Yesterday was the 16
th of
June, exactly 10 months in Estonia, only two months left now . . .
I have decided to make two parts to
this blog, a writing part and a picture part. Both telling the same
story but I thought I have so many pictures from my past weeks then why not post a lot of them here to tell part of the story.
I have had an intensive past two weeks
as a friend of mine puts it. It all started on Monday the 3rdof June. My class trip, we finally got to use the money from the
balloon popping at the beginning of the year. We decided to go to
Lithuania stopping in Latvia on the way. So we met up early Monday morning then drove down through
Estonia stopping at the Latvian boarder to stretch our legs and
exchange some money to the Latvian Lats. While in Latvia the weather
was warm and sunny, we stopped at an old castle for a tour through
its many rooms and neatly organized gardens. After the castle trip we
were back on the bus and our next stop was in Lithuania, at the hill
of crosses. This is a small hill filled with crosses of all different
sizes. The most crosses in one place with over 10,000 and more being
added regularly, there was a place where you could get your own cross and put
in on this hill with all the others. Lithuania is 99% Christian so it
wasn't unusual to see most shops or stalls filled with crosses.
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| Castle in Latvia |
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| Hill of Crosses in Lithuania |
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After driving another few hours we
reached our destination, a city called Palanga. Everyone was excited
when we finally arrived at our hotel and then headed out to the sea.
The area was very clean and green, we walked down a street lined with restaurants, souvenir stalls, bumper cars and other theme park type
games. We followed this street which ended at a long white sandy
beach. A dock led out over the water and we all rushed to the end of
it for pictures. It was even warmer in Lithuania and the sun was
glittering on the sea. It was a great end to our first day.
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| In Palanga |
The next morning we were up early and
once again on our now too familiar bus. We went around the area a bit
and came to a sea museum where we wondered around and watched a seal
show. After some more driving we went to what is called 'witch
mountain' This is the mountain where supposedly the witches go up to
meet on Halloween each year. We walked up the mountain and although it was
called witch mountain it gave quite the opposite feeling. The light
green leaves on the trees provided a nice canopy overhead and the trees felt fresh. All
through the forest were wood sculptures made by different artists
from Lithuania, Latvia and Sweden. So we were following these
sculptures, hearing their different meanings and stories from our
guide. After our walk we all set out to find places to eat. A group
of us found a place by the seaside and had burgers. It was getting
colder though, so we were sitting outside wrapped in blankets given
to us by the restaurant.
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| Sea museum |
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| Witch Mountain |
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Our final event for the day was another walk,
this time over large sand dunes and to a top point where we could
look out over sea. As I said before it was quite windy so the sand
was blowing around and stinging my face. We took a group picture (one of many group pictures) and
then went back to our hotel for the night.
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| The sand dunes |
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The morning of our final day we stopped
at another museum, this time and amber museum, which was located in
the middle of the Palanga botanical gardens. The weather was a bit
rainy but even so the gardens were green and fresh as we walked
through them. After a walk around the museum and a stop in the little
amber shop we were back on our bus for our drive home. We made one
last stop in Riga, Latvia for lunch and some free time in a little carnival. On our bus ride home the teacher thanked me for being
in their class, gave me some chocolates as well as a whole lot of
little letters from my Estonian class mates. It was strange to
realize that school was actually over, that it was the last time I
would be seeing my school friends. But with that I hugged everyone
good bye, remembering what it was like to first meet them all in the
beginning, it still felt like I would be going back to school the
next day and seeing them all again. But that was just first of many
goodbyes.
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| Amber museum |
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| My goodbye gifts |
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The next major good bye came this
weekend, at our end of year seminar with YFU for all the exchange
students. We went back to that very first place we were at when we
first arrived in Estonia. This time only for one night though instead
of the four like in the beginning. We had a few workshops about
saying good bye and preparing to go back home. We got to spend time
together with the other exchange students, taking pictures, sharing
our thoughts about our last times in Estonia as well as laughing
about our newly made memories in this country. The weekend flew by
and all to soon we found ourselfs saying good bye. It seems like we
had only met at the preperation week a few weeks ago but actually
that first week was a year ago . . . So we said our good byes, most
of the students will be leaving on the 28
th of June apart
from the few exceptions like me who will be leaving a bit later. I'll
be at the airport on the 28
th then for one final good bye
to my friends from all over the world.
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| Making a welcome sign for next years exchange students |
Going back to the beginning of this
week. As I mentioned in my last post Piiplipaevad was held on the 7
th
to the 9
th in Rapla, an hours train ride from Tallinn. I
spent the three days in a big sports school with my youth group and
many many others from all around Estonia. We had morning services and
in the evenings were the music concerts. The first day arriving I met a
girl from America who is staying in Estonia for two months. Basically
all the people I have met at the different churches I have been to
were at these Piiplipaevad. Our second day there we went off with our
youth groups to nearby areas. My group went to Marjamaa, where we had
an event day for the locals, with a band, food and games. That
evening was the main concert and altogether from little places we
went to, 40 people came back with us to be at the concert. The Sunday
started as a joint serivce with the Rapla church. I surprised myself
with how much Estonian I understand and translated all the services
over the days and all the little speaking in between to English for
the American girl. It was actually a lot of fun. Challenging but fun.
Sunday afternoon we once again had many people from Rapla who joined
us for the concert, after which my host Mom and two out of three
sisters were there to pick me up. It was a relaxing few days, getting
to meet new people and know some of my other friends better.
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| Bible days concert |
Tuesday of that same week I met with
some of the other exchange students and we decided to go to the
summer capital or Estonia, Parnu. We met in Parnu late morning,
unfortunatly though the weather wasn't that great. We walked around
the city for a little then headed straight to the beach as you should
in the summer capitol. Only to find the beach basically deserted and
coverd by thick grey clouds. “Welcome to the summer captiol” we
joked. Making the best of our time there we played a game of mini
golf near the beach, then when the rain came down we found a little
cafe for some lunch. Then we all headed home our seperate directions.
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| Estonias summer capital |
The next day I was again up early and
onto a bus. This time I went with a small group of exchange students to Saaremaa, Estonias
biggest island. We arrived in Saaremaa late morning and were greeted
with hot sunny weather. Ofcourse coming from Tallinn where it was
cloudy and cold we were all wrapped up in jackets. So first stop was to a
little shop in the bus station to get some clothes more suited to the weather. We spent
the day in Kuressaare, the 'capital'of Saaremaa. There we found a
little castle surrounded by a large moat, after which we brought food for the next few days.
In the evening we went by a small boat to the little island of
Vilsandi where we would be staying for two nights. On the island we
found our not so little cottage, surrounded by green meadows filled with tall white flowers and surprisingly a lot of sheep. We spent the afternoon relaxing in
the sun and wondering around the flowery fields.
The next day after breakfast we decided
to go for a hike around the island. We started out through a forest
which then led to a small beach, we crossed some water onto another
little piece of island and then were walking on stones most of the
time. While out there though the clouds rolled in and the rain came
down. We thought it best to go home and have some lunch inside. The afternoon was spent playing cards by a warm fire. On
our final day we packed up our stuff, went back by boat to Saaremaa
where we then spent some time in Kuressaare again before catching a
bus back up to Tallinn. It was a great trip, got some good photos and
got to spend some time with some great friends.
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| Kuressaare | |
