Estonia

We didn’t know what to expect of Estonia. When planning our trip we had read that the Baltic countries were well worth visiting, but were thrown off balance when the owner of a campsite in Denmark told us to steer clear of these former Soviet countries unless travelling in convoy with others. He described the people and countryside as dour and “not worth the hassle”. He couldn’t have been more wrong about Estonia. We loved this charming little country so much we stayed a full 10 days. It’s a great reminder to listen to advice but make your own decisions.

Estonia has spent much its history occupied by different nations, and after a brief period of independence between WWI and WWII finally gained true independence in 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The history in this part of Europe is rich, and people have inhabited in the area since 6500 BC.

Estonia is a now a modern, developed economy, and along with Latvia and Lithuania were called the Baltic Tigers for their aggressive economic growth early this century. Although hit by the GFC all three recovered quickly and are still experiencing growth. One of the biggest issues for this country is emigration, as the lure of the West still draws Estonians to leave.

There are 1.3 million people in Estonia, 426,000 of whom are in Tallinn. The small population means plenty of wilderness.

The people are friendly, polite, and welcoming. There’s a relaxed calm feel and with a small population there are no crowds and the roads are relatively empty. Estonians drive very nice cars – late model Mercedes, Porsche, Audi and BMW’s are a dime a dozen – and they like to drive them fast. Some of the passing manoeuvres we saw were a bit suspect.

Maybe the flash cars are linked to the obvious pride they have in their appearance. Everyone dresses well, no baggy track pants at the supermarket here. Houses have immaculately cut lawns with flower pots brimming with colour at every front gate, and the streets are clear of rubbish.

Now we’ve set the scene, here’s what we did in we our 10 days in Estonia:

Tallinn

We took the Tallink Ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn at a cost of $270 NZD for us and the campervan. The ferries are modern and well equipped, with restaurants, bars and duty-free shops on board, so the 2-hour trip is done in comfort.

Our campsite, Tallinn City Camping, was located an easy 3.5km bike from the central city, in the carpark of an unused exhibition centre. It’s a pop-up campground for the summer season and uses the existing facilities of the exhibition centre, an excellent idea and one that would probably work back in NZ.

We spent two days exploring Tallinn and were in awe of its charm and character. This city has a rich mixture of architecture and culture in a small area, making it ideal to explore on foot. The fusion of modern and medieval is remarkable. Loads of development has happened in recent years but it stays true to the fairy-tale charms of the two-tiered old town, and modern buildings in the new commercial part of town have encompassed existing buildings rather than pulling them down. There’s a nice balance of respect for the past while embracing the future.

The walled Old Town has remained almost untouched by war, making it one the more unique towns in Europe. The cobblestone streets are lined with quaint houses and shops dating back to the middle ages, and the town is dotted with medieval churches. The Old Town still was almost 2 kilometres of the original city wall and 20 defensive towers still standing, giving the town its story-book look. With each turn we took an even more delightful scene unfolded in front of us.

Understandably, Tallinn is a popular destination for cruise ships, and while we were there five or six came and went. Tallinn seems to have embraced tourism and the shops and restaurants in the Old Town are well-oiled tourism operations, providing multi-lingual service and top-quality hospitality.

We couldn’t resist the lure of the many restaurants in the Old Town Square, and had an amazing lunch of traditional Siberian dumplings, Russian pancakes with wild mushrooms, and Russian-style pot roast under a pie crust. It was very rich but delicious.

Apparently, in the late 90’s and early this century Tallinn got a name for itself encouraging boozy stag-dos, cheap drinks packages, and prostitution. I’m sure some of that tourism continues, but we didn’t see any of it. It seems the city has turned its back on this image and is concentrating on a more tasteful type of tourism, and having an asset such as the Old Town makes that an easy decision.

Haapsalu & Saaremaa

After Tallinn we headed South to the seaside town of Haapsalu. This quaint little town was once a popular summer destination for the Russian aristocracy and has some beautiful examples of wooden buildings from the early 20^th century. Like most towns in Estonia there are ruins of a castle in the middle, this one has been made into a playground for kids and a park. As we walked through the castle ruins we laughed at Andrew’s brothers comment about Europe; “ABC – another bloody castle, another bloody church.” So very true, but each one is different and charming in its own right, and I’ll never get sick of them.

Our campground in Haapsalu was more of a backyard, but the host was very passionate about his business and very welcoming. He even flew the New Zealand flag for us. Some Kiwis who had stayed there had sent him a flag and it was the first time he had got to use it, which he was very excited about.

From Haapsalu we drove an hour to catch the ferry to the island of Saaremaa. Andrew was sure we’d seen the last of ferries for a while, but I managed to persuade him that Saaremaa would be worth it; only costing $48 NZD return for us and the van sealed the deal. Saaremaa is a popular holiday destination and being a Friday almost all the ferries (one every half hour) were booked. We managed to get a spot on the midday crossing and half an hour later we were there.

The island is known for being the “Real Estonia”, rich in folklore and heritage. It was off limits to most mainland Estonians and all foreigners during the Soviet era because it was a restricted military area, so has only been open for tourism for a relatively short time.

We spent two days exploring the sparsely populated island, driving through small, often gravel, country lanes and visiting places of historic interest.

The picturesque windmills of Angla have been lovingly restored and give an insight into rural life in this area in centuries past. The top of the Panga cliffs, once a sacfricial site where each year a human or animal was sacrificed to appease the Sea God, is now used as place of meditation and prayer, and while we were there a large group of people were sitting facing out to sea, meditating in the sunshine.  Sorve Lighthouse marks the southernmost point of Saaremaa and has protected ships since 1646, although it has been rebuilt over time. This is also the place of military significance as bloody battles were fought on Saaremaa between the Germans and Russians in WWII. Today hikers are warned not to leave the tracks on the island as there are still unexploded devices in the area.

 

The Kaali Meteorite Crater field was an eye opener. Around 3,500 years ago a meteorite crashed into Saaremaa and left 9 craters, the largest being 110 metres in diameter and 22 metres deep. Now surrounded by trees and more like a very symmetrical pond, it is a serene place to visit. But you can only imagine how horrifying this event would have been for the inhabitants of Saaremaa at the time.

Kuressaare is the largest town on the island with a population of around 13,000. This was where we stayed the night – in another backyard campground conversion, and with another enthusiastic and welcoming host. Kuressaare is a beautiful town with a 14^th century castle in the centre that has been transformed into a concert and events venue. They were setting up for what looked like a very nice black-tie gala event while we were there. It’s great that these historic sites are being utilised, and not just put aside as museums. The town has an upmarket resort feel, with modern hotels and sports facilities, and lots of very nice cars and well-dressed people.

It was well worth leaving the mainland to visit Saaremaa and we certainly felt like we got to understand a little more about this remarkable country.

Parnu & Soomaa National Park

After crossing back to the mainland, we drove for an hour down the coast to the seaside resort of Parnu. Parnu is the fourth largest city in Estonia with 40,000 residents, but the population swells during the summer holidays.

We camped at Konse Camping by the river, less than 2kms from the centre of town. We felt we needed some time in one place so once we saw that the campsite was well appointed we booked in for three nights. The hot sunny weather made for a relaxing few days, doing not much. We biked into town, wandered the cobbled pedestrian-only streets, went to the beach, and biked the many cycleways along the coast and the river. There are no hills in this part of Estonia so you can bike for hours using very little energy.

One of the cycle paths went through the Urban Cows Project, a restoration of coastal meadows that uses livestock grazing as a way of protecting the saltwater wetlands and restoring them to a semi-natural state.  I’m not sure how the cows help, but the wetlands are the home to many protected bird species and the project seems to be successful and well promoted.

Soomaa National Park is 40 kilometres inland from Parnu and one of the four National Parks in Estonia. Soomaa means “land of bogs”, and the unique bogs is what makes the park famous. We decided to walk the Riisa nature trail, a 5km walk through the bogs. The Riisa bog is over 1000 hectares and is the smallest of the bogs in the national park. The walk was very picturesque with dark pools and colourful flora, although Mr Love was disappointed that the wildlife promised on the sign didn’t appear, apart from hundreds of lizards and some butterflies. While on the walk we met an English woman eating her lunch and stopped to chat. She had almost done the exact journey we had up through Norway and back down through Finland to Estonia. She had been hesitant of travelling alone in Eastern Europe but, like us, was overwhelmed by the charms of this country.

After leaving Sooma National Park we headed towards Tartu in the east of the country, taking the rural backroads, that on occasion turned to gravel without warning. There was plenty to see on our drive; quaint farm buildings, storks nesting in their huge nests on chimney tops and specially created platforms, acres and acres of peas and broad-beans growing, and of course forests.

Tartu

Our final destination in Estonia was Tartu, the second largest city after Tallinn. Tartu is a university town with a population of 100,000.

As the German’s occupied Tartu during WWII, it was bombed heavily by the Russians and most of the old medieval town was destroyed. Because of this, the town is relatively new and has lots of parks that have replaced bombed out areas. However, there is still a lot of history here and the imposing ruins of the 13^th century Tartu Cathedral is an example of that.

The centrepiece of the town, sitting at the top of the town square, is the very pretty, pink Town Hall with the famous Kissing Students statue in front of it. Nearby is the impressive main building of Tartu University with its six Doric columns, built between 1803 and 1809. The university itself was founded in 1632 by the Swedish king Gustaf II Adolf.

A short walk away is St John’s Lutheran Church. Dating to at least 1323, this striking red-brick church is unique for the rare terracotta sculptures placed in cavities on its exterior and interior. This church lay in ruins and was left derelict following a Russian bombing raid in 1944 and wasn’t fully restored until 2005. The restoration is amazing, and the pristine condition it is kept in shows how well it is loved. I climbed the steeple to see Tartu from above, and was greeted by a view of trees, and more trees, with the occasional building popping through.

We had fantastic weather for our 2 ½ days in Tartu. Our campground was in the carpark of a marina on the river, very close to town and picturesque. Once we’d done with exploring the town we made use of the cycle paths on both sides of the river and enjoyed the scenic parks along the riverbanks.

In our 10 days in Estonia we managed to get back on track with our budget. Food and diesel is cheaper than the other countries we’ve been through and the average cost of a campsite is $37 NZD ($10 cheaper than the other countries). Diesel dropped from $2.10 per litre in Sweden and Norway to $1.80. In Europe tax is included in the price of diesel, unlike NZ where you pay an additional road tax for diesel vehicles.

Some of the food prices for staples include: $1.20 kg for potatoes – the little sweet gourmet types. $1.70 kilo for nectarines. Grapes $1.60 kg, for beautiful Italian red grapes. Cheese $8 kilo. $20 – $25kg for fresh fish which is readily available. Local Le Coq beer, brewed in Tartu, is $1.25 a 330ml can.

After 10 memorable days in Estonia we now head into Latvia.