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IPPNW Baltic Bike Tour 2006
- Medical Students Cycle for Peace -
August 21st - September 6th
D.
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Day
5
Friday, August 25th
Crossing
into Russia - From Narva to Kingisepp
They made it!!! They are in Russia... and here they met Ahmed as well!
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 But
first
things first... this
morning the group woke up to some nice socialist morning gymnastics on
top of the Soviet monument led by singing Nino and joined in by at
least 7 frenetic Estonians. Meanwhile, Alex went down to the river and
checked out the Russian bank on the other side...
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Now it was time to
say goodbye to our Estonian cyclists, time for another group picture:
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After 4
days of biking
through Estonia, they made it to the border crossing ahead of the time
they had
originally planned.The bikers
encountered no problems whatsoever, riding into Russia from
one of the country’s 14 neigboring states. The story of
the bus (and its
driver for the day - Alex) went a little
different... After filling in countless documents, paying taxes,
undergoing
various searches and having to give up Tova’s avocadoes
and the group’s
banana
supply, Alex and the bus made it too, though. AND, Alex even got to
practice
his Russian skills with the officers at the border!
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All in all, it took
the group
about 6 hours, until they could enjoy
their first steps in Russia. After days of sunshine and relatively
perfect
biking weather, it started to rain, when the participants made it to
the city
of Kingisepp.The highlight of the day: Ahmed joined the
group!!! He took the bus from
Helsinki and arrived this morning. Kolja and Dmitry, the two Russian
IPPNW
students, who planned the Russian part of the tour route, were there to
pick
him up, and together they joined the rest of the bikers in Kingisepp.
On the left you can see our three great aides in Russia - Dmitry, the
organizer, Kolja, the outdoor man and Yena the rescue dog - what a
team... reason enough for Josh to do his happiness-dance
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Кингисе́пп = Kingisepp
Kingisepp,
formerly Yamburg and Jama, is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia. It
lies along the Luga River, 137 km west of St.Petersburg,
20 km east of Narva, and 49 km south of the Gulf of
Finland.
The
town was
first documented in 1384, when
the Novgorodians built there a fortress against the Swedes. They called
it Yama or Yamsky Gorodok, after a Finnic tribe which lived in the
area. The fortress withstood sieges by the Teutonic Knights in 1395
and from 1444 to 1448. At the end
of the Livonian War, it was ceded to Sweden, only to be returned 12
years later. Following the Treaty
of Stolbovo, it again passed to the Swedes, who kept the name which in
Swedish orthography became Jama/Jamo.
In 1703, the
town was finally taken by the Russians in the course of the Great
Northern War (it was first held by the Russians for a month in late
1700) and renamed Yamburg. Five years later, Peter the Great granted
the town to Alexander Menshikov in his capacity of the Duke of Izhora.
The name Yamburg, however, was retained until 1922, when the Bolsheviks
renamed it after the Estonian Communist leader Viktor Kingissepp.
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 So, what happened then? The group drove down the Luga
river until Dmitry found a great place for camping. There, Kolja introduced the
group into the world of Russian cooking, preparing several typically
Russian dishes, among others: "Kasha" (a great buckwheat dish...)
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On
the road, Anna's pedal
broke and Sanela had a flat tire, but the technically gifted
participants Andrzej and Robbi fixed both problems in no time. In the
meantime, part of the group went to take a dip in the Luga river -
according to Dmitry a very healthy endeavor...
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Sitting
around the campfire at night, the group decided what to do next: rent a
few large buses and ship the bikes around the military zone around
Sosnovy Bor in order to reach Lomonosov the next day...
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"Wow!, Russia, it's like
being in another
world!"
Robbi
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The TOP 10
List of the Day
"The
Top Ten things you should think of, when planning to cross a Russian
border"
1.
Bring something to read - it can take
AGES until you finally make it!
2. If you want to save
time: cross the border by bike and not by car
3.
If you have no other choice but to
cross by car, don't go alone, so you have someone to talk to while
waiting
4. Learn some Russian - at least enough
to communicate with the border police...
5. Don't forget to get a
valid visa
6.
Emphasize strongly the need
to get your visa registered
7. Eat all the food you
really like before border guards decide take it away from you
8. Practice your
vodka-drinking skills ahead of time
9.
Be patient waiting at
the border, because what you will see and experience once you're in
Russia will be worth it
10. Look forward to all the welcoming
Russians you'll meet on your journey
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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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