The Long Road to Tartu

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Today I woke up when Eero's mum walked into the room where we were sleeping. Not being able to speak Estonian and she not speaking English we stood and waited for Eero to call and explain why we were there.

We spent the morning packing up our stuff and tidying up a little. Eero came round and helped us pick out a cheap hotel for parnu, which if everything goes ok we should be there tommorow evening.

Rob and I caught our now familiar bus no.6 into town and then jumped on a tram to kadriorg which is the park in which Peter the great used to live. It's a beautiful park with fountains and little pathways leading around it. Also it had a long path down to the beach which has a large statue dedicated to those who were lost when a ship, the Rushka, sank near Sweeden. We walked to the shop and bought some food to eat by the duck pond.

Eero had planned to go to the aircraft museum near Tartu with his two sons Uku and Iko on Sunday. He decided to travel to their country house that evening and go from there to Tartu.

He met us at the park where we had been playing several games of cards waiting for him. From tallinn we set off for the witch's well; a well supplied by underground rivers which overflows from time to time after heavy rains.

Further along the road we stopped at some ruins of a castle which had been burned down by the soviets at sometime and the main keep had been restored. After we went for a walk around the accompanying town of Paide. This was a town with very old buildings and an impressive church.

From there we stopped at a shop, pood - shop in Estonian, here we got supplies to take us the rest of the journey as no eateries were open. We picked up some icecreams from the shop, a very regular occurance with Eero.

After driving a further 50km we arrived in Poltsamaa and at his country house. There his family were awake expecting our arrival despite the late hour. Their house is a small 4 roomed building with basic facilities, don't want to mention the toilet, but how welcomed we felt more than made up for it.

Both his sons had fluent english which was remarkable for their age. We got something to eat and then set up a tent in the garden carefully avoiding the path of falling apples from one of many apple trees. Once we had enjoyed several off the plums from the plum tree we got to bed.

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