Tallinn Part 2

Apologies for the lateness of this post, I blame it in true transport fashion on the wrong type of ice! Day 2 in Tallinn began with meeting a guy from Helsinki which would be our next port of call, he had lived in Tallinn for some time and helpfully told us where the 'real' Estonian bars were. We were surprised at the contrasting nature of the old town from the new town; medieval Estonia (York) meets modern Estonia (Bluewater/Meadowhall) and just beyond the shopping centre a concrete jungle of tower blocks that were a flashback to the Soviet Union days (Harlow). A trip to the beach was made to ascertain the extent of ice that would be expected on the following day's ferry crossing, the sea was clear, although the beach still contained piles of snow. The evening was interesting having the intution of a 'local', who took us to the 'Valli Baar' bar which matched the tower blocks in terms of interior design. The bar in itself is preserved as an example of soviet design and the barman we suspect has been preserved with it. The drink to have as recommended by a Glaswegian who is now a local resident is the 'Milli Malikas' which is Sambuca, Tequilia and Tabasco a local favourite and is the ultimate challenge for the adventurous tourist, it will set your mouth on fire (lol). Drinks were more expensive in Old Tallinn than the rest of Estonia but were still fairly cheap, it is clear that the new countries of the EU have managed to catch up considerably on price with Western Europe.

An early ferry compelled us to get up early, an efficient and swift ferry service took us to Helsinki, taking 2 hours to make the crossing. Surprisingly we were identified by border control/ferry ticket checkers by first names before we even had chance to speak. We were amazed that Estonia had a faster boarding time (i.e. immediate) and was better organised than Dover or Turku. The crossing was smooth and we arrived in Helsinki on time and de-camped at the Eurohostel before finding a parking spot that was free which is fairly impossible in Helsinki. In the end we parked up in a dodgy looking industrial estate surrounded by a major road, flyovers and a petrol station, 20 minutes walk from the hostel.

Tallinn

Arrival in Tallinn greeted us with nice weather, although cold at night it has been 16'C and sunny today, which was odd stood on the beach in that weather surrounded by piles of snow...
We found a Prisma supermarket...think Asda on a big scale, with confusing prices (everything was marked in estonian kroons and euros on the same label) and stocked up on food and beer to take to Finland with us. Complete with 3litre bottles of vodka (no we didn't buy one) and even multipacks of the stuff...
The roads are pretty atrocious with broken tarmac, mud and standing water everywhere...glad the car has soft suspension.
Last night we had dinner in the Olde Hansa (http://www.oldehansa.ee/) . A very interesting themed place with excellent food, definately worth a visit if you're here.
After that we went for a few drinks in Molly Malones, yes I know its an Irish pub, but it was the only place that was more of a bar/pub than a restaurant. Prbably one of the cheaper bars round here as well.
Just enjoying relaxing here for a few hours...more to come later...

Riga

An early start this morning with 415 miles today wasn't too bad after a relaxing evening in Warsaw in the hostel and a very comfy bed for the night.
Around midday progress was broken by a lithuanian traffic cop who decided that i was speeding...i wasn't really inclined to agree until he showed me the readout on his speed gun! Either way i managed to talk his fine down to amount I felt was reasonable given we were only passing through the country. The poland/lithuania border was something that could be only be described as desolate, with a few wagons in the parking area...we stopped to make sandwiches and so i could have a rest from driving.
The driving round here leaves much to be desired with no apparent rules in most places, and a road surface that was evidently laid by blind pikey on a weekend off. Potholes you could lose a small dog in and level crossings with very raised rails were amongst the delights to test the cars suspension and our spines.
Using our remaining lithuanian currency we called in a supermarket (picture kwik save on a stock take day)...spent most of it on beer in a true student style, worked out about 60p a can for half decent beer.
We finally made it to Riga about 7pm and found the 'Funky Hostel'. Although it was up many flights of stairs in a slightly dodgy looking building, on arrival the girl on the desk was very pleasant and the hostel is very clean with really good facilities (and cheap as well).
We went and had dinner in a traditional latvian restaurant and the food was excellent and reasonably priced. A couple of beers later in a local bar and we came back to the hostel and now writing this...

Warsaw

After a long drive from Berlin (370 miles) partly on single carriageway roads with heavy traffic we arrived in Warsaw, with the guidebooks advice of not driving in Poland becoming immediately evident...they're mental here! Artic's overtaking on solid white lines, trams ignoring lights and generally just slightly enthusiastic driving were all examples of the locals idea of driving...makes life interesting either way!
In western Poland on the old roads we noticed many 24h 'motels'...see the attached picture for your own interpretation of what they might have been offering...
We had dinner in the Sphinx restaurant just round the corner from our hostel, the Oki Doki. Despite many jokes about the name before arrival, we were very impressed with the appearance and service here. As for the meal we both had a very good meal and a pint for less than £15 (both of us!)...prices here are very favourable to the customer. Just to finally confirm our thoughts, there was a car embedded in a line of posts on the wrong side of a dual carriageway, in the middle of a busy urban street...
According to my retail geography lecturer (the great Graham Clarke) there are over 160 Tesco's in Poland. We have only seen one, although we have seen quite a few more Tesco trucks on the way here. We decided to buck the trend and shop in Carrefour instead, being something of an experience given our combined knowledge of Polish being nil. However we left with the goods we intended to and managed to pay for them.
Chilled evening planned tonight with another long drive tomorrow (415 miles) to Riga...and apparently they don't get much better than todays trip. Fun.
Jonny will be joining us later, he should currently be mid-air from the UK.

Berlin 2

9am.
After chilling at the hostel for a short while yesterday, we went for a walk around the city, taking in the sights of the Potsdamer Platz, Sony Centre, Brandenburg Gate, Bundestag, and up Friedrishstraβe towards Oranienburger Straβe where we had dinner in Oranium. Dan was less than impressed with his, somewhat dull, blood meat sausages, although I was impressed with my cajun chicken and rice.
After this we went for a stroll along the street being approached many times by ladies selling their services, apparently a popular occurrence in this area. We declined the offers and continued our search for a beer or two. After finding an outdoor bar with a beach (!) we stayed there for a pint (or 0.5l as the case may be), decided it was too cold and went in search of an indoor bar, finally finding Silberfisch which was playing the somewhat familiar hits by the likes of Nirvana, Puddle of Mudd, The Who, Oasis and many more rock legends...
Left there around 2.30am and wandered back through the streets to the hostel, stopping for photos with a couple of the Berlin Bears on the way back. A quick look at Checkpoint Charlie on the way home provided a brief cultural interlude.
About to set off for Poland...around 370 miles to go. Jonny will be joining us there after a delayed start. Lets hit the road!

Berlin 1

After a pleasant journey to Berlin (i've decided I like german motorways...) and a slightly more chaotic drive round the city, we found the 3 Little Pigs hostel. A very friendly reception, parking outside the door, pleasant and very clean rooms and a nice lounge area with a bar, pool table and wireless were all immediately obvious and have already made me decide if I return to Berlin i'll stay here!
A chance meeting on the staircase with someone else from Uni was a very big surprise!!!
The hope of finding wireless in McDonalds was a myth...you have to pay for it here! In protest Dan nearly took out a lampshade when standing up from the table...
The weather today has been mixed, ranging from 2'C to 14'C...on the motorway we have had bright sunshine all the way through to hailstones, and apart from a few roadworks a generally fast journey.
Currently sat in the lounge area in the hostel with a beer...life could be a lot worse...going to look round the city later!

J

Oberhausen (Essen area)

Oberhausen Day 1, 13°C, Sunny, 440 miles

Arrived 1230 at the Volksgarten (fawlty towers esque) B & B in an outer suburban part of the town.
First impressions were good, opposite the B&B was a fair stretch of woodland and in true German style everything was clean. Found the Balkan Grill about 300 yards down the road, had a pizza, very filling!!!
Went for a long walk, got lost looking for an internet cafe, of which there must be about 200 of them in the old centre of town (featuring a Woolworths!) which has been obliterated by the development of Europe's largest shopping centre just down the road which we were to visit for a few seconds later. We found the internet café's somewhat suspicious as if there was something to hide by having all of the windows covered so we unsurprisingly decided not to. Managed to find a Lidl or two (of course the only reason for visiting Germany (lol!). After walking around in circles for a while we stumbled across Olga Park.
We decided to find the Centro shopping centre which the overly enthusiastic host at the B&B recommended who spoke a little English as there really was not much else to do around there. We went looking for public transport to take us there as we were a little fed up of walking. There is a tram and busway which are on the same raised 'track' on a viaduct, a very confusing system of interlaced networks which as a tourist was impossible to navigate, eventually we decided to walk to the bus stop and caught the bus to the tram stop from which the driver told us we could catch the bus or tram to the Centro centre which turned out to be another Meadowhall featuring such foreign shops as M&S, Vodaphone and The Body Shop! It certainly did not feel like Europe's largest. We must have been the only people to not purchase a single item in the entire complex that day! All of the bars were like restaurants, the only pub was an Irish themed one which we decided was the only proper pub! The service was unusual. After staying there for a while we headed back to the b & b and had a comfortable nights sleep. Breakfast was good and we had a very brief conversation with one of the cleaners who had a relation that worked as a taxi driver in York.

As I write this James has just joined the autobahn for 477 km.

(The above was written by Dan on the Autobahn until we could get internet!)