Bald and Bankrupt begins this journey by leaving Tallinn and traveling east by train toward Ida-Viru County, curious about how life has evolved in Estonia’s outer regions along the Russian border. While the capital projects modernity, tech culture, and European integration, he sets out to see whether the eastern towns feel closer to Estonia’s present or its Soviet past. The winter landscape, freezing conditions, and increasingly Russian-speaking passengers signal an immediate shift as he arrives in Jõhvi, where Soviet-era infrastructure and abandoned rail buildings dominate the first impressions.

From Jõhvi, he continues to Sillamäe, a former closed Soviet city built in neoclassical Stalinist style after uranium deposits were discovered nearby. Once a secret industrial hub erased from maps, Sillamäe now feels frozen in time, with shuttered factories, closed schools, and an aging population largely living on pensions. Bald walks its grand boulevards overlooking the Baltic Sea, explaining how the town’s importance vanished after independence, leaving behind ornate Soviet architecture but little opportunity for younger generations.

The final leg takes him to Narva, a border city that feels culturally Russian despite being firmly inside the European Union. From the banks of the Narva River, he shows the stark contrast between Estonia and Russia, with medieval fortresses facing each other across the water. He then travels deep into the forest to Viivikonna, a near-abandoned Soviet mining town where empty apartment blocks, a deserted school, and a crumbling bus station tell the story of sudden collapse after the USSR’s fall. The video closes with Bald reflecting on how deeply Soviet influence still lingers in eastern Estonia, concluding that the country’s transformation is uneven—and that its forgotten edge offers one of the most revealing portraits of post-Soviet life.