12.8: Võru

Today I decided that a day-trip to Võru would be nice. A person I was hoping to see while in Rõuge was another family friend, Karin Kilomann. Karin went to school with my great uncle Arne and they have kept in touch since then. I visited her when we were in Rõuge last time <this post>. I did see Karin on Monday and tried to introduce myself, but it didn’t really work. I figured that if I wrote her a letter in Estonian (with some help from Google translate) it would give her time to digest who I am so that when I showed up it wouldn’t be totally unexpected. So, before I departed I wandered over to her house and slipped the letter into what I hoped was her letterbox. Then it was off to Võru.

The preferred mode of transport in Estonia

I had the exact same little bus and driver as my previous journey. This time, there were a few more passengers though, presumably off to run their errands in town for the day, not unlike me. One of the tutors from the language course, Katre, grew up in Võru and was able to provide some really good suggestions of things to see and do. Today turned out to be probably the warmest so far, reaching the low 30’s. Fortunately there was intermittent cloud so I wasn’t in the full sun all of the time. I first headed to the ruins of the Kirumpää citadel, where a geocache was situated. The citadel was originally constructed by the Bishop of Tartu in 1322 and was then repeatedly demolished and rebuilt by various forces throughout the centuries until its final demolition, which took place during the Swedish-Russian war of 1656.

Citadel ruins

Wandering back into town, I happened upon the Karma antique shop, apparently the largest in Estonia. It was full of interesting old stuff and was quite interesting to look around. I even bought some old soviet era postcards which I thought were pretty cool. 

Antique shop

I then wandered down to the Roosisaar bridge, on the shore of Lake Tamula, which fronts the town. Near here, Estonia’s oldest archaeological cache was found in the 40’s, with items dating back some 4500 years.

Now that's a wood pile, I'm slightly envious 

An impressive fungus

Roosisaar bridge 

Along the foreshore of the lake an attractive faux beach has been created and today it was packed with people. I went to a café which had been recommended, had a very nice coffee and cake and began writing out some postcards. I was able to buy stamps from the tourist information centre. In the afternoon I checked out the Võrumaa art gallery and tourist information centre. There was a small expedition of modern art, which was quite nice. The museum was most interesting. One section displayed a number of the archaeological finds from near the bridge, along with more archaeological finds from around the county, including Rõuge. There were extensive displays about the Võro and Setu people, the various wars and some of the notable people and families from Võrumaa. Overall I found it all most interesting, though I was a tad disappointed that I couldn’t find anything about Visela.

Around Võru

Art

Prehistoric horn

Model of ancient settlement at Rõuge

Big Funnybone and Little Funnybone (anyone remember that kids show??) 

Setu People 

Soviet map of Australia

After all of this activity, a beer was in order so I found a nice bar with a shaded terrace and finished my postcards before wandering back to the bussijaam to catch the bus home.

When I arrived back, Laili told me that Karin had been around earlier and would come over at 10.00 the next day. Success.