Saturday 14th June 2025 ko 12:30

Esliiga B

NARVA TRANS U21 3 (Besirgkis 3 Bahval 41 Reivik 72og)

PAIDE LINNAMEESKOND U21 0

Att 84 at Narva Kalev-Fama Staadion

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I’ve always found borders fascinating, and I’ve little doubt that the border between Estonia and Russia is nothing if not interesting. Being based near to Tallinn’s main station, Balti Jaam was more than handy as our train left at 6.15am! The little K-kiosk near the platforms as ever was handy for an extremely early breakfast- there are no buffet cars on Estonian trains.

We opted to travel first class at a cost of €16.70 each way, standard was €9.70 we felt that the extra seat width, a table and a charging point was worth the extra money. We booked and paid for our tickets at Balti Jaam a few days before, it allowed us to reserve our seats. The trains are modern, comfortable, and you do notice the extra width of the carriages- the railways are on Russian 5 foot gauge rather than standard 4 ft 8+¹⁄₂ in most of western Europe. In more straightforward times the line goes all the way to St Petersburg but for the time being terminates rather abruptly at Narva.

A day or two earlier we’d spent a happy evening at the Humalakoda Brewery based at the Balti Turg market, close to the station. The food is excellent and the beer even better and the waiter was engaging too. He’d spent time at Narva and gave us a few tips and commented “Give Putin the finger from me! I thought of him a lot when I gazed over the border….

The city of Narva sits on the Narva River that forms the border with Estonia and Russia. Or putting it another way NATO and Russia, or Putin versus democracy. There was absolutely no chance of us popping over to the river to Ivangorod as a day trip The UK Foreign Office advises against all travel to Russia, and even if a visa were obtainable, as a border town you need special permission to do anything other than transit through.

Narva was nearly completely destroyed in 1944 during World War II. During the Soviet era of Estonia from 1944 -1991 the city’s original inhabitants were forbidden from returning to their homes and the city was rebuilt along Soviet times. Narva was slated to be a centre for enriching Uranium for use in the USSR’s nuclear weapons programme- that task fell to Sillamäe a few miles west. Until independance Sillamäe didn’t officially didn’t exist, and the train still doesn’t go there! It was odd passing by the place where in the Cold War, most of the missiles aimed at my country were kept!

Narva became a centre for textile production and an entire district, Kreenholm on a river island in the south of the city grew up around the huge factory. That included the Kreenholm stadium which is the spiritual home of Narva Trans JK. The issue was and is that independence saw the factory lose money and eventually go bankrupt causing a steep decline in Narva’s economic fortunes.

The result is a Narva that is 97% Russian-speaking, and of largely Russian ethnicity- we heard absolutely no Estonian spoken while we were there, and being able to speak Estonian is mandatory to gain Estonian citizenship. 36.3% of Narva residents hold Russian passports, while 15.3% of the population have no state. For more on this I recommend Matthias Schwarzer’s excellent video.

Obviously Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has made the situation a lot worse, and Putin’s pretext for invasion being to protect Russian-speaking peoples has obvious parallels. Could he cross the border to goad NATO? The border at the main square Peetri Plats is now only open for pedestrians and since many other EU/Russian borders are closed the queues are lengthy- 4-5 hours on a good day.

Back in the day Narva station was a border point, the passport control section is cordoned off for now, and we waited a long time for a bus, a better move was to have used Bolt- taxi fares are capped at €3 per journey within Narva’s city limits, and there were 3 of us! We waited, and were very aware that there was an atmosphere and it wasn’t friendly. We reached Peetri Plats, and walked over to Hermann Castle a relic of medieval Swedish rule, and gazed across to Ivangorod Fort a few metres away over the river. I waved at the visitors on the Russian side, they didn’t wave back. And yet right next door to the Russian border post were two Baboushka fishing!

We found a group in the castle grounds setting up for a Boccia tournament, and players had travelled from far and wide to be there. The organisers were friendly and practiced their English with us, before we climbed the castle ramparts, being in the odd position of being further across the border than passport control on the Estonian side. We were also high up enough to see the tank traps on the bridge, Russian passport control, and the road disappearing away towards St Petersburg.

It was fascinating and disturbing in equal measure, and no I have no regrets about going even if Robyn did whisper “Let’s go ‘ome” in my ear at one point, a sign that she’s uncomfortable but okay. We strolled back to Peetri Plats, passing a German NATO soldier on the way before having and omelette for breakfast watching the queue for the border slowly lengthen. Do look out for the tower block near the border post with what used to be a water tower on top- a classic piece of Soviet archetecture and one Robyn compared to a perfume bottle!

Narva Trans used to play at the Kreenholm Stadium just to the south of the railway station, but for this season it was decided that it was just too dilapidated to use, so their training ground the Narva Kalev-Fama Staadion has been upgraded with a new 3G pitch and the main stand has been given a roof.

The club dates from 1979; formed as Avtomobilist formed by the workers of Motor Depot 13, but changed their name to Autobaas in 1989 and to Narva Trans in 1992. We took a “Bolt” from Peetri Plats although the ground is easily walkable, perhaps the strains of an 11 day 4 hotel, 3 country tour were weighing heavily on us.

Our taxi driver was friendly enough, but he did spot a yellow and blue ribbon on Adrian’s bag. It was a relic from the Swedish Hop- used to tie up sweets in the goodie bags. Nevertheless the driver advised Adrian to hide the ribbon- it wasn’t advisable to show any support, either real or supposed, for Ukraine in oh-so Russian Narva!

I’d argue the times we felt most comfortable in Narva was when sport was involved, and so geo-political tensions could be ignored. The game in the Third Division was of easily the highest quality of the 3 we saw during our time in Estonia, but the visitors from Paide some 200km south-west were well beaten.

We headed back to Tallinn and strolled over to a Ukrainian restaurant; it seemed somehow appropriate to us. We asked for (to use current parlance) Chicken “Keevs”- but the waitress only understood the “Kiev” pronunciation! I remain a little flummoxed as to why, but the food was delicious.

We flew home the next day via a missed connection in Helsinki. It had been easily the most adventurous trip we’d undertaken, and boy had we made some memories. If the aim of our travels is to head home a slightly different person, then we’d certainly achieved that!

Dedicated to our friend at the brewery. I’ll not mention his name, but you are the best of your country, and thanks from your English friends.