I arrived in Tallinn by bus on the 18th of July, first day of the non QUINTAW part (which is something we might talk in another blogpost). Back then I was young, excited to start that new adventure of cycling through this unknown paradise we like to call The Baltics, I was so naive…
Okey, the Tallinn experience was indeed thrilling. We were hosted for five or so days in the Anarchist Social Center of the city, Ülase 12, by the most sweet, lovely and caring hardcore coloured mohawk haired gang of punkies. They were making us dinner every day! One of them was a chef, and it was absolutely fire. So, so, between Dark Metal gigs, sweat and beery mosh pits, exchange with the local antifa, bike repairing workshops, dumpstering around in the most pintoresque second hand markets, visiting the amazing medieval oldtown, waiting for newcomers like me to join and already ecotopians who stayed longer in Helsinki, we were all getting settled for the next chapter of this year‘ biketour.
Until…
We realised one of trailers, Teller, had a malfunction on the wheel bearings. And it was Saturday evening when we finished that circle, so the repairing team got kind of stuck in Sunday, until Monday when we got the spare parts, while a big part of Ecotopia wanted to sleep already outside of the city. But then, we discovered the trailer attatchment was missing. So, after a small crisis, the tail group figured out a punk solution around 6 p.m.
That night, part of ecotopia slept nearby the city, while others had already went further and a third faction was doing a detour on the beach. I felt weird my first night outside, knowing that at least we were 3 diferent parallel Ecotopia Biketours happening at the same time. But maybe it was just my belly. Oh, Mother of the Trailers, what a night! Lets say my stomach had a flat tire, a broken spoke and worn down set of break pads all in one. I am not afraid of recognising out loud I throw up that night. Because I fortunately for me, unfortunately for the group, I was far from be the only one.
The morning after that place looked like a postapocalyptic zombie movie. Almost everyone was extremly weak and it was disgustingly sunny. Was it a food poisoning, were the water canister poisoned, a virus maybe, again the three possibilities in one? And we already had to catch up with the others, staying in that random place or even going back to Tallin! Decision making is always a complex and demanding process, but come on I think I had fever during that one…
Awful starting for my adventure, but still I cycle my 30-40 km that day. Good part of it is Estonia is as flat as a pancake and the forward team decided to wait for us on the next camping spot. Also good that as well as in Finland, there is this network of this RMK kind of company/government entity camping places spreaded all around the country, with wooden shelters, dry toilets with paper and even a bbq pit with freshly chopped wood, that is constantly restored by workers every few mornings. Bad part is that Estonia is a rainy country. So that day, it rained for the first time. That night I went to sleep right after arriving at the camping spot without even having my dinner. But at least we were all together again. At least for a while.
From there, we keep following the coast going west. We passed through Keila, Harju-Risti, Padise, Nõva, Peraküla and a bunch of other places we really didn’t know how to pronounce because sadly there is no native speaking Estonian in the group so far. Same flat landscape with tall red pines plantation and not really buzy national roads, and impossible gravely pavement offroads. And then we reached Haapsalu, a cozy and touristy nice town famous for their spas and thermal baths. And there we found about the only other feared thing from Estonia apart from rain: mosquitoes.
We had a rest day on what we have ended calling the Mosquito Beach. Or the dead fish beach, because due to the heavy warming of the waters, a huge amount of small fishes had died and were laying on the shore where the locals were happily swimming, although the beach gards had raised a purple flag due tu poisonous algae. Anyways, although I was feeling completely recovered of my intestinal rollercoaster and strange heavy and painful legs, the sickness was still among us, reaching new people like an epidemic. So every night new people were experiencing a private party in their belly between bushes, mosquitoes and soul enlightment epiphanies.
So here we are again today, deciding on separating our group again, leaving sick people behind to rest and catching up later, and figuring out if the local buses allow bikes inside. And planning our route to face what is expected to be the biggest storm in the modern history of democratic Estonia.
I feel the biketour has been so far a hardener experience for me. I feel I’ve grown. I am not anymore that boy that left their home town in some southern sunny country dreaming of the big european dream, but a iron leg pedalist, circle decision maker, trailer puller, community carer, skilled survival ecotopian.
To be continued…
