Baltic Bike Tour 2006 - Blog: August 20th

One Day To Go
Sunday, August 20th 2006
Exploring Tallin - last minute organization

Benni and Gerli with Tallinn's skyline in the background...

WOW! What a weekend this has been.... With the Bike Tour starting on Monday there was tons left to do: packing, giving interviews to interested media, taking care of visas and of course getting everyone to get to the city in which everything is going to take it's start tomorrow: Beautiful Tallinn!

Little known gems are often the most precious and alluring. Estonia's ancient seacoast capital is just that kind of jewel. Tallinn, which at one time or another has fallen under Danish, German, Swedish or Czarist Russian rule, has retained more remnants of its past and in a more complete state than most other cities in Europe. The old city's inclusion on UNESCO's prestigious World Heritage List was dramatic acknowledgment of that.

According to the feedback we got from the participants in the last 2 days, the following description we found definitely seems to fit Tallinn: "You can see, feel and touch history everywhere in this overwhelmingly romantic city: it's in candlelight casting shadows on a cavernous stone wall in an old town merchant house, it's in the tree-lined parks that were once the strolling grounds for the aristocracy, and in a Baltic Sea breeze slapping waves at your feet along a shorefront promenade."

If Sunday was meant to be the day reserved for everyone to rest the BBT group was definitely not informed...All the participants were up and about all day getting ready for today.

First Stop: A trip to Tartu, a lively university city southeast of Tallinn and besides that, the oldest city in the Baltics, to pick up the tour bus and two Estonian medicine students as support for the Target Tallinn installation later in the day. Meelis Taasur, who has been an active student member of IPPNW for over four years now - he organized the student meeting in Estonia in 2002, was the first one the group met. Upon arriving in Tartu, Meelis picked the group up and took them to the medicine faculty of the University of Tartu to show them all the things an Estonian fast food company had sponsored for the tour. Next to lots of ricepilaf, chili and veggiestew the correlate to the golden arches of Estonia had distributed tons of water for the bikers. What a sight all of this must have been! We are left to imagine as no photo exists....

Following this positive surprise the group headed off to pick up an old soviet army tent for the tour. As it turned out this evolved into a little skillfullness-test, as the tent still had to be dismembered before they could pack it up. But, as many brains work better and faster than one alone, the tent was quickly put into its component parts and the group was off to fetch Liina Manikssar, the second IPPNW med-student from Tartu, to then head back to Tallinn.

And, as though they had timed it to perfection, they got back to the capital city right on time for the start of the Target Tallinn installation, that the others, who had stayed in Tallinn, had already prepared. As they strolled the streets, approaching tons of tourists from Finland and Russia as well as many Estonians, to tell them about IPPNW, the Bike Tour and what they could do to support IPPNW's cause, by and by the missing BBT bikers arrived and helped - Tova and Josh from Los Angeles, Pauli and Ulrike from Berlin, Nino from Aachen and Andrej and Anna from Poland.

After spending the afternoon making people aware of the idea that stands behind the BBT and catching strangers' interests in IPPNW's work, the group made the most of the rest of the day touring the city's beautiful streets, getting to know each other a little better, exchanging their "how I made it to Tallinn stories", going over their planned bike route yet again and of course enjoying a delicious dinner together, followed by a visit to the Sauna and a "good night-this is our last evening before we start to bike our hearts out"-drink at Anu's place.

By the way...

Today was a landmark date in Estonian history. After more than 50 years of Soviet occupation, on August 20th 1991, Estonia seceded from the Soviet Union and declared its independence from the Soviet Union. As February 24th 1918 is already known as the Estonian Independence Day (on this date Estonia declared its independence from Soviet Russia), the 20th of August is known as the Restoration of Independence Day or "Taasiseseisvumispäev" in Estonian.

The TOP 10 List of the Day

"The Top Ten Messages received this weekend"

1. "Dear Alex, I am sending this message from Helsinki. Ulla promised to pick me but till now I have not seen her or anybody to pick me. Please if you read this mail, call them and tell them to come to the city centre for the black boy with cream top and faded jeans, they should not miss me, I am the only black around. Please help me." - by Agyeno

2. "Shit! Hi Alex, I screwed up and missed my flight." - by Andre from Ireland

3. "Alex, I have a bit of a problem." - by Agyeno from Lagos Airport after being denied bording

4. "Help! Help!" - by Sanela at Tallinn airport (received 5 hours late. By that time, the problem had solved itself)

5. "Missed my plane from Paris, but I took the next one and just arrived." - by Ahmed from Egypt

6. "I forgot my credit card on the flight." - by Ahmed from Egypt (five minutes later)

7. "Where are the Americans?" - by Ante from Finland, after waiting for a few hours at the airport

8. "What's a Tallinn?" - by a friend of Alex after being told that he could not receive phone calls since he was in Tallinn

9. "Am in Tallinn. Am lost. Find me. Get me." -by Maren

10. "Wake up, I'm coming home." - by Pauli Saturday morning at 4 o' clock

Keeping you up to date on the current location of the participants and their plans:

After diverse difficulties - everything from missed flights and the denial of entry to airplanes, lost credit cards to the lack of visas for Estonia - everyone but one (not to worry: his arrival to the start on Monday has already been taken care of), that were supposed to make it to Finland by Saturday made it there. After a short transit stop they'll sail off in the ferry to make their way to Tallinn to meet up with Alex, Benni, Maren, Pauli, Robbi and Sanela, who are already there to take care of the last organizational details of the Bike Tour, get in touch with local media and enjoy the splendor of the city. All the others will join in the fun someday today as well...

Next to planning and discussing the last details about the route and getting the bikes ready, a meeting with the head of the Estonian Green party is planned before the group starts off towards their first planned stop on the way to Helsinki: Leesi.

After getting a personalized tour of the city, lead by the Estonian IPPNW doctors Anu, Gerli and Kadri, (picknick, vodka, amber and amazing sights included) the bikers that had already made it to the city tested the qualities of Estonia’s capital as party central on Saturday night. After all, they had to make sure that what they had heard about the thriving nightlife that had sprung up in Tallinn in the last few years was true, right? Bar and disco hopping through the small medieval streets of Tallinn's downtown district, they finally ended up in Estonia’s Nr.1 Raeggae Bar to dance the night away.

JUST FOR FUN

- A little lesson in Estonian -

"Lase naine taeva, ta tahab lehma ka sinna vedada"

(English translation: Let the woman go to heaven, she wants to help carry the cow)

GUESTBOOK
- updated daily -

For all those of you who would like to send the bikers personal messages, words of motivation or who would just like to say something in general about the Baltic Bike Tour, please write your contribution to the following E-mail address and it will be updated in the guestbook.

E-mail: balticbike@web.de

For more pictures please click here

Baltic Bike Tour 2006 Press Statement