Heino Jaanus arrives for work at a hangar in Tartu's industrial Ropka district around 9 or 10 o'clock every morning, where he restores vintage buses until 5 in the evening.

Heino has done a number of different jobs at the bus depot throughout his life. At one stage he even tried a job that didn't involve buses at all, but it wasn't long before his passion for them brought him back.

"For some reason, I'm just in love with buses," Heino told ERR.

As well as restoring buses, Heino also previously enjoyed working as a bus driver. The only downside was that it left him with much less time for other things.

"Most of my time was spent driving so it was difficult to fit in any restoration work alongside my job as a bus driver," he explained. "The working days were very long, and I also needed to have time for family life too."

For that same reason, Heino chose to work in technical support.

"I worked here a bit like a firefighter does. If a bus broke down on the road, we went along to fix it," Heino said, adding that being in technical support also meant working shifts around the clock.

"Then it was also possible to restore things. You just wait for calls and then come here to work on something – I guess that's just the nature of the job."

According to Heino, the most satisfying part of his work is when a vehicle has been completely restored and looks just like it did when it was in service.

"It's great when you finish, because people get to feel nostalgic and have something to look at. You also feel great when you start up an engine that's been sitting up against the wall for 40 years and it begins to purr," Heino said.

"It's a bit like bringing something back from the dead."

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