It was a late night or rather early morning last night (or this morning) . We attended a small birthday party/farewell gathering at the Estonian relatives house last night which ended at around midnight.

After arriving home we all sat around and talked for a couple of hours and during the conversation Kerry (the official family genealogist) revealed that Garry Irons and therefore all the Irons family had relatives in Greece…..news to everyone, especially Garry, moreover it seems the family name is Lalaloupsi or something very similar. So it looks like a trip to Greece so Garry can connect with his Grecian relatives……Oh wait we are going to Greece in a few weeks I must find a copy of the Athens phone book.

Sam did a quick google search last night and the closest he could come to a match for Lalaloupsi was the following which looks more Japanese than Greek, so that cant be right, or can it?

Potential Irons Relative?

Anyway back to The Bog for a “swim”.

At The Bog.

Kerry enjoying The Bog, or Lyndal and Garry enjoying Kerry’s attempt at enjoying The Bog.

On the way back we toured an old industrial complex from the Russian era.

Old Textile Mill under demolition.

Abandoned Housing.

Same.

By the way some soviet buildings never were finished. Which is probably a good thing. This one is the usual ugly as well as badly built.

Back to the Mainland after a wonderful tour of Saaremaa organised by our Estonian relatives who we unfortunately missed at the cemetery (and Great Aunt Julies grave) due to a breakdown in communication. It would have been nice express our thanks in person, however as that didn’t work we will do it now, even though they will probably never read it. Thank you to our friendly, patient (very patient) and helpful Estonian hosts…we hope to return the favour soon.

Parnu is a unique Estonian city in as much as the founding fathers who named the city saw no need to double up on any letters, use silent j’s or use r’s pronounced as q’s or any other such tomfoolery.  The city is bisected by the Parnu River, and has stone jetties in the bay. Parnu is known for its 19th-century timber villas, sandy Parnu Beach and neoclassical spa buildings. In short Parnu is a resort town and very popular in the summer. Not as popular as Bog Diving, but popular none the less. Bog Diving I hear you say…..well OK then, Bog Diving (or swimming, dunking whatever), rates high on the Estonian list of summer  activities, briefly it involves finding a low lying piece of swampland which has over centuries developed a depression deep enough to throw oneself in and flail about for a period sufficient to elicit the desired result. Exactly what the desired result is I have no idea as we neglected to pack the required flailing equipment.

Due to a little confusion over dates we are now in Parnu for a extra day and have a choice of one of two possible activities tomorrow: The first involves a children’s park and birthday party related activities. The second involves, you guessed it, Bog Diving. So Bog Diving it is then.

In the betwixt time, photos

Garry surveys the Bog Lands for a possible Diving Hole from the viewing platform.

Bog Land.

Dragon Fly, no doubt flesh eating.

Potential Bog Diving site.

Some sort of bog plant. No doubt flesh eating.

Jen enroute to the bog

Church for praying at before visiting the Bog.

By the way here’s some trivia:

Estonian couples won the Wife Carrying World Championships for 11 consecutive years between 1998 and 2008.

52 per cent of Estonia is forest, and that figure is rising.

For every 100 women in Estonia there are only 82 men this is due in part to the fact that women live 10 years longer than men in Estonia. So no point rushing of to find a new girlfriend unless you’re trolling for pensioners.

The last few attractions on Saaremaa included:

The Old Fort at Kuressaare, now an excellent tourist attraction and venue for social gatherings.

Panorama from the Castle Wall.

The lighthouse at the southern end of Saaremaa which for the inevitable entrance fee allows the willing tourist the chance to climb the 248 steps to the viewing platform and admire the view across the Baltic toward Latvia although it’s not quite high enough to see Latvia. The admission price includes the opportunity to enjoy what I consider to be the best display of model lighthouses to be found anywhere in the world. Not that Iv’e seen that many model lighthouse displays.

Lavtvia?

An illuminating display.

The museum of military “stuff” which including everything from gas masks and Communist propaganda to missiles and information on how to enlist, although having seen the museum I’m not to sure there would be to many starters for enlisting. Not a world domination supermarket but a good start. I really am trying to get this blog a bit more up beat however sometimes its difficult.

Discount rocket.

Propaganda?

Germans here to help.

All the tools.

Lenin also here to help.

Empty I hope.

Finally the Natural History Museum located in a house built in 1875 and apparently specially adapted to display the worlds largest collection of amputated bird feet. Other dissected critters are included however because it’s probably best to concentrate on one mysterious hobby at a time. These images defy captioning I’m afraid, except for “you put your left foot in, you put your left foot out……….”

By the way I will be asking the family ornithologist for a complete and verifiable identification of all the feet we have observed at the Vivisection, sorry scratch that, Natural History Museum. I cant believe I typed that!

We have been up, down and across Saaremaa about ten times in the last three days however we have a couple of final places to visit, one being (joy of joys) a cemetery where we hope to find Aunt Julie’s final resting place. Yesterday’s tour of the old homestead certainly was an insight into the harsh conditions inflicted on Estonian by Russia after World War Two. Youngest of the Sabur daughters Julie who had the foresight, inclination and opportunity to visit Estonia during the Russian era will no doubt, like all Estonians, never forget the cold blooded social cruelty practised under the name of communism.

As often happens I digress, so one final word. Communism in the the Marx and Engels Manifesto was a great theory whereby a society exists without different social classes in which the methods of production are owned by it’s members and everyone works as much as they can and receives as much as they need. History has proven this theory just does not work and inevitably leads to poverty, misery and corruption. Estonia (as with Czechia) has illustrated the point dramatically emerging from it’s previous  downtrodden condition to the truly autonomous and socially wealthy country it is today.

After considerable confusion we managed a meeting with Great Aunt Julie.

Puhaku ta rahus.

First and last meeting. Kerry, Jeni, and Great Aunt Julie

Today was the day for the Estonian History Society (Antipodean Chapter) involving more relative catch up and a visit to the ancestral home which is more than a little run down now.

Over forty years ago Jen and her mother were writing to her Great Aunt Julie in Estonia, this was a complicated procedure involving translators at both ends and continued till Great Aunt Julie died quite a few years ago. Today on looking around the abandoned and derelict old ancestral home a jumble of old papers and letters were discovered including most of the letters Jen sent to her Great Aunt Julie, photographs included.

The Old Homestead.

The property had several buildings and only luck had kept the correspondence dry.

House 2

The Sauna (Spa)

Over the years vagrants, vandals and the weather have taken their toll on the old property. It was a miracle anything was left.

Time Capsule.

Historians at work.

Christmas cards over years

Photos and letters.

Three other Saaremaa tourist attractions presented themselves. They were no where near as exciting to the “troops” as the house however. It seems family history wins out over windmills, meteorite craters and ocean views.

Sounds like a good title for a book. In fact it’s an actual description of today. Having an Air BNB address which turned out to be the address of the local gymnasium and then finding the real house was on a nameless street with no number and that it’s prime identifying feature was a black fence (always easy to spot in the dark!), led to quite a frustrating day all round particularly when the cell phones stop working. So this will be short.

Any place that has a statue like this cant be all bad, can it?

Saaremaa is the largest island in Estonia and has more spas than anywhere else in the country. Critical information if you used to work as a stoker on the Titanic and are suffering from withdrawal.

Tomorrow we are expecting to see Kaali a small group of nine meteorite craters on Saaremaa. The largest of the crater measures 110 metres across and contains a small lake, known as Kaali järv. The meteor cluster hit and phenomenal speed and left a crater 22 metres deep.  The age estimates of the crater are around 4000 years BC. This no doubt would have scared the daylights out off the locals that lived in the area at the time.

By the way, only one worth while picture for today.. sorry 🙂

The Fence!

Back for more tourist punishment and no doubt more amber jewellery shops. With a bit of luck there will be nearby bars for the less jewellery fascinated contingent to twiddle their thumbs in. That’s a great expression isn’t it, “twiddle“. Twiddle is actually onomatopoeic, the sound of the word itself evokes a light, twirling action or twiddling. You can twiddle just about anything, toes, fingers, a pencil all sorts of stuff. A word of warning however I suggest you restrict your public twiddling to socially acceptable twiddleables.

The Estonian History Museum revealed a fascinating inventory of circumstances which leads one to the conclusion that Estonia has only been “in control” of it’s destiny for a very short period of it’s long history. Having been conquered and bartered away by just about every nearby nation over the centuries. Estonia has managed to achieve total autonomy (for the second time) and achieved this result by singing not fighting. This last and musical battle was at the end of the Russian period which, having visited the KGB museum, was obviously a “difficult” period to say the least.

One of over an estimated two million Amber Shops.

Despite very pretty castles and big guns Estonia was regularly visited by early backpackers who were reluctant to leave, including the Russians.

Below, KGB through wall “Spy Cam” at the KGB museum on the 23rd floor of Hotel Viru and a babushka, a kind of spy camera in grandma form who’s job it was to record the comings and goings of visitors. Officially the Hotel Viru has 22 floors the top floor being referred to, in part, as the KGB smoking room.

By the way, despite a marathon search I am sad to say the illusive piece of fossilised tree resin was not found. This much valued gemstone (by at least one member of our contingent) has been made into a variety of decorative objects from antiquity to the present. Being a joint owner of forty acres of sap bearing trees surrounded by rocks I look forward to doing a bit of sap harvesting when we return. If we could find a market for irregular shaped sandstone jewellery then we could really clean up.

Twisting cobblestone lanes and iron street lamps. Gothic spires and markets. This is the city’s famous Old Town and tourist central. After the Kerry, Garry, Lyndal, Sam, Jeni, and Empty Hat ketchup at dinner last night we’re off to meet some Estonian relatives at Old Town.

Old town, much quieter than a lot of other European tourist areas, at least today, exudes a “Main St. Disneyland” feel quite common for modern city tourist traps.

Old Town.

The “Eestis” now free of communism for many years will still sell you the wooden Russian dolls, with variations now for the tourists.

In Czechia they have a less friendly view of the Russian doll.

By the way as a bonus for the Karu Distillery people (now taking orders), some shots of the KARU BAAR (with 2 A’s not a typo, Eesti’s are just Lletterr huungry).

Botanical Bear.

Bear stew?

Bear menu.

Bear Baar 1.

Bear Baar 2.

The Republic of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands in the Baltic Sea and has been inhabited since at least 9000 BC. After centuries of successive German, Danish Swedish and Russian rule, the Estonians decided they had had enough and on 24 February 1918, independence was declared. During World War Two, Estonia suffered occupation by The Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, and Soviet Union again, resulting in its annexation. So this folks is why Harry’s mum and dad came to Australia and decided to raise chickens. Oh, and Harry.

In 1987 the peaceful Singing Revolution against Soviet rule began (the Russians had more guns so singing was a good option), culminating with restoration of its de facto independence on 20 August 1991. Twenty seven years ago for those not so good at maths.

Back in the 60’s Harry’s parents purchased a car for the relatives back in “the old country” and this gesture has ultimately led to Great Granddaughter (and Great Photographer) Lyndal winning a grant to go to Estonia and document the gesture. We’re just tagging along for the food sights, holiday, etc. etc.

Lyndal, Sam, Garry, Kerry, Jen and an empty Hat.

First impressions of Tallinn, well it speaks for itself actually.

Fun Fair for Kids……and adults actually.

Local Lake

And Park

By the way in 1965 the first school computer in the USSR, Ural-1, was set up in the town of Noo Estonia. Mass usage of computing networks in Estonia appeared in 1989. The first Internet connections in the country were introduced in 1992 at academic facilities in Tallinn and Tartu. Estonia was the first country to use the internet for elections. In the first quarter of 2010, 75% out of 1.34 million people in the country used the Internet. eSTONIA!

And one for Ally and Nick at Kuru Distillery at the mouth of the The Devils Wilderness (orders now being accepted):

Six Row Barley distilled Estonian Gin. Not bad, not bad at all.

To coordinate our arrival with the Irons’s in Estonia we have to be on the 0630 (that’s six thirty in the morning for the 24 hour challenged) flight out of Prague and given the dramas getting here we are allowing three hours to to get all the ducks lined up ready for take off so to speak. Further to this we can’t get a direct flight to Estonia (and I was told it was a developed country) so we will be travelling via Amsterdam.  Lyndal and Sam should already be in Estonia and I hope they have found a good Bar with Czech beer as I will need to wean myself off this twelve percent rocket fuel.

Being our last day here we decided to seek out a locale with a variety of architectural styles, nice sculptures and most importantly a bit of quiet away from the tourists. The ideal location for those things is located at Vinohradska 166-178 more commonly known as Olsannske hrbitovy. Here you will find one of the quietest most serene spots in Prague, slight traffic noise is the only clue that you have not been transported to another dimension or existence. Birds sing, leaves fall softly to the ground from overhanging trees which supply shade to ones travel weary body. You could truly choose stay here forever, in fact many have. There are an estimated two million residents here however only about ten percent have been registered with the authorities which makes it a bit difficult to find accommodation.

By the way Olsannske hrbitovy if you hadn’t guessed is a cemetery.

Last pictures from the Czech Republic sorry Czechia:

Terrace Houses

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