A trip to the Estonian countryside, Viljandi

A few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to be invited to spend a few days with the Maasepp side of the family in Viljandi. Ene, Vanaisa's great niece, her children Elina, Ando and Maile. Ando and his wife Liis were kind enough to welcome us into their home and made us up a bed in the loft of the sauna house. It was great meeting the whole family and their beautiful kids.

When we arrived in Viljandi we went for a walk around town and visited some beautiful old ruins and enjoyed the picturesque view of the lake. We also had some fun on the Suur Kiik (big swing), which are a feature of many Estonian country towns. We also visited the house where Arvi's Memm was born. Ene was very kind and rang around to find out some information from the current owners.

walking through the Viljandi castle ruins

which now hosts events and concerts 

That afternoon, Ene and Ando took us to see the old Maasepp farm, where Vanaisa was born. It was great to see where he would have grown up. We even saw the sauna house where Vanaisa would have been born. The current owners of the house, decadents of the Maasepps too, were so lovely and had prepared us a huge afternoon tea of pirukad and kohapimma kook and answered questions we had about the farm.

Leah out the front of the old Sauna house

secret Maasepp inscription

That night we had a BBQ at the Sauna house and then went to sauna. We went to the sauna first, followed by a jump in the cold lake and then off to relax in the ´kümblustünni´, which was like a home-made wooden hot tub using pond water and heated with a furnace. It seems that sauna is an important Estonian cultural ritual for the whole family, even little Triin and Tuuli, Elina´s children, love the sauna. We had a great time relaxing, chatting and trying to understand and speak Estonian, we actually didn´t do too bad! We must have been concentrating very hard because that night Arvi was even speaking Estonian in his sleep!

 

all in the kümblustünni

kümblustünni and the sauna house

After a relaxing sleep in the sauna house, the next morning we went on a road trip to southern Estonia with Ene and Elina. We visited Suur Muna Mägi or ´big egg mountain´. I was expecting a big hike but we reached the top of the ´big´mountain in less than 10 minutes. Due to Estonia being a very flat country ´big´ is not really big by world standards. We climbed to the top of the tower at Muna Mägi and had a great view out towards Latvia and Russia. Then we went to a beautiful Mets (forest) around Vōru. We walked through yet another Estonian bog, who knew bogs could be so beautiful! We also visited a few log cabins in the middle of the forest, where you can stay for free. The day finished with pankookid  and puzzels with Lisann and Tuuli whilst Tom was still working on the fields in the tractor. 

View from the top of muna mägi 

Log cabin in the mets

Beautiful bog land

The next morning we headed into Viljandi to watch the suur jooks, the annual big 12km run around the lake. Liis competed and did very well. We spent the rest of the day driving around Viljandi with Tuuli, Maile, Lisann and Elina. We stopped at Manor and farm and fed some animals. After yet another delicious meal we headed back to the bus station. On the way we stopped at the lone tree to take some lovely snaps as the sun went down. 

Liis finishing her race

Beautiful Viljandi

feeding the animals

We had an awesome, relaxing few days in Viljandi and would like to thank the entire family for their amazing hospitality. This weekend we are off to Haapsalu to visit some of Arvi's relatives, stay tuned!

Arvi ja Leah musi