Estonia: Suur Munamägi (19/28)
After completing the Latvian peak, we headed across the border into Estonia for the second peak of the day. We had spent most of the morning driving on dirt tracks or potholed tarmac, so we were very pleased to have shiny new tarmac on crossing the border into Estonia.
In contrast to Latvia and Lithuania, the Estonian peak was actually quite busy. The peak name Suur Munamägi translates to ‘big egg mountain’ as apparently the hill resembles half an egg. We were not sure if we could see this, but maybe this is because the 318m peak is surrounded by trees. We had our photo below the tower then paid the 2 euros each to climb the four floors (we saved a euro each by not taking the lift!). From the top you can see an endless sea of pine trees. There was even a digital info sign where you could send e-postcards.
We drove for a few more hours in the direction of Tallinn before stopping at the nice lake for the night. In the morning we completed the drive to the capital, Olly was heading back to the UK for a couple of days whilst I hung out at an Airbnb.
The main reason for staying indoors was to utilise the washing machine. It was easier said than done to wash and dry everything we own in 36 hours. Before Olly headed to the airport we went and explored the old town. The public transport system is free for residents of Tallinn, we managed eventually to buy tram tickets online. The old town was very pretty with a Russian style cathedral, the bright pink parliament building and lots of quaint cobbled streets.
We decided to skip the local cuisine this time as we had had enough of meat and potatoes so headed for a pizzeria. Later we had more ice-cream which again was very good. The Baltic countries seem to do superb ice cream. Another point of interest is the origin of the Estonian flag which we read about on an info sign near the Hermann Tower. The blue, black and white tricolour was originally the flag of the Estonian Students’ Society and became the national symbol during the independence movement at the end of the 19th century. The colours represent: blue - the bright future and Nordic sky, black - dark past of the nation and soil, white - striving towards enlightenment.
Olly headed off to his flight and a killed a couple of days doing admin. When Olly flew back in and we had a short nights sleep by the ferry terminal before heading over to Helsinki.
We caught the early ferry as it was 1/3 of the price of the later tickets. I was excited the the women’s toilets had a sea view from the cubicle. Olly was less than impressed that the location of the comfy seats was also the location of the disco, where for some reason they insisted on playing very loud 80s power ballads despite it being 7am.
