Day 37 - A Trip to Pärnu

​Today we said good bye to Argo and the girls and headed for Pärnu. The drive took about 2 and a half hours, along the country roads, through forests and small villages. Once we got to Pärnu, we had organised to meet with Lachlan and spend the day with him. He sent me the name of a café to meet at so I parked the car at the closest parking lot (or so I thought) I could find and we used google maps, on walking, to get there. My maps on walking are not very good so we ended up going around the block and through a park, which I didn’t mind, to get to where we were meeting Lachlan. When we got there, I have to admit, it was nice talking with someone around my own age and in fast English, without having to repeat myself. We had a lovely conversation around all the small interactions I have had and the network I have built here, for the Estonian’s in Australia to utilise and strengthen relationships between Australia and Estonia. It was really exciting to be able to share it with someone who has some of the same ideas and same visions as I do and it was nice to be able to connect him with some of the people I had already connected with.

After lunch we took a drive out to Tõstamaa and visited the sweetest little käsitöö shop. Firstly we ended up at this käsitöö place where they were making the clothes but she directed us to the actual store a few 100m down the road, opposite the police station. We saw some incredible things in this store and I bought myself some beautiful handmade gloves. The designer for the gloves was in a calendar with the story of why she made these particular gloves. It is these little stories that make it really special and traveling to the places where these things are made, makes it even more special. I really like this side of traveling around Estonia, where you visit the places things were made, meet the people that make them and then have a really personal piece of käsitöö you can take back home with you. There were so many special things in here, I would have bought more but clearly I could not.

​We then took the “Romantic Road” along the coast line back to Pärnu. It was nice and full of more forests but a different area than when we came there. When we got to Pärnu, we checked in and discovered we had great accommodation, right on the main street. It was a beautiful big room and so close to most things, except the beach. We went for a wonder up and down and visited so many Käsitöö shops. I feel like this day was all about visiting käsitöö shops!! There were so many cute things, especially in one store there were so many wooden things that if I lived here, I think my apartment would be full of it all. I did however, find a really cute pink leather glittery bracelet I really liked here and some Kihnu oven mits. There was a difference in price of almost 10 euro from one store to another, with the same gloves! I couldn’t believe it. We went to one shop that was seeing vööd and I did buy another one. The lady was telling me that the one I got was an original from the Rahva Museum. She found the information about this belt and showed me. It was one for Pärnu maakond and the design is very old. What I have learned that over time the belts change patterns and designs as people add their own influence but the one that I have, is an original design. I felt this was very special. We also visited this some kind of kunst ja käsitöö guild. It was a house with many rooms, all with different arts and crafts and people creating some amazing things. After the shops started to close, we headed back for some much needed showers.

​We then headed out to dinner to a cute little pub at the end of the main area. We all ordered finger food coincidently and it was so good!! Lachlan had never had Estonian garlic bread so he had to try it! It wasn’t the best version of it that we had but it was still pretty good. We had some wonderful stories to share with the time we had been here, Lachlan, mum and I and I was really excited to see where Lachlan’s journey would take him, while he was here. When we were having dinner, there was music playing and all of a sudden I heard “Nightwish” one of my favourite bands. They are not very main stream so I was surprised to hear it. What was even better for me, was that mum also recognised it. When we finished dinner, we started walking about to our accommodation to get some things and head to the beach. On the way, we saw these three older ladies dancing to music some DJ was playing. It was so cute and they clearly had done this sort of thing before because they were in sync. I feel they might have been a semi famous pop start group from back in the day and just doing one of their routines. I told Lachlan, we should do a Relander Walts down the main street… he wasn’t very keen. It was just so joyful watching these ladies, the one in the red had a bit of spunk about her. She really had no care in the world and was really enjoying the moment she was in, bringing joy to other peoples day. I really hope that one day when I am older, I have the same outlook on life, because it really was something very special to see and experience, watching them.

​Mum stayed back at the apartment and Lachlan and I got a bolt scooter each to travel around Pärnu with. We were about 1.6km away from the beach so I thought this was a good option. Once we found two of them, we headed off. I followed Lachlan, he had the maps and knew how to get there. It was funny, we were on scooters that ran 15km/hr but when you get to a slow zone, they slow down to 10km/hr and it does it via satellite. This was the majority of our journey to the beach. I didn’t stop to take many photos but there was a little area we went through that had an abundance of restaurants and cafes, with street lighting and it looked really festive. There were a lot of people there. Pärnu is known to be more of a tourist and summer place for people to go to. We eventually got to the beach and left our scooters there. We walked up to the promenade and saw a band playing that Lachlan had found. We listened to them a little but I had also organised to meet my friend Cathy, whom I met in Tallinn. The new area we were in was really nice and if we had more time in Pärnu I would have probably spent more time here. It was full of bars and night life, people just enjoying the summer. We then took a 600m walk down the beach to another area, where I was going to meet Cathy and her family. It was Poks, where there was an artist playing music but also talking about some experiences, and we found ourselves on top of a sand dune, watching the performance, amongst the trees. We finally met Cathy and she had her brother Chris with her. We spoke a mix of Estonian and English, and her brother sometimes would speak Spanish but we had a great conversation and learned a little bit more about them and life in Estonia. Cathy is a fantastic violin player and we discussed an idea for her to come to Australia and do something in and around music history and play a little violin concert at Eesti Maja, with the Global Estonian Youth Network. Let’s see what happens! We also met her sister and her friend, they also play musical instruments and sing. We decided we had all the musicians with us, because they all seemed to play something. At one point, my data was running very low and Lachlan was pretty much out. Chris explained to us a way to get unlimited data and not worry about it. Lachlan and I were onboard! Something to organise another day.

​Around 11pm, after it was getting dark, Lachlan and I decided to leave so we used to bolt app to locate some scooters and make the ride back. Again, he was leading because it was just easier (for me) and I was grateful he could get me home! We took some weirdly long way, which we discovered the following day, but it was fun, especially as there were not as many people around this time and it was a lot easier to get around. When we got back to the apartment, we checked on the car, made sure it was still there but it was going to be fine as there were two security guards outside a night club ‘Aptek’, right next to the car. Once we got home, I had a pretty good sleep but mum and Lachlan said they were up a lot of the night due to drunk people singing or the music blasting. Thankfully I did not hear it.
Until the next post
Marissa xx