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15 years ago
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The rest of it
Kalana
Ristna Surf Paradise
Grandma left on Sunday and as my parents took her to the airport we had the house to ourselves. Took immediate advantage of that and arranged our own local festival. Well to be quite honest we had already planned it beforehand - so Kairit, Peep and Johannes came round with some instruments and an amp in the boot and the jam could start. After a while Jaanus rolled a big empty barrel to the scene and showed superb skills as a drummer. We had a great time and decided to make it public next year inviting the Rolling Stones and alike, ideally lasting for a week. We'll see what my parents think of it.
Then on Monday for the last leg of the holiday - to Hiiumaa. As usual it took us the whole day to get there as I needed to see a dentist in Tallinn and Robert had some errands. Luckily the kids could play with Beatrice's friend Leena during that time. We hadn't known about the massive roadworks and got on the ferry just in time, like a minute before it was due to leave.
For those of you who don't know it already - in my view Kalana on the Kopu peninsula in the very west of Hiiumaa is the most beautiful spot on Earth. It is still so quiet that the sea can talk to you if you have time to listen. Also the weather there seems to be better than in the rest of Estonia. We had a beautiful first day and were able to swim in the sea again. There was nobody apart from us on the beach as usual. A total luxury compared to anything here in or near Singapore. We just had a few relaxing days on the beaches, walking in the forest, picking blueberries. It is so nice because there are quite different beaches - quiet and sandy on the north coast, more windy on the south where we stay and fabulous surfing waves on the western tip. And the light soft pine forests are the best. (Now back on the treadmill I long for the runs by the sea and on the soft forest ground.)
Couldn't quite escape the world out there though as there is a TV now in Luguse and had to watch a bit of the Olympics and Georgia of course. Very very worring.
Had some good games of hide-and-seek with the kids (Raoul is very good but Karl cannot stay quiet when hiding and then goes on to betraying all the others). A novelty also for us - the travelling supermarket that comes twice a week with basics like icecream etc. That is a good opportunity to meet the other people from the village. Beatrice was keen to join Robert's aunt in a stone-painting session. (But we nearly lost her work at the airport because it turnes out you cannot have stones in handluggage. Luckily my parents were still there and we could deposit the stones with them.)
On Friday on the way back to my parents place the kids and Robert had a swim in lake Viitna that is on the way. I was a chicken yet again. Much preferred the sauna when we got back.
And that was it. Back to Singapore via Amsterdam.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
We spent a day in Tallinn with both grandmas - went out for a nice lunch, then off to Kadriorg where we split into 2 groups. Mana took the kids to the new playpark and the rest of us did a tour in the Art Museum. We had been there last year with the children and thatswhy there were still so many surprizes - all the pictures that we had missed while chasing after the monsters. So definitely much more worthwhile this time! Afterwords had a little stroll around the old town which in the summertime is not really a very genuine place. Just masses of tourists and businesses catering to them. Selling thick woolen jumpers (for the very cautious ones even when it is + 25 outside) and the "traditional" estonian amber (that actually comes from Lithuantia as there is no amber in Estonia whatsoever). Can't even think of sitting down for a drink when the prices are double of just a few hundred meters outside. Also too many attractions or should I say distractions for the boys. So I had to listen to different requests the whole time a la "I want to go on the bicycle" "I want to go on the train". So glad to get out. But I shouldn't write all this since I want to see you coming over there! Well it is still a gem, just not very hidden anymore.
On Saturday we were thinking of going to another music festival - this time in Kasmu on the north coast not far from my parents place. Kasmu is a very nice village and it was very tempting but then the weather didn't look too promising and the thought of possibly spending the day under umbrellas at an openair concert didn't seem too attractive. So we took a drive around instead and discovered and old castle in Toolse complete with a pirate ship. Just outside on the sea there were at least a hundred swans that made for fabulous sights especially when the sky turned dark before the rain. Then we had a fantastic lunch in one of the oldest country pubs, another go at the mushrooms and finished the day with a good proper sauna at home. (Still the best spa that I know.)
Monday, August 25, 2008
Estonia Part 2
Robert managed to get 2 weeks off work so he joined us for the second half of the holiday. His mum also arrived 1 day later with rainstorms from Sweden. That's when the summer seemed to have ended - it was cold and poured down with non stop rain. Luckily in Rakvere like in every proper Estonian town these days they have opened a new water-centre and spa. We had already been there with the kids once before and now had a good option to spend an otherwise miserable day. Heli was reluctant at first and planned to sit and do her crosswords but luckily I managed to persuade her to bring the bathers anyway and of course she joined in when she saw it. The building has a nice nordic design and good layout. All the different pools are quite close to each other and the scale is not so huge that you would constantly loose some of the children. There is something for everyone - splash for babies, bubbles for grandmas, ocean waves for the adventureous and the big black tube for the fearless. Raoul had tryed to persuade me to go in it already the first time but I was too scared. So this time he went with Robert but he had overestimated his braveness and came out quite scared.
There is a huge sauna complex with something like 10 different kinds of saunas and we tryed them all. So all the kids are sauna experts now. (Funnily now after we came back they discovered the steam sauna here on the condo for the first time and insist on going in there. I have resisted so far.)
And of course there is a pirat themed cafe at the exit and of course you cannot miss it with 3 aspiring pirates after a 3-hour swim.
Later on the weather turned a little better so we had a tour of the area the next day - manor houses, old fishing village etc. The absolute highlight was our incredible mushroom-picking. We just stopped in the middle of a forest that to me looked like a place where there could be mushrooms and a few meters from the road stumbled over loads and loads. I don't know what they are called in English (pilvikud in Estonian), but they are edible and tasty. I have never seen so huge ones of that type that are so fresh and uneaten by worms. It took us maybe 15 minutes to fill a big basket and more. The mushrooms with fresh potatoes fed 10 of us and another 2 portions were left over. We had a repeat of that a few days later. All kids were so excited and became really skilled in finding them as well. At dinner time Raoul had finished his plate and asked for more "can I have some more of that fish please". Well - main thing is it tasted good.
There were also masses of wild blueberries but we were so occupied with the mushrooms that we didn't even start to pick those. Just enough so that everyone had a nice blue tongue.
There is a huge sauna complex with something like 10 different kinds of saunas and we tryed them all. So all the kids are sauna experts now. (Funnily now after we came back they discovered the steam sauna here on the condo for the first time and insist on going in there. I have resisted so far.)
And of course there is a pirat themed cafe at the exit and of course you cannot miss it with 3 aspiring pirates after a 3-hour swim.
Later on the weather turned a little better so we had a tour of the area the next day - manor houses, old fishing village etc. The absolute highlight was our incredible mushroom-picking. We just stopped in the middle of a forest that to me looked like a place where there could be mushrooms and a few meters from the road stumbled over loads and loads. I don't know what they are called in English (pilvikud in Estonian), but they are edible and tasty. I have never seen so huge ones of that type that are so fresh and uneaten by worms. It took us maybe 15 minutes to fill a big basket and more. The mushrooms with fresh potatoes fed 10 of us and another 2 portions were left over. We had a repeat of that a few days later. All kids were so excited and became really skilled in finding them as well. At dinner time Raoul had finished his plate and asked for more "can I have some more of that fish please". Well - main thing is it tasted good.
There were also masses of wild blueberries but we were so occupied with the mushrooms that we didn't even start to pick those. Just enough so that everyone had a nice blue tongue.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Sorry sorry sorry!!!
As was to be expected our 4 weeks in exotic Estonia were non-bloggerfriendly so there is a big gap to fill. Hopefully you all haven't given up checking in!
As I flew alone with the children the trip was quite interesting. Probably the hardest part being the wait in Amsterdam. We had something like 6 hours between the flights and it was no fun after a 12.5 hour flight from Singapore in economy class. Surprisingly for such a big airport Schippol has very limited facilities to entertain travelling kids. The playroom is boring and shabby and nobody wants to spend more than 15 min in there, so that left us with 5 h 45 min to go. Well, eventually we got there.
Estonia greeted us with lovely cool weather - such a bliss after these hot months in Singapore. After a few days the summer arrived though and we went to the beach. The sea was too cold for me but the children were in the water in no time inspite of their colds. Anyway, I did underestimate the sun and didn't use enough sunblocker so I got a sunburn. Dad couldn't stop teasing me about it - a person comes from the tropics pale as a swan and burns herself here in the north!
It took us a while getting over jetlag, especially Raoul had a hard time and was up 4.30 every morning for the first week. The Estonian TV apparently caters for jetlagged children as their kids program runs from 6 to 8 am. So that came in handy and I could go running before the farmers started racing up and down the dusty country lanes with their tractors. By the end of week 2 everybody had adjusted to the local time so well that they missed the kids program every morning.
I think the children enjoyed their time in Estonia a lot and proved their genetic identity very well. They spent a lot of time "helping" Jaanus to build his exciting new house that I can't even start to describe. Will have to wait for a photo! I hope he still has all his tools. Also Raoul enjoyed driving grandpa's old car that he called very cleverly "vana-aeglane auto" - combining two words - oldtimer and slow! Beatrice showed her best side doing all the family's share of work so I could just relax while she was helping Mana to pick tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes etc or helping Manass carry logs. Raoul also had a daily routine of getting the newspaper from the mailbox up the road that he transported in Beatrice's old doll pram. He even tryed cutting the hay. So clearly Raoul showed big potential for taking over the farm one day. Karl loves the animals and spent lots of time with the neighbor's old dog Pantu who has moved to my parent's place permanently now. He is so old and smelly that nobody apart from the children even wants to stroke him anymore so I guess he enjoyed the attention and the occasional feast of a saucage. Sophie the cat is shy and avoided us for the first few days. Boys play is still too wild for her. However one morning Raoul walked in with one of her trophys - a halfeaten dead mouse in his hand declaring that he found a bird.
All the kids started to enjoy the sauna and sat nicely on the lower bench. Another important event was burning hay at Kart's summerhouse. It was quite magical - the dry hay went up in sparks like a volcano with the sun setting in the background. All by themselves the kids learned to build nests in hay. That for me was such an enlightening moment. Building nests of freshly dryed hay should be a "must-do" activity of everyone's childhood. And I don't know if there is another place apart from Estonia where my children could do that.
Beatrice and I got to enjoy the proper Estonian summer of music festivals as well. On Margit's initiative we went to Viljandi folk for one day and that turned out to be such a hit. It has been running for many years now but I have never made my way there assuming that the crowd would be very alternative and not my cup of tea. Either my assumption was wrong or it has changed but it was very nice and normal. Just lots of kind and beautiful people enjoying interesting and good music. The choice of concerts was too big so we trusted Peep (my cousin's husband and Karl's godfather) the musician. He chose very well. So we heard a trio from Russia who played interesting music from all over the world giving it a russian touch with balalaika etc. And the of course Vagilased - an estonian band who gives old traditional tunes and songs a modern rocky twist. They seem to be especially popular with the Viljandi folk crowds so there was a lot of dancing and singing along. Inbetween the concerts some of us had a swim in the lake. So it was really a nice day just hanging around there. And of course always a good place to find some long lost friends with their new offspring.
We were quite lucky with timing this year as many friends and relatives happened to be there as well. Robert's younger sister Aime and partner Johannes were touring Estonia and camped at our place for a night. (Successfully ignoring the wake-up committee with drums etc at 8 am.) We went to the Rocca al Mare open air museum with Kristel and her kids and had a good runaround and tested all the huge swings there. Also managed to see Mart, Nele and Joel off to Berlin. And of course I managed to see at least some of my dear old friends. If sadly by far not all.
There is plenty more to write, so I'll catch up soon.
As I flew alone with the children the trip was quite interesting. Probably the hardest part being the wait in Amsterdam. We had something like 6 hours between the flights and it was no fun after a 12.5 hour flight from Singapore in economy class. Surprisingly for such a big airport Schippol has very limited facilities to entertain travelling kids. The playroom is boring and shabby and nobody wants to spend more than 15 min in there, so that left us with 5 h 45 min to go. Well, eventually we got there.
Estonia greeted us with lovely cool weather - such a bliss after these hot months in Singapore. After a few days the summer arrived though and we went to the beach. The sea was too cold for me but the children were in the water in no time inspite of their colds. Anyway, I did underestimate the sun and didn't use enough sunblocker so I got a sunburn. Dad couldn't stop teasing me about it - a person comes from the tropics pale as a swan and burns herself here in the north!
It took us a while getting over jetlag, especially Raoul had a hard time and was up 4.30 every morning for the first week. The Estonian TV apparently caters for jetlagged children as their kids program runs from 6 to 8 am. So that came in handy and I could go running before the farmers started racing up and down the dusty country lanes with their tractors. By the end of week 2 everybody had adjusted to the local time so well that they missed the kids program every morning.
I think the children enjoyed their time in Estonia a lot and proved their genetic identity very well. They spent a lot of time "helping" Jaanus to build his exciting new house that I can't even start to describe. Will have to wait for a photo! I hope he still has all his tools. Also Raoul enjoyed driving grandpa's old car that he called very cleverly "vana-aeglane auto" - combining two words - oldtimer and slow! Beatrice showed her best side doing all the family's share of work so I could just relax while she was helping Mana to pick tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes etc or helping Manass carry logs. Raoul also had a daily routine of getting the newspaper from the mailbox up the road that he transported in Beatrice's old doll pram. He even tryed cutting the hay. So clearly Raoul showed big potential for taking over the farm one day. Karl loves the animals and spent lots of time with the neighbor's old dog Pantu who has moved to my parent's place permanently now. He is so old and smelly that nobody apart from the children even wants to stroke him anymore so I guess he enjoyed the attention and the occasional feast of a saucage. Sophie the cat is shy and avoided us for the first few days. Boys play is still too wild for her. However one morning Raoul walked in with one of her trophys - a halfeaten dead mouse in his hand declaring that he found a bird.
All the kids started to enjoy the sauna and sat nicely on the lower bench. Another important event was burning hay at Kart's summerhouse. It was quite magical - the dry hay went up in sparks like a volcano with the sun setting in the background. All by themselves the kids learned to build nests in hay. That for me was such an enlightening moment. Building nests of freshly dryed hay should be a "must-do" activity of everyone's childhood. And I don't know if there is another place apart from Estonia where my children could do that.
Beatrice and I got to enjoy the proper Estonian summer of music festivals as well. On Margit's initiative we went to Viljandi folk for one day and that turned out to be such a hit. It has been running for many years now but I have never made my way there assuming that the crowd would be very alternative and not my cup of tea. Either my assumption was wrong or it has changed but it was very nice and normal. Just lots of kind and beautiful people enjoying interesting and good music. The choice of concerts was too big so we trusted Peep (my cousin's husband and Karl's godfather) the musician. He chose very well. So we heard a trio from Russia who played interesting music from all over the world giving it a russian touch with balalaika etc. And the of course Vagilased - an estonian band who gives old traditional tunes and songs a modern rocky twist. They seem to be especially popular with the Viljandi folk crowds so there was a lot of dancing and singing along. Inbetween the concerts some of us had a swim in the lake. So it was really a nice day just hanging around there. And of course always a good place to find some long lost friends with their new offspring.
We were quite lucky with timing this year as many friends and relatives happened to be there as well. Robert's younger sister Aime and partner Johannes were touring Estonia and camped at our place for a night. (Successfully ignoring the wake-up committee with drums etc at 8 am.) We went to the Rocca al Mare open air museum with Kristel and her kids and had a good runaround and tested all the huge swings there. Also managed to see Mart, Nele and Joel off to Berlin. And of course I managed to see at least some of my dear old friends. If sadly by far not all.
There is plenty more to write, so I'll catch up soon.
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