Wet walk
Not all forest walks are created equal. Leaving Tallinn to head for Estonia’s second city, Tartu, we stopped en route at Soomaa National Park, a land of rivers and bogs. In spite of the heavy clouds we decided on two walks, and started with the forest walk along the banks of a river where beavers and otters live. It was a festival of fun: muddy trail, lots of roots, why did we wear our town jeans today, oh look it’s raining, overgrown path, is that a mosquito, no it’s lots of mosquitoes, wet vegetation, wet legs, wet shoes, okay so we’re half way, oh no we’re not even half way, getting hungry, more mud, why didn’t we bring food, dripping trees, tiny bees, tiny bees everywhere, how many mossie bites, finally back to the car. Yuck.
Soomaa bog
On the way on to Tartu we stopped in the town of Vijandi, for a drink in a lovely looking cafe/restaurant and a ramble around their Teutonic castle ruins. Sssssh… don’t tell anyone, but Vijandi seems much more charming and interesting than Tartu!
We’re stopping overnight in a fairly straightforward hotel in the middle of town, and Tartu looks to be a provincial little city with a small central area of nice old buildings. In an effort to rekindle our Tellesviki-love we walked out across town to Tartu’s little creative quarter, the Widget Factory (Aparaathus). But it seems to be a lot earlier in its development, was much quieter, although we did have a decent bite to eat at Aparaat.
Viljandi castle
Related Images: