10th Sept - Kingisepp to Narva, Estonia

I'm now in Europe!

Having woken up many times through the night and in the morning, I eventually got out of my tent at 11. I had a good internet connection on my phone which I wanted to use before I got to Estonia and no longer had a connection. I spent 2 hours calling various friends and family and then got on my bike and cycled 5km back into town so that I could update my blog (while I still had the internet), charge my gadgets and sit out of the rain for a while.

There was a McDonalds in town with wifi and so I headed there, only to find that the wifi did not work once I had already ordered. My internet connection on my phone went too slowly to update my blog because I had used it so much already calling my friends and family on Skype! It meant that I just sat for a while and wrote the entries so that I can up load them later.

It rained for most of the afternoon and I did not really feel like going anywhere and so it was about 5 by the time I got on my bike and left town. I popped into a shop to spend my Russian coins that I knew I would not be able to exchange.



I was really fortunate that a guy from Couch Surfing had picked up my message about accommodation in Narva. I passed over the borders without any problems at all. Pedestrians and cyclists are treated in the same way. It is much faster to pass than queue as a lorry or a car. It only took 30mins. I had a lovely chat with the lady on the Russian side about my route and where I had seen since Mongolia and there were no problems with my Registration stamps. I was very relieved about that as I did not want to be questioned for hours about why I had not managed to get a stamp once in Siberia! You can change your currency easily between the 2 borders. The walk across the river over the bridge was very short. It was great showing my UK passport and not having to deal with any Visa issues now that I am back in Europe :-)



The last I will see of Russia for a while....



First views of Europe again!

I arrived at 8pm Russian time and 7pm Estonian time. Alex from couch surfing meet me with another couch surfer, a girl from NY. He walked me to his brother's flat to drop off my bike. I would have the place to myself for the night as the others were staying with Alex. We then went out and picked up a couple of other Estonian guys and went to the supermarket to buy some food and booze. We then wandered on to a lovely pub by the river and then later to pick some apples from the wild. The town is very Russian.



I had a really fun evening drinking cheap red wine and vodka and wandering the streets of this Estonian town. It felt like I was 16 again :-) It was a fab way to celebrate being back in Europe again. Nattered till late and had a great time.