Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Continuing along the lines ...

... of my last posting - the midsummer's day was "mõnus" (translates something like "great", but with a special flavour to it)! A bunch of us, old friends, were road-tripping around the South of Estonia for the long weekend. Started out on Saturday afternoon at Peep's summer cottage in the middle of the forest in Valgemetsa with some BBQ and drinks, good company and talks that lasted until 4 am. (Ohh I had been waiting for years (!!!) to meet up with you, Sarah and Peep!!)
Woken up by the ring of my cell phone by Elina after a few hours sleep in the tent (or in the cottage for some), we had a quick brunch (more BBQ :)) and off we took. Our intention to (re-)discover some local events/people took us to Vastseliina for a country fair, then to Suur Munamägi (the highest point in Estonia, which indeed ain't too high afterall - mere 318 m it is).
We landed in Triin's place in Elva for the night. Wonderful!! Home cooked meal, lovely dinner in the garden catching the last rays of the setting sun, beautiful, relaxing atmosphere, and of course SAUNA! Ahh I guess no foreigner (unless Finnish or so :) can imagine the feeling of walking on the night-wet grass after a hot sauna, sipping beer and then, when a bit chilled already, head back to the sauna... mmmm...
Oh and, of course, more BBQ that night!
Then another late 'n' relaxing morning, some good moments at Triin's home and off we took for a 1 hour trip to Antsla to Uku's place to spend the actual Midsummer's Day there. The trip later ended up being a 2 hour-discover-estonia journey, but was fun, and luckily we caught all the rain while on the way. The late sun came out right when we got to Uku's.
I know I'm going to repeat myself here a bit, but :P ... the night was adorable - great people, lovely landscapes and country house atmosphere (huh I wish I had photos of the trip with me right now!!), more BBQ (Uku's parents grilled some lamb for the crowd that night!), more sauna, more fun and great memories.

ps. I think I had more meat in the last 4 days than in the last 4 months altogether!
pps. To know a bit more about Jaanipäev or the Midsummer's day, click here or search internet. For the curious, we didn't exactly follow all the Midsummer's day traditions - like jumping over the bonfire, for example.
ppps. (that's the last one) Once again I was reminded that Estonia, my home country, has got its wonders and my friends are simply 5+.

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