Tartu

A university city in the interior. While Tallinn is the political and the financial capitol , Tartu is the intellectual and cultural center. The Livonian Knights took over the settlement in the 13th century during their northern crusades. Tartu also became a city of the Hanseatic League, a multinational merchant association. Later on a Polish Lithuanian alliance took over followed by the Swedish. Eventually imperial Russia took control. Afterwards the usual Nazi and Communist story laid their mark.

We arrived after spending some time in Viljandi, a city west of Tartu. A nice lake shore town with a lot of old people because everybody with ambitions goes to Tallinn or Tartu.

In Tartu we took a short stroll through the old town, which was OK. Brick buildings dominate while the wooden houses are only visible in the outskirts. We ate at an gunpowder cellar which was built by order of Cathrine the Great. It boasts a Guinness record of having the highest pub ceiling in the world (11m). After drinking some beers - even my mother drank a bit - we were tired and retired early. Next day we were off to Latvia and drove through the beautiful landscape which is populated only very sporadic. Bison's, bears and deers still roam this area. But we only saw some deers and a lot of stork nests. An ancient believe is that if a stork decides to nest next to somebodies house, they will have more luck at getting children. So every house has an elevated platform ready for a stork looking for property.

Pärnu

Pärnu is unsurprisingly on the Pärnu Bay. The cold wind blows in from the frozen sea upon the beach. Only a few people are around and everybody is thinking about getting somewhere else. The view is quite nice, but the chill is just to much. The city itself is mostly built with wooden houses. Some of them two stories high. Even some churches are wooden. They also have a modern mall. Restaurants are running in low gear since the high season is still to come. Our hotel had the atmosphere of a hospital.

The cold weather reflects in the characters that get bread here. Everybody is rather reserved and take a close look a foreigners. Even the receptionist looked a little surprised. Old soviet style sanatoriums line the beach and a newly built modern spa resort at the end of the beach. Next day we headed inland in the hope to avoid the cold Bries.

Haapsalu

This seaside resort on the west coast of Estonia is famous for curative mud and is where Estonians go to during summer to hang out at the beach.

When we passed through here, there was snow on the beach and people were ice fishing.

I was still struggling with my blister and broke through the ice once. My dad was freezing as well. We just stopped for the day and then moved on. But we took a look at the old castle that dominates the town.

A legend goes that a priest fell in love with a young girl. He gave her boys clothes to be able to take her into the castle. But one day she was discovered and dumped alive between two newly erected walls. During full moon nights in August, according to the legend, you can see her shade shimmering through. That's why each year there is a small fair in her honor.

Warm soup, gas pedal....

Tallinn

The capitol city of Estonia is the most northern place in Europe where you can find beer at a reasonable price.

So it is the logic point of entry for a backpacker visiting New Europe from the top down. Is was the beginning of Summer and the weather was still very chilly. The salt water in the bay area was frozen.The imperfect setting to meet my parents for the first time in 28 months. We unspectacularly met at the airport and checked into a prebooked apartment my father had organized. He had planned the whole itinerary for the 2 coming weeks and booked all accommodation in advance. We also had a car which made us independent of bus schedules or slow trains. So I just laid back for the journey to come and enjoyed the show. Tallinn is a typical medieval with a turbulent history.

During the Northern Crusades Tallinn was under Danish rule and later on under Teutonic Knights. The ladder have laid their mark on all Eastern European countries at some point in time. They built castles and spread the word of god with weapons.

More recently they were occupied by the Nazis and later by the communists. 1991 they reemerged from darkness and became a member of the EU, NATO and the capitalist world.

We walked around town a lot, stumbled up some old churches, checked out a museum, ate at delicious medieval restaurants, and drank the local spirits. It was nice to see my parents again and we had a lot to catch on. Generally I think that they haven't changed and I also feel the same before I left.