Ekesparre Residence Hotel Kuressaare

... the hostel, when I was trying to determine if 12 Euros would get me a bed in a dorm or my own room, the reply I received was - for twelve euros you get your own cell!! and what a lovely cell of yellow-ness it was too!!).
The city is tiny (population 16K) and extends away from the coast (and a 13th century castle) via one main road, completely populated with ...

... we found out. We booked into what looked like a surgical day centre for a mud bath the next day, and they said "we will see you here at 12.00 tomorrow for your procedure"!!!! What do they do with this mud - was this some kind of weird reverse colonic irrigation??? We spent the day in the main town, walking around a completely intact 14th century round turreted castle ...

We took a small small road as it was evening and time to stop. We saw an even smaller road and Mara went to have a look. She came back happily waving her hands, it was a dream of a campplace at the sea-side: and old little harbour with a bench and a fireplace.

We'll be very short about Hiiumaa: it was raining cats and dogs the whole day and we decided to use this day to travel on to Saaremaa. By evening we arrived at an out-of-this-world beach with orchids and underneath a thick pack of clouds... a sunset. Unbelieveable.

... We had a good rest there and decided that we might as well camp there. Never before camped on the edge of a sea-cliff. Getting up with a sleepy head the next morning would be really dangerous. Close to Panga Pank I went to a farm to ask for water. According to Mara the old farmer asked us in Russian if we'd not rather have some beer :-) Then he guided me trough his garden, still ...

... it would've been the most exciting part of the day!

For dinner, we went to a tavern located inside of an old windmill. It was a pretty atmospheric place that served pretty good stuff. We couldn't finish the huge portions, but I guess we shouldn't have ordered soups to start. We took a quick walk before heading back to the guesthouse, where we watched an ultra-lame horror flick - Final Destination.

... the room - Magda and her boyfriend weren't sleeping yet. The other bunkmate was asleep, but it wasn't him. Perhaps it was coming from another room. It couldn't have been Mary - her light was on and she was lying in bed doing Sudoku puzzles.

But then I walked up to take a look ... she was asleep and yes, she was snoring - VERY loudly. So I clicked off her light and went to bed. At breakfast this ...

... time to miss the last entrance of the day into the local castle, the best preserved castle in the Baltics. This means that we "get" to be the first ones there in the morning, before our 83 km ride tomorrow (not including a short ferry ride). We also ate dinner at a converted windmill (adorable, really) where we tasted wild boar stew, wild oat/barley/wheat/yoghurty desert thing, and lots of local cheese..mmmmm. Now off to bed!

... B was run by a very friendly man who kept apologising for his bad English, naturally in perfect English. I could hear his wife talking at times and wandered if he did the English speaking people. A lovely little guesthouse. They will rent the beds out individually cheaply too, which is what I'm doing. I have the place to myself. He took my details and arranged breakfast for 08:00. I headed along the road to the castle but only stopped to look from afar and ...

... next and in the evening we went for dinner in the old windmill for our first real Estonian meal : Garlic bread, sauerkraut and pea soup, pork chops and peppersteak :) On the other table were a couple of Finnish women, and they were being really horrible. If any Finnish people are reading this travel log (Tomi ?), please tell me that they were an exception... One of the women had received some hardboiled potatoes. Instead of complaining in the beginning ...