I left from Helsinki on Saturday morning with a small chaos around, as usual. I managed to make it to the ferry terminal just on time, after going through some moments of thrill that included some confusion with tram lines (I still don't get the 3b/3T route, call me stupid if you like) and a drunken man nearly being sick on my lap.
The ferry ride was pretty much like how I had expected - lots of Finnish people reading a magazine that tells you where the get the cheapest vodka in Tallin. Did you know that there's
even some kind of an alcohol megastore right at the terminal? Well, I didn't and to be honest, would have been happier without ever getting this piece of information about the lovely travel
culture of my country.
Tallin was much more beautiful than I expected. Not that I had expected it to be ugly, but I was still surprised by the amount of inspiration it gave me. I want to go back one day, with a proper camera. What inspired me the most were the old soviet style apartment blocks at the edge of the city with lots of old people walking around them and sitting on the balconies smoking cigarettes.
The bus from Tallin to Riga was a luxury one - showing music videos from the early 90's and
serving free coffee. There was even a clean toilet, which they prodly presented at the beginning of the journey after all the general information about the trip. I had to write some of that introduction down, here are some of the highlights:
"And we have a toilet of course, which is the perfect place to refresh yourself in privacy"
"There is a special vip lounge at the end of the bus and for our special vip guests we offer a free bottle of water" (now that's what I call customer service!)
"If you like, you can move your seat further away from the person sitting next to you" (I found this one funny until I saw the man who was going to be my travel companion for the next six hours, he must have drank all the vodka in Estonia - should I feel sorry for the Finns who travelled to the beautiful capital to get pissed but were probably left without anything after this guy had been there?)
Finally, I got to Warsaw (through Riga, which I will just skip because nothing happend there. Well, I draw a lot of circles at the bus station.) It was sunday morning so I had been travelling for almost 24 hours. I managed to walk all the way to Graham's place who was going to be my host for the next couple of days. (This is worth mentioning, because I never manage to walk anywhere without getting lost, not even in Helsinki).
I enjoyed Warsaw - it was big, hectic and ugly but all of those things in a good way. In the first night we went to a big cemetery which was full of colourful candles for the All saint's night. It's a big thing in catholic countries and I felt very special being able to take part in the tradition. It felt like the whole city was there. Outside the graveyard there were lots of little stalls selling candles,
flowers, traditional snacks - and even balloons (I highly doubt that has anything to do with the
saints though).
On early Tuesday we started hitchhiking towards Slovakia. It didn't work. After about for hours of waiting in the cold and dark, stuck in Krakow, we ended up in a small local pub full of old Polish men drinking beer and gambling. A young lad got lucky and won almost two pintfulls of coins. He
seemed happy, the owner didn't.
The next day we managed to hitchhike to southern Poland and finally across the Slovak border - in a tractor! The little mountain villages were absolutely breathtaking.
Bratislava didn't feel good so I jumped in a train to Budapest - which did not take 12 hours, like the woman at the ticket office was claiming, so I ended up arriving in Budapest in the middle of the night without a place to stay. Luckily Ville was being an angel and texted me an addres to a small hostel near the train station. Completely exhausted and slightly scared by the empty streets and a walk through a dark tunnel, I was ringing the bell praying "please be open, please be open" - and a male voice answered, telling me to go to the highest floor, where an old man called Joseph was waiting for me with a big smile and a cup of tea. "Come here, I show you your room".
I got a comfortable bed in a small dorm for a bit over 4 euros. And shortly after me, a French guy arrived who turned out to be a photographer as well. We were looking at each other's websites in the middle of the night, totally forgetting the exhaustion and just getting exited about the fascinating world of visual arts, and he took my contact details and promised to spread them around. So maybe that was my reason to go to Budapest instead of Bratislava, who knows. Anyway, it's good to get connections.
Yesterday I arrived in Zagreb, hungry and tired, but some chestnuts and a couch safed me from all that. It's been raining but luckily the technical museum and the Croatian Talent show have been quite entertaining.
Tomorrow we are hitchhiking to an eco village somewhere in the Bosnian mountains. Wish me luck.
