EVS in Estonia

It is very very popular, and extremely easy for people to visit Helsinki, and spend the weekend in Finland, when you live in Tallinn. Vice Versa, Finnish people have always fancied comming to Tallinn where alcohol is cheaper. But the links between the two countries go further than just this commercial relationship. The’ve shared close links during History and both have a very similar language. We therefore HAD to check out how close it was to the other side of the Baltic and see the finnish other than singing loudly in the streets.

What a great country ! Many have told us how cold and strict Helsinki can seem to the traveler, but on the contrary, we were enchanted by our stay and regreted it was so short to see everything ! The blue sky and sunshine helped for that I’m sure, but the finnish people we talked to (and believe me we spoke to all those we could catch!) were extremely helpful, getting out of their way to show us where things were, how the machine worked our even to find things we’d forgotten in the bus. Many would have just pointed in a direction and nodded at us, with a “good luck” in their eyes. Not here.

Appart from the people, the city itself is nice, not amasingly decorated, but charming, the imposing architecture constrasted by soft pastel colors. We visited most of the churches there were to see, tasted the reindeer sandwiches of course, the smoked salmon, when I think about it, we ate most of the time !

We did manage to get out of Helsinki to discover a smaller city on the coast called Porvoo. Its old town on the top of a small hill overlooks a peacefull river in which the red houses reflect in. Outside of town, lies a great expanse of wetlands, where birds like to nest. With the winter light and the first frosts, this scenery was quite something. It was worth the walk !
There too people were just adorable, a lady in a restaurant (I told you we ate all the time!) asked all her staff and found a brochure (in french!) to try and answer the simple question “by the way, what is this museum about ?”

As I said, it was too short to see finland in just two days, but it’ll be a good excuse to go back one day !

With a small group of people from our church friends and a musician family from Kuusalu, a few miles away, we practised some songs and played some tunes in a hospital, which was more like a retirement home with medical care. Though our audience was not very big, it was good for us to come sing and play music to them, for it brought a little entertainment in their dull looking day. Some were halfway asleep, others had sparkling eyes, but all clapped and thanked us warmly for coming to see them. I played some Irish tunes which was something they hadn’t heard much before, and when they announced that we had come from FRance, they were suprised and a lady even thanked us with a cute “Merci” at the end…

Last Monday, at 8PM, on the national television chanel (ETV) they projected the show which they had recorded last august It was presented by this charismatic speaker (yes, the one with the moustach, the hat and two figers pointing for an unknown reason to the sky!). Though the Osoon show in itself is quite good to learn about what is happening concerning the environment, culture or style of life in Estonia, the speaker, at least from the very little we understand does not really talk or present the different reports, but goes on about philosophical questions. This time, he did the whole show with his cat, walking in the forest with it on a leash, patting it and saying that “cat” was named “chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat” in French (said in a very estonian way).
Otherwise, we loved what they showed of us and the reserve. Mirjam, the journalist, managed to sum up the main ideas of what we said in a day in just 10 minutes. Just enough for us to try and put it on our blog. I’m saying “try” because the quality is really bad, for we were filming our own TV, and we don’t receive very well. Anyway, until we receive the copy of the show on DVD, which we hope we’ll get. This is what we have.

This last weekend we hoped in our colleagues car, and drove to the Island of Saaremaa, on the west estonian coast. I thought we’d have to catch a ferry from Haapsalu or even Tallinn, which has one of the greatest ports of call in the country, but actually, the harbour which we left from was in Virstu, a small village, on the coast, between Haapsalu and Pärnu. Historically, it has been an strategic place, for it is extremely close to the Island of Muhu, itself, connected by a road to Saaremaa. In soviet times, one used to have to show his passport and have a good reason to go to Saaremaa (tourism was not a valid one).

The Ferry opened its great jaws of iron and swalowed the car, the adventure could start, we were finally going to visit Saaremaa, which we had been waiting for some time. Adventure we wanted adventure we had. Just a few moments after landing on Muhu, Merle, which was or official co-pilot for this trip, told us to get on a dirt road, and called it a “shortcut”. We followed it for what seemed hours, and found ourselves on shorter and unexplored trails, in the middle of the forest. When it had finally become impossible to continue any further, we finally turned back, hoping the car wouldn’t get stuck in the numerous mud holes.

The rest of our trip went more smoothly. Our two colleagues did a good job, taking us on many “shortcuts” in Saaremaa’s country roads, which enabled us to see and visit many small villages, with traditional houses, off the beaten tracks, where life would seem to freeze when our car passed slowly through, all eyes starring at us. TIme just didn’t exist here. Apart from the countryside, we saw some cliffs, north of the island, overlooking the Baltic sea. There was nobody exept us, no wind, a perfect blue sky, enough to let our minds wander past the horizon.

Autumn is an ideal season to visit Saaremaa, for all the highly visited areas in summer are just empty in fall. In Kaali, the 8th meteorite crater in the world, which is also a famous spot on the island, was deserted and left for ourselves and a little squirrel, wandering what we were doing in his territory.

I could go on for ages, but we do recommend Saaremaa, its a peaceful place to go to, you just have to know when to come and where to go, to escape the crowds… Thanks to our guides for showing us !

Here it is, after the long days of summer, the bustling around, the frenzy for hikes in estonia’s beautiful nature, the song and dance festivals all across the country, this is autumn already. If the trees have adopted their new orange and yellow clothing pretty unanimously, estonians, on the contrary, seem to hesitate on wearing thick winter jackets, or a simple T-shirt. It’s a very strange site, to see people walking next to each other, one wearing leather boots and fur coat, the other still in shorts and wearing sunglasses. It can be hard, to finally accept that the days are getting shorter, and that darkness is creaping slowly, but as the temperatures are still fine, it has been an absolute delight, to wander in the forest, kiking leaves as we go, watching them float gently in the air, before being carried away in a stream. I love autumn, it’s a romantic season. It anounces the coming end of our volunteering, in just a couple of months, but Estonia is so gorgeous at this time, that I’m grateful to be here still to admire its beauties.

Last Saturday, it was one of the most beautiful day we’ve had this fall. The perfect day for a wedding. We had rehersed some songs with Silja and Kaiman, our estonian friends, and were to sing “In this Heart” by Sinead O’Connor, with 4 different voices. The result was not so bad, you’ll be able to hear it on the video…

I had already played a tune on my Irish Tin Whistle for a wedding in August, but Amélie hadn’t been there and this was her first time. It was a pretty wedding, as they usually are, but though people were glad, they were not over-happy as you could expect, the estonian flegm I guess.

We really loved being part of the ceremony, and to be asked to play was an honnor.

About a week ago, we decided we were through with staying inside. It can be colder, darker, humid outside, one just becomes crazy locked up for a long time. We hitch-hiked to Tallinn, with an interesting russian kite-surfer, which told us without laughing, that he was going surfing, on a rainy and cold day (on the baltic ! important detail to mention !) you would have to pay me to go there with him that day. We then got a bus, which brought us to Rakvere, a medium sized town, which is famous for its meat, and its castle.
We headed for the castle, after some wandering in the streets of Rakvere (we were loking for the train station, a bad idea, only 2 trains a day) it was impressive on the top of the hill, overlooking the town. It was mostly in ruins, but inside, many animations were taking place and we spent quite some time there, with the castle almost only for ourselves !
We headed back to Tallinn at the end of the day, to meet with other volunteers, but our day in Rakvere was memorable and a good opportunity to go out for an afternoon.