This is going to be a very personal and quite and outdated article that we couldn’t bring ourselves to write for over four years. It is going to be about our very first and definitely not the last expatriation in a very curious town on Estonia-Russian border called Narva.

A lot of time passed since those lovely two years and as I’m typing this words, we live in our fourth location, this time in France. Still, everything started in Narva and we feel shame for putting it off for so long and taking forever to publish this crucial chapter from our lives in our blog, which in a certain way was also conceived there. We wrote a bunch of articles about Estonia and six articles about our expatriation life in England, so the time has come to getting back to where it all started. You will, hopefully, notice the difference between our first and last articles about this small but amazing country in terms of blogging and especially photography – it’s four years of evolution we are talking about!

With a correct approach to Narva, you will be surprised to discover that despite its somewhat dull look, this town can be in fact charming. We’ll do our best to make you feel it too. Let’s start our tour in Narva, shall we?

The most obvious starting point, but I can tell you one thing for sure that despite seeing a huge number of castles and fortresses (and we lived in England with a castle in every town, so we know what we are talking about), this duo of castles offers a truly unique view. The fortress on the Russian side was built on the distance just enough for an arrow to reach the Hermann Castle, finished just a century earlier.

Heavily damaged during the war, Hermann Castle now is completely restored, inside it has a permanent exhibition on Narva history. It also regularly hosts various events and is an obligatory passage for every visitor.

The best view on the two castles is from the island in the Narva River. We loved coming there in summer and eating strawberries while lying on the grass. While walking down, make sure to pay attention to the Swedish lion statue, a gift from Sweden acknowledging its former influence on Narva, which used to belong to it before being conquered by Peter the Great during the Great Northern War.

One of our favorite places in the town, mainly due to its proximity to our home, was the Upper promenade with the Dark Gardens. Nothing really dark in those gardens except for the cute bats, that represent the biggest part of the species population Estonia. You can see the tiny bats’ houses on the trees! Recently, they built a new Lower promenade, which quickly became one of the most favorite spots of the locals. All this with an amazing view on Narva River and Ivangorod on the Russian side.

Probably according to Narva standards, Kreenholm must be considered as very far from the city centre, but it would be a shame if you skipped it. Initially Kreenholm is an island with quite a strong waterfall, whose force was used first for mills, then factories and the most recently – the textile manufacture, which was shut down not long time ago after being one of the major textile producers of the Russian Empire and the USSR. This building must be seen. A splendid and a bit sad monument to the glorious past. Around Kreenholm you can see some beautiful houses in the similar Industrial England style to the factory itself, as well as a gorgeous hospital building with a somewhat disturbing inscription “In honor of 300 years of the Romanov dynasty reign”. I say disturbing because several years after this 300 years milestone they reigned no more… It’s also in this area that is situated another border crossing to Russian side, reserved only for pedestrians. We liked this whole area and always enjoyed cycling through those quiet streets.

Check out: Best of Industrial England

Harbor is probably a too pompous word, but there is a tiny harbor on the riverbank. It has a totally different atmosphere than the rest of the town with somewhat maritime vibes. We happened to be there mainly for the Club RoRo – another epicenter for the local youth.

Less than 20 km from Narva, and here we are at the local sea resort Narva-Jõesuu. Impossible to count how many times we came here by bicycle to meet yet another glorious sunset. All possible colors of sky and water, none ever failed to surprise us again and again with their beauty. The coast is very shallow, which means that in winter the see gets frozen and in summer regardless northern Estonian climate the water can heat up to be enjoyable for swimming. We also much enjoyed the local spa centers like Noorus or Meresuu and thick pine forest. Beware of the mosquitos in summer though! On the way to Narva-Jõesuu one passes by German Military Cemetery – seeing it so far East always produced a very strange feeling.

If you look on the map south from Kreenholm you might see the lines of channels created for the power plant needs. It’s easy to guess that they would be called the Venice of Narva and even if it has nothing in common with the real Venice, it is charming in its rural way with what looks to be a separate society living in the garages and using old rusty boats as water transport. As far as I know, there is a big part of illegal possessions of these water properties, but cycling around and finishing the walk close to what used to be the third border crossing was really nice. A very special surrounding, nothing to add.

A large green space for all kinds of sports, including the skiing in winter, jogging and cycling in summer. Basically, it’s just a large park, but nothing in Narva is “just something” for us.

Ivangorod is a natural part of Narvian landscape. These two towns are inseparable and we’ll hope that one day the duo of Narva & Ivangorod castles will be included in the UNESCO list. Visiting Narva won’t feel complete without going to Ivangorod too, even though it is far from being the most picturesque town of Russia. I will be honest with you by saying that we found it quite shocking, especially keeping in mind that Ivangorod is the largest entrance point to Russia from the EU. Apparently, Russian Grandeur stays only on the geopolitical level without actually having any impact on its population. Still, we enjoyed seeing Narva from “the other side” and visiting the Fortress that we used to contemplate every day.

Don’t forget to check whether Russia requires a visa for your citizenship.