Boots on the Loose

We pull into the station in Tallinn (Estonia!) aboard our train from Saint-Petersburg. It would be the last, last, last train ride of our round-the-world trip. As we disembark, I quickly notice how very European the world we are in has quickly become.

And I can’t help but to marvel about the fact that we came here all the way from China. By land.

Like Riding a Bike

When I lived in Vancouver, I commuted to and from work on a bicycle for years.

Not as one of those people who gets up in the morning and covers themselves in brightly coloured Lycra. I was much, much more casual than that.

It was truly awful.

I can’t tell you how many times people would yell at me for something. People in cars. People on foot. Even other people on bicycles.

“Get off the sidewalk!”, “Get off the road!”, “Hey asshole – where is your helmet?”. Honks for breaking the rules, middle fingers for following the rules. You name it.

Riding a bicycle in Estonia? Or Holland? Or most other European countries? Totally different story.

Many sidewalks are wider and intended for mixed foot/bicycle traffic. If there is one there, you ride on it. It doesn’t matter which side, or how fast or how slow or who else is there. You just ride, and go about enjoying your day.

If there is just a regular old sidewalk? You ride on that. When you come up behind a pedestrian, you politely ring your bell if you have one. And they politely move to the side of the sidewalk for you to pass them. No hard feelings whatsoever.

If there is no sidewalk? THEN you ride on the road. If a car comes up behind you while in that situation? They slow down and wait for room to pass you. And then respectfully do so when it is safe.

People here clearly have respect for one another. Whatever mode of transportation they might be making use of at the time.

Do note as I try to paint this picture, I did see the odd group of Lycra-wearing cyclists riding serious bikes around Tallinn. If there was a mixed sidewalk, they used it. Otherwise, they skipped the sidewalk and stuck to the road. After all, they were going all but as fast as the cars.

Why is the situation so different in Europe compared with home?

Because we have erroneously decided at home that ALL cyclists are to be treated with the same set of rules as the ones for cars. No ifs, ands, or buts.

And unfortunately that just doesn’t represent reality. And people on all sides get pissed off as a result.

Some cyclists are more serious cyclists. They can and want to move with car traffic. They should be allowed to do so and should be given respect by cars when doing so.

But there is another type of cyclist, and the size of the group actually far outweighs the serious cyclist group: the casual cyclists.

They don’t move as fast as cars. Either because they don’t want to. Or they aren’t able to. Perhaps due to the quality of their equipment or the level of their fitness.

And that should be just fine. A person should be allowed to ride casually on a bicycle. Whatever the reason for it is.

And riding casually on a bicycle should be treated with a different set of rules from those of the serious riders. Rules more similar to those of pedestrians. And cars, other cyclists, and pedestrians should all respect that.

Because riding casually on a bicycle is much closer to a pedestrian walking on the sidewalk. Than a four thousand pound machine moving five times faster on the road.

After all, if you had to choose, what would you rather – be a pedestrian getting hit by another person going twice as fast as you on a twenty pound machine? Or be a cyclist getting hit by another person going five times as fast as you in a four thousand pound machine?

I know what I would choose.

This idea may sound a little crazy to some back at home. But it’s not. I’ve seen it working in many other parts of the world.

It has been that way forever in those parts. And it works very well.

Trip Update: Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn is a relatively small town – under a half million people. And this is made very obvious by our twenty minute walk most the way across town to get to our apartment.

We decide to take it easy for the evening given our 5 a.m. start that morning. So we take our host’s advice and go for a wander through one of Tallinn’s more modern neighbourhoods. With the intention of saving the Old Town for the next day.

But of course as the Old Town’s church tops come into view with the sun setting behind us, we can’t help but to wander nearer for a closer inspection.

After a slow start the next morning, we head out for a visit to the Soviet occupation museum. Very interesting place. But first, a very brief bit of basic Estonian background.

Tallinn is a medieval city that has been around for at least a thousand years. Did I mention yet how beautiful the Old Town is?

But unfortunately for the Estonians, it has been occupied much of the time since, by a number of other countries. Starting with them pesky Vikings from Denmark. Who actually built the Old Town in the first place.

Through various wars fought, Estonia has been hot potatoed around from Denmark, to Germany, to Sweden, and then in the seventeen hundreds over to Russia. From what I’ve read, it sounds like the early years of Russian occupation were somewhat tolerable times.

Of course as we learned in Yekaterinburg, Lenin forged the Soviet empire in nineteen seventeen. As WWI came to a close. When this happened, Estonia finally gained its first taste of independence.

But then WWII hit. Which is where the Soviet occupation museum begins its story.

Into Estonia marched the Soviets in nineteen forty one. The museum calls it the “Red Year”. And basically, the Soviet Union just took over in whatever way it wanted. The stories sound horrific.

People were forced to do whatever the Soviets felt they needed them to do. Build weapons, fight the war, grow food, etc, etc. If not, local labour camps, Gulags in Siberia, shot on sight, mass graves, raping and pillaging… awful, awful stories.

Then in nineteen forty two the German front reached Estonia. And won the battle. The Estonians were over-the-moon that Germany won. So over-the-moon that everyone started volunteering to fight alongside the German army against the horrible Soviets.

And here I am in this museum. After a solid hour of reading and watching videos. Having similar feelings of relief and happiness that Germany won the battle and took over Estonia. Go Hitler!

Bizarre.

As we all know, eventually Germany lost, and back to the Soviet Union Estonia went. And Estonians were once again devastated.

But as the museum outlines, as bad as the years that followed were, they weren’t as bad as the Red Year. But they did now have to live under the rules of strict communism. Food rationing, no religion, no rock music… and on and on.

Thinking back to the Boris Yeltsin museum. As the Soviet Union fell in nineteen ninety one, Estonia was the very first state to declare its independence. It all makes so much sense now.

Back in the eighties when I was in grade eight, we used to have to colour world maps to learn our geography. And no one batted an eye about some far-off place with a weird name like Estonia being part of the Soviet Union.

Now that we have just left Russia and are now seeing how Estonians live today? The two places couldn’t be more different from one another.

I never dreamed I would be so happy for this country.

We head out of the museum and up to explore Old Town. It happens to be “Old Town Days” this week, which adds a special piece of flair.

In the main town square there is a grand stage setup with a mix of pretty good performances, and really bad performances.

Every building the eye can see is simply stunning.

We head over to the main church in town since it is possible to climb to the top. At one point in time, this church was the tallest building in the entire world. Crazy! If I had to guess I would say we climb perhaps eight stories to get to the top? (With a huge peak still above where we are, of course) And as expected, beautiful views all around.

We wade back to near the main square and find “Hell Hunt”. Estonia’s oldest bar, established in nineteen ninety three. Cute 🙂 (but no joke!)

When I say wade, I mean there are thousands upon thousands of tourists in Tallinn. At first we just assumed it was due to the cruise ship port, and all the Baltic Sea cruise ships that bob between Tallinn, Helsinki and Stockholm.

But then a group of six very obnoxious twenty-year-old Americans sit down beside us. And start joking about “sir, yes sir”.

And then we recall recent headlines about NATO troops moving into the area in reaction to recent Russian military activity. It all makes perfect sense.

On the way home we pass a bunch of people crowded around a small, staged arena. And in it are two men all dressed in medieval armour. Proper. Battering each other with (unsharpened) swords. Though a unique, interesting thing to witness, it is a tiny bit hard to watch in my opinion. But then again I can’t bear to watch a UFC fight on the TV.

Jen and I have never been to a place, rented a bicycle, and had a bad time. So we decide to do exactly that the next day, giving us the chance to see some coastline away from where we can otherwise only walk to.

We head west at the bike shop owner’s suggestion. Sticking to the coast as much as possible. At town centre the coast is pretty grubby. As I said, it is a cruise ship port (ick). But then as we progress, the coast becomes nicer. Until eventually, we reach an actual beach.

Time to dip these feet in the mighty Baltic! Though chilly, the water turns out to be much warmer than the river in Saint Petersburg. Plenty of locals around enjoying the beach, it is a pretty happening place, despite it still being early June and a bit cool and breezy yet.

We make it out to a quiet little peninsula which takes a good three hours to get to. Many houses out there, but with few people around. If that neighbourhood was in Vancouver the houses would be worth tens of millions of dollars each. But somehow these seem much, much more modest than that.

A good couple hours to get back. Butts sore, I reckon the total distance was a little over thirty kilometres.

It is always good to earn the evening’s beer!