Caliban – Opinion and Righteous Anger

Another day in Narva, perhaps the hottest day of our trip so far; a real scorcher.

We’d promised Eloïse an immediate visit to the beach today, so we had to make good on that pledge. After an altogether uninspired breakfast at our hotel, we wandered down to the beach via the town hall (virtually the only old building left standing after the town was bombarded into near-oblivion during World War II) and some of the bastions.

The sun was in just the right place for some polarised wide-angle shots of the friendship bridge, spanning the divide between Narva Castle on the Estonian side and Ivangorod Fortress.on the Russian. I then joined Sarah and the children on the beach.

Lukie soon tired and had to go in the sling for forty winks, but Eloïse played for ages in the water. It was busy at the beach, but will probably be even busier at the weekend.

We left the beach and headed for the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, a Russian Orthodox cathedral. The route to the cathedral led us through Soviet-era tenement blocks in various states of dilapidation, their main entrance doors resembling prison cell doors with keypads. Three old ladies with headscarves sat chatting on a bench outside one of these monstrosities, but declined my request for a photo. A pity.

That marked the end of the things we wanted to see in Narva, so we went back to the hotel and drove the twelve or so kilometres to Narva-Jõesuu, a beachside resort that used to be very popular during the days of the tsarist empire. It’s still pretty popular today, judging from the hundreds of blobs of sunburned cellulite stretching as far as the eye could see.

After a fairly light lunch, we made for the beach for Eloïse and Lucas’s second session of sand-frolicking today. I was gobsmacked by the quality of the beach, whose golden sand was about as fine and powdery as you could hope to see this side of a Pacific island. Estonia really does have some fantastic beaches.

Our fun on the beach over, we went back to the car and drove back along the river that separates Estonia from Russia. A Soviet tank stands at the side of the road along this route as a monument of some kind.

Back in Narva, we decided it would be fun to visit a couple of the shopping malls around here. Narva has lots of them, in contrast to other Estonian towns; it must be a Russian thing.

In fact, Narva really is like no other Estonian town we’ve been to. In the other towns we’ve visited on this trip, many, if not all, of the Soviet-era eyesores have been torn down. They hark back to a time that many would rather forget, or at least consign to the dim recesses of their mind.

Here, though, the choice seems to have been made to either keep on using them or simply let them decay. If they were ghastly when they were in active use, you can only imagine what years of neglect have done for their aesthetic value. Registering in one’s perception as strongly as they do, albeit it at the wrong end of the beatific scale, they become as worthy of photographic retention as sights that go more easily on one’s optic nerve.

The malls failed to impress, although they did contain a collection of clutter and tat quite distinct from what we normally see at home, so they were interesting for that, at least.

It was another day of спасибо and Пожалуйста, these being just about the only words of Russian I know (two more than Sarah, at least!), but it’s good fun trying to decipher the Cyrillic on signs and menus.

Dinner was at the surprisingly good Salvadore, where I topped off my delicious main course of lamb with something that called itself Tiramisu, wasn’t quite, but still tasted nice.

Sarah went back to the hotel to bath the children, while I headed out to tank up the car for tomorrow’s journey and pick up our nice, clean laundry.

We drive to Tartu tomorrow, which will be our final destination in Estonia.

This also marks the turning point in our trip. In Narva, we’re at our furthest from home. Each new destination from this point forward will bring us a little bit closer to Amsterdam.

We’re at the border with Russia, quite literally. It’s just a few hundred metres away from our hotel. An endless stream of cars, lorries and pedestrians make their way in both directions across the so-called friendship bridge.

On this, the Estonian side, of the Narva River, Narva Castle stares defiantly across the water at Russia. On the other side, the fortress of neighbouring Ивангород (Ivangorod) stands in proud opposition.

Narva is a funny old place, more Russian than Estonian. 97% of the population is Russian-speaking and it’s no coincidence that English is a virtually unknown language here.

This is apparently the most easterly point of Europe and we’re now closer to St. Petersburg than to Tallinn. As we watch people crossing the border checkpoint with the accurate yet understated text, Россия, embellishing the portal, the proximity of this gateway teases and taunts us with the lure of the unexplored.

Narva is a bit of a relic. Signs of the Soviet era still abound here, including modern architecture so hideous that causing revulsion in the beholder must surely have topped a list of anti-aesthetic objectives.

That’s not to say that the town is without charm, however. The castle is a lot of fun to visit and the grounds provide gorgeous views across the river to Ivangorod. There’s also a small beach, popular with the locals, and people stand on both sides of the river, angling for fish. Although the beach itself would win few prizes, the sand is fine and golden, and the backdrop of Ivangorod fortress on the Russian side just can’t be beaten. Where else in the world is there a castle located directly in front of a beach?

The close proximity of the Estonian and Russian castles to one another is also unique in the world. They are literally just an arrow’s flight apart, now a photogenic delight, but at one time surely an extremely unnerving fact of life, to have one’s foe so close at hand.

Once again, we’ve run out of clean clothes, so we had to find a laundrette and drop off about a dozen kilos of sweaty underpants and T-shirts. Yes, it’s not only delicious repasts and soaking up the sun when you’re out on the road. The laundry needs to get done, too.

The castle was the one absolutely essential attraction here, so tomorrow will be a lazier day, probably beginning at the beach, after which we’ll venture further afield in town.

By the way, spare a thought for the lot of the lowly lorry driver. While we were still about 5 km outside of Narva, we noticed lots of lorries parked at the side of the road. After a few hundred metres of this stationary convoy, I realised that this was the back of the queue for lorries wanting to cross the border into Russia. You could lose 24 hours sitting in that queue. It’s an emphatic reminder, as if any were needed, of the stupidity of political borders.

By land, we’re now about 2300 km from home, which is by far the furthest from home we’ve ever been in our own car. Indeed, it’s odd to think that we’ve driven the same car from the west coast of Ireland last year to the Estonian border with Russia this year. I think we’ve driven our car in about 20 countries in the three and a half years that we’ve had it, a fact that surprises me immensely, as the number has quietly accumulated without my being aware of it.

Our guesthouse doesn’t really offer breakfast. I say ‘not really’, because it ostensibly does, but the proprietor didn’t seem keen on the idea yesterday, so we deduced it would be better to venture out and find our own this morning.

Around these parts, that’s somewhat easier said than done. Most eateries don’t open until 11:00, because they service the lunch and dinner crowd, not people looking to break their fast on cereal and eggs.

Fortunately, we did eventually find a place in Võsu, which, apart from decent omelettes and sausages, also stocked that ubiquitous E-stonian commodity, WiFi.

With a full belly and caught up on e-mail, we were a mere 200 m from the beach, so it seemed like a good idea to go and play in the sand for a while. Grey clouds were gathering

overhead, so we thought this might no longer be an option within an hour or two. While we were frolicking, however, the grey clouds cleared and the day was to remain sunny from that point forward.

After the beach, we drove a few kilometres up the road to Oandu. The fact that the place even has a name suggests that it’s a village or at least a hamlet of some kind, but, as far as we could discern, there’s not even a house there.

What there is, however, in plentiful supply, is good hiking territory. We therefore went on a short

hike on a trail around some beaver dams. We saw plenty of dams, but, sadly, none of the shy little creatures that had built them.

It was then time for lunch, so we drove back up the road a kilometre or so to Altja, another of the tiny hamlets dotted around the area. We ate a lovely salmon lunch at Altja Kõrts, which I followed with the traditional Estonian dessert, kama, which is a ground mixture of barley, rye, oat and pea flour, mixed with yoghurt and some fruit juice. It’s surprisingly tasty.

We followed our late lunch with another hike, this time the Old Growth Forest Nature Trail, whose starting point lay back up the road in Oandu.

This trail turned out to be the best of the trip so far (not that we’ve done that many), if not the best hike we’ve ever done. The principle reason for this was the joy in Eloïse that it provoked. She makes a real sport out of spotting each of the numbered markers along the route and then listens attentively as we read aloud the information on the accompanying signs. A simple hike thus becomes a game and adventure!

The forest really is wild around here. Brown bears, moose and lynx all roam these parts freely and I was amused to observe that the only warning given concerned the danger of falling trees. Luckily, we know how to behave if we do come across these animals (I’ve actually encountered bears and a moose on previous hikes), but the chances of actually doing so are slim.

Eloïse joyfully recorded the encounter of every toadstool along the way, as she firmly believes that gnomes use these for resting their hind quarters.

Other notable encounters along the 4.7 km trail were some tiny frogs and, to our great amazement and joy, a wild dear, which leapt from invisibility in the undergrowth and gave me the fright of my life, because, in the split second that I heard the animal thrash in the tall grasses before I actually saw it emerge, there was ample time to imagine it might be something less friendly than a dear.

Eloïse mentioned the deer at bedtime as the highlight of her day. It had clearly made a big impression on her.

It’s fascinating to watch her grow and develop. The older she gets, the more she gains from every experience that befalls her. And. the more I bear witness to this process, the more pleasure I derive as her father. This can only mean our trips in the years to come (and, indeed, our time spent at home) will just keep getting better and better.

Tomorrow, we leave Lahemaa National Park and continue east to Narva, located right on the border with Russia.

It was an early start on Tuesday, as we had the ferry to catch. After breakfast, Sarah checked out while I retrieved the car and we then made our way over to the port.

The ferry back to Tallinn was packed this time, presumably with Finns starting out on their summer holiday. In spite of the crowds, we were still able to nab our favourite spot on the cushioned benches inside the Tivoli playing area. From that vantage point, we were able to keep an eye on the children, whilst reading our guidebook.

There was a flat-screen TV playing the animated film, Cars, in either Estonian or Finnish (the spoken languages are hard to tell apart). Eloïse said that it was in Dutch, but that she couldn’t understand it, because they were

speaking too fast. I found that to be an interesting comment, but I’m not sure what, if anything, it reveals.

The drive east took us out through some distinctly ugly Soviet era housing on the outskirts of Tallinn. Before long, though, we were out in the countryside, speeding towards Lahemaa National Park.

We decided to stop for lunch in Võsu, a tiny village just a few kilometres from the equally tiny village of Vämsu, where we would be staying. As we pulled up, here in the middle of nowhere, I saw a Dutch minibus parked at the side of the road. You’re never far from a Dutch person, no matter how far and how remote you travel.

Three tables on the patio were occupied by the bus passengers, a friendly bunch of Nijmegenaars. They, too, were touring the Baltic countries, but at a much more rapid pace than we.

The food was absolutely delicious, so I hereby heartily endorse O Kõrts for a meal, be it lunch or dinner. We were also able to park the car in full view of our table, which, with the windows wound down, enabled us to enjoy a Little Lu (as Eloïse often calls him) -free lunch. Just as importantly, Little Lu was able to catch up on some lost sleep, making him a much happier baby.

After lunch, we drove up the road to Käsmu and checked into our guesthouse,the first lodgings of this trip with no WiFi of any variety. It’s also the first place we’ve stayed where no English was spoken, so we sputtered along in German, our ability with that language arguably better than our Estonian.

In the late afternoon, we went on a hike whose trail head was situated right outside the guesthouse’s gate, which was the cue for the local mosquito population seized the opportunity to feast upon my still living carcass.

Highlights of the walk were the erratically strewn boulders along the shore, dragonflies the size of pterodactyls flying overhead, and toadstools that many a passing gnome would have been happy to park his buttocks on.

Our friend, the sun, was faithful yet another day. With little to do in the area but hike or bike, we hope his patience with us will last at least one more day.

Helsinki was fun, but it’s nice to be in the middle of nowhere again. Our previous eight nights have been in two capital cities. Whilst neither could, by any stretch of the imagination, be called hectic, this more rural setting still feels like a welcome retreat. Here, the problems of the real world seem far removed.

Outside, as I write this, you could hear a pin drop, if a pin falling onto grass could make a sound. Bliss.

We ticked off the final item on our Helsinki to-do list today by visiting the famous Stockmann department store, which offers free, one hour babysitting for shoppers’ children.

After some trepidation at the idea of entering, Eloïse went on to play happily for an hour, while we went down to the fourth floor to look at the children’s clothes. Well, what else would I do? I hate shopping.

At noon, we picked up Eloïse and showed her what we had picked out for her. Happily, everything met with her enthusiastic approval. We had clothes for Lucas, too, of course, but he couldn’t care less at his time of life.

With nothing essential left to do in Helsinki, we thought it would be nice to see something a bit further afield, in order to have seen more of the country on this trip than just the capital. The sun was once again blazing a trail across the Nordic sky, so we’d have been fools not to.

We therefore retrieved the car from the garage and, with bad Finnish radio keeping our spirits high, headed out along the coast to Porvoo.

Porvoo is a great little town, just over 50 km north-east of Helsinki. It has a pretty ‘old town’ area, at least one great café, Café Helmi, with home-made rhubarb juice, and a killer chocolate shop, Brunberg that has plenty of wares on display for you to sample before you commit to buying. I must have put on a kilo just standing there, waiting for Sarah to buy.

We had lunch in Porvoo and went on an enjoyable walking tour, picked out of the local tourist office’s brochure on the town.

Tomorrow’s drive takes us back across the Gulf of Finland by ferry to Tallinn, where we’ll turn east and head to the tiny village of Käsmu. The weather had better be good, because there’s not much to do there, but admire the scenery.

I suspect we won’t have WiFi for the next couple of days, but we’ll no doubt re-emerge on Thursday.