Life after Eesti: May 2005

Road Trip in Souther Estonia

This past weekend me a two guys from work (Frank and Priidu) and Priidu's friend Jens decided to get out of town and go south. First night we drove to Viljandi, a city in the middle of Estonia. We pitched tents at a friends cottage and hung out the night. The next day we went to Viljandi to see the sights and eat a bit, then headed further south to visit another friend at his house. We decided we wanted to spend the second night on the sea so we drove to Parnu where we had dinner then headed close to the Latvian border where there's a great sandy beach that's in a national park. We camped there the last night before driving up along the coast on Sunday and coming back to Tallinn. It was nice to get out the city for a change and completely forget about work and the daily hustle here. Really make me miss the cottage life back home.

Frank, Jens and Priidu at the cottage near Viljandi.

Frank enjoying an eye opener at 10am

Frank attempting to cross a section of the Viljandi castle wall.

Frank taking an early morning swim in the frigid sea.

Sunset on the Baltic Sea.

Priidu enjoying the evening.

Great graffiti in a bus shelter somewhere in the south of Estonia.

Jenns (and the rest of us) goes for an early morning swim in a little lake.

We stopped off a this guy Meelis' house in the south. We were going to stay the night but he had a gig and wasn't going to be around.

About 10pm on the beach near the Latvian/Estonian border

The campsite just south of Parnu on the sea.

Funny sign in a store on the way to Viljandi translates to "Looking to buy old style coffin"

Reflections

Not the kind of reflections that mean thinking about what has transpired by reflections of a shiny piece of metal. They've errected some circular metal thing in the middle of the town square that has a panoramic picture of the square in it. This inside isn't as neat as the outside which is shiny metal. There was a seagull there the other day trying to hit it's own reflection with it's beak for about 10 minutes, really funny.

I decided to take some pics using the reflection, see below.

Some cool reflections

Reflection of Reakoja plats (me on the left)

Reakoda warped

Too much sunlight?

So the winter's in Estonia are tough. Really dark, the sun can be gone by 3pm or so in early January.

Now I'm dealing with the opposite. Too much sunlight? If I try and go to bed at a decent hour 11-11:30pm it's still not totally dark out! Then it's completly light by 6am so your body reacts by waking up.

It's sounds stupid to complain but that's what I do best. :-)

Trip to the Cemetary

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon Liisa and I did what all what every 20-something year old likes to do on their weekends - we went to a cemetary.

Tallinn has an amazing cemetary, Metsakalmistu (Forrest Cemetary) where lot's of famous Estonians are buried. It's a big place about 10-15 minutes bus ride from the city centre that is quiet and very peaceful. People are buried among trees and hills in a natural setting which seems much nice than in a row of tombstones after another next to some busy road somewhere.

The main chapel at the cemetary.

The way all cemetaries should look, quiet and serene.

Mother's day is very big here, there was a concert in the Town Square that was very popular. It was also a very nice spring day.

Tourists, tourists everywhere...

Tourists season in Tallinn has arrived and it makes you long for the cold dark days of winter when only crazy people (or Finns) come to Tallinn. The city is crawling with tour groups, and it's not just on the weekends anymore, even on my way to work in the mornings the groups are out and about. The worst of them all are the British stag parties. I'm curious who ever thought that Brits were refined, upper class type society because these groups of guys are nothing but loud, drunk, obnoxious idiots. Thankfully a number of bars in Tallinn (Hell Hunt included) have started to post signs saying that stag parties or large groups are not welcome.

I can start to see why Estonians don't want to live in Vanalinn, all this makes you crave for a quieter, more relaxed place.

Tartu, M!C! and Volber

This past weekend was Volbrioo here in Estonia. A big May 1st celebration with the best parties being found in Tartu where all the university fraternity/sorority students put on massive parties. The days starts off with a parade of about 2000 students, then back to your own "house" to have various celebrations/ceremonies. At midnight, just like Cinderella all hell breaks loose. Every fraternity and sorority opens up their house for what is a city wide house party.

The partying goes on all night and into the next day. It's quite the experience that you need to take part in once in your life if you are a member of one of these organizations. I've been lucky enough that this was my third, and still as fun as the first.

Enjoy some pics.

Cioa,
Andres