.
IPPNW Baltic Bike Tour 2006 - Medical Students Cycle for Peace -
August 21st - September 6th D.
Day
9
Tuesday, August 29th
Back on our bikes - from St. Petersburg to Selenogorsk
Nino and Alex in front of a rescue bus of the Russian Coast Guard
What motivated
Benni, Maren, Nino and Alex to get up extra early on
Tuesday morning you ask? They wanted to have enough time to explore the
enormous collection of the State Eremitage
Museum. What
once began as Russian Empress Catherine the Great's
personal art collection is today one of the largest museums in the
world.
Since the four art lovers didn't have
a chance to get into the museum's
sacred halls on monday (the Hermitage was closed then), they willingly
gave up some hours of their sleep to immerse themselves in the world of
renowned artists such as Picasso, Kandinsky, da Vinci, Monet and many
more.
Here's some
impression of the grandeur of the Eremitage...
...the famous peacock clock.
Pauli and Maren on their
bike in front of the Winter Palace
In the
meantime, the rest of the group already made their way out of
St.Petersburg - one group, led by Robbi on their bikes, the other
(including the
Russian participants) by train, in order to avoid having to ride
through the industrial suburbs of the city.
Leaving from
the famous Finlandski train station, the place of Lenin's
arrival back from self-imposed exile on April 3rd 1917, the
participants who took the train, enjoyed the fantastic view across the
Neva river before taking off in the direction of Selenogorsk.
Accompanied by the same
sunny weather the others had had, when leaving St.Pete by bike and
train a few hours before, Alex and Michael, after picking up the
group's laundry and testing the bus' loading capacity (it was stuffed
to the top with luggage, food and Kolja's dog, Yena), headed off
towards Selenogorsk
as well. AND, although they didn't have a map or speak
any for Russians
understandable or sense-making Russian, they arrived....How you might
ask yourself? A good portion of luck and I quote Alex: "simply by
always following the sun"..
Agyeno
hanging up the laundry to dry over night... who could have known
that the tent would be the site of a long fish dinner?
Little excursion into
Russian geography:
Until 1939,
Selenogorsk used to belong to Finland and was referred to
as Terijoki. A suburb of
St.Petersburg, the city is
located in a gorgeous part of the Karelian neck on the shore of the
Gulf of Finland, 50 km away from St. Petersburg. Selenogorsk
offers some hints at its glorious past as one of the prime recreation
centers for city-sick St. Petersburg gentry. Its famous
orthodox church, the church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, is
a site not to be missed. More info on this
other Zelenogorsk under:
Being masters of
diversity in their sleeping situations by now, the group spent the
night in Selenogorsk on the campgrounds of the Russian coastguard,
right by the beach. That is, everyone
but Pauli slept there. He
preferred to doze off in the nearby sand dunes after dinner (smoked
fish and vodka) and a frolicsome get-together around the campfire...
Agyeno, Tamar and Robbi being instructed in how to clean the fish
Michael and Ulli
helping with the smoking of the fish. What a special treat after a long
hard day of cycling...
Maren
holding up one of the excellent specimens of fine Russian smoked Ryba
(fish) - only to be eaten with a big gulp of equaly fine Russia Vodka...
Josh beginning an evening of singing and
dancing with his rendition of "Don't worry be happy", helped by
Agyeno's freestyling and Robbi's... well, helped by Robbi somehow ;)
Sanela later joined on her mattress as did the Russian coastguard with
some more vodka and a sound and light show outside...
In other news:
Pauli
took time out
today to stroll through the city's black markets
looking for a good fishing rod. From now he will plan to do some
serious fishing. Alex has already told him he'd give him 100 rubles for
each fish he caught.... We are looking forward to seeing the results...
Nino managed to
actually flatten his tire yet another time while racing
down the St. Petersburg curbs with Alex on their way to the Eremitage.
A short while later he was back - with another tire and another attempt
at actually lasting a few days without another flat...
Anica, the new girl
from Berlin who joined the group in St. Petersburg seems to have caught
a little flu, but we hope to have her back up in no time... Tamar, another addition who joined the
group in St. Pete will help with
cooking, setting up camp and directions while in Russia.
The TOP 10
List of the Day
"The
Top Ten musical contributions on the tour"
1.
Agyeno freestyling his way through Estonia and Russia
2.
Maren and Alex's 101 course on carneval
songs from Düsseldorf and Cologne
3.
Tamar's a capella Georgian tunes
4.
Josh's guitar sounds by the campfire and at breakfast (the new Bob
Dylan!)
5.
Sanela's joining the group's
music festival playing her inflatable mattress
6.
The group's renditions of "Don't worry be happy"
7.
Birthday melodies in 30 different languages on
Marjus' birthday
8.
Agyeno's singing Haussa
for Marju
9.
Reggae tunes in Tallinn's number
one party location
10. Nightly snoring
concerts by specific participants who asked not to be named ;)
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 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)
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.
What motivated
Benni, Maren, Nino and Alex to get up extra early on
Tuesday morning you ask? They wanted to have enough time to explore the
enormous collection of the State Eremitage
Museum. What
once began as 
Accompanied by the same
sunny weather the others had had, when leaving St.Pete by bike and
train a few hours before, Alex and Michael, after picking up the
group's laundry and testing the bus' loading capacity (it was stuffed
to the top with luggage, food and Kolja's dog, Yena), headed off
towards Selenogorsk
as well. AND, although they didn't have a map or speak
any for Russians
understandable or sense-making Russian, they arrived....How you might
ask yourself? A good portion of luck and I quote Alex: "simply by
always following the sun"..
o
Russian geography:
