the blue horizon

If you ever meet my boss Jonny he'll probably tell you the story about how, on my return to England from Estonia, he managed to ring me literally the second I switched on my phone after getting off the plane at Stansted and sent me to job. After the general chit chat he asks "By the way, can you work at three?" Either I thought I was short of cash, or I was delusional from not sleeping the night before, or I was still drunk or my dominant 'think no say yes' gene was coming into play, either way I ended up going straight to a 6 hour job which involved setting up a kitchen and setting for 200 people on the 1st floor of a building with no lift, after being up for 30 hours and having gone pretty much straight to the airport from a club in Tallin . Wouldn't recommend anyone do the same. Other than the same old with work I haven't been up to much. I went to visit my nan and pop for a week up north, experienced the disappointment of not getting Led Zepplin ticket...

Tallin was a great place to finish my trip. It was certainly one of the prettier places I have been. I guess it wasn't that different to any other city in the Baltics but I certainly noticed more of a Russian influence, from the markets north of the train station selling old army uniforms and other parafunalia to the massive TV tower that apparently the Russians put up before the Moscow Olympics to impress the world. The view from the top was certainly impressive if nothing else. I reckon you could see Finland on a clear day. You could definitly see the never ending criss crossing of ferries across the Baltic bringing Fins to Tallins biggest attraction. Cheap Booze. Other than the usual walking around I went to a pub to see some Australian Singer/Songwriter pluck some strings. He wasn't half bad but the music couldn't have been more depressing if it was written by Thom Yorke and Chris Martin after their entire families died of cancer. After that I went to a club, stayed out...

After missing my earlier bus I eventually caught a late bus from Riga at 7pm meaning I didn't get to Tartu until after midnight. I probably stayed in the smallest 'hostel' you're ever likely to see. Seriously some crazy Tartuian must have built the place after watching Lord of Rings and thought that all travelers were the size of Hobbits. It rained constantly the entire time I was there so it was near impossible to go out and see anything so Denmark style I had to put the proverbial gun to my head to force myself to see anything. This was made harder by the fact that I had the entire 'hostel' and the associated benefits of TV, DVD and internet to myself.

Riga, Good. It almost knocked off Krakow as my favourite city on this trip. I stayed at a hostel called Friendly Fun Franks. Almost everyone I had met had recommended it. I wasn't disappointed. It run by an Australian bloke by the name of Frank (not a coincidence) and he had Sky Sports so I was able to watch a replay of Ports win over Geelong. The next day in between sporadic bursts of rain I managed to see quite a lot of Riga, all a bit same same, but the markets south of the city were pretty cool. Some were housed in four old Zeppelin hangers. In the afternoon I payed way to much money to fire some guns. A group of us from the hostel went to an old Russian underground bunker in the suburbs. We were met by three shady looking blokes who looked like they had enough guns and ammo to start a coup (or stop one). After a safety briefing which consisted of 'wear these ear muffs', 'hold it like this' and 'point it that way' I fired a clips worth from a Glock, a p...

I caught the 6am train to Klaipeda straight from a nightclub and although I made a point of not getting really drunk I was still dead tired so really just wanted to sleep the whole way, but the conductor had a sense of humour and thought it necessary to wake me up after every stop. Wanker. I got to Klaipeda in a shitty mood and wasn't impressed when I got to my hostel to find a derelict old building next to the bus station. It said hostel above the door but I could have sworn it had been uninhabited for the past twenty years. The hostel occupied a few rooms on the second floor. I've stayed in worst places but not much worse. My reason for visiting Klaipeda certainly wasn't to see the old town, I might have slit my wrists there and then if it was. The draw card was the Curonian Spit just a short ferry ride a way to Smiltyne. I caught a bus 50km down the spit to Nida and hired a bike for the ride back. The spit is home to the largest moving sand dunes in Europe. At an average...

I caught the overnight bus from Gdansk, luckily I got the whole back 5 seats to myself so was in relative luxury compared to the cargo carriage and spot next to the broken toilet door I had to endure on my last to trips. My guide book was comparing Vilnius to Krakow so I was expecting big things but all I got was the same old, same old. It wasn't that bad I just didn't get the comparison. Or maybe I was just getting bored. The only thing that separated it from the rest was the Genocide Victims Museum housed in the former KGB headquarters. To summarise it showed how the Lithuania's were really fucked over by the Soviets from after the war until the break up of the USSR. The basement held the former prison and gas chamber. Wankers. I made a little day trip out to Trakai to see another castle. The castle itself wasn't that impressive but the surrounding lakes were quite scenic. Obviously a popular spot for weddings as I must have passed maybe 2 dozen parties in various sta...

The train to Gdansk was packed again only this time I wish I had the luxury of my own cargo carriage. This time I was stuck next to a toilet, only the door was broken of its hinges and the smell was hideous. Gdansk was excellent and was a welcome cure to the travellers apathy I had been developing since Wroclaw. You know the drill, old town square, church, cathedral, etc etc etc. I guess Gdansk wasn't that different but it had a harbour and that always seems to make things a little more interesting. The maritime museum was really good. It never occurred to me that Poland would have such a rich maritime history. I did a little day trip out to Malbork which apparently is the largest brick castle in Europe. I don't know, either way it was kind of ok. The line up for tickets was huge and I was really interested waiting or paying to to see what was inside something which was probably pretty similar to what I had seen before. cheers, schuey