Wow, what a day!
We jumped on a day tour to Lahemaa National Park today, which is a large coastal national park located outside Tallinn. The tour was run from another one of the local hostels. Besides Alex and myself, there were three girls from Spain, a Dutch girl, a Canadian guy living in Switzerland, our guide Maku, and a friend of Maku’s who’d recently returned from Thailand.
The nine of us jumped in a van after breakfast this morning, once Maku had wiped off the egg from the windshield. Apparently, some people have taken exception to his habit of parking in
questionably-legal spots, and have made their displeasure known. Anyway, after a fuel stop where they sold double-barrel hot dogs and where we got to see the “tourist attraction” of a belligerent junkie yelling at the gas station staff, we hit the road.
Niagara Falls, this ain’t
Our first stop was the Jagala Waterfall, a small little waterfall that is billed as one of Estonia’s highest, despite being no bigger than a speed bump. Niagara Falls, this ain’t. On the other hand, the falls were small enough that you could walk all the way behind and above them.
Actually, Estonia is quite a flat country. There are some small hills in the south, but the north makes for ideal cycling territory. (Not incidentally, all this lovely flat terrain has also made Estonia far too easy for its neighbours to invade multiple times over its history.)
Gone swimming in the bog
You heard that right. After the waterfall, we entered the park proper for a walk through the forest. That particular section of the national park had tall pine trees and was made up of marshlands and bogs, covered by a boardwalk path for walking. Some of the bogs were quite pretty.
And yes, we went swimming in one of them, which made for an interesting experience as the mud made our skin look orange, sort of like a bad spray tan in a can. The water was warm, though, and the swim felt really good.
Lunch and some manor homes
We had lunch at a small local restaurant in the park, where a few euros got us enormous plates of locally-cooked fare: Meat, potatoes, vegetables, you name it. All of it was excellent. The wasps seemed to think so, too; we were forced to eat indoors to escape their swarms. On the other hand, the area outside the restaurant had an enormous wooden swing that you could stand three or four people to a side. Apparently it’s quite popular among Estonian children… and tourist adults like ourselves.
Many large manor homes dating from the period of German imperialism have survived or been restored. We went to visit one of them after lunch, taking photos of the lavish exteriors, the gardens and grounds, and even the distillery so that the local lords and ladies could have their vodka. No expense would have been spared at the time.
Folk music by the beach
Next, one of the coolest things to happen on this trip: We were meant to finish up the day with a quick visit to the coast before heading back to Tallinn. Instead, as it just so happened, there was an enormous local folk festival, Viru Folk, taking place this weekend inside the National Park, right in that spot.
Well, hey, don’t mind if I do.
The tickets to actually see the bands perform were quite expensive. So we opted instead to simply walk around the festival grounds. There were a few free concerts, which we watched a bit. There were also some local folk musicians just busking or playing randomly in the road.
More importantly, there were hundreds and hundreds of people, all of whom looked local, so the people-watching was fantastic. There were craft beers, which we quite enjoyed. There were market stall merchants selling all the usual kinds of trinkets and a few unusual ones for good measure. And most of all, there was food. Oh, was there ever food. So, so much food. Of every palate, cuisine and flavour.
And at the end of the festival grounds, there was a fantastic beach, right on the Baltic Sea. The water was warm and inviting — Alex and a few others went swimming, but my swimsuit was still wet from the bog so I opted to just dip my toes. As we sat on the beach, listened to the live folk music behind us, breathed in the fresh national park air, it was impossible not to reflect on just how it don’t get much better than this.