Estonia - you are SO tiny!

Old town in Tallinn, Estonia
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We certainly hadn’t realised how TINY Estonia was before!  Population 1.3m and Tallinn, the capitol just over 404,000!  In fact if you blinked whilst driving you’d have missed most of the country!

We thought you'd be a bit lack lustre Estonia but you are so cultured!

Medieval fair in old town Tallinn - they look happy!
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Arriving in Tallinn we made our way to the “camp site” which was pretty damn weird!  They had kind of “allowed” vans to park up to the side of the showground in a “car park” with toilets, showers & electric hook ups.  Seemed like a leftover of the Russian regime!  It was ridiculously expensive so we only stayed one night.  We parked up and caught the bus into town.  

Medieval fair in Tallinn - they look happy too!
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The old town of Tallinn was a delight.   Even better was the fact that a medieval fare was on!  The city was founded in 1219, the Danes were there first selling northern Estonia to the German Knights.  Prosperity reined for 200 yrs then failed when many nations squabbled over the area.  The Russians took over during the 2^nd World War until independence in 1991.  50 yrs of Soviet rule has left its mark with a number of old concrete buildings and hotels remaining.  The old town is still surrounded by many old walls from the middle ages and has made the centre available only to pedestrians.   We were able to watch medieval dancing accompanied by 2 lovely girls playing flutes, the market square had wonderful handicrafts and all the sellers dressed accordingly, it was all very lovely.

Old town, Tallinn
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We walked around the old town viewing the various churches, towers, palaces and gardens – some in need of repair but as the country is now in the EU (since 2004) some of these bear the mark of recent or intended renovation.

Next day we placed a pin in the map and headed south but there was little to see.  Didn’t help that it was pouring when we left!  The country is as flat as a pancake and it seems like no-one lives there!  The tiny hamlets are off the road and even if you drive into them you scarcely see a soul.  The most exciting thing we saw was stork nests perched high on telegraph poles, massive things a metre or so in diameter with 3 or 4 adult storks sitting there perusing the landscape!  As you drove, you could see loads of massive buildings which appeared to be deserted factories (left over from soviet days?) and some of the towns had horrible square like concrete apartment blocks.  Lets hope they don’t last forever!

View over the old town of Tallinn
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After being unable to find an official camping spot we parked up near “yet another manor house” which are all pink, kind of German baroque……all similar in design and all now schools!  It’s a strange phenomenon but the Estonians have seemingly made massive effort to produce high quality glossy leaflets telling you about what to see, sometimes in incomprehensible English, but when you get there, there are buildings you cant go into or they are closed!  Take a town called Tiru for instance, a lovely little place with gardens and neatly laid out houses.  However their wonderful tourist literature with a great walking map gave you numbered pin points three of which were:    “7.  beginning of Viljandi street, 8.  middle of Viljandi street and 8. end of Viljandi street”!  Amusing to say the least!

Castle at Tallinn
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We decided to head across to the “summer capitol” of Estonia – Parnu on the west coast as we had heard that in central Estonia there was a “Hanseatic Days” festival at the weekend.  Parnu was lovely, the campsite not so bad by the river with loads of people from Finland.  Met some Aussies (ex Poms from Qld!) and had a few wines with them and swopped books and Aussie sports and polli stories! Parnu’s beach was a great surprise, not so big, very crowded but typical European with ball sports all over, hire of chairs, changing sheds etc etc.  The ocean was shallow for some distance and apparently about 20 degrees which we guess they found quite warm!

Dancers at the medieval fare in Tallinn
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So travelled east towards centrally located Tartu through not unpleasant but not startling countryside.  Found our way to a tiny camp site in a B&B’s back garden!  Only room for 3 vans and a few tents on their lawn, very intimate with one wc & shower but only a short walk from the centre along a road comprised entirely of wooden buildings, some very in need of repair!  The festival started on the Friday evening with a great atmosphere of many people walking around the town dressed appropriately in a small but delightfully intact medieval centre.  3 central stages gave out performances of music, dance and around town there were workshops featuring a blacksmith, a brass sculpture, fabric and paper making etc. etc.  A torch led procession took place after dancing from the Urals and Latvia.  The following day the festival was in full swing on a very warm Saturday as we made our way over the river to even more displays of medieval art featuring dug out canoe making from a single tree, using giant bellows for metal work,  whole pig on a spit, archery and a wonderful old replica barge built in the dutch style to 16^th century plans making its way down the river.  More musicians and hundreds of stalls selling handicrafts, food etc.  All in all, a wonderful stay in Tartu – really brightened up our Estonian stay!

Old town Tallinn
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After a week in Estonia we made our way south to Latvia......