Estonia

Normally the countries which are very close are the once, which I know the least. I never had big ideas how Estonia would be like. With its wildlife, nature and helpfull people, Estonia has surprised me big time. To be such a small country Estonia seems to have everything that one can imagine. Bicycling has been made very easy, the tracks are well marked and most of the roads are in ok condition. Because of my own unorganised personality, I didnt know that there are free cycling maps and many other cyclists cycling around Baltics. Easy way to start the trip.

Before I left to Tallinn, while I was lost with directions, I met a nice guy in Helsinki, who happened to go to Tallinn as well for the weekend. With Markus and Juha I spendid my first weekend in Tallinn and visited öle festival, which was a good start for the Estonian exploration.

From Tallinn I decided to follow the shoreline and went to Nova, because i had heard that the nature is stunning there. Over 18% of Estonia’s land and 30% of the Sea territory is designated a protected areas which includes five national parks, nature reserves, landscape reserves and smaller areas. Nova is one of them. I slept at the shoreline next to the sea, had a morning swim and enjoyed the sun.

Some of the roads i took were not on the best condition, since I got slightly enthusiastic for the small cute paths, and my bike had "some" problems with my decisions. First my front cross bar pipe got loose. While fixing it, I found out that the screw is broken.. So i left it loose. After a while, when I was basically middle of forest my back rack got broken ( the back-panniers are not that heavy). When I tried to fixi it, the world was showing its miracles and a german Henry-superman-cyclist appeared from the forest. The leg of the bike got broken earlier, and he used that to solve the rack problem. He gave me maps and an apple and we said good bye.

The same day was continuing as an epic day. The storm arrived, and even if i was totally socked, I couldnt stop smiling. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world, since the rack was working again. I was looking for a place to camp close to the sea again, and ended up to tiny surfing place. I asked if I could pitch my tent there and they welcomed me. The day ended up with camp sauna that the surfers had and i was the happiest Lotta in the world.

The second day started with cleaning my dirty bike and fixing the gears. There was 1 hour of sun before the constant rain started. I decided to cycle to Pärnu in order to change my backrack and other broken pits and parts for my bike. 50km before I got to Pärnu the headwind was so strong that i would have walked faster than biked and of course my back tire got flat. I couldnt find the tool to remove the rear wheel.. I suppose, I had forgoten it on the road, when I needed it last time. There I was pushing my bike ovet an hour to the nearest houses to ask for the tool. The houses were abandoned, i found only one Russian grandma, who kept saying njet njet and shaking her head.

So, I kept walking and found a farm where very friendly girl greeted me and the family borrowed me the tool. I had never changed the back tire before and was surprised how easy it was. I found the hole easily and while putting the outer tire back i found huge hole from it as well. I decided to change the outer tire as well, since I had gotten Michelin protek tires from Huntteri. Now I have them both in front and back.

The family invited me to come and eat, so i went. We started to talk with Lisi, the girl who took me into the house. Fast we realised that we have lot of in common and actually we had met before. We found out that we had been on same course in Denmark 3 years ago! There I was in middle of countryside in Estonia, by change found Lisi and her amazing family, who gave me fantastic place to sleep in there sauna room! Thank you!

Life is a little miracle and by having a bike that acts like a mare, i have ended up into situations that have been both mind blowing and making me to feel very gratefull.

The challenges also have forced me to slow down my speed and mind. Somehow its hard to forgett the rush and just led it go. Where am i rushing? I dont know. I am rushing to a destination. What is my destination? Every day i am going through same conversation, which starts pretty much like this: why are u pushing yourself so much and not stopping to see the places, not making a deture to the woods, pick up some strawberries? Then i have several answers but so far the most common goes like this: i should continue so i reach to.. then the sentence stops, becouse in the mornings I dont set a destination to be reached for the day to avoid this situation. The talking in my head stops normally to this conclusion: i have reached my destination already, i am on journey and every day i am where i should be, just be and relax.

This song was in my head while pushing the bike to Lisis home: http://youtu.be/yL97AocwuaE