And right before trip I had absolutely no time. But I had good HCS guests and the last one I had to leave in Tallinn even if I had to go on trip myself.
Last evening after work moving my stuff away from students dormitory and party with my brother, his girlfriend and Gwen from Antwerp / Turku in Karja Kelder and Beer House in Tallinn.

Next morning, after not too much sleep, at 6:30 left my bus from Tallinn. The bus driver was Polish and only a couple of quiet Estonians on board, so I can say I didn't hear Estonian language on my trip, starting from Tallinn, before my way back when in Lithuania I got picked up by Estonian driver. Except buying pies in Pärnu on my departure.
Nothing spectacular happened on the bus trip to Bialystok. The trip ended about 19:50. Quick calculation says 13 hours and 20 minutes sitting, sleeping and music, but as the time in Poland is -1 hour compared to the Baltics and Ukraine... it was 14 hours and 20 minutes.
I must make a remark that in that Ecolines bus information was given to passengers in Lithuanian. And in Russian and German with strong Lithuanian accent. For me it was nearly impossible to hear anything because behind me were sitting three men, probably Russian, in addition other bullshit talk they were talking... I think they were learning to read because all kinds of signs and shop names they read loudly and laughed about them.
So all the information about changing bus in Riga, toilets, length of staying in stops I just had to guess. Even though my Russian is not very good. Even not good, I think.
But I managed to get to Bialystok.
It was dark outside, but the weather was dry. I looked around in Bialystok, had an hamburger and saw no map of the city. But there was a girl with her mother sitting and waiting for bus. So I asked them, where's the Old Town, center, interesting things to see. They didn't speak English or Russian very much, but the girl told me it's a small town and not that interesting. I told I'm no going to believe that and asked just the way to the center.
Not very far I saw nice church in lights on the hill...

...and walked further. There was a concert going on and for free. It
was really good band, named WayNoWay [www.waynoway.pl].

I listened to the end and walked further. There was a nice church with Jan Pawel (the Pope) figure. Next to this church one man walked to me and offered accomodation. I need to trust a person before I accept this kind of offer so I thanked for worrying, said everything is fine and walked away.

And in this "small and not that interesting town" there was a beautiful palace in lights.

Many just married couples were taking pictures there. One couple was funny. They rented Hummer for wedding car and it seemed that they rather photographed the car. Lifting the bride up on car and holding here there in very uncomfortable position.

Then I thought of having a beer, as I was quite tired from bus ride and too early for sleeping. I walked into a bar, which was full of cigarette smoke. I didn't feel like having a beer there and walked towards the door. One man accosted me. Asked me something and when I answered it's too smoky place (these moments I'm really happy that it's not allowed to smoke inside pubs in Tallinn any more), he put his cigarette away and I agreed having a beer. He offered to show me where is cheap hostel nearby, but I refused the offer. One thing was that I didn't feel like going
anywhere with him and it was warm outside so I had no wish to pay for hostel for a few hours of staying.
We had beer and chatted, his friend came. Friend asked (not very calmly, I'd say) if I was really, Estonian, not RUSSIAN. Then he told that he had heard we have 50% of Russians. I told that's rather 25-30% but he seemed to know better so I left the subject.
Then two more guys walked in and to our table. The guy talked to me in the beginning whispered "you better sit a couple of tables away - this is Polish Mafia". I didn't care, but sat a couple of tables away. They did act kind of weird... three men going together to a dark corner, chatting there and coming back. Then going out together and coming back. Polish mafia : )
Anyway I finished my beer and started thinking about the place to sleep. I spent short time in railway station and security guys asked me to leave. I walked a little around and found a quiet place.
As it was in the middle of town and I didn't want any attention, I didn't use my tent and in the beginning it was chilly. But when I laid my shemagh scarf over the head, it was warm to the morning.

In the morning I wanted just leave for Lublin. I thought about hitch-hiking but as I didn't know where and how far is the place for hitch-hiking and as I was already in the bus station I saw in 30 minutes there will be bus to Lublin. I decided to take it. And I managed to buy the tickets in mixed language, as the woman spoke only
Polish.

In Lublin I had CouchSurfing friend there - Michal. I sent him SMS and he promised to come soon. As I had time, I went eating to a bar, which looked nice. And one of the most interesting lotteries when traveling - ordering food in place where no English or Russian is spoken. And I was lucky. Food was OK. And there was power contact in the wall so I could recharge phone batteries. Finding a place for that is quite challenging sometimes. Then public toilets and shaving places in trains are great.
With my host and his girl friend we walked in botanics garden, Old Town, ate special pan cakes. Lublin in very nice peaceful city. A little more rushing in these days because of beginning of school.
Next morning Michal showed me good spot for hitch-hiking. In all ways Michal was excellent host.
I was waiting at the hitch-hiking spot by the road and decided to visit the open air
market. And bought some fruits and water. Which was smart move.
Getting a ride wasn't very fast but finally one Polack with a small truck picked me up. It's just amazing how nice hills and fields and villages down in the valley you can see in Poland. We went to the border of Hrebenne and he said he has to wait for 5 hours. I had dinner and tried to cross the border but it was for cars only. So I
started walking back on the main road on the wrong side because on the other side trucks were waiting. I talked to a couple of them but they told "5 hours". I didn't understand, what's the case and kept on walking and waving to small cars. Quite soon one Žiguli in bad condition picked me up and took me over the border. Border was quite quick. They gave us scraps of paper to fill. I got "immigration card".
Gaps were for name, passport number, registration number of the car, place to stay in Ukraine. The car was only for a couple of kilometers and I think I never even saw hotel Lviv that I was told to write on the paper. Half of it I had to keep until leaving the country.
They left me in the town near the border called Rava-Ruska.

I didn't wait for long there and a guy in old Volga, in very bad condition stopped. The driver asked in what will I pay. I told I have no money but anyway he picked me up. We had nice talk and he revealed his secret - he was contrabandist. He explained - he get sausages over border and he took out 6 big sausages out. In one junction he stopped and we waited. Pretty soon a 15 years old in very good condition Mercedes-Benz stopped next to us and fat man in nice clothes and a woman came out. They got the sausages and talked to the "contrabandist" and left. We continued our trip towards Lviv.
Even though he got no money from me, he took me to train station and was very nice person anyway.
Later I found out that the train stations are best places in Ukraine to start exploring the city from. They are close to city center, there is Internet, food, beer and even possible to sleep, meet talkative foreigners and party.
One guy in CS had told me he can show me around, I sent him SMS. He answered that he's sorry and having a party with his friends and we can meet next day.

I went to the train station, spent half an hour in internet looking for messages and map of Lviv without understanding even where train station is... and decided to have a walk in Lviv without guide. It was pretty dark and somehow I managed to get to the Old Town. I walked around and it was beautiful, of course.
The weather was nice but I had scarf around the neck that had colors of Estonian flag - blue, black white.

As the weather was nice, lots of young people were sitting in public places, having fun and drinking beer. Unexpectedly one guy accosted me, cheering "Dynamo Kyiv". As in Tallinn I generally avoid "gangs" I explained that's Estonian flag and thought of keeping going, but the guys got excited and offered me beer.
The people seemed OK but still I was rather cautious. But the more I talked to them the more I liked these guys.

We had beer together and they asked where will I spend the night. I tried to not-answer, but I couldn't. Train station was my plan because there was everything I needed. But I was asked to be Dima's guest. I agreed. The place was in Old Town. A very interesting old house. And beautiful inside.
I was amazed that such young (actually at my age, but still...) guy as Dima knows so much about Estonia... and has contacts here and when mentioning the land he used "Eesti" instead of "Estonia"... But the more time I spend with him I understood that this guy is extremely smart and with very wide field of view.
Next day we spent almost all day together. He was showing me the most important places in Lviv and we were talking for hours. Meeting him was one of the most (maybe even THE most) important things I did in Ukraine. And of course his all family was nice and kind. Making us local food... that's actually important to say - you can't get national food in national food restaurant but in ordinary home.
He made many times funny mistake... when talking about his mother, girlfriend etc. he used "he" instead of "she". Maybe in subconscious he felt Estonian... because in Estonian language is "ta" ("tema") which is common for male and female.
Before describing of other places in Ukraine I can say I loved the feeling of Lviv. In this city I could relax and enjoy just "wasting" time. The feeling there is calm - young boys and girls sitting on park benches, holding each other, others chatting and drinking beer, mostly old men playing chess, checkers, domino etc. in the parks...
One evening I was sitting in Old Town and drinking beer and one above-middle-age man came to us, pretty drunk. Probably crazy also, because no matter how drunk am I, I'm not telling stuff like he did. I really can't remember all his talk but after few seconds he changed his story. He said he was Armenian... somebody... then he was Soviet army general (if I'm not mistaken). Then Ukrainian freedom fighter. And when someone told that I am an Estonian, he lifted his hand quickly and said "heil, Hitler!" :) Soviet army general's greeting?
There is writing on the facade of National University of Ivan Franko: "Patriae deсori civibus educandis" (Educated people are decorating the fatherland).
And I loved the "love for your own country and people" feeling. I think I can say, Lviv is nationalist (not like that crazy asshole who tried to kill all other nations, but "love-your-nation-nationalist), but who else should you support if not your own family, friends and nation (too often it feels that politicians are working
for some other nation and getting paid for it. The only question is why are we paying them?)?
A thing that looked kind of odd... friends were talking to each other in Russian. Even though everybody knew Ukrainian also.
The only thing that was crazy in Lviv was the traffic. After leaving Lviv I was glad still having my toes attached to me feet.
Then I was really happy I was accustomed being careful and trained by crazy traffic in Tallinn.
Dima was great help to the end - we bought train tickets together and he sent me to the station afterwards. And gave me contacts of somebody in Kyiv. Hopefully I can be useful for him just as he made my stay in Lviv perfect!

"плацкарта"-car of the train was new experience for me. And they served very good tea there. Toilet was not very much according to EURO-directions... "water" on the floor etc. But I survivved - seen worse.
Arriving to train station of Kyiv was nice. There are amazing train stations in Ukraine. As I had one HCS contact from Kyiv, I sent an SMS there but got no answer. So I walked to the center square which is, of course beautiful.

From there I walked up to a hill for nicer view and reached house of
Ukrainian Parliament. Wandered about and saw Ukrainian restaurant.
That wasn't very expensive and then I finished I was full.

Then more walking. And I found a wall on one hill where is poster
about old fortresses. And a fortress next to it. As I saw people up on
the edge, I assumed it's a museum or something. I went in, onto the
edge and saw nice view. I thought these platforms are more and walked
further along the wall. When I noticed it won't get more interesting,
I decided to leave and walked more center of the castle.
Then I saw lots of guys in military uniforms, doctors' costumes and
patient' clothes. Later I found out that was military hospital.
What I liked very much in Kyiv were block houses. Not like in Tallinn cheap (appearance) and unsuitable glass houses but they build beautiful even these days.

I walked more and saw many churches with golden towers and not far from it nice panorama view over the river. And somehow I managed to reach very big square where was playing Soviet military music. There were lots of vessels of war, statues of "Heroic Soviet Cities" (I was not disappointed Tallinn wasn't one of them), many-many monuments of attacking Soviet soldiers and one awfully ugly and big monument.

This all made a composition which was quite disgusting. If this place is for tourists, then they will definitely get wrong impression of Ukraine. And I didn't see any signs telling these guys are NOT the Liberators. And I was very glad that I've been in Lviv before. And the people I talked to afterwards gave me back the feeling that most of the people are not brainwashed by Soviet propaganda and they know the history.
From this point I decided to walk back to the city center. I had to ask people a few times because I was pretty lost and tired carrying this big rucksack over the hills all day. I managed to get to the main square again. There I met the Dima's friend Lena who showed me around a little and we bought train tickets for Odesa, because I felt not much interesting I could see in Kyiv next day going around on my own.
And to get to the ticket sales office we took a cab. Not the regular one but just a car that stopped because Lena was waving her hand by the street. Driver tried to argue about the price Lena offered, but Lena was tough. That was funny. Actually Lena was right, because the office was very close.
Lena was in a hurry so she left, but I had few hours to the train so I decided to wait in the park quite near. And this was the only "not nice" place in Kyiv I saw. Pretty dirty park.
In Ukraine I saw posters on the street "bring back the children to home country" and this was like in Estonia... Politicians are talking about it, "worrying", raising the age of retiring... but actually doing nothing to make people feel good in their country... cost of apartment - a person can't pay 100 years to bank for one apartment... or rent 5 times average salary. If it's hard to rest and travel in European Union... hard to make your own business... why to come back?
But there are people who still live there and respect...
The train ride was nice and I think it was this time, when an old man started talking that he had been in Estonia in Soviet times in big town next to the sea and in name of the town has 4 letters. I tried to remember, but I knew only Võsu. He asked "do you know Estonia?" I answered "yes" and he said "the F* you know". He was drunk. Finally he remembered... "Pärnu". But in Russian way written it has 6 letters. And in Estonian... five letters.
And he had one more not surprising question: "why didn't you want to be in the (Soviet) Union with us any more? You were doing well - you had sour cream and meat etc. then". I told that I can't speak Russian that well to discuss politics, but I told that we are doing well right now also. Not mentioning the problems we have... because anyway these are not that big problems compared to what we used to have.
To Odesa I got 9 o'clock in the morning. And the temperature was about 30 degrees Celsius.

I asked a few people, where is the Old Town, they didn't know. So I just walked to the beach. Funny thing - when I wanted to buy пломбир-ice cream [plombir] (dictionary says: rich creamy ice cream) the salesperson warned me - that's a пломбир! :)

The water temperature of the Black Sea felt chilly, but it didn't feel chilly when I was swimming. In Odesa I had the best kvass on my trip. I got nostalgic because pretty soon after Soviet time they stopped selling that drink in Estonia and that's a pity. I drunk quite a lot of it.

It wasn't that easy to find a place to eat. I tried to avoid the fast food old ladies were selling on the streets. But I found restaurant "компот". Interior was nice and cup of tea was big (normal for me) but quite expensive. The cup of tea cost 12 hrivna. Which is about 1,73 EUR. But I had a dinner there and the price was a little lower than in Tallinn Old Town. Portions were too small in all places.
Next to this restaurant an old man came to talk to me and in very unclear Russian language he tried to tell me about sightseeing places in Odesa, as he had been living there all his life.
I was walking to the beach and along the beach and found the sea port "official gate to Odesa". And that was the place where Old Town was.

And there was Potemkin' stairs. 192 steps. Quite famous piece of engineering and pieces of the stairs were transported to the place on many ships. And one interesting thing - a little further than the edge of the stairs you can't see the stairs from the top.
The Old Town was beautiful, of course and I walked through it back to the beach. In one bar was some kind of open air party and I sat outside listening to nice Ukrainian music.
After it ended I walked further to find a place to sleep. As it was dry and warm I wasn't thinking of renting a flat even though in the train station there were lots of women offering apartments.
But I had all the camping equipment so it was OK. Not very encouraging were the dogs running around and barking. But those weren't dangerous.
I was already near the woods where I thought private place for sleeping was and I saw forest fire.

And a couple of kids (about 16 years old?) sitting on the bench not far from it. I asked (in awfully bad Russian language at the moment) can't they see it? Did they call the fire brigade? But no answer and they walked away. I went quickly to the bar not far and told the barman. He came and had a look. And called the fire brigade.
But I didn't feel like sitting and waiting until the trees catch fire. I put on my boots on and started to kill the fire. I managed to end it, went to the bar and told it's OK now and after some time fire brigade came. They saw it's OK, asked me did I start it. I said no, but there was a couple sitting here and they left.
That showed me despite of numerous monuments for heroes of Odesa... no one came to help me with that fire... so the heroes became extinct.
In the morning I decided I will spend this day on the beach and just relax. So I bought a bottle of sparkling wine Odesa and water melon and had sun bath and some swimming.
There I fed the birds my wiener pies I had bought for train trip and they weren't tasty at all. I was making pieces and I saw that the wiener had given color to white bread around it and it was slimy. Not the most natural meat.
When walking around in Odesa, I noticed one boy walking with a girl having shirt on with writings "Eesti 90" for 90th anniversary of Estonian Republic. I started quickly talking to them, saying "Eesti" and something more, but the boy said his girlfriend had been in Estonia last summer and they walked away.

That day I bought train tickets and next day after mid day left my train to Zaporizhya.
Before my train left I was sitting outside near book and coins sellers and one drunk man came showing his Soviet coin. I ruined his happiness a little and told I got many at home. The he, of course, asked me where I'm from. I told him and he called his wife... also drunk-looking. She wasn't very impressed and left. Then a younger guy appeared. Also drunk-looking and without front teeth. The man who arrived first started looking for his car keys and offered the younger guy to take his car and show me neighborhood. I quickly refused this kind offer... it really wasn't a good plan. I stood up and said I'm getting on the train. Younger guy told that they're going to drink for my happy train ride. I said that's OK, very nice of them and the answer was "but we don't have any money". "Too bad" was my last sentence to them :)
On the train to Zaporizhya I opened red sparkling wine I had found from the beach (it wasn't expired) and then I had my only contact with Ukrainian police and that was the only time I saw them on train. Elsewhere I saw them a lot. They just asked for my passport (even though it's allowed to drink anything anywhere) and left.
In Zaporizhya the weather was nice and I decided to have a walk, as my Hospitality Club friend Dima was working and I had time.
I saw a wide but boring street and car factory buildings and street-cleaning workers doing their job very carefully. Then a very big market. And a park. The park looked nice outside so I walked in and sat down. My first bad impression. Garbage everywhere and big nice house built for children. But when I looked inside, it was like public toilet without "output". And some teenagers went in to "hang around".
There was garbage everywhere but the trash cans were full... so it wasn't the problem only because people were messy... Then I saw only Soviet blocks of flats and another park, full of garbage. In the park was a pond with a sign "No swimming, danger to life".

And I saw a guy with old Soviet car, made in Zaporizhya, selling fuel by the big road. It was very hot outside and smell of gas... I walked by quicker than usual.

I reached the train station and felt very tired of the Soviet houses and trash so if I didn't have Dima there, I would have left on next train. But I had a few hours until Dima came and I was sitting on the platform and I saw how women who are selling pies (in every big and little train stop) are storing their "hot pies". In big plastic bag were packed every pie in a separate plastic bag and storing them under the sun (they really love plastic bags there). So... not very fresh stuff. And I did resist buying them almost to the end. On my last train ride I saw one woman selling them without plastic bag, nice and dry (not slimy like the others) and these were good.

Dima arrived and that was incredible. We went to his place, had delicious supper, tea, cold beer, shower, watching pictures from his travels and my pictures from the camera... talking about politics and again... Ukraine has the same problems than we have. And the people that are capable to think... who have been learning history and have wide field of view... they just can't support unfriendly neighboring country in his actions in the past and present.
When drinking beer, Dima was master of toasts. I could only agree and drink : )
In all places I saw Stella Artois pubs and finally find out that Stella Artois and Tuborg are brewed in Ukraine for local market.
Plan for next day was great for me. Despite of having busy times at work he took a couple of hours from working time to show me around. We went on the island on Khortytsia in the morning. This is the most important historical place in Zaporizhya. It's not only very nice island on river Dnepr but also base of Zaporizhyan Kozaks and there is museum and Kozak fortress.

Then we went together along the street of Lenin (statue of Lenin is the highest of Ukraine in Zaporizhya). Were at some monuments, fountains and Dima left for work.

Without my big backpack I was very mobile. So I walked around the town, saw many monuments, fountains and walked two times over hydroelectric power plant bridge. The bridge was old and swaying heavily as the cars were passing.

In one restaurant I saw one the drinks card they are offering Estonian liquor "Vana Tallinn". And funny thing - pretty young girls at the restaurant were calling male waiter there "молодой человек" [young person].
In the evening I sat on the train for Simferopol. The only special thing - I wanted to be in coupe this time. And I didn't like it as much as "плацкарта"-car. Less space and it's more interesting when people are passing by. But this was just a room for four.
Fortunately there was one young family. The man was sleeping already after half a liter of vodka, kid was sleeping and woman sitting on the bed wearing underwear only.
This was a country girl very interested about me : ) asked to sit by her (which I did) and asking some stuff and to asked show something interesting from Estonia. I showed her pictures from my camera. If there was a female on the picture (even if several pictures with the same female on it), she asked "your girl?".
And finally... someone who was talking Ukrainian to me. Pretty hard to understand, but still nice.
She had been studying German in school. When she asked what was interesting in Zaporizhya, I answered: "Lenin". As a joke that she understood. And she told me about Lenin dying in syphilis etc. which was never mentioned at school. Funny girl.
In the morning I woke up in Simferopol.

Dima and his wife Olga had given me very nice presents - souvenir plate Zaporizhya, map of Crimea (with smaller maps of town centers) and book "The Guidebook All About Ukraine" with dedication "As a mark of friendship between Ukraine and Estonia we are giving this book as memoir. Happy adventures and interesting trips! Regards, Dmitri and Olga",
As I had maps and compass I decided to walk to the airport to find out about planes between Simferopol and Tallinn and when walking... see how's life in Simferopol. I had seen before that cheapest price for the flight was about 70 EUR.
I reached to the border of town and saw that on the signs were showing to towns totally other direction than on my map. I understood that I misread my compass. Thought that red was South but it was North.
So I took minibus back to the center. As I didn't feel tired I decided to walk to the "right" direction.
When I reached to the place walking, no signs about airport. One man told me that quite near is abandoned Soviet military airport. Good thing to put on the map... So I took minibus to the center again.
I saw on the map that there is one more airport but as I thought I've seen enough that quite poor Simferopol, I just went to Internet Cafe and checked the prices in Internet.
Without booking long time before the price was about 190 EUR. I had reached Crimea a lot faster than planned and I had only a few more places to visit, I decided not to use planes and as train connections are great I will go back through Poland. Couldn't choose train Kyiv - Vilnius, because there is Belarus between and they want visa.
But I wanted to continue my trip to the Black Sea. I didn't want to start from Yalta, so I chose Alushta. To start from the mountains and end in Sevastopol. And then think what next.
I walked around near train station and there were cab drivers walking around and catching people. One stopped me and second one was quickly present. They offered for 30 USD to take me to Alushta and then 25 USD. I said I need to think and walked away. Then I saw trolley bus with sign "Alushta". Ticket was 0,73 EUR and for rucksack 0,15 EUR. It was long (128km) uncomfortable trip, backback on my lap and trolley full of people, but I survived.

As I had the map I saw most important places for tourists, walked on "non-touristic" streets, went by the sea, visited terrarium of snakes, birds and reptiles. And the aquarium on fish from the Black and Sea of Azov, fresh-water fish, the biggest fresh water fish and the fish from Red Sea and Indian ocean.
The woman who was working there was a little worried I was in there so few time. But I saw it all.
The time was about 6 P.M. and no more trolleys for Yalta. It was nice view in Alushta but I didn't feel like hanging around there more. So I decided to have a little walk outside the town towards Yalta.

I walked for a couple of hours higher and higher and suddenly it was dark outside. I decided to have a sleep. Even though the time wasn't late.
I put up my tent not very far but higher from the road. Weather was windy and the noises disturbed a little, but I had nice long sleep.
In the morning I walked few more kilometers to next trolley stop and took a trolley to Yalta. Not far from the sea near monument for Lenin I was looking at my map and thinking how will I make my tour an old man sat next to me and started to talk...
He asked if I was from the Baltics and of course I said "yes". He asked why we have so bad attitude to Russians. I wasn't surprised but acted like I didn't quite understand and he explained... he had heard that we are not speaking in Russian with our Russians. I said that we are speaking in Russian. He continued: "yes, right here you are speaking in Russian to me, but there not in shops. Nowhere". I told that is not true. That is a lot easier to find a job if you know Russian and that's the truth. And he shouldn't listen what are they lying on television but just come and look for himself.
It would have been too much asking him that why should we speak foreign language in our country? It's nice thing to do - being able to speak a foreign language. Or if I didn't want to speak Russian... what would be the reason talking to him in Russian? Being afraid of old man? No :)
Or why didn't he speak Turkish to me there? Or even Ukrainian?
But I didn't ask him that. He couldn't say anything about that after I said "just come and look like I'm doing here and find out how things really are".
So he changed the subject and asked: "You're from Estonia, right? You are telling that you are civilized nation but being violent with statues. This is history and let it be". His verbiage was a lot less friendly.
The question I was kind of prepared. It would have been too difficult to explain "their" [Soviet, not Ukrainian] heroes and "our" heroes} so I chose to explain it that dead people should rest in cemetery and not in the middle of town and people celebrating on it. I explained we had normal Russians feeling OK with removal but those who got paid for it, organized the rumble...
I stood up while explaining this. He got confused and just said (even less friendly than before): "walk walk".
And I did walk. He got nothing interesting to offer me. I walked as my map said - churches, monuments... and over a long time I saw again one nice statue - of Lesja Ukrainka and another - Lady with a dog.
I finished with monuments of half a city and took a break for fast food and a guy came talking to me. This one looked more intelligent.
The reason he came to talk - he said he had written a book about sightseeing in Crimea and he would be good guide even for the places tourists normally wouldn't go. I told him I'm fine and purpose of my trip isn't that much churches and sightseeing than talks with the ordinary people. He looked around and said it's not that easy with it these days. Which was funny, because he was the "ordinary man". In the good meaning. Not politician and not my guide at the moment.
We didn't talk very much, but we had similar points of view about different questions (the usual questions what somebody from Ukraine would talk to Estonian guy). He told that his grandmother was from Mari nation.
When he left, I felt like making tour in second half of the town and leaving for Sevastopol.

The second part included "the beach" which was disappointing. A couple of square meters of rubble and full of people. Only good thing I found the place for donuts made by old receipt. I bought many.
As the beach wasn't interesting, I decided to walk up on the hill where my map showed cemetery. This was nice green place and grave stones showed names of doctors, writers, engineers etc. "murdered by the fascists". I really have to re-read history lessons. I couldn't recall which fascists were in Crimea?! Only the Soviets did these actions in Estonia...

And again... I felt that's enough of being of Yalta. I went to the station to find a transport for Sevastopol but there wasn't any. I chose to go by minibus to Simferopol and from there take a trolley to Sevastopol. I managed to get to Simferopol and the weather turned chilly and windy. Just like weather forecast had told few days ago.
So I decided not to get wet, cold and sick... better to start going back as I had decided before I'll go through Poland.
I bought train tickets to Lviv and there was a couple of hours waiting. Which went quite quickly - I visited market to buy snacks for long (26 hours) train trip and wine from Ukraine. On another market I bought honey with nuts for my sister's kid
(it wasn't easy to find "something special" to buy from Ukraine).
On the market I asked how much is the honey and the woman said "60". I said "I'll take it" and the woman said "50". Nice business :)
Then I had (very very small) salad in cafe. There one man was asking about my backpack and telling about his. Just nice little conversation.
And on the train platform there were many sports teams singing their songs and I think even anthem of Ukraine. One drunk beggar was dancing for them.

I got to Lviv quite late in the evening and I sent Dima an SMS but no answer (he was out of town). I walked to the place I wrote him I will be and there was no one. So I walked back to the train station. Thought that I'll spend a couple of hours in Internet and start hitch-hiking in the morning or take Ecolines bus to Tallinn but there was sitting a group of young people.

One on them called me and asked me to sit down. They were two different groups of travelers. Three of them were on the same train with me. But I didn't meet them there. We had wine and grapes together, talking. They asked what's my destination and I answered "back home, to Tallinn". One guy said that they are going to Gdańsk, Poland. I looked at the map and as it was in North-Poland I asked if I can join them in the morning. It was OK. Then some cops interrupted our party. And we moved to another hall. And some continued sleeping on the floor. After some time I heard loud talk in the hall next to us and saw one cop yelling on another and they went quickly through our hall and after some time the one who was yelled at before came back and shouted at us to not to block the way or something and left...
In the morning we went on a bus that took us to the border. This border was also for pedestrians.
There wasn't any order in the checkpoint - half of the people waiting outside and half inside (I was glad it was good weather) and the people tried to force their way to the officers. Suddenly one officer came out, having a sleepy face, yelling at the people (probably about stopping that pushing) and smiled and went back inside.
On the side of Poland the officers were cool - asking about my destination, were interested about marks in my passport and talking to me in English...
One woman was checking the cargo. Asking me if I had any cigarettes or alcohol. I told I have a bottle of wine and a couple of small bottles of liquor. She asked to show... I started opening by bag from the top but I had too many things on so I decided to open from the bottom... I managed to show only bottom of the box where I had the liquor and she let me pass.
Then we took a bus to Przemyśl. Somehow we managed to lose a couple from us. Others left on a train as they didn't go to Gdańsk and told me the others will also be in this train station. So I waited.

Finally they came and decided to have some sleep at the train station but I wanted to look around in the city. I went on the market. On the gate one guy greeted me nicely: "Wódka? Papierosy?"
In the train station was public toilet. In the "price list" were 7-8 items. "Cabin - 1,5 zloty, washing hands 0,5 zloty, etc." This was the most expensive toilet I've seen and not the nicest. Later I went back to the toilet to take a picture of that price list and the lady started running at me, yelling. Lucky me that the "ticket office" was pretty far from the entrance :)
Then I walked through Old Town up to the hill, highest point of the town and nice view opened from there.

Later we took the train through Warszawa to Gdańsk. I liked the ticket system very much - after buying ticket you have 2 days to use the ticket. So if you miss the train, you won't lose money. Any in Warszawa we sat on another train and showed the same ticket. I have to say that understanding public transport in cities abroad (and even in my home land) if the hardest thing - you never know will you get the ticket on the vehicle - from the driver or is there ticket sales person or from kiosk (maybe you need to mark the ticket - inside or outside or do you have to pay extra when buying from the driver. Will you get the ticket or not. Or you just don't get the ticket but you should... ;)
We got to Gdańsk early in the morning.
After proper sleep me and my host Szymon went for sightseeing trip on Gdansk. He told me a lot about history and we visited beautiful Old Town, port area and churches.

National food restaurant was great and we had beers with friends of Szymon at a bar. This was nice evening.
Next day Szymon gave me perfect instructions where to go in neighboring town - Gdynia - next day. There is very nice beach and promenade, quite dark and high forest next to the beach. Museum ships and a "doughnut" place. These are not ordinary but definitely worth trying. Very sweet things.
One weird thing I saw was military shop. And from big display window were guns on sight like dresses at women shop.
I also saw a bunch of Russian kids in Gdynia. Probably school study trip. And I was wondering what would the teacher tell there... in quite patriotic district of Poland...
Then I went back to Szymon's place and we had Polish national soup - flaki.
For the evening in our plans was a jazz concert. Szymon's girlfriend and a couple of other artists were singing and we were tasting some Polish drinks - Żubrówka, Goldwasser and Krupnik. The concert took place in the city between Gdańsk and Gdynia - Sopot. The city was kept in very good order. Late in the evening I even saw men cleaning posts at the electric train stops.

Next morning early was my bus from Gdansk to Suwalki. To Suwalki I got three o'clock by Polish time. I had sent e couple of text messages to people from Kaunas, but no answer. I walked to the border of town and started hitch-hiking. Although many cars with Estonian numbers were passing and I had sign "Tallinn"... it took a lot of time to get a ride. I thought I'll go to Kaunas and wait for the Ecolines bus in the morning.
The driver was Lithuanian and told me he's going to Panevežys area. And I thought that's even better - to wait in the bus station or train station. We had an interesting conversation and it was dark and the temperature outside was 4 degrees.
When we were near Panevežys the guy - Saulius - asked me to be his guest. He said there might be crooks around train station and that he could take me to the road between Riga and Panevežys next morning. I thought a little and agreed.
His wife had made delicious food and they offered home made booze. Vodka with plums. This was the best strong alcoholic drink I had tasted.
I showed some pictures from my camera and we had conversation with his wife Laima. Saulius went to take his brother to hospital because he'd been drinking... but the doctor was drunk also...
Next morning Saulius fried me eggs for breakfast and took be by the road, as promised.
It didn't take very much time to get a ride by Estonian man. He turned away right after roundabout in Riga and I didn't feel like hitch-hiking in South East Estonia. So I came off. Familiar place, I had been hitch-hiking there in the summer so I decided to walk a little. But it took much time. Then I started hitch-hiking again and another Estonian picked me up. He went to Tallinn, but as I wanted to visit my mother this weekend, I decided to get off in Pärnu.
From Pärnu to Rakvere (180km). 1st ride ~12km (Sindi), 2nd - 13km (Selja), 3rd - 4km, 4th - 3km, 5th - 23km (Vändra), 6th - 45km (Paide), 7th - 85km (Rakvere).
The man that gave me first ride told that he had been in Ukraine lately. Because of work. Wanted to visit Tchernobyl district but gave up the idea because he had dosimeter and that showed too much. He told about Ukrainian border guards wanted some bribe... but when he showed his ID (he was also working on that border as border guard) their faces turned red and let him go fast :)
The guy who took me to Paide was funny. He had a milk truck and there was combine harvester going before us. The man said: "F**king Bread Factory - whole road full of it". That really made me laugh. He noticed Latvian milk trucks on the road and remarked - the people with 6 toes are going... (I've heard so many times this expression about Latvians but I didn't know the reason why are they called that) and I asked maybe he knows... he didn't. But he said that he had heard that if you cross gorilla and turtle... you get a proper Latvian soldier (my Latvian friends, don't get upset on me, that's just what he told) :)
Luckily he took me not very far from the big junction of Tallinn-Tartu and Pärnu-Rakvere roads. So I had choice - if I can't get to Rakvere on direct ride, I'll go to Tallinn. It was dark outside.
Next ride came quickly. Straight to Rakvere thanks to local show man. And we had many common friends and the ride was very-very interesting.
AT home... it was nice to become human being again - shower, shave, clean clothes, hairdressers...

As an epilogue I can say it is really not important that you like everything on your trip but the more accurate picture you get the more valuable was the trip.
One thing I have to really think about next time - getting some Euros with me. Paying service fee for bank machines is really stupid and I spent too much on that.
I have asked so many times the question "isn't it kind of boring traveling alone like this?". Firstly... after reading about my travels do you still have the question?
If so... I can honestly say it's not boring. You always have somebody to talk to if you wish. But so many less contact I would have had if I already had company.
Before my trip I had experiences that the Poles are great nation, very hospitable and kind. Now I can say the same about Ukrainians. Although I didn't have too many HCS contacts there...
By the way... during whole trip nobody laughed about my crappy Russian language skills :)

NB! All the pictures are in my Picasaweb: http://picasaweb.google.com/

2007.06 Tallinn - Kaunas - Warszawa - Frankfurt(Oder) - Minden - Antwerpen - Glasgow

2008-03-25T20:06:00.017+02:00

At 8 o’clock I went from center of Tallinn by bus. And I waited for 45 minutes by the road. In Pärnu the driver recommended not to go through the town but turn on drive-through road in the middle of town.

All I needed for feeling like in heaven.

Hitching a car there wasn’t too quick. The driver was funny. Quite young guy who started talking with me in Russian language. While talking he used few times „parasite words” common by Estonians like „noh” [meaning: „well”]. And when I asked him if he speaks Estonian, he started using Estonian. Laughed and told he thought I was Latvian because I had sign „Riga” (in Estonian it is „Riia”).
Next hitched van... four Lithuanian workers sat in and 3 drank beer. Air in van was thick from cigarette smoke and that was hard. They aheaded to Bauska. But I didn’t get so far with them. Because before Riga was road under construction and we stopped after Lithuanian truck. They talked with truck driver and told me I get to Lietuvaa with him. So I jumped quickly to truck. But... truck aheaded to Šiauliai. And took another road on roundabout Riga. And there I started hitching again. Instead of getting to Bauska : )
When I finally got to Kaunas, truck driver dropped me on bridge next to Mega shopping centre. Weather was nice and I decided to walk to Old Town. Too long walk : )
In Kaunas I went straight to familiar Internet Cafe. Finding a host wasn’t that easy as I expected but it wasn’t too hard because of Kinderis Camp I took part in spring.
In Kaunas Old Town was a girls’ Bachelor Party going around. Beautiful girls in doctor costumes. They told me they are fund raising for a friend to have some medical treatment because she wants to get married. I gave them a little money. Then I was allowed to take a candy (candies were tied all over bride’s body) but with mouth : )
After calling my host I was pretty confused which way to go to get on right bus. And I asked an old man who was searching bottles from trash bins and walking slowly. Guy pointed a direction and walked a little with me. As I was in happy mood I gave him a chocolate from Estonia (meant for one of my hosts as a gift) and then the guy told „I show you exactly where it is” and went along the streets so quickly it was hard fore me to follow :-D
I found my host’s – Regita’s – place pretty easily. We had a cup of tea and chatted a little. Nice small apartment.
Going from Kaunas with Lithuanian girl was special because it was nice to be with somebody who is happy in her country. Told me about working in Ireland a little...
And then the truck driver who took me to Warszawa... bought me a coffee, shared some food with be he bought from gas station shop and in Warszawa even called my host and took me the best place to meet my host. And again I gave away a chocolate meant for my host :-D

Soon I met my host – Rafał. At his place I got whole room to spend night in. Because his other guests didn’t show up. And I met his room mate. Then I had two choices what to do in the evening – going out from the city to party with host’s room mate or go to cinema watch Beat Generation short films with my host. I chose the last one. And met his girlfriend.
Going to Polish movie theater was nice experience but I didn’t like the films that much – too difficult art, I guess : )
Then a small beer drinking was in our plans. And to get a special beer which is sold only in one shop in Warszawa we went by metro. And back to my host’s place by tram. The beer tasted light by taste but actually was quite strong. I liked it.
One of the most interesting part of my trip was explaining structure of Estonian language.

One of the most beautiful things in Poland, in my opinion - the cemeteries.

Next morning my brain didn’t work so well for some reason and I missed the right time to take a photo of my hosts and his girlfriend. I had a plan to photograph more people than nature.
Next hitch on the border of Warszawa wasn’t too hard. Old couple was on their way to Hannover. I think by the evening I could have reached my 4th host’s home town but I didn’t want to hurry and wanted to visit Frankfurt/Oder also. And there they took me. But before they offered me strawberries and we had dinner in a restaurant. I told I have zloty ’s but they wanted to buy. Delicious food and beer : ) They said it was old Polish tradition.
In Frankfurt/Oder was quite hard to find a person who speaks English or wants to talk at all. I needed a place to buy a tax phone card. Nobody knew...
But I managed to make a phone call and my hostess – Inga – was so kind to meet me in center of town. Also I met her room mate. They both were so caring : ) almost all evening I talked about politics in Estonia and relations with Federation of Russia and Russian people in Estonia. And again I talked too much. Although they had a lot of homework to do for college they agreed to have a beer with me outside.

My hostesses and the parents in Frankfurt(Oder)

In the morning we had delicious breakfast together with a girl’s parents and they offered me a ride to Berlin roundabout TIR parking.
There one guy offered me a ride but unfortunately he was going opposite side : )
But hitching a car wasn’t too hard there. Soon a man stopped his car and took me few kilometers forward, drove down from motorway and stopped on smaller road to Brandenburg. I guess I didn’t explain too well that I need a gas station for hitch-hiking... there I stood few hours and cars didn’t have comfortable place for stopping. So I decided to hitch-hike to Brandenburg and then back onto motorway. Maybe after half an hour one car stopped. Turkish driver and another man. They didn’t speak or understand English and they eyes were about to pop out when I asked if they spoke Russian :-D They asked where I want to go in Brandenburg – to road or train station. I tried to explain why to Brandenburg. They understood me after I showed my poster „Brandenburg” and then to „Minden”. When I told before they couldn’t believe I wanted to Minden.
Turkish guy was amazed because they were going to Minden also but before take rental car from Brandenburg. They offered me strawberries and when we left other guy Turkish guy took me to a fast food place. To have kebab. There was already his friend working. He asked „which kebab do you want?” I told I want the best (I had enough EUR ’s). Guy pointed to one stack of meat and said „moo-moo – good” and another stack „bwaak-bwaak – bad”. So I chose cow. That was a lunch that stuffed me : ) and I didn’t have to pay for that.
Turkish guy took me to Minden car rental and called my host. Really amazing luck this day. And I had something in my bag for such a hospitable guy – 200ml of Estonian liqueur Vana Tallinn.
My host – Sebastian – arrived quickly. Minden looks such nice quiet town. I met his father, girlfriend and granny. All good people. And very cozy room for me.
In Minden we had a small bicycling tour and I saw river lock for shipping where artificial channel joins river. Small tour in Old Town and me, my host and his girlfriend had beer in a pub.

My host Sebastian and beautiful garden of his granny.

Next morning we had a breakfast and Sebastian took me to next town Herford – big TIR parking place which was quite far.
I didn’t wait too long when a man picked me up and took to Wesel. I agreed because it was in right direction. Also a chance to see something else than only motorways.
In Wesel a very happy and laughing guy took me to Venlo TIR parking place. He went further than he needed to go. Because of me. Then gave me water and several packs of candies.
In that parking place I met a couple of Slovakian hitch-hikers. They were on their way to UK – to work. Also I met an Estonian truck driver and chatted with him quite a lot (which isn’t that common – usually they are not too talkative) ; ) He was going to UK also but next morning. I just didn’t want to finish my day there – it was still quite early and I wanted to visit Antwerpen. So the driver sometimes pointed to truck that were about to leave „you should ask him”. And when a car stopped in front of us and I went asking I got on a ride with Frenchman – to Antwerpen.
In the border of Antwerpen was a girl waiting in her car. I chatted with her and her car was broken down. I asked if I can use her mobile for a minute – to call my host 40km away from Antwerpen (the girl wanted to go exact place I was planning). But my host couldn’t take me and I left to city center. With help of a guy I found Internet Cafe, found a contact in Antwerpen from HC and called (very comfortable – internet and phones in one business. And cafe next door).
And I was lucky. A girl - Gwen - agreed to host me. Although she already had two guests. I walked through Antwerpen and asked directions from people sometimes. I had never seen such multicultural city. And I didn’t like it. Sorry...
But all citizens I talked with were nice and helpful. City is beautiful but I had never seen such amounts of trash on the streets than there. Later I heard it is not so safe wandering about in streets of Antwerpen...

Polish travelers / hitch-hikers I shared hostess in Antwerpen.

But finally I managed to reach my hostess’ house and it was 11 P.M. already. And all nice people there : ) There I found out what beer culture is. I didn’t know about Belgian beer before. But my hostess was specialist. Different glasses, temperatures, foams etc. I enjoyed the beer like wine. Her other guests were from Poland. For me it was funny that those Polish were afraid to hitch-hike in Poland but not elsewhere. I told that Poland, according to my opinion, was the best country for hitch-hiking. Also Polish drivers are the best and most hospitable.
Hitch-hiking from Antwerpen towards Gent was pretty hard. I waited a long time on small roundabout in Antwerpen. Then a biker suggested to try on road that enters the motorway. And there I waited a long time. Finally a truck stopped. The driver said if he had chemicals on freight he wouldn’t have stopped. So I was lucky. And the driver went further on motorway because he wanted to drop me off at gas station.
There I talked to a Turkish truck driver who agreed to take me after 30 minute pause. After 30 minutes he told that it would better to go with someone else because he will wait in non-EU line on border.
Then I waited in front of some trucks eating. And couple of guys waved. I went to their truck and chatted a little. They pointed a couple of trucks about to leave to ask them. And I found a Lithuanian guy who promised to take me to Calais’ after 20 minutes. So I sat there. The same guys in other truck called me again. I went and they asked how it’s going. And offered me a Slovenian pate and bread.
And I got to Calais’ TIR park. There all leaving drivers told or showed they are not going to UK. That was weird but I found out later why – because of English colonial Empire and a very old law like „who from ex-colonial country succeeds to step on the ground on island of Great Britain gets money and guarantees etc”. So around there is large number of refugees from Africa etc. Also high crime level. Burglaries from lorries etc.

Factory and bottle of alcohol near Port of Calais, France.

One driver even told that he took fuel somewhere in Antwerpen and stopped in restricted area in port. Then another driver pointed that under his trailer between wheels was a guy on wooden board and fixed with leather bands trying to get to UK. They also hide between load and so on. There were large fines for drivers who took over a refugee. Didn’t matter it wasn’t their fault.
After walking there few hours one Polish driver invited to have coffee with him in cabin. Among other things he told I really shouldn’t sleep around in that TIR park – too many criminals around... The port was only 2km further, he told.
So I decided to see maybe I can talk with drivers waiting to get onto ship in the port. I walked there. I had to walk in the bushes of course. And I saw three guys laying in the bushes. Not too encouraging. A lot further by the road I saw a light vodka drink [http://www.barbox.com/Images/barBUCK$/Beverage%20Brands/WKD%20Original%20Vodka%20Blue%20275ml.jpg] in grass. „Best before” date wasn’t over so I put it in my bag. I tried it next day and it was good) : ) Little further was a hot dog in folio. I didn’t touch it :-D
In the port was no access to stopping trucks only a motorway and then a restricted area. Then I went towards Calais town trying to hitch from there. Not too many cars. And near town border were big TIR parks but no luck for me. It was quite dark already when a Turkish truck driver asked if I smoke hashish :-D Of course not...
I walked a little more and a police car stopped near me. They asked what I’m doing there. I said „I’m going to UK” and they left.
I went a little into woods and laid down my sleeping mattress. When I was already in my sleeping bag a couple of guys walked by me a few meters far. Before I saw nobody walking there. And they were talking. Probably drivers. Fortunately they didn’t spot me.
In the morning I went back to the TIR park 2km away. It was easy to get east from there. Soon a Spanish guy picked me up. I tried to explain a gas station in Dunkerque would be good for me. But he drove on motorway near Dunkerque and stopped. I got out. Really bad place. I walked in bushes again quite a distance. Finally there was a small parking place and a Belgian truck driver took me to Diksmuide junction. Not so good place again. It wasn’t smart to hitch-hike to UK from there because roads to motorway came from small towns. So I hitch-hiked further east.
Short waiting and a couple guys from Holland took me on their car and to next gas station. Finally a good place...
There I was talking to a English truck driver for a while. He would have taken me but hir company rules forbid to take hitch-hikers.
Then a Pakistani (he kept repeating he is Pakistani man) man just stopped and asked „where you want to go?”. He asked few more questions which sounded rude but later I realized that it’s just his voice...
He told that he never takes on hitch-hikers, especially men. But I just look sad (but I wasn’t, I had nice chat with the other driver). We got to port and he told we use one of the most expensive ways to travel onto island – the train under Straight of Dover.
Before getting on train there is hard security control – heat lamps and guys asking stupid questions etc.
Then we drove on train in car. People are allowed to stay in cars. But truck drivers are not allowed. Taking pictures is not allowed, but the guy still took one.
Train goes 30 minutes and is not very interesting. You see nothing and everyone is sleeping.
In UK he took me to services south from London on road M25. There I tried few hours to hitch a car to get to Luton where my next hostess lived. Impossible... As I should have been there last evening already I changed my plans and wrote a sign „Carlisle”. Soon I got lucky – a Lithuanian driver. Of course I didn’t get to Carlisle by the evening – only 150km before Birmingham. Instead I had Estonian jar soup for supper. The driver cooked it. And nice sleep in cabin of the truck.

Lithuanian truck driver who was also my host in England.

Next morning we went to Birmingham. Not best place for hitching – city border.
I walked around a little and tried to hitch a car in front of private house. I didn’t wait too long and one driver took me 10km forward to big service station. I walked around there and saw bunch of girls having a „hen party”. So I decided to give them Estonian liqueur to taste and „for luck”. Some taste it with a tip of their tongue and made a grimace like dying... Funny because it’s much more mild than whiskey or cognac (also 40° though). Haven’t they tasted these before? : )
Then a car stopped without hitching an offered me a ride to gas station further north. He did, but the gas station was really small. After few hours watching drivers waving „going south” and even tried to hitch-hike on road that takes to motorway (police came and told me to go off the motorway) I tried to hitch-hike to south again to bigger station. Still no luck for long time.
Then I went to bus stop on the road and in couple minutes stopped a jeep that took me to Penrith. Again the driver didn’t understand I’d like to stop in service station. But the ride was fast – pretty old jeep but 100MPH.

Penrith in Scotland. Rabbits everywere but looks like I couldn't shoot any of them with my camera.

In Penrith I was stuck on junction again. I walked around there and nice thing there was rabbits everywhere – on grass and bushes. But when I stepped in market area (no selling there – it was pretty late) I saw a poster, written in Estonian language „Nael Kummi” (meaning: good luck [word-for-word translation: nail into your tires]).
Then I saw a girl and asked who’s is this. She didn’t know... but we talked some more and she offered me a ride to Carlisle, mentioned that Carlisle is not a place worth seeing that much.
When we got to Carlisle I called my host with her phone (I should have got there one day before) my hostess told that she already has guests and they wouldn’t like anybody else.
So I asked the girl helping me if she can take me to the big service station by road back to Penrith... she said „yes”.
I didn’t try to hitch a car that late in the evening. Just went to bushes and went to sleep. Then I heard someone susurrating in the bushes. I waited a little and it was quiet again. It was nice sunrise there and then I saw animal holes. Probably rabbits of foxes. When I asked a driver later he told there should be no dangerous animals and the foxes don’t have rabies (disease) there. And I found a tick on my leg. I took it out with my knife and little piece of skin : ) I asked later from a Scottish biologist (in insect diseases) about it – do lot of ticks carry disease called „tick-borne viral encephalitis” and he said no. But I’m still glad I had vaccine shots.
In the morning I saw an hitch-hiker trying to get to north also. We talked a little and then I stayed away (nobody wants to give a ride two guys). He got on a car. Then I tried and quickly a truck stopped. When I told couple of guys I saw I have a couple of days till my hostess arrives and I plan to see Loch Ness they were like “Pfff… you should rather see Loch Lomond”.
Few times I had a chance to explain what does "loch" mean in Russian language if it's written as "лох" ; )
When I got to Glasgow services station I saw that hitch-hiker again. We talked much and few hours we tried to hitch a car aheading north. Then he told me he’s going to see Loch Lomond and then to Glencoe village to a pub. I thought it’s a good plan and wrote myself a sign. After lot of time a car stopped and invited me in. He took me to Lake Lomond. And it was beautiful weather and view. When I was already on roads in Low Lands area I thought these mountains are high. But there were High Lands. Beautiful. But impossible wo walk on shores of lake. Because of fences.
I decided not to hitch from there – walk a little before. And I walked about 9 kilometers.
People are very nice – smiling, talkative and saying „hello” even to total strangers.
There I tried to hitch a car again. Even the small roads have bad design – no place to stop for a car. Only small places every one-two miles. I found this place and waited maybe half hour. I talked about my trip and the reason for traveling. So he said Glecoe is the place where he is going also. I told I have a plan to meet a guy there and give Scotsmen to taste a little Estonian liqueur. Because they are famous for whiskey but our is better ; )
He asked if I was in hurry. I said „no” and he took me to a bar to have Scottish beer. I had never heard that Scottish have beer. It tasted good and was pretty light – 3,8% alcohol.
We drove again. This point I had to mention that Polish drivers are quite legendary everywhere but Scotsmen are worse (with humor). Because the road was narrow, curvy and he drove quite fast. He was driving very well, of course. But had one beer also.
When we got to Glencoe, he asked if I wanted to go to the pub or climb a mountain with him...
I thought probably the other guy didn’t manage to get to Glencoe and I can go to pub even in Tallinn... so I chose mountain climbing :-D (before I just asked him if there are paths to go up on mountains).
The mountain he chose was Buachaille Etive Mòr (Great Shepherd of Etive) and it’s sharpest edge Crowberry straight. I had no special equipment but the guy said it’s going to be just a walk. Nothing scary. And he told that I have good boots (Estonian army boots). I had to remove my military camouflage trousers of half way up and climb having underpants on because my trousers hold me back from raising a knee.

Doctor Scotsman. Took me on his car and up to the mountain (Buachaille Etive Mor). Thanks for wonderful experience!

Beginning was the hardest I guess. Wet soil and small bushes. 2,5 hours climbing and we were up. Nice view and incredibly high. We walked around there on mountains. That night I found out that my sleeping bag isn’t warm if it’s windy. Next morning early we went down. Actually before that we went little higher again. Coming down was interesting. The guy was just running all the time. And we arrived on flat road one hour and 10 minutes after. Seems I didn’t slow him down much.
Later I compared our bags and mine was a little heavier. Incredible was that walking to car on flat good road was pretty hard because it seemed so far. I didn’t understand we walked that much up there…
Then the guy took me to Crianlarich town and I started hitch-hiking towards Glasgow airport to get on a cheap flight back home. To Tallinn...
I got there fast. EasyJet plain ticket was £~200 and flight through Stansted... next day.
So I decided I don't want to pay that much for one way ticket although flying over Scotland would be beautiful.
I thought that if airport is so far from Glasgow then there should be a service station where I can hitch a car or just some place to stop. I started walking out from airport area following the signs. But there was no such place. Motorway started and I decided to walk a little more. To find a gas station. And some road service van stopped. A man warned me from the police and suggested to go back. I did and found a little town near - Paisley. I walked around a little and decided to try there in bus stop. Interesting place because first time in my life I saw in about 20 minutes 3 cars passing by and guys in there were shouting something or showing some fingers ; )
Then I got picked up by a woman. Only because she saw me before in Crianlarich. She had traveled like this a lot also when she was younger. But Paisley is such a horrible place that normally she would not pick up anyone from there.
She took me to centre of Glasgow. It looked really nice. But she warned me seriously that I should ask for help or directions only from women etc. I know some districts are pretty bad in Tallinn but I wouldn't warn people like this.
On George Square in centre of the city was a Tourist Information place. Everybody there were happy and I got warm welcome. But when I asked about places for hitching a car they printed a Google Map and it said “Gas Stations”. So I went there... about two hundred meters walk. But it was area only for pedestrians... so I went back. And they gave another Google Map for a gas station and showed a road which goes to motorway. The gas station was one-car-automatic-station in the between big buildings. Useless! So I went to see the road which enters the motorway. But not so many cars went there and it wasn't suitable for me. So I decided to walk to right direction and hope there's going to be a place for me... and I walked along with motorway M8 to east. The hardest thing was... there wasn't suitable track for walking. Only roads to houses up and down. Sometimes in rose bushes : ) and bridges over motorway. One time I made a large circle around houses.
There I saw a job one man was doing and I felt really sorry for him - he was driving an ice-cream van and this awful melody playing from the van calling kids... it was in this pretty bad district and he started in the evening so it felt like in one of GTA computer games where you had to distribute drugs from ice-ceam van : )
After a long time walking I found a suitable place in East End. At this point there were graffitis everywhere, mostly on pavement – probably gang leader names. And windows of some houses were covered with plates. In this place I tried to catch a car for long time. It was getting darker and I thought I call the guy I was climbing because he gave his number if I get stuck in Glasgow. Unfortunately he didn't understand where was I and my calling time ended. It was already in junction of Cumbernauld and Gartloch road. So as this suburb didn't look that hospitable, I didn't have more coins for calling and I didn't want to spend time to find a currency exchange I decided to walk away from this district nobody wants to stop. And I walked. It was night already when I saw a brushwood and I thought nobody will find me accidentally there during the night.
As I took my sleeping bag out from my bag I heard noises behind fence. I didn't know what it was. I tried to talk with that thing but no answer. So probably some animal. But I didn't want to stay there any more. I started walking again but now next to motorway little further on grass. There I scared a fox almost to death : ) But police wouldn't like anybody walking there neither. I reached Fort Glasgow, looked around and decided to sleep in bushes there. As it was so far from the city.
In the morning I waited in smaller gas station couple of hours when a Scotsman picked me up. He told that also Fort Glasgow is not good for hitch-hiking because it's bad district. So... mostly in Glasgow there is bad district... now I look a little different when in rap songs, for example, they are complaining about bad life in ghettos. Glasgow, beautiful capital of Scotland, and they have FUCKED IT UP and turned into a ghetto with trash everywhere on streets, telephone booths destroyed, (ugly) graffity and nobody wants to stop there... BURN IN HELL, bastards!
Alright... probably UK deserves it's immigrants because of centuries lasted robbing and stealing from colonial countries. But just destroying... awful picture.
But I got away from there safely. The driver told me that you can hear Gaelic language only in far north and on some islands. That's a pity. It is a dying language.
But I wondered how many times people told me I speak English very well. One even said that better than some English guys nowadays : )
UK nowadays (as few as I saw it) reminds me United States of America (I haven't been there yet) and the movie called Idiocracy. There are signs everywhere. OK, I understand that on motorways are traffic signs with lights so drivers can see them even at night and on high speeds. But one large blinking sign was “Don't drink and drive”. And lots of signs. Just to keep people not thinking and overloaded with useless information.
Well... I liked one commercial in a gas station. "We encourage our staff to spend all day chewing the cud" [advertisement by The Free-Range Butter Co.].
An awful picture was in one service station where in kids playing garden, was big screen TV-set and kids watching stupid cartoons from one-meter-distance...
Waiting in services station got a lot better in Birmingham. A lot of drivers asked me where was I going. One thing amazed me... that nobody knows about English beer. And in gas stations (even in shops there) they don't sell beer. But I decided to have lunch in fast food place before I leave UK. It was bad food...
Kids playground in that service station was... different... namely there was a coloured garden and inside was a big screen TV. Kids were watching it nose almost against screen. Stupid eastern cartoons...
And there I saw another hitch-hiker. On his way to London. Young guy, bald, wearing track suit. And tried to sell me his watch. Probably he tried also to sell it to driver because soon a police came. But they had a little chat only and the guy stayed there.
There I found out that on my map there distances mostly in kilometers but in Great Britain are miles. Confusing.
From Birmingham I got to Calais in one truck. This time over the straight in a ferry. It was better than train. You could have free tea or coffee there. I had a chat with Estonian driver. But before getting on ferry... the driver I came from Birmingham told me to walk around a little maybe I find someone who leaves Calais right after we get there. Because he needs a rest then. I walked around a couple of minutes when I saw trucks going on ferry already. I ran to the truck and got onboard : )
This night I didn't sleep and next evening I was in Poland, near border and Frankfurt/Oder. Also this night I didn't sleep. There was a gas station and I had a nice supper over several days : )
But all night no trucks wanted to stop for me. And finally I had an opportunity to have a chat with Polish police :-D I was walking around in TIR park. They stopped and asked my ID-card, wrote down something and asked my father's name (I doubdt if the spelled it correctly). All talk was polite and practical.
In the morning one truck stopped and a Bulgarian was driving. He took me few kilometers to a bad place for hitch-hiking. I stood there a couple of hours and no luck. I decided to walk a little. Having a doubt if it's a good idea because there might be several kilometers just narrow road. But I was lucky. After two kilometers I found a resting place with toilet and internet point. Over several day I had a chance to read my mail.
Very soon I got on a truck. Truck driver advised me to go to Biała Podlaska with him, over Warszawa, because it's a transit road and good place. But it wasn't like that.
By the evening I reached Suwałki. But before one catholic priest gave me a ride. His voice sounded like he was upset because of me. And asking questions like “how many catholics are in Estonia?”, “are you protestant?”. I didn't know should I be one : ) I didn't want him to throw me out from his car : ) The best question was “you are 24 years old and you don't know how to live?”. But I was diplomatic and told the truth that I think about these subjects some time but I haven't decided yet...
In Suwałki Swiss Bar I had really delicious supper. Unbelievable. And not that expensive. Good looking food and place also.
In this TIR parking field a Polish driver offered he can take me but in the morning. But there is large TIR port two kilometers north. I decided to move. It wasn't so smart because if there is two traffic lanes marked of asphalt, Polish truck drivers like to drive four trucks side-by-side : ) So it's dangerous.
In TIR port I had no good opportunity for hitching. So I went to sleep. At last...
This night I found out that my sleeping bad is good even if it's raining. But only for one night. I wouldn't like to use it next night again.
Early in the morning I felt like walking and I hoped that there's going to be another gas station soon. But it was a mistake. I walked many kilometers before I found a place where trucks stop. There I was an Estonian driver and I got 24km north from Riga in Estonian trucks.
There after an hour waving my poster “Tallinn” one Estonian guy in nice car stopped and brought me almost in front of my dormitory. It was 11 P.M. on 15th of June 2007.

2007.04 Tallinn – Riga – Kaunas – Radom – Krakow – Žukai – Salaspils

2008-03-25T18:40:00.007+02:00

This was my first hitch-hiking trip outside from Estonia. Also this was my first visit to foreign countries exept I had been in north Finland. It was a bus trip. I didn’t plan this much but I prepared myself for the worst – I got everything to sleep even under a tree. But I am very glad I didn’t have to, because the weather turned unexpectedly bad in the mean time. About it... later.

From Tallinn I got moving on Friday, april 13th 2007 at 9 o’clock. I didn’t take the smarterst way to get out from Tallinn. So I walked about 2 hours. Then I sat on a electric train and I arrived to city border at 11:30.
I hitched there for about 2 hours and finally stopped a transport car. Driver works in JAA Disain. He took me to Pärnu (128 km).
I was walking south from Pärnu and before I realised I was already out from Pärnu, a car stopped by me. It was a blue Mercedes-Benz delivery van. The driver asked if I needed a lift and took me to Võiste (20 km).
There I started hitching again and stopped Moskvitš. The driver was deaf and dumb. But he took me to Häädemeeste (15 km). There I had a cup of tea, cake and yoghurt.
19:40 I started hitch-hiking again and soon Polish truck stopped. He spoke Russian in Polish language. But the ride was pleasant. He took me to a gas station 25 km before Riga (119 km).
I started walking again and after a couple of minutes stopped a car next to me without hitching. He had started his weekend already – I could say that from the smell in the car : ) He told me that he doesn’t go to Riga, but he takes me to a place where starts tram way nr. 6. I left the car 20:20.

From there I walked to Alfa shopping Centre and asked from information for a place I can use internet (later I found out that I had one positive message – an offer to host me). But in that shopping centre I walked forward to the centre of Riga. Stepped into a gas station and asked if they knew about some place I could use internet – café or something. They didn’t know. But they called info telephone and got a street name where was an internet cafe. So I started to look for it. I asked people about street name I got, finally I got to right place. But I didn’t see no café. So I walked a little more. I got to Minska shopping centre.
I was glad that in Tallinn I wrote down some phone numbers of Riga HC users. I didn’t send e-mail to all HC users in Riga. So I bought phone card and called a couple of numbers. It was about 23 PM already when I called Liva.

She tried to explain me how to get to her but I was tired and navigating in dark unknown city is quite hard. So she came after me in her car with her brother and brother’s friend.
I got accomodated into a private room downstairs. Liva made some sandwiches and we had a little chat. She is a very nice person to chat with. Afterwards we had a little beer and grilled meat with Liva’s brother and hir friend.

Next day Liva was in hurry. After breakfast Liva organised her friend Krišjanis to show me the city.
The day started from Riga Open Air Museum. As I didn’t have LAT ’s I „flew” over wall of the museum. Then I waited a bit and Krišjanis arrived.

Krišjanis in Riga Open Air Museum

At start we had a couple of drinks juice from birch tree at old pub. Then we walked hours around in the ethnographical museum. All the time Krišjanis was explaining use of buildings, constructions, fascinating details about life in these times when those buildings were built.
Krišjanis is fantastic converional partner. Thinking, listening, well expands different subjects. Really smart guy.
Before we left the museum we had another drink of tree juice at the pub.
Then we took a bus center of Riga. And went to market. That wasn’t very different from those that are in Estonia. But something Krišjanis did... was a great idea – he bought juice of sauerkraut. I will try that, too. For sure : )

Then we walked on the streets of Riga. The architecture is amazingly beautyful. And interesting part was also seeing courtyards.
After walking a while we reached the house where Krišjanis lives. The house where was founded first Estonian student organisation „Vironia”. In the house it was exactly as a real dorm should look like : )
We continued chatting there, had a couple of drinks (tough one was the Moldavian home made shot – about 60º). And we had a true student dinner from chef Krišjanis : ) that was good. I am a lot worse cook. Then he offered me to stay at his place at night. But I preferred Liva's place because it was easier to leave the city from there.
We left for a pub not far from his place. And I drank beer which was brewed there. Tasted like a root beer. Interesting taste. But I wouldn't drink that more than half a litre at once : )
After a beer we went to a tower where is a restaurant. There I could see whole city. Next time I should take binoculars there.

Then we went to a party. It was Estonians Night at a factory territory which had been restricted area. Really cool people there. And the music... well a remix of a song from Ivo Linna reminded a little Estonia : ) but I and Krišjanis had some drinks there and I got quite drunk (at least nobody had to drag me around) : )

Estonians party in Riga

At the party was a concert that I didn't understand much. And there was a guy wearing red-gold-green hat I asked cigarettes (not for myself) yelling „rastafarai“ (which religion I don't believe actually but it is good to find people that way who like reggae music).
Luckily at the concert showed up Liva and her brother. It was good to see them. Then we all drove around a bit. In Riga at night I didn't understand where exactly. We went to a big house's top floor. The Latvians chatted with an artist (or who ever it was) and then we helped him take picture frames downstairs and to next street to a car.
After that we drove to Liva's place and I fell asleep pretty fast.
I had a nice breakfast in the morning and Liva took me to a place so I can continue my trip. And a couple of oranges to the road, which were really good „the morning after“ the party ; )
I hope with the party I didn't ruin my relations with Liva, because she is nice.

I started hitch-hiking. After a little time a van stopped which took me to a town close to Riga. Before big road bridges. From there I walked over a river where is hydro-electrical power plant. Then I hitched a car that took me to Bauska. I got there at 14:30. Driver is a Chernobyl veteran.
In Bauska I had a little rest and getting out from the town was bad, because next to driveway was a narrow road for walkers and bicycles. To roads were separated and the cars had no place to stop. Finally I got to a suitable place and I hitched a guy in small car. I got straight to Kaunas with him. He was aheading Poland but still he drove into Kaunas and have me 3 LIT for the bus.

River Nemunas in Kaunas. I just ran to the beautiful blue water with green river banks. It was such a nice sunny day.

When I got off the car I was one of the most relaxing views during my trip that I saw – river Nemunas and houses next to it. All grass green, Bushes with yellow blossoms.

In Kaunas I asked people, how to get to Old Town (mostly to find Internet Café). I got on trolley bus #7. In Old Town I walked around to see the city, seeking The Devils Museum (which I didn't find), I ate at a restaurant and walked a little more in Old Town.
When I was walking up to hill there was a couple of old ladies there, who commented something in Lithuanian. And asked something. When I asked in English what did they asked they started to talk with my as with baby „oh, you look so tired and walk so slowly and what is matter”. Yes, my feet hurt a bit from walking but I guess I didn't look so bad and I felt wonderful : )
Then I told them where I'm from and I feel good. But I asked about Intenet Café. One of the ladies showed me where it is (it was about 100 meters).
The café was nice and I enjoyed the service – really cosy. And it was nice that the girl knew about Hospitality Club.
I drank cappuccino there and searched for contacts – I had no positive answers from HC users in Kaunas (only a couple of „no“ answers).
I found a few phone numbers where it didn't say „you have to notify X days before“. The calling part was a little complicated. Good thing was – right there on the street were phone booths. But in HC profiles given phone number like „+370 xxx xxx“ from booth you have to dial „8 xxx xxx“. I found that out after asking people.
I called a couple of numbers and eventually (about 9:30 in the evening) I called Vita. She asked a few questions, then asked her parents and said „yes“. Then she explained how I get to her place. It was quite confusing, but I asked a couple of persons for help and I made it – onto the right bus and out in the right place and a little walking. I got to the shopping centre where we supposed to meet.
There I waited for Vita and she waited me for a while and I walked to her : )
Nice person. Fast thinking and active. I had tea, food (marinated cucumbers exactly as made in Estonia) and shower... and another night to sleep in bed : )

Next day Vita was very busy. And unfortulately museums were closed on monday. The devils museum, war museum and maybe even art museum. I ate potato pancakes at restaurant Žalias Ratas. Nice interior there. Unfortulately Birute wasn't at work that day so I couldn't pass greetings from Viljandi (filadelfia) to her.
Also I visited AIESEC 's office in Kaunas. I like that company there. Nice people. Mostly I spent my day enjoying the weather and walking around in Old Town. I had a ride in funikulierius. The ride itself was nothing special but it was smart idea how two cars move. Afterwards I walked down hill I got inside funikulierius and then up hill I walked. Then I understood this mean of transport is really necessary ; )
On the hill I had a little chat with the lady in fun park. She was one of three people during my trip who told from my accent speaking Russian that I am from Estonia (I didn't know I had an accent).

As Vita wanted to study for an exam next day at university she organised me another hostess in Kaunas. It was her friends place. Ruta's. She was working at the same Internet Café I visited the day before.
There I had a couple of juices and we went to her place. Incredible apartment. I couldn't believe it is possible to make an apartment that beautiful in a Soviet block house.
Then we ate and had a little chat. Ruta showed me a book written by a Lithuanian writer. About trip from North America to East Asia. On bicycles. Very interesting. With pictures.
Then I used Ruta's computer for a couple of hours and went to sleep. Luxury again – slept in bed : )
In the morning I got a couple of apples and cake „to the road“ from Ruta. Her mother had made really delicious cake. I don't know exactly but like chocolate cake with biscuits inside.
We went to center of the City together, I took next bus to border of the city. Walked a while. Hitched a while and a truck stopped.

The driver was Polish, but I understood his Russian a lot better than last one's.
First stop with him I had at a gas station close to border Lietuva-Polska. He lit his gas cooker on the floor of hir truck and boiled tea. Offered me too and searched for something to eat. Didn't find. I took two pieces of cake from my bag and offered one to the driver. Of course the driver also said it was delicious. Then we went together to a gas station where he wanted to buy a 4-pack of beer. But he was a little short of money. So I gave him some.
We went ahead and near the border he asked if I had any narcotics with me : ) Then after border another stop. I didn't have any zloty 's yet but I went to a diner with the driver. He asked if I want anything. I said „no“. But he ordered chicken meat and pepsi for two.
As this was truck drivers way home he took me to a little town Ostroleka. Where I after a while hitched Jeremiusz. Cool guy in a big car. Right at the beginning he made an unbelievable compliment to me – asked if I was a Russian because I speak Russian that well. (I know I can't talk much in Russian). He had studied in Moscow many years ago. I wondered too, how can a Polish guy speak Russian that well. Usually they don't speak it.
Anyways the ride with him was nice. I think we had quite an content-rich conversation. In the mean time Jeremiusz talked about historical meanings about places we drove through. For example showed me forest, where Polish troops kicked back Stalin troops and stopped himm getting into Europe. In the mean time Jeremiusz put on a record. It was Polish country music that he was singing. Interesting, a little funnt but still good. Also he showed me some prostitutes by the road. A couple were pretty.
He had also a good question when we were driving: „how many in inhabitants are there in Estonia? 4 million?“. I answered that about 1,4 million, including Russians he laughed „and now you came here and there are only 1 399 ... It was a good laugh :-D
Then it was Warszawa. Jeremiusz went to a house for a couple of minutes, came back and asked if I have any zloty 's to get to border of the city by bus. I didn't have – bad preparation. And he promised to give me a lift where I can hitch-hike. But first he has to give lift to his friend.
It started to get dusked outside. Jeremiusz drove to gas station, got off the car. Next to his car came a bald man in red converible car. Jeremiusz came back and two cars drove to a side street. Bald man put away his car, I sat on back seat of Jeremiusz' car and we drove forward. City ended and if felt like a ride on potato field. In the mean time Jeremiusz explained they are going to airport. This didn't seem fun at all anymore. Especially because I hoped not to turn off road E67 and E77.
Then normal roads appeared again and Jeremiusz stopped his car and showed me direction where to go to hitch-hike. Not far was a big shopping centre and there I continued hitch-hiking.
It was quite dark already and the cars didn't want to stop. My goal was 300 km. I had a contact in Warszawa and maybe I could find the host but in the dark the city felt too big to move back there.
From Kaunas to Krakow in one day was my goal because I wanted to spend whole day in Krakow and get back to Lietuva on third day. Reason for that was I got invited by Vita to Hospitality Club Easter Camp on April 20-22.

Anyway... finally a car stopped and the driver said he is going to Radom. About 100 km. I sat in the car still hoping to get to Krakow by late night.
Cool guy the driver. Marek. We had a little chat during ride. He has a city-alpinism company in Warszawa. Painting constructions.
When we got to Radom he asked if I need his mobile number in case I am unlucky with hitch-hiking. And also he offered to spend night at his house. I agreed, because it was night by then and I didn't feel lucky with the cars.
He has a nice house and especially the bathroom. At home was his wife and friend and three sons. We ate and chatted a while. Really good idea was horse raddish on sandwiches. So far I only had horse raddish with hotpot meal. And marinated mustard seeds on sandwich was good. But I think the cake they gave me was the most delicious cake I've ever tasted. (I hope to get the recipe for that). And I drank a glass of nalivka. Of course I had to say that I can't taste plums in there. Marek said „there was only one plum“ and it was a good laugh : ) glad they didn't took my comment as an offence.
This was the first night I used my sleeping bag. In the morning I ate a little and got going. Fortunately Marek's house is near south border of Radom. And Marek's friend sent me there. I like this guy.
I hitched quite a long time, then I got a 40 km ride on a lorry. Then I got a ride in Polish Fiat. I wanted to be in such since I saw one first time in Poland. I got plenty of room inside. I thought about buying myself one too. But I've heard you can't register those in Estonia. Next lift was in another lorry that took me to Kraków. It was quite slow. Especially driving up-hill. The speed was about 40 km/h then. But mostly it was 80 km/h. When I got out from the truck I walked a while and got to train station.
There was a currency exchange in train station but they wanted larger amounts of money. Started from 100 units. There is no Hansapank in Poland as there is in Estonia, Lietuva and Latvia. And I didn't know if Hansapank takes extra money if I use Polish ATM. It takes about 0,5 EUR in Estonia is you take money from ATM that is not Hansapank's.
Then I went to huge shopping centre in train station to find a shop where they sell phone cards. A girl from kiosk suggested (in fluent English) to go to Orange (communication operator) box. There a lady didn't understand me at all. So I went to another kiosk. They had these cards. But girl there thought that Estonian (VISA) card doesn't work. I suggested to try. And it worked : )

Centre square in beautiful Kraków, Poland

As I had a few contacts written down I tried to call. No luck finding a host. And the card got empty (NB! Hospitality Club people – if someone calls and asks for accomodation, then no need for making several minutes lasting apologies and tell all the reasons. Answers like „no“, „yes“, „call my friend“, „call after two hours“ are enough. Understandable that people are busy sometimes – no problem).
Then I bought two more of these phone cards and went for a walk. Incredibly beautiful old town. In the midfield a guy stepped to me and asked something in Polish. I told in English I didn't understand. And he talked English. And asked „give homeless person money for vodka“. I think the guy was under 30 years old. But I said I have no money. He asked where I came from, gave hand with best wishes and walked away : ) Later one more asked „money for vodka“. I continued walking. There was river and castle Wawel. Red castle. Awesome view. And I walked around it.
Then I thought I need some cash so I changed some of my LIT 's into zloty 's.
Luckily there was an Internet Café I noticed. So I visited it. A message from Tomek. He didn't know if he can host me. So I called him and he asked to call back later, because he can't host me but maybe his friend can. This time I spent in a restaurant. I ate roll meat „Old Polish Style“. The restaurant has nice interior and really high class service.
Then I called to Tomek again. And he gave me his friend's (Kamil's) mobile number. He explained me how to get to his place. Even I wrote down name of the bus stop incorrectly and I got lost when trying to count bus stops, I stepped off bus in right bus stop.
Kamil was there waiting already. We went to his dorm. Pretty cool place for living. Many things and cosy room. Again I got a bed to sleep in. Luxury trip : ) before sleep we chatted, ate and surfed in Internet. I hope I didn't disturb Kamil that much doing his school work. Smart guy I guess. It would be interesting to sit with him a little longer. It would be good for field of view.
In the morning we had a fast beakfast, Kamil drew me a map where is the best place for hitch-hiking. Very hospitable guy.
Bus ticket costs 1,25 zloty for students, 2,5 zloty is normal ticket. But both times bus driver kept my 3 zloty 's : )
I think it is a little funny that Polish don't speak Russian. Of course there are reasons that they don't like Russian Federation which is understandable. Pronounciation is different but if you wrote polish words in cyrillic, it would be quite similar. But that is only my opinion.

In Krakow I hitched a little van to a small town 17 km before Warszawa. Driver Piotr is interesting smart guy. We discussed quite a lot about politics – relations of ex-soviet countries with Russia. About it's sanctions to Estonian goods, Polish goods and other harassing. And about stupidity of „old European countries“ dealing with Russian Federation.
Before Warszawa when it was about 13 PM I hitched for couple of hours and I got bored. So I started walking – hitch-hiking. No luck. And I got to Warszawa. The cars had no place to stop so I walked till I saw traffic sign „trucks go right“ (to get through Warszawa I should have gone only straight). And I turned right. Walked a bit, hoping there is a stop for trucks so I can ask to get onboard. Nothing. So I decided to turn left and go to right direction. I like that there is city map in many bus stops.
I spent all my zloty 's in Kraków and I just didn't want to exchange more to travel in city by bus. The weather was fine, too. Finally I got through Warszawa (not straight way) and by then I had walked about 10,5 hours.

In the border of the city I tried to catch cars for quite a long time. Because it got dark, it started raining and falling hail. Blew strong cold wind. I didn't want to keep because I saw the city street lights will end after few hundred meters.
Luckily then stopped a girl in little car. I got a few kilometers ride but it was in warm wind-free environment : )
Then I didn't wait for long and stopped a car. Again few kilometers. Then after 10 minutes waiting a truck that took me to Bialystok north border.
Then after maybe 20 minutes waiting (it was a good place to wait because many trucks passed the place) I got on truck the driver was aheading to Kaunas. Russian-Lithuanian guy and we talked quite a lot. At least I stayed awake for most of the night : ) At seven o'clock we arrived to Kaunas.
I spent some time there – registered to the Easter Camp, drank tea. Then I walked in city, visited AIESEC office to find some people I know – there was nobody at the moment. That early morning I found no good places to eat. I didn't want coke & hamburgers neither. So I walked to main road to start hitching again. First time without city name paper. I stood there pretty long time. Then I saw a truck carrying long plastic tubes. The wind was strong a blew some tubes off platform. When hitching a Žiguli passed me. Stopped after a hundred meters and started to tie one of plastc tubes of roof of his car.
I got bored standing there and started walking. I got to Žiguli, wanted to pass it and the driver, busy with tying started to talk. That I had a bad place to hitch there – many crossroads ahead, etc. And he offered me a 500 meter lift ( I think he was a little afraid I give him up, because he started talking with „did you see who dropped the tubes?“ and I pointed to a truck still standing few hundred meters other way).
Then I started hitching again. Towards Klaipeda. Which was not so smart as I understood later. Although Vita gave me Lithuanian map, I couldn't find Žukai village in district of Šilute on the map. I thought it must be located near Šilute town and the village is just to small to be on the map.
I got on a truck which took me to crossroads Kaunas-Klaipeda-Taurage. I aheaded Taurage. From there to Šilute. I got there in three cars. I wandered around in Šilute, trying to find tourist info. One lady showed me a travel agency, where is also beauty salon. I stepped in and it was no tourist info. Just travel agency. An hairdresser there showed on my map where is Žukai village. It was between Kaunas and Šilute and I could have get there on 1,5 hours instead of all day.

I got going again. At least it was straight way to Žukai. Firstly a young family took me on car. It was quite long ride. Then it was a tanker. The driver said that I can't get far with him. We went about one kilometer and he turned right and drove about 500 meters when I asked „where is this road going to?“. The man hit the brakes, stopped the car and said „oh, you wanted that way“. I got out and walked back to main road.
I started hitching again and a young guy stopped. He took me few kilometers to a bus stop. I had LIT 's, but mus wasn't in my plans – this is not fun : ) I walked and an older guy came on motoroller and stopped. „Hop on“ he said and took me about one kilometer. When he stopped, tears fell from his eyes – wind was really cold and strong.
Next stopped a bunch of guys. They preferred speaking Russian. They took me many kilometers. To a village before Žukai. During the ride boys laughed a lot, chatted in Lithuanian and pointed at me sometimes. That as not pleasant. When we got to their village one asked „do you go hitch-hiking or wait in the car a little so we can take you there?“. I chose waiting. Then they drove rally between old houses and bad roads in the village to a house and one more guy came into the car. Rally again to another house. All four guys jumped off and left to a house. Before last guy got into house I came out from the car to get going. And the last guy didn't step into the house. Instead he told me to wait and shouted other guys out from the house to get going. We drove again. In the mean time other car followed us.
The guys asked me „what is in Žukai?“ I didn't want to talk much about it and just said „friends“. It was incomfortable unawareness what are those guys... party crashers? Because still they talked in Lithuanian and sometimes pointed at me.
But they took me in front of Žukai shop and left. Pleasant.

In front of the shop greeted be happy girls from Hospitality Club. And in car I got to party site near lake Neumalunis. A lot of people there (during 3 days counted about 90 persons). The ticket was 20 LIT. Skalpelis told about her time spent in Turkey and Kinderis about his hitch-hiking trip in Africa that lasted for 6 months.
Playing games, the DJ had some fantastic beats from Africa. Eating-drinking and a lot of communicating, making contacts in different countries. Because of the bad weather it was a little problem with sleeping places. Folks slept tightly together. I had a very good place for sleeping. And a long sleep because of last night I didn't sleep.

Lake in Žukai, Lietuva. There took place first half of the camp.

Lake in Žukai, Lietuva. There took place second half of the camp.

In the morning we went away from that place by bus. To other village. Some of folks went canoeing and others just felt cold : ) So we started to make fires. Eventually there were 5 fires: one in the fireplace of the „house“, anteroom of sauna, in sauna, outside under soup pot and near soup pot.
Canoeers came back and again eating-drinking, music, communicating, second part of Dainius' presentation about Africa. And then sauna-sauna-sauna and swimming in the lake. Awesome feeling! The sauna-company was great also. Represented Russia, Estonia (in that camp among 90 persons there were only two Estonians – me and a girl), Danmark, Suomi, Lietuva, Deutchland, UK... can't remeber all.
Then I had a little snack and went to sleep. In sauna. This moment it was 60 degrees Celsius. Comfortable – I didn't need no sleeping bag. Some time during night I woke up and I still needed the bag. In the morning it was 23 degrees in the sauna.
All the morning it was only saying goodbye 's : ) that many good folks. And that make one thing a little complicated. Namely there are going to be two HC camps at the same time. One in North Finland and other in Latvia. SO hard to choose. It's just that many people going to Latvian camp but I'd like to see North Finland.
Luckily on 21th of April Ruta joined the camp. She was my hostess. It was good to see her there. So on Sunday she was about leaving and asked whether I go by hitch-hiking or not. And proposed me to leave with her and a couple of guys so we can go in pairs. It was good idea. I was in pair with Danish guy – Esben.

We hitched some time and stopped reverend or something. He took us to shop in Vilkyškiai. And turned back. Esben bought milk, sausages, water and shared everything. Then a car from camp stopped and a woman offered - „we can take one to Vilnius or both only 10 km“. I thought it would be better if Esben gets to the right place. Because he doesn't speak Russian and sometimes it is necessary there.
And that was good decision, because a little later stopped Vita, Paulus, Tuchkus and a girl next to me and we had beer. Just for luck. And they continued driving. Then I got ride on pretty fancy Citroén travel van to Jurbarkas. Then I got picked up by a very interesting Lithuanian guy. He lived in United States for several years. He pronounced English purely. I'd say even pedantically. He was schooled at a university in US to speak, behave as a New Yorker and understand them. He is fantastic conversation partner. Was interested what I think about working abroad, my previous profession, about engineering studies.
During the ride he told about history – right side were areas under control of German Order – a buffer zone. And left side Lithuanian defence towers. Communicating with smoke signals. The guy had spent his childhood there. He told how the large field near the river was flooded in spings and after they build hydroelectrical power plant the floods are uncontrollable. He indicated to a house being built and wondered who is going to buy it – it will suffer under floods. At least half of the house will be under water.
Afterwards I realised it wasn't smart thing to go through Kaunas to get to Riga – but the ride Jurbarkas – Kaunas was one of the most interesting rides during my trip. So still it was good idea : )

From Kaunas to north I stood a long time to get a car. A young guy took me on and he aheaded to Šiuliai. He didn't speak English nor Russian. He tried German, but I can't speak it. But he called his friend and I told him in Russian what I want : ) Getting to Šiuliai wasn't exactly my plan but it was closer to my goal.
In Šiuliai it was quite dark outside already. But after half an hour waving there a car stopped. There was an old couple in the car. They took me to Riga. Almost Riga, actually. Because they asked if I want to go in the centre of Riga or before Riga there goes a transit road. I chose transit road. But when I got out I realised it was not that smart decicion because it was totally dark there and few traffic. Especially to transit road.
Then I thought it over and started hitch-hiking to Riga. Next car stopped and took me to Salaspils. From there a guy picked me up and took me to nearst gas station. It was second guy I met on my trip who had been in Metallica concert in Tallinn. When we got to gas station he said that he has to go 10 km back : )
There I hitched until 4 o'clock. It was good place – many trucks but no luck. I got tired and I layed out my sleeping matters and sleeping bag and slept under sky. I slept well because it wasn't that cold (+2 degrees Celsius) and no wind. But the place was quite wet so to stay dry I slept on pitch so and bushes under my mattress. At least no one could see me there.
I woke up at 6 AM and got on truck 6:20. It was Estonian driver Sulev. In Tallinn I was at 11:30 on 23th of Aprl 2007. It was good to chat in Estonian : )

It was super-special trip. And for sure I want more... to travel like this – hitch-hiking. For comfort to all citizens of Riga, Warszawa, Kaunas, Krakow etc. I didn't see anything because in such short time it simply is impossible. But I got the feeling I WANT MORE : ) And I have to take time to visit your cities again.

After the trip I got a question „what was the most special in your trip“. The question is hard. But as I've written this story for hours right now... I can say that. The most special was to be all day with Krišjanis. Not because of Riga but because of his character.
I travelled about 2951 km during my trip. I counted it on map.

THANKS TO ALL PEOPLE I MET DURING MY TRIP. WITHOUT YOU IT WOULD HAVE BEEN EMPTY!

2008.03 Easter!

2008-03-24T14:35:00.007+02:00

Dear readers, I salute you over ages...

A lot has changed since my last post. I got the best job in the world, but today I'm not talking about that.
As every working person, the most valuable thing is free time. As I am pretty active member of HC these times and I didn't want to waste my long weekend... I took into my plans visiting Vilnius. The reasons were simple - some places just are "must" to visit. Lately I took a trip to Helsinki and in my close future plans are also Berlin and St. Petersburg...
But as I have had nice guests from Vilnius and I wanted to start hitch-hiking (as the daylight-time is quite long already). And is was very nice weather last week in Tallinn...
I agreed my visiting time with my hostess and packed my rucksack.
I put my thumb up Friday morning about 9 a.m. in Laagri, Tallinn.
While waiting there an old man (about his 70's, I guess) came from bus and started talking. That he joined Estonian Voluntary Defence organization (later I thought he mentioned it because I have pants and bag in army colors), that he got his last recommendation for the organization from our last president. That he was in pilgrimage last year in Poland. And how he was hitch-hiking... then he asked for my contacts with sentence "he might be able to help me". If I asked "how", he answered that he will get a car for 0 money. I wasn't very interested what he meant with that, probably that he could give me a ride then.
He took out his A4 format black book and asked me to write my name and contacts and with how big donation will I step in his club. I wrote, but not the amount of money.
I asked, what is this club anyway. He answered, that health club. Like in one swimming pool he has unlimited time for swimming. I could just go. This month still for 200 EEK (?!). But there were interesting names in his book. For example our head director of Police Department. Our last president also. I can't remember more.
He said he is working as a cart pusher in supermarket. What a start for the day! :)
I got my first ride about 10:30. And it was about 30km. The driver talked (not a conversation) about criminals these days and in 1930s and forced labor used at connecting big lakes in war period. If the ride had been longer. The selection of his sentences didn't make much sense.
The next car stopped in 10 seconds. And it took me through Latvia to small border village Germaniškis, Lietuva. About 360km. The driver is working in Finland as a welder. It was pretty interesting ride. We were talking most of the time.
When we got to Germaniškis, he asked, If I can write "Vilnius" in local way. That I should write "V-I-L-N-I-A-U-S". I asked that how is so. I though Vilnius is the place and Vilniaus is (region) of the Vilnius [genitive case]. He said no. Then I showed my map, where it was written "Warszawa" and "Rīga" - in local way. And "Vilnius". That stopped the discussion.
In Germaniškis I waited for 20 minutes, I guess. And got a ride to Biržai. About 22km. There I waited for a long time. All day I've been using signs for getting ride. But waiting there... thinking "Vilnius" sign is good... was wrong. I put the sign away, lifted my thumb and the second car stopped and took me to Pasvalys, 30km.
There I had to stand quite a long time. With sign "Vilnius". A car that stopped finally was Latvian family's. They wanted to to go Poland, but wasn't sure about their road. Luckily I had a map : ) They got smarter and I got closer to my destination. The ride was 45km.
Then... standing in junction Pasvalys-Kaunas-Vilnius... evening came and it went dark. I didn't stand that long time but in darkness I didn't feel that good any more. Bad place for hitch-hiking in darkness - no street lights.
Then something big stopped. I ran and it was a bus. When I said I'm hitch-hiking, seemed the bus driver didn't accept it. I asked for price and it was 20 litas. Lucky me - I had these 20 litas in my pocket. I had the money since last summer from Kaunas. Of course the bus driver didn't give me the ticket ; ) There were 4 persons in big bus and 2 went off quite early, before Vilnius.
Luckily me hostess lives in very comfortable place and bus stopped near it. But my personal problem was round-roads in sleeping areas and memory/lazyness. I thought that the house number was 68, not 63 so I had long walk around the area.
Finally I found the house. The time, I guess, was around 10pm.
I got fed, changed clothes and went to meet Margarita in the city. Everything was well organized. Except from my side. My phone wasn't working because I have pre-paid phone card (stupid me) or was it some other problem... I'm not sure.

Cathedral in Vilnius

Užupis, special district in Vilnius

Awful street in Užupis, Vilnius

Prison in Vilnius that looks super beautiful. But not inside, as I was told :)

St. Anne 's gothic style church

Vilnius and other Baltic states got covered with snow this weekend, but it didn't stop nobody having good time. I and Margarita enjoyed beer in a pubs, drink at Paparazzi night club, restaurants, walks, driving in the city... it was very good weekend. Vilnius is super-nice and I have to go back. This time was more like introducing, I need more time and summer would be nice.
Planning the trip back was harder than I thought it would be. No straight bus ride Vilnius-Tallinn. The best oportunity was waiting 3 hours in Riga and be in Tallinn at 23.15 in the evening.
I decided to do it the easy way - I took a bus ride to Latvia (there was passport check on Latvian border), round-road at E22 and E67 crossing, waiting there for 15 minutes and got a direct ride to Tallinn with nice BMW. I was in Tallinn at 6 P.M. Thanks to Latvian man working in Tallinn : )
So... none of the rides was with Estonians...
Just remember - when hitch-hiking, try to act as well as you can. Only this car raise reputation of hitch-hiking. No experienced hitch-hiker travels that way to save money, remember that! : )

Flag of Lietuva

New start.... and news from history

2007-03-28T13:06:00.001+02:00

Be welcome, curious folks!

This is new start for my blog. As the days are long again and summer seems to turn busy with different trips, I decided this blog will be about trips only. The usual bullsh* (politics, troubles, etc) can be discussed at pubs, house parties, MSN. : )
But as some folks might be interested in traveling stories, here they are...

Rain Dog
P.S. If anyone has problems with mentioning the person in stories or on photos, please let me know and I'll change it.