Back from Pärnu
I'm forcing myself to post about my trip to Pärnu, Estonia now, not when I've caught up with things, because then it'd never happen.
Pärnu is a beautiful seashore city with 40 000 citizen and thousands of tourists. You can hear Finnish almost as often as Estonian :D And, in every restaurant and shop and so on you can get service in Finnish, which is quite incredible but also a bit embarrassing, in my opinion, because I never know if I should start talking in Finnish or in English - what if they don't talk Finnish after all? I'll feel silly for assuming. And if I start talking English and they talk Finnish? Well, that would be even more silly :D Also, Estonian language is so similar with Finnish that you can understand almost all the texts (although sometimes trying to understand Estonian can lead to funny misunderstandings. Like, if I see Estonian word ilusalong I think ilotalo, not kauneussalonki, and the difference is that between a brothel and a beauty salong...)
Anyway, Pärnu doesn't have many tourist attractions, which is very relaxing, as you don't feel pressed to visit them all (like in Paris or such), you just relax and enjoy the main attraction: the beach.
It was so lovely to just be there, and try to get tanned, and enjoy the (some kilometers) long sand beach and warm water. *loves* We all fell in love with that, even if we don't like sunbathing that much, and I think we might go there some other time ;) (I burnt my skin, ouch.)
Our hotel was cheap, but very comfortable, and it was situated only two minutes from beach, 10 minutes from city center. The center had many great shops, though we didn't buy much. The houses in Estonia are very different from those in Finland, because they're shaped differently, and some of them are in really bad condition, while some are magnificent.
Estonia is a cheaper country than Finland, and eating in restaurants is lovely because of that :D You can get a three-course-meal for four at 60 euros (with a bottle of wine), when in Finland that'd probably be about 100 euros.
A few random pictures:
The walking street
The view from our balcony
A theatre piece we saw on a whim
I completely fell in love with travelling with car, it was so easy, because we could buy heavy stuff (like champagne glasses and alcohol) without wondering how we're getting it back, and it was easy when you didn't have to worry about schedules that much.
Back in Finland, on the way back:
SISTER M: Sivu, I'm going to sleep, so don't drive a car accident now!
MUM: Why, because you want to see that?
SISTER M: Exactly! Don't hit any moose now, either, because I want to see that too!
We were back home at 3 am, so I'm feeling a bit shaky now.
Pärnu is a beautiful seashore city with 40 000 citizen and thousands of tourists. You can hear Finnish almost as often as Estonian :D And, in every restaurant and shop and so on you can get service in Finnish, which is quite incredible but also a bit embarrassing, in my opinion, because I never know if I should start talking in Finnish or in English - what if they don't talk Finnish after all? I'll feel silly for assuming. And if I start talking English and they talk Finnish? Well, that would be even more silly :D Also, Estonian language is so similar with Finnish that you can understand almost all the texts (although sometimes trying to understand Estonian can lead to funny misunderstandings. Like, if I see Estonian word ilusalong I think ilotalo, not kauneussalonki, and the difference is that between a brothel and a beauty salong...)
Anyway, Pärnu doesn't have many tourist attractions, which is very relaxing, as you don't feel pressed to visit them all (like in Paris or such), you just relax and enjoy the main attraction: the beach.
It was so lovely to just be there, and try to get tanned, and enjoy the (some kilometers) long sand beach and warm water. *loves* We all fell in love with that, even if we don't like sunbathing that much, and I think we might go there some other time ;) (I burnt my skin, ouch.)
Our hotel was cheap, but very comfortable, and it was situated only two minutes from beach, 10 minutes from city center. The center had many great shops, though we didn't buy much. The houses in Estonia are very different from those in Finland, because they're shaped differently, and some of them are in really bad condition, while some are magnificent.
Estonia is a cheaper country than Finland, and eating in restaurants is lovely because of that :D You can get a three-course-meal for four at 60 euros (with a bottle of wine), when in Finland that'd probably be about 100 euros.
A few random pictures:
The walking street
The view from our balcony
A theatre piece we saw on a whim
I completely fell in love with travelling with car, it was so easy, because we could buy heavy stuff (like champagne glasses and alcohol) without wondering how we're getting it back, and it was easy when you didn't have to worry about schedules that much.
Back in Finland, on the way back:
SISTER M: Sivu, I'm going to sleep, so don't drive a car accident now!
MUM: Why, because you want to see that?
SISTER M: Exactly! Don't hit any moose now, either, because I want to see that too!
We were back home at 3 am, so I'm feeling a bit shaky now.