My trip to Estonia: part 1

As most of you may know, I will be doing volunteer work in Sänna, Estonia this summer. I left Holland on the 26^th of June and flew over Helsinki to Tallinn, where I would spend a few days before going to Sänna, where I would stay for two weeks to renovate an old manor that is being used to host artists from all over the world. Since I have internet here in Sänna, I will be able to keep you guys updated on my adventures by means of this weblog. So here is my story about the first days of my trip.

Day 1

The adventure started when my plane landed at Tallinn Airport. My Estonian penpal Laura would come to pick me up from the airport. I had never met her before, but in the small arrivals-hall it was very easy to find eachother. In advance we had already agreed to walk to the nearby supermarket together, which was not at all necessary after the delicious cheeseburger I got from FinnAir, but I still bought myself a nice pizza-snack there. What better way would there be to start your journey? After having done that, we rushed (as far as one can rush with a suitcase behind him) to the tram. That tram would take us to Rahvusraamatukogu, the national library of Estonia, where I met Jens: my Belgian Couchsurfing host.

After saying goodbye to Laura, I went to Jens’ place to drop off my luggage. To be honest, I was amazed by the state his house was in: it was old, wooden and very messy. Luckily his appartment looked normal from the inside, as do most interiors of crappy houses.

After dropping off my luggage, we went to the city, did a small tour of Tallinn (I was doing the grand tour the next day) and went to an Irish Pub, where we watched the World Cup game between USAGhana until the end. Because of the time difference and the extra time that was needed to find a winner, the game finished only shortly before midnight, so we didn’t stay long after that. We went home and where I was a bit afraid at first of a long, light and sleepless night (it will never get as dark at night as I’m used to in Estonia at this time of year), I was really tired and fell asleep quite soon.

Day 2

The next morning I met Laura again, who was going to be my tourguide for the day. During the tour, she took me everywhere: we saw the old town, some great viewing points, the large shopping center, sat down for two hours in the park of Kadriorg (where I burnt the entire left side but not the right side of my face according to Laura), went to some kind of palace and back to the old town again, where we sat down again to have a drink, because we were quite tired. But at least I had seen almost everything of Tallinn in just one day!

At half past six I met Jens again, who was still full of energy after a long boring day of studying for his drivers’ license. He wanted to take me for a walk on the beach just outside Tallinn. That sounded like a good idea, so I agreed on that. The walk was quite nice, it’s really nice to walk on the beach, being able to see the towers of a beautiful city like Tallinn on the other side of the water. However, the walk was more than just a short walk near the seaside. We walked all the way to the town of Viimsi, the richest town of Estonia according to Jens. And indeed, the houses and the views on Tallinn were beautiful, but my feet were killing me now! Luckily for me Jens had to work the next day, so at around 10 we both decided enough is enough and took the bus home. When we got home, I discovered a blister of the size of a small toe on my left foot. Always nice when you have another day of walking planned for the next day…

Day 3

Monday was the day that I would go to Sänna, but since my bus to Voru (where I would be picked up) left only at 16:00, I would still have to find something to keep me busy for the day. So I decided to also meet my other Estonian penpal Mariam, who took me to Kopli, the worst and most dangerous area of Tallinn, where a lot of Russians live. It was really amazing to see all those old abandoned houses there and even though it was safe by daytime, I could really see that this would be a dangerous area at night.

After our trip to Kopli, we had lunch in the park and then Mariam took me to her place, because she wanted to make me cake. The cakes she made (broccoli-paprika-salmon and chocolate) were delicious, although the first cake was a bit too wet. This lead to an interesting situation, during which she tried to get out all the water of the cake. This was quite a comical situation, because I was filming her every move with my camera, resulting in a very interesting video, which may or may not appear on YouTube someday.

Just before 16:00, we left for the main bus station. There I was supposed to meet my 4 other group members, but the 2 Spanish girls didn’t show up. I will not say there is a causal link between the fact that they were Spanish and the fact that they didn’t show up, but it is interesting that last year someone of the same nationality didn’t show up for the volunteer work in Serbia. Anyway, together with Pekka from Finland and Ondine from France I took the bus to Voru, where I met one local guy from Sänna of who I didn’t get the name yet and Elena from Spain. She no speak English so much, she said, but she was understandable most of the times. With 110 km/h we drove over small countryside roads, which sounds more dangerous than it actually is, because there is absolutely no traffic here. At around nine we arrived at the Sänna Culture Manor, where we met the other long-term volunteer Ieva from Latvia and the one of the camp leaders. That night we talked and had some drinks together with all the mosquitos that live in Sänna. This would be a normal first night of a workcamp in Southern Estonia I guess.

So today I also did a lot of interesting things, including swimming in a very cold lake, but you will hear more of that next time. For now I will say to you: head aega (goodbye in Estonian), and näeme hiljem (see you later)!