Day 26, Friday 8/4 (Easter Day):

Easter does not seem to be celebrated here nearly as much as in other, more Christian parts of the world. Estonia, according to Wikipedia, is the second most irreligious country in the world, with ~75% of people not affiliated with any religion. Today was rather important, as we were to meet with some of my very distantly related Estonian relatives in Põltsamaa, en route to our accommodation near Viljandi. We cleared the layers of snow off Alice and set out. It was still snowing quite stubbornly, meaning we had to drive carefully. Yesterday I had made contact with Eha, my ‘closest’ relative, and had organised to meet with them at midday and fortunately made it there on time, despite the icy roads and -3˚C temperature. We passed two vehicles that had slipped off the road into the snowy shoulders along our way. We were to meet them at youth center in Põltsamaa and our GPS led us straight there. Eha and her husband Tovio, along with their son Mati and daughter Heidi, with her husband Mait, warmly greeted us. Heidi was the creator of the youth center and is now its manager. She was keen to show us around, pointing out the various environmental design features that it has built in. My Omi had informed them of my intent to study environmental science at university and this was one of the main reasons they wanted to meet us here. We then sat down to have coffee and cake and had some very interesting discussions about life in our respective countries. In relation to Estonia, Heidi made it clear that they ‘do not believe in anything’, only in themselves. We also discussed the introduction of the Euro, a very contentious issue at the moment. Since its introduction in 2011, cost of living expenses have risen by approximately 30%. It would seem that Estonians are very hard working people, often with more than one job at once. This means that youth centers, such as this one, are very important to families, particularly those who have to travel long distances to get to school. Eventually we said our goodbyes and exchanged gifts. Eha had put together a large selection of local chocolates and a cake.

Our final destination was the Maniku Forest Farm, just out of Viljandi, where we had booked a log cabin for the following two nights. The cabin was split down the middle, meaning two groups could stay at the one time, however, as it was the off-season, we were able to use both for no extra cost.

With a couple of hours daylight left, we decided to visit the nearby town of Karstna, where my great-great grandfather was born and had worked as a gardener at the manor house there. There was still intermittent snowfall and the road to get there was dirt. However, it didn’t look too bad and we were able to travel along it for some kilometers without trouble. Unfortunately, with 10km to go, the road became particularly steep and windy. With the weather worsening, we beat a hasty retreat to our cosy cabin to warm up. We lit one of the log stoves and cooked dinner.