From Tallinn My journey takes me further inland. There, where some of the roads turn into gravel roads. Where there are hardly any cars on the road. Mid-September is the best time for them Moors in the national parks. Attracted by the wildly romantic images in which wooden walkways run through the moor (you can also walk around freely with so-called moor shoes), I didn’t want to miss the play of colors. While a black storm cloud got closer and closer, I walked almost alone on the footbridges. I got the famous Baltic beetroot soup in a café that seemed out of time and then headed to the seaside resort of Pärnu for an evening. There was a very special menu there during the “Culinary Month”.
Soomaa National Park
Stories about moors always have something spooky about them. Sometimes people disappear never to be seen again, sometimes it is ghosts or mystical beings who are up to mischief. At least I don’t know of a happy story that takes place on a moor. The moors have always been of crucial value for the environment and people. Moors store a lot of CO² and the peat, which has been cut in the moor for thousands of years, is used for heating and fertilizing flowers. Because you can’t just walk around in a bog, you either have to wear something like snowshoes so you don’t sink in or you stay on the wooden paths. Mine are definitely the wooden paths. I drive to the bus stop Riisa rabathere is a small parking lot and the path into the moor begins directly behind it. At first I just hike through heathland, with low coniferous trees all around me. Heather is blooming everywhere and the deeper I go into the moorland, the more colorful it becomes. I wouldn’t presume to identify the plants here; if I were to speak of bright red moss, I would certainly enrage one or two botanists among my readers and run the risk of getting hopelessly caught up in assumptions and false names. And so I just silently observe the tiny blossoms, the greasy, shiny little swamp flowers and if it weren’t for this school class who were enjoying their hiking trip that very day, I might have taken off my clothes and hopped into the bog pond. A moor like this is supposed to be warm. Instead, I sit on a bench and look at the pond, letting my thoughts fly. The first and then the drone. This threatening, rain-filled, dark cloud is approaching above me and yet I would have kept running. In the end she caught me and I was soaking wet. The moments between sun, clouds, light and rain were magical.
In the evening, when a glowing red glow lit up the sky, I briefly considered going to the moor again. I should have done it. And since then I have fallen even more in love with the moorland landscapes.
Riisa nature trail
Riisa, 86815 Pärnu County, Estonia
Külm Suvesupp in Vilijandi
If you feel like traveling back in time, go to the café in Viljandi, which is called like the whole place – Viljandi. The interior is a mix of Eastern Bloc, train station concourse and everything in the seventies style. You can buy your cake in the front area and at the tables you can order schnitzel, sandwiches, solyanka and cold beetroot soup. I liked this soup (there is a recipe for it here on the blog), but I have never eaten it where it actually comes from. And even though it’s a little more popular in neighboring Lithuania and Latvia, it’s also extremely popular here in Estonia Summer soup. And in mid-September it is still warm enough to eat summer soup. Kefir, beetroot, pickled cucumbers, egg and dill are the main players. This soup tastes amazingly good. This soup alone was worth coming here.
I drink kvass with it. Not the great kvass that you can ferment yourself from bread or vegetables, but an indefinable taste of kvass from the bottle. It tastes like diluted Maggi with sugar and I definitely won’t order it a second time. The Estonian cider, as the cider is called here, can really do something about it. Refined with blackcurrant or rhubarb – in Estonia they are crazy about rhubarb – this is a great drink.
The color is amazing and it tastes great
The cake is good too
Baked dumplings with yoghurt – weren’t entirely convincing
Café Viljandi
Lossi tn 31, Viljandi, 71004 Viljandi maakond, Estonia
Delicious food by the sea in the Raimond restaurant
The area around the Soomaa National Park can confidently be described as rather sparsely populated and this means that there are not exactly a large number of restaurants. I also feel like doing something special on this day. For something luxurious. And so I drive about 35 kilometers to the sea to Pärnu. The refuge of Marko Lumera, head chef of the restaurant, is located in a posh resort on the beach Raymond. The extraordinary 4-course menu, which pays homage to the Estonian autumn, includes lots of fish that were completely unknown to me. Gobies and other small fish are celebrated here. There are also those sauces that get their umami kick from fermented vegetables, and for dessert there is of course something with rhubarb and green tomatoes. Sounds weird, but tastes delicious.
The restaurant is also known for its impressive selection of different types of caviar. It is also extremely pleasant to sit alone at the table and just watch the birds outside over the sea.
Full and very satisfied, I drive back into the nighttime wilderness.
Raymond
Ranna pst 1, Pärnu, 80010 Pärnu maakond, Estonia
Living with Huskies in the Wild
Wilderness – well. That is perhaps a little exaggerated. I live here with every comfort and can also have the sauna heated up if I wish. But around the holiday home and its adjoining house, where the owners live with 4 huskies, another 10 are outside in the kennel, there is simply nothing but a wide landscape with fields and forests. The nearest supermarket is 7 kilometers away. All you can hear are the calls of the birds and the barking of the dogs (whenever there is food).
Hundreds of gray herons gather in a field not far from the house before they all fly south together. The sight is overwhelming.
I soaked up the days in nature here like a sponge. And definitely want to come back.
Practical tips for renting a car
Rental cars are quite cheap here (€66.00 for 5 days). Then you have a small car without much comfort, but that’s okay, because firstly you can rarely drive faster than 90 km/h on country roads and I also advise you to follow this if possible, because there are lots of speed cameras.
The car rental companies can be found directly in the airport building in Tallinn. Anyone like me with the cheapest provider GreenMotion If you rent your car, you should treat yourself to the extra €20.00 for cleaning the interior and exterior before taking delivery of the car, because gravel roads, rain and mud make a visit to the car wash unavoidable. If you bring the car back uncleaned, you pay double, i.e. €40.00.
