The Baltic Leg

Hi Folks

I thought it might be time to review the last month. Skating though the baltic states was simply awesome. I have met so many different people, saw incredible nature and had a fairly save trip.
Although the roads have not always been super nice, they have been manageable for the most time and I only had to walk on very few occasions. Rumour says that I will be up for much worse roads, so we will see. If I had to pick though, I would say that Estonia had the nicest paved roads (except for Hiumaa, there they are horrible), but also the most traffic. In Latvia, especially around Kolka, there was no doubt the best skateboarding. I think halfway from Ventspils  to Kolka, there suddenly is silky smooth, brand new pavement. Plus there is almost no traffic, as it is a very sparsely populated area, which means that you can skate through a forrest right at the shore with magnificent beaches, with the road for you to carve.
I never felt animosity from people, or had the feeling that I was in the wrong place. Although from the outside there where many people sporting sour faces, especially in Lithuania, they all opened up at lightning speed when one was to talk to them. Thats the good thing when long distance skateboarding. Many people don't really know what it is and get curious. Language was mostly no problem, the young people almost all spoke at least some english, and the older folks (and surprisingly many of the young ones as well) spoke some german. And in the end, you do not need a huge vocabulary to understand each other. Just approach people with a nice attitude, and most of the time, their attitude will be nice as well.
Weather wise I think I was super lucky, I only got rained on twice, and had mostly god weather during the trip. The days could get super hot when skateboarding, while the nights would cool down to quite chilly temperatures. And there is wind. Always. Although locals (mainly the wake boarders that I have met) have complained that there was not enough wind, for me it was. It simply never stopped. Sometimes just a breeze, and sometimes a full storm straight in your face, but the air was always moving. Which was good, as it would cool me down during the days when skating, and keep the moskitos away in the evenings. And it was bad when the wind comes from the front. I have to admit, that I totally underestimated headwind before I started this trip. I always thought that that would be merely annoying, but no, headwind seriously slows you down. I combined with bad pavement, my average speed would decrease to about a third of normal.
Best thing of the good weather is my bikers tan; I am super tan on my forearms, my calves and my face, and pale white on the rest of my body, although some of the tan could also be dirt...
It was never a problem to find a place to sleep, as most of the area that I travelled is quite well developed touristically. Which means that there were many camping grounds, hostels and bed and breakfasts available. And you have the everyman's right in all three countries, which means that you can pitch your tent anywhere in the woods as long as it is not private property or nature protection area. And many people would also offer me to stay at their homes for a few nights, which I loved because I could get really close to life and culture here that way. The touristically developed state also meant that I would find tourist information (which all spoke english) in many towns if necessary (they usually had wifi). There are also many shops along the way with amazing opening hours (7 days a week, usually from 8 am to 10 pm), which enabled me to carry a lot less food than I initially planed to do.

Yeah, so in the end, I had an awesome experience, skating those 1200 Km through the Baltics, and I can recommend it to anyone who want's to try on long distance longboarding, but keep it in a still quite known and save way, as you are at the same time in a rather unexplored part of europe while being in the middle of it. I have done around 200 Km more than initially planned by also going to Saaremaa and Hiumaa because I made rather fast progress and did not keep my plan of skating five and resting two days from the beginning. I just skated as long as it fit me and rested when I needed to. The estimate of 50 km a day although was fairly stable, it could range from 40 km to 80 km a day, depending on circumstances. I think this journey should be possible in around five weeks for most people, if you skip Hiumaa.

I hope you like reading my blog, and you will hear back from me next week, when I will have entered Russia.

Cheers
Robert