Teemu and I have wanted to make this trip for a very long time. Now we finally did it. We packed everything (or at least anything we could find, we had just moved houses few days earlier) in our car and took the ferry over the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn, Estonia.
Day 1The thing we love most about Tallinn is their restaurants. Not only do they have a great diversity in the international as well as estonian kitchens but they really make the effort with the decoration as well as the waiters' uniforms to the smallest detail and make it all so...splendid! Of course the food is great too. The best restaurants I've ever been to are definitely in Estonia. Also the prices are a tad lower than in Finland. They had a fairly new restaurant that we were eager to try: the African Kitchen. It was no disappointment. The food was mouth watering. And we enjoyed the little terrace they had on the roof. Getting back to our car we had our very first estonian parking ticket waiting for us.
After that we located a Prisma where we did some shopping. We had forgotten to take our camera with us so we bought a new one. After that we started heading towards Pärnu. This was the first time for us to see Estonia outside of Tallinn. We found a camping place and pitched our tent.
The boys loved the playground they had.
The owner had told us that they might be playing some music later in the evening so we had decided to pitch the tent a bit further away. We thought it might just be some acoustic guitar playing and some singing, no harm with that. Oh well, we were wrong. They played the electric guitar and had microphones so we had no trouble hearing them. The boys slept all through it. I didn't. The music was actually not bad at all and they sang pretty well too. I would have preferred sleeping though. Luckily they didn't play the whole night so I did get some sleep.
Day 2In the morning we asked them politely if there was gonna be more singing the following night as well. They said they'd have a band playing. We thanked them and decided to move on...and I made a mental note to myself to get some earplugs.
We went to the city of Pärnu to have a look around. I know we should be used to the hilarity of estonian language but it still cracks as up. We can't help it.
Yes, Allah is great, no doubt.
Oh, is that what it was.
No, we did not have the meat testicles in Hesburger no matter how tempting it sounds.
Yes, very mature, I know. Yet funny.
There was an italian restaurant Steffani that was very highly spoken of so we decided to go check it out.
It was lovely. See what I mean about estonian restaurants being very pleasant? They even provide blankets for you in case it gets chilly.
Erno said it was the best lasagna he's ever had.
The next camping ground was by the sea and next to the Adventure Park we were planning to go to the next day.
The boys had a swim and I enjoyed the sun at the beach. We had a finnish family camping next to us and they were on their way home from Lithuania, where we were heading so we had a chat with them and got some recommendations as well. The night was quite stormy. I slept really well, thanks to my earplugs, but our "neighbours" told us in the morning that it was really hammering in the night.
Day 3The morning was a bit cloudy and windy with the chance of rain so we thought the
Adventure Park might not be such a good idea after all.
Packing the tent:
Yes, there was somewhat a nice little breeze in the air...
So we decided to try the water park they had in Pärnu that was all indoors. It was quite small and their slides weren't very fast but otherwise it was fine. And the boys enjoyed themselves. When we got out of the water park the sky was clear and the sun was shining so we thought we'd go to the Adventure Park as well, after having a quick lunch in Hesburger. We decided to camp at the same camping place as the night before because it had been nice and quiet and cheap. It was only 6 euros a night. We pitched the tent and headed to the Adventure Park.
It was awesome. They had five different trails where they had built different kinds of "paths" between the trees where you'd be trying to get through them wearing a harness. Erno was able to take the first three trails, but was too small for the last two.
My littl..ahem...
BIG monkey:
Focus...
After we all finnished the first three trails Erno went for the second round with Teemu and me and Adiel continued on for number four. It was quite tricky one and much higher than the third one.
At one point Adiel was too afraid to move any further or go back so he just stayed at one of the resting places hugging the tree with tears in his eyes. I saw someone who might be staff so I shouted them that we need help. Pretty soon a guy came up carrying a rope with him and took Adiel down with the rope. I continued the trail and made it. I have to say that I
am afraid of hights and this was quite challenging to me, and yet I just had to do it anyway.
After finishing the trail number four I watched Teemu finish it too. By that time he had caught us up. We then moved on to trail five. It was reeally high! I was hesitating a lot, but Teemu went on. I saw there was a shortcut so I wouldn't have to do the whole trail if I didn't want to. There was just one obsticle that I didn't think I'd manage. It was the monkey bars. I've tried those in parks before and never have been able to do it. I didn't think I'd be able to do it this time either, since I didn't think my arms were strong enough especially now that I was already tired after all the climbing and balancing. Teemu said the harness was not taking any of the weight, you'd have to take it all on your arms. I decided to try it anyway. So I did and I made it! I was sure I'd fall, but I suppose having nothing but 10 meters of air below gives you motivation. And the looooong ride down on a monkey rail after that was very rewarding. The rails were the best part of it all!
You won't believe how high up the last trail really was!! These pictures don't show it to the real extent. See the two little dots down there? That's Adiel and Erno watching me hold my breath.
If you're living in (southern) Finland or anywhere else close to Estonia I definitely recommend the Valgerand Adventure Park. You could do it as a weekend trip since Pärnu is less than 200 km away from Tallinn and the road is pretty good. You will not be disappointed!
After a fun and adrenalin filled afternoon we headed back to the city to get dinner. This time we chose a little austrian style restaurant, Edelweis. Our dinner there cost only 2 euros more than our lunch in Hesburger and was substantially better in everyway. Not to mention the cosy surroundings.
After the dinner we came back to the camping place to find this:
Someone had pithed their "tent" or whatever it was very, very close to ours. Way too close. They were also playing music, shooting fireworks etc. (I failed to see the point with the fireworks since it wasn't dark enough to see them anyway). We didn't say anything at that point. We should have. Had we known what they were up to we would've left the place and asked for a refund of our 6 euros. We thought they'd stop and go to sleep eventually. This time the boys
were having trouble getting sleep. It was too loud and too close. Teemu went and talked to them, but it was no good. They said they had booked their "party" a long time ago.
Eventually Erno did fall asleep, but Adiel and I didn't. After 1 am I'd had it. The earplugs were of no help. I went and yelled at them. When I'm deprived of my sleep I am not a charming person at all (if ever, but much less so in this incident). They didn't really care, though, and said they'd be going on all night. I tried to find the phone number to the manager, but didn't find it. I even called the police, but they were too busy or too uninterested. Probably both. Finally Adiel and I decided to try and sleep in the car since it wasn't quite as loud there. Adiel was able to sleep a little in the car. I wasn't. I was up all night reading. There was a really beautiful moonlight too, but I would have preferred sleeping to watching the moon. Live and learn, eh? Live and learn. Obviously the estonians don't go to camping places to sleep. They go there to have a party.
Day 4I was not in a very good mood in the morning. We packed our stuff and only then did I notice something I hadn't seen before. I saw where our noisy neighbours were getting their electricity from. They were still going same as before at 8 am and hadn't stopped all night. They had a long cord going to one of the electric supplies the caravans usually use. After we had packed everything I decided to have my little revenge and went and unplugged them. I wish I had seen it at night, so I could have done it then, when it could have been of more use to us, but it did give me a small consolation, though.
We continued driving to Riga, Latvia. Of all the capitals I've ever been to I'd have to say that Riga has, by far, the best architecture. This is where I wished we had our good camera with us, since our little camera just would not do justice to the amazing buildings they had. Not only was their art nouveau amazing, they had some pretty cool modern architecture as well. The World Heritage status is definitely well earned.
The latvians have a love affair with potatoes and sour cream. No complaints there. We had a nice dinner in the downtown of Riga. Their potato pancakes definitely went down well. Adiel had a tasty pizza, which probably had sour cream in it. Worked! The only nuisance came in the form of wasps since we were dining out in the terrace. After our terrible night we were in need of some luxury so we checked in the Radisson Blu hotel for the next night. They had a really nice family room and Teemu even got some work done, since they had wireless internet connection. I don't know why it is that he always seems to get work when we are on our family holidays. Well luckily it didn't take too much time now. The boys were happy watching the Yogi Bear and I was happy taking a nap.
Day 5
We managed to locate LDS church in Riga. They had latvian and russian meetings and since we don't know latvian any better than russian we decided to go to russian meetings in the afternoon. Luckily they had english translation. We even met a guy who had been on mission in Finland. After the sacrament meeting we continued our journey to Lithuania and arrived in Klaipeda later that evening.
We found a camping place and politely asked them if lithuanians were in a habit of throwing parties at camping areas. They said that there was a train passing near-by that would cause some noise two or three times during the night but other than that it should be quiet. Trains I don't mind, so we stayed. My earplugs worked fine again and the trains did not bother my sleep. Teemu said they did wake him up, though.
Day 6In the morning we got up, had breakfast and headed to the ferry that would take us to
The Curonian Spit. This is why the trip was made in the first place. This is what we came to see. We had noticed that not many people spoke english in Lithuania. If someone had asked me before our trip to make a list of all the countries where german was spoken, I doubt that Lithuania would have made the list. However, some people seemed to know german quite well. So I was able to make some good of the german lessons I'd had in school. We looked around at first for a bit and then rented bicycles. It's funny that I could not remember the word for bicycle in german even though I studied german for five years. On the other hand I do know the word for a bicycle in italian and yet I've never studied italian.
We were in luck and were able to rent the bicycles in english. We had planned to bike along the Curonian Spit to have a better look at it. It was beatiful! Right after we had payed for the bikes the weather changed very rapidly and it started pouring rain. Not very promising. We went to our car to wait for the rain to stop and get some dry clothes. We didn't have to wait long and the journey continued. Along the way there were some great dunes. I just loved this view. The sky, the sea, the shrubbery and the sand. Perfect. Although I'm not much of an artist, I felt like I wanted to paint it.
Well, the whole Curonian Spit is practically just one big sand dune, but sometimes it was hard to believe. In the evening we found an inn in the village of Preila. We had some dinner and they even had a room available so we stayed there for the night.
Day 7In the morning we started heading back, but stopped in the nearby village of Pervalka for breakfast first. They had some very yummy pancakes.
This is also where Adiel fell in love with 7Up. He thought it was much better than Sprite. So we decided to stock pile on 7Up before leaving Lithuania, because they don't sell 7Up that much in Finland for some reason.
How cool would it be to live in a place like this? In houses like these?
The Pervalka village:
On our way we even saw a caterpillar being attacked by ants. I tried to help the caterpillar, but I think the ants still managed to get him for dinner.
This day was hot and sunny so we decided to stop at the beach and go swimming. The boys enjoyed the waves. They were not quite as big as the ones in Sydney, but still something you'll never see in Finland.
After the beach we pedaled back to the Juodkrante village and returned the bicycles. We then drove to the village of Smiltyne where the Lithuanian Sea museum was. We were not sure what the museum would be like, but Erno was very eager to visit it. It turned out to be really good one. They had aquariums and even seals and sea lions. They also had a show with californian sea lions.
This little fellow was not part of the show and did not seem to have a clue of what was going on.
These were so adorable!
This one was just
HUGE!
After the sea museum we took the ferry back to Klaipeda and ate in a really nice local restaurant. The lithuanians seem to share their latvian neighbours' love for potatos and sour cream. The menu had a whole section for potato dishes. The finnish family we had met earlier in Pärnu had recommended for us to try the deep fried potato dumplings filled with minced meat. We did and it was tasty. They had four different sauces to go with it. All included sour cream.
We spent the night at the same camping place close to the train track as before.
Day 8Having breakfast
The day was cloudy and rainy. The perfect weather for a long(ish) drive back to Estonia. At least we hoped to get back to Estonia on that day. Somewhere around Latvia we heard the car making a sound that sounded like a flat tire. We stopped the car and checked the tires. They were all fine. Or so we thought. We continued and there it was again. We stopped again and tried to see what was making the sound. We couldn't figure it out.
We saw a petrol station close and drove there so we could further inspect the situation. There were two truck drivers and we asked them to help. Together with them we found out that one of the back tires was very wiggly. The way it should not be. The truck drivers said they had to go back to work and left us wondering how we'd get a tow truck. The lady at the petrol station did not speak any english. Teemu drew her a picture of a tow truck and she gave us a phone number. That was all the assist she was gonna give us. I called the number and asked if they spoke english. Clearly they didn't, since they hung up. I saw a car come to the petrol station and two young men came out. I asked them if they spoke english and they did! I asked them if they'd kindly call the number and get a tow truck for us. They did and after a twenty minutes or so, a tow truck came.
He drove us to a garage in Saldus. There was a guy who spoke very little english and very good german. After the job was done we faced another minor problem. They'd not accept credit cards and we did not have enough cash in any currency. However, we were finally able to pay them in three different currencies. That way we were able to get rid of our last litas that we still had.
By the time we were able to continue the journey it was clear that we would not make it to Estonia that night. So another night in the Radisson Blu in Riga it was. Just not the same Radisson Blu than last time, but it was still a good hotel. For dinner we just got some kebab. It was too late to get anything that would take too long. Mc Donald's restaurants are refreshingly few in Latvia and Lithuania so Teemu and I were saved from eating there almost the entire trip.
Day 9After breakfast we continued the journey on towards Tallinn. As much I would've loved to stay in Riga and admire the buildings a bit longer I knew it was best to move on. It was a very hot day so we made a short stop for swimming close to the border on the estonian side. The break was cut very short by the nasty horseflies that bit me even through my swimsuit! Now
how is that possible?!
We reached Tallinn and were eager to try another one of their great restaurants. We tried the Maharaja, an indian place. We were a tad disappointed with it, since the food was okay, but not the best indian food I've ever had. Adiel didn't like it at all and Erno didn't finish his either. It was also very pricy so not very good value for the money. Well, I suppose I had to find a restaurant that I didn't like in Estonia sooner or later. We stayed in a very cheap hostel in Maardu, close to Tallinn. Only 26 euros. The hostel was surprisingly good and clean and even quiet.
Day 10In the morning I had a fish pedicure that I'd longed to have ever since I heard of such a thing. It was an interesting experience. Especially in the beginning when the fish fiercly attacked my foot as soon as it touched the water so I quickly pulled it out. I recovered from the shock soon enough and did put both of my feet in the water. The fishes nibbling my foot were quite ticklish, but I did get used to it after few minutes.
After the pedicure Teemu and the kids came to pick me up with some lunch from the maccas (so we were not spared from it entirely) and it was time to get to the ferry that would take us back to Helsinki.
At home there was a pleasant surprise for me in the form of George R.R. Martins latest book and even for the kids in the form of two issues of Donald Duck.
