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IPPNW Baltic Bike Tour 2006
- Medical Students Cycle for Peace -
August 21st - September 6th
D.
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Day
13
Saturday, September 2nd
What a wonderful world - from Virojoki to Kotka
Good morning Finland!!!
 Waking up
in the early morning on a large mossy boulder in Finland, the group
wiped their eyes and realized that they had made it and were only a few
days away from their goal: Helsinki! Alex prepared some omelettes for
everyone while Sanela and Agyeno slept a bit more in their new tent
and Benni and Pauli missed breakfast, dozing in the bus a few
hundred meters down the road.
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 Josh
taking a break from helping to load up the bus in the morning, while
Maren is waiting for her tent to dry
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Rivers near Hamina
 After a few more
ups and downs and a beautiful stretch along some rivers (see above),
the group made it to Hamina, the star-shaped city, situated on a
peninsula in the bay of
Vehkalahti. The city is one of Finland's
leading
exporting ports. Founded
in the 14th century, the town received its municipal charter in 1653,
and was
given the name of Fredrikshamn by King Frederick I of Sweden in 1723;
the name Hamina (derived from the Swedish hamn, "harbor") came later.
Here in 1809 was signed the treaty under which Sweden ceded the whole
of Finland to Russia - though in 1812 the Tsar returned part of the
territory to Finland.
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After taking a
look at the city's star-shaped fortifications, watching the Finnish
version of Baseball unfurl before their startled eyes, visiting an old
bakery and having a hearty lunch prepared by Pauli and Benni, the group
regrouped to finish their 70km day tour to Kotka - but first a little
nap...
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 Remember
Pauli buying a fishing rod back in St Petersburg? Well, today he was
able to try it out... and caught three fish with it... Alex had to
grudgingly pay out his bet and the group looked forward to some grilled
pike and trout for dinner...
In the
early evening, the group finally arrived in Kotka. Although
quite exhausted, the bikers enjoyed being able to swim
and catch some sun once they had settled in on the small island near
Kotka, where they pitched their tent for the night. While Josh and Tova
had spotted a mini-golf course and took to beat the local par, others
dipped into the nearby sea...
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Going for a swim on Kotka island...
 In the evening,
Andrzej did his best to fix up a great chicken soup with the
ingredients left over from the past couple of shopping sprees. With
Pauli's grilled fish, it made for yet another spectacular dinner...
The after-dinner programme consisted in an interesting lecture on
atomic weapons and the preparations for tomorrows Target campaign. The
closer the participants are getting to Helsinki and the Conference, the
more keen they are to spread their message. |
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The TOP 10
List of the Day
"The
Top Ten way of knowing that you are in Finland
1. All the
prices somehow seem higher than back home
2. Every second you want to take out the camera and take a panorama
picture
3. Salmiak and licorice wherever you look - candy, coke, vodka...
4. You hardly see any people on the streets
5. There always seems to be another great bathing lake around the corner
6. All signs are in two languages (thank god - at least Swedish can be
understood!)
7. Streetnames tend to be longer than 50 letters and contain almost
only vowels
8. There are photographers at the beginning of towns, taking pictures
of you
9. You wake up at 5 in themorning only to go to the saune in time
10. No alcohol
after 9 pm
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MEDIA COVERAGE
As of now there
have been several press reports about the Baltic Bike Tour 2006 in
Tallinn. Also, the participants who already resided in Tallinn ahead of
the tour's start on Monday, gave a radio interview there and might have
convinced a local television station to report on the start of the tour
and appear for live coverage (more infos on that on Monday). For all
those of you who are fluent in Estonian or Russian - here the first
published articles on the Tour. No worries for all those who don't
understand one of the two...more links to media coverage on the event
are to follow soon.
August
18th in the
Estonian Magazine "Postimees":
http://www.postimees.ee/190806/esileht/siseuudised/213838.php
August
18th in the
Estonian Magazine "Eesti Päevaleht Online":
http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/351329
Mentioning
of the BBT found on August 20th on the homepage of the "Gruene Liga
Berlin":
http://www.grueneliga-berlin.de/
August 22nd You can see news
with Alex and Meelis interviews on the internet:
http://www.etv24.ee/index.php?0534940
21.08.2006 - Aktuaalne kaamera (vene keeles) + Eestimaa Vene Muuseumi
ekspeditsioon:
Saksa 2 - in russian (clip starts 10:32)
21.08.2006 - Aktuaalne kaamera kell 21:00 - in Estonian (last clip)
August 22nd
in
the biggest Estonian
newspaper "Postimees":
http://www.postimees.ee/220806/esileht/siseuudised/214176.php?r
August 23nd in
the German newspaper "Rheinische Post"
(Interview with Alex):
http://www.ippnw-students.org/baltic/rpartikel.html
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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.
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