Day 21 - Travel, Laughs and Muhu

​Today started off very slow as we were up in the 4th floor and once mum went down I don’t think she was going to go back up. So we took our time, I was catching up on writing blogs and working on some other big surprises for Estonian Designs AU and really just taking it slow. Once we got ourselves moving we headed into Haapsalu but first of course, we got lost finding the castle. This was the first laugh, how on earth do you lose a castle? Well we did! Thankfully Lekso, my nephew, wanted to call us so we pulled over and as we were talking with him we re-routed ourselves to the correct car park. We arrived to the castle grounds and mum was headed straight for the Käsitöö shop, thankfully dad directed her and not me. Dad and I headed to the castle grounds to see if things had changed. When we came here in 2019 they had just opened the museum to one side, we still haven’t been in there. We walked in and went onto some kind of viewing platform and I called Lekso to see this castle! He was a little bit excited but more excited to see Paps (my dad). We noticed they were setting something up but we couldn't work out what it was, some festival or party with lots of kegs and beer. It was so surreal walking through the grounds, it was built back in the 1200’s and to imagine people who lived then were walking the same paths as we are now and seeing the same things, to a degree, is just incredible and mind blowing. There is so much history here and I imagine millions of stories. We walked over to the moat area on the other side of the castle because I remember as a younger child playing in the playground and when we got there we saw it was still there! It is the most spectacular playground and in the moat! So many incredible memories there. We kept wondering and dad was giving me a little commentary on the building process back in the days when they were constructing it. We did go into the museum to just have a little look at the front shop. Dad and I made a plan to join a tour group and act like we were meant to be there, but the only group was leaving so we joked about just casually getting onto their bus and seeing where it would take us, but get a few people ice creams first so they would miss the bus and we would have a seat to sit on. Some good laughs here.

​It was getting to be past lunch, and dad likes to eat at 12:30, but it was already 2pm and he has been warned he has to give me notice for when he wants meals and he told me 12:30pm was already gazetted in, well it was not in my schedule hehe but thankfully we were able to stop on the side of the road to have some delicious quiches mum bought in the bakery in Haapsalu. We were at this random stop, near a town but the stop had a town map. Mum told me to pull up there so we can read all about the town as we had lunch, this was one of the many laughs we had that day. Dad had a little look around the area we were in, had a beer and we continued on our journey. We were driving and we noticed this fly in the car. He kept going from back to front and back again. He was annoying all of us and didn’t contribute to the petrol cost, so basically taking a free ride to the islands. Mum decided to name him, well that was it, tears coming down the face. She called him ‘Herman Kapses’ then I added in ‘Pikkat’… mum lost it, I am sure I almost wet myself. We were talking about him like he was a pet! He stayed with us until we got to the port in Virtsu and I am so glad we bought an E-ticket. We arrived a little early so I stayed in the general que until after the current boat had left. Then I followed everyone else driving the wrong way to the E-ticket line. Amazingly you don’t need your ticket, just the car registration and it lets you through! Then you have to see which gate they let you in, I sat there for a few moments, trying to work it out then they ushered us into the right lane. We waited there for about 20 minutes but we saw the pervious load come in and as they came to the dock they opened the mouth of the boat and cars just came off. They have cars, buses and trucks it was insane the amount of vehicles one boat will carry! We finally were able to get onto the boat and of course, they sent me up to what I call the balcony. It was strange driving up there but there was plenty of room, still scary. We went up to the cafeteria area and I got a coffee, but the machine was broken but thankfully some nice Estonian’s helped me and we found more. I did help some Russian speaking people work out the machine before it was broken though so good karma I suppose. We got the call that we had to go back to our cars to get ready to get off the boat so we went!

​As soon as we got off the boat we headed straight to the Käsitöö shop, I may have cut across several lanes of traffic to get to it, because it is as soon as you get off the boat, and illegally parked! There were so many beautiful things in this store, just adorable. I really like this one with some beautiful products and designs. We then got into our car and headed to our accommodation. I had a vague idea of where I was heading and I took a gamble and went towards a pin drop I worked out. We were driving around the island the same way I was so confident in going towards Käsitöö stores in 2019 but got lost. Anyway, we were driving towards our place and drove up to what looked like the pictures so I was sure it was it. Once we arrived we called the lady and found out the key was under a pot and was instructed to leave the key under the pot in case other people arrived… I did not realise I booked a share house but thankfully for the first night anyway we had the house to ourselves. Once we unloaded a little we head into town because the Käsitöö shop was going to close in 30 minutes so off we went. It was as pretty as I remembered it from 2 years ago, so many muhu items! We then went to the Coop to get things for a grill because we had a grill at our accommodation, we were so excited because we had not done this yet since we were there.

​It was getting to be mid afternoon and in Sweden they have Fika (I may have spelt it wrong), where you have a coffee and some cake or fruit. Here, Eva and her family had coffee and ice cream, the kids really enjoyed it. It is nice to pause in your busy day, intentionally, and have a coffee and be a little social. Eva shared with us that at the same time every day at her work, they stop and have coffee all together bringing a sense of community and connection to the work place. I really like this idea, something I might do when I start my new job! The kids played in the park a little bit and of course there were some tears over the bus and who was to be the bus driver. We have seen many kids cry over this in the last few days. We then headed home for a little rest then off to dinner! We invited Eva and Hillar to dinner as well. It was lovely catching up with them too, some of my parents friends from Sydney. Eva told me she ordered the Käsitöö sausage however there were not rahvariide patterns on it, so she was a little disappointed. After dinner we headed home and went to bed. It was a lovely day filled with child like wonder and I was grateful to have shared some memories with everyone involved.
Until tomorrow
Marissa xx