Today was one of the bigger days on the Estonian calendar. It was the official opening day of the Estonian Song & Dance Festival in Tallinn, and thousands and thousands of people had come from all over the country to participate in the festivities. While we were just as interested as anyone, it posed a small problem for us: all accommodation was full (and much more expensive than normal anyway), and after some trying we realised that we would have to move on before the day was over (we had wanted to stay one more night).

Nevertheless, we still had most of the day to enjoy Tallinn, so it was time to make the most of it. After checking out we headed towards Kadriorg Park in the east of the city. Along the way we started to notice a few Estonians dressed in traditional costumeIt was a very large, and very nice park filled with small monuments, and also an 18th century Kadriorg Palace located in the middle. The palace was not super-extravagant, however it looked good with its pastel colour scheme; mainly a peachy-pink with a bit of brown, green and white. There was a big stone garden at the back which matched the palace nicely, and inside was an art gallery with a big portrait of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. However, overall it wasn't particularly special so we skipped most of it.

We headed back out into the park and noticed the number of traditional-looking Estonians was on the rise. There were cute little girls picking flowers to tie up in their hair, and at this point Mari was getting rather envious. We headed towards a large monument in the distance that commemorated the independence of Estonia from the Soviet Union, and soon enough we realised we'd stumbled across something pretty cool: the opening parade for the song and dance festival! We had been pretty sure we wouldn't be able to catch it before we had to leave, but it had come to us. We decided to wait by the side of the road for a little while as large numbers of people built up.

The parade was leaving from the old town out towards a stadium not far from where we were, and fortunately it hadn't arrived just yet. Soon enough however, the parade started coming around the corner, and holy crap was it huge! At this point I was convinced that if I travelled anywhere else in the country there wouldn't be anyone there. However it was an impressive spectacle to see: traditional clothes from all the different areas of Estonia, and despite the fact that it's a pretty small country there was a ton of variety. Schools, villages, clubs and pretty much anything else you could think of was represented. Lots if groups were singing traditional songs or playing music as they went along, while people on the side were singing or clapping along. We stayed there for about an hour, enjoying the atmosphere, but unfortunately we had to think about heading back into town so we could grab our bags and head to the bus station and get our next stop - Riga. It took us a lot longer to get back than expected because of all the people, and by the time we started to head for the bus there were still people starting their way in the parade in the city centre.

We eventually reached the bus station, fortunately with a little bit of time to spare. We found our bus, got on and showed our tickets - right bus, right time... but wrong day damnit! Fortunately there were still a few seats on the bus, so we could still take it, but it was a good 30 Euro or so down the drain. Anyway, the bus took off and we were off to Latvia. Driving through the rest of Estonia, it was clear just how much of it was still forest, and much of it looked untouched by human influence.

Upon arrival in Latvia, we were greeted by a very grimy looking soviet-era bus station. There was definitely a different vibe here compared to the other two cities we had been, it seemed a bit more intense. After a bit of mucking around we found our way towards a (very) cheap hostel we'd booked at the last minute. You definitely got what you paid for here, but at least the staff were friendly and the location was pretty good. Fortunately we only had to stay one night here, as we'd arranged Couchsurfing in Riga, but the guy was returning from a business trip in Vilnius and wouldn't be around until tomorrow. We did a quick lap of the immediate area looking for a bit of food, but it was already quite late and practically everything was closed, so McDonald's would have to suffice.