The Wild East

"A long debate in politics ensued between me and Taylor."

Our schedule demanded that we had to leave Tallinn after only a couple of days, which was a shame, but we had seen most of the sites, and I’ll probably return.
We took the bus to Pärnu, a small holiday town on the south coast of Estonia. The helpful English-speaking receptionist informed us that there was virtually no accommodation available in the town. She offered us a place on the floor in an old school house a few km out of town. When we arrived, tired and drenched in sweat (me anyway), a good-looking young lady was sunbathing in a bikini on the unkempt front lawn. She hurriedly put on T-shirt and shorts when we entered. The room was basic, but we had beds (ex-hospital), and it was only costing us £2/night each so we couldn’t complain.
Walking back down the main road towards the centre there were two old men staggering back the other way. The old comrades, one tall and one short, were holding each other up, both reeking of booze. The little one eyed me (obviously a western tourist) with a mixture of suspicion and hatred. He wasn’t a winner in the new westernized Estonia.
We had lunch in a German(!) restaurant where the food was pretty good, but the service was not up to German standards of efficiency.

We got to the beach a short time later, and it was very very busy. One problem was the weather was exceptionally hot (32 degrees) and probably most of Estonia was crammed onto a short strip of mediocre sand. Me and Taylor were overdressed (shorts and T-shirts) compared with most people. My feet had been burnt to a crisp in Tallinn. It would be some time before I could wear sandals again. After the spectacular beaches of Zanzibar and South Africa, Mark was very disappointed with this attempt and hurried off to find some shade, while I was content to sit in the sun. MT doesn’t seem to be the worlds biggest beach fan actually.

Dinner was at Steffani Pizzeria, very busy, and MT found the time to justifiably insult some Swedes wearing Liverpool football shirts, but they took it with good humour. Later we wandered into the mobile fairground. The fairground was a dirty, dusty collection of fairground rides that looked extremely unsafe. However it was a great place. There was a big stage at one end, and live performers were playing. Some were dire (some 13 year old girls singing a Estonian dance hit). But others were highly entertaining (The Superboys).
The Superboys were a trio of ridiculously fat men dressed up in Supermen-esc uniforms. They seemed out of tune, out of time, and had no singing talent whatsoever. But they did have a few catchy hits. If you ever get the chance to see them/buy their music, do it; you will not be disappointed!...well, not too disappointed.
Everyone seemed to having a great time. Most of the clientele looked pretty scary- 90% of the men had shaven heads and looked fairly criminal. I guarded my wallet with even more care than usual. We later headed for one of the makeshift outdoor bars. These bars close in October when the weather gets colder. The mosquitoes were extremely hungry- Mark, in shorts, got badly bitten, and I suffered moderately...later I would have a terrible time though...

Monday
We had an “English Breakfast” at a restaurant in the centre. It was the most un-English breakfast I’ve ever tasted, but nice. The waitress, originally dressed in jeans disappeared for a few moments, and returned in a Maids outfit, which I baffled me.
In Mid-Afternoon we headed eastwards to Tartu, a university town. The roads were pretty bad, sometimes unpaved. We found accommodation in a University hall of residence, and rooms were very smart and very new. It puts St Andrews University accommodation to shame.
A nearby café advertised Italian meals for 24EEK (£1).
“No Pizza”
MT looks disappointed
“No Pasta”
Taylor looks more put out.
Only one Lasagna was available. I opted to go for the Panimaak- an Estonian national dish. I got talking to some friendly Russians, Vadim and Andrei. However, the conversation didn’t progress much; I speak v little Russian, and they spoke v little English.

Tuesday 16 July
It was a late start (10.30am). I noticed the discipline got fairly lax on WE3, I’m sure on WE1 we were always up around 9am.
Checked out the Angel and Devil bridges and the botanical gardens. In the afternoon visited the KGB museum and learned quite a bit about the forest brothers.
The FBs were a collection of guerilla fighters across the whole Baltic states who fought Soviet rule after 1945. They thought that Estonia would soon be freed from Soviet occupation with help from the west, but the help never came.
When Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians look across the Baltic to Sweden and Finland today, where wages are about 7 times higher, there is still a feeling of lingering anger at how things could have been. The Forest Brothers were successful at first, but by 1954 they had been totally crushed by the Russians. The museum was fairly pro-Nazi, the Germans were liberators here.

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant, Taylor went for some Pear cider. Later we checked out the Oscar Wilde bar in town.
A long debate in politics ensued between me and Taylor. I was probably talking too loud judging by the number of people that turned round to stare at us.

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