Peter's Europe Blog: 20.8: Day of Restoration of Independence

As the title suggests, today was a public holiday to celebrate the restoration of Estonian independence 24 years ago on 20 August 1991, concluding 50 years of occupation. Thus, the level of patriotism was turned up a notch with flags prominently flown on any available flagpole and many cars bore little Estonian flags on their windows. I have been told, however, that Independence Day, which celebrates Estonia’s original declaration of independence on 24 February 1918, is when the real festivities occur.

After breakfast at the hotel, I decided to head over to Lüübnitsa, as there were a few geocaches over that way. Lübnitsa is about 10 km from Räpina and is located in the Setomaa region. Setomaa was once its own county, called Petserimaa, with the town of Petseri as the capital. However, upon Estonia regaining independence in 1991, Russia decided to keep a large swathe of Petserimaa including Petseri, which is now called Pechory. This is the main reason why it was only last year that Estonia formally ratified its border with Russia, after an extremely protracted diplomatic process. What remained of Petserimaa divided between Põlvamaa and Võrumaa. Interestingly, Räpina used to fall within Võrumaa and there are signs on the road that show where the border of that county used to be.

So, back to what I did. I rode to Lüübnitsa. Along the way I checked out the Räpina cemetery. It’s quite a large cemetery and was interesting because it didn’t seem to have any specific old or new sections, rather the graves were all pretty evenly distributed from the mid 1800’s to present. Again it was set in forest. All the gravesites were very well tended, clearly regularly raked over and many with planted with flowers and ferns. Indeed there were many people out tending their graves on this sunny day. Other common graveside inclusions are seats, lit candles, rakes and watering cans. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos as I later realised that I hadn’t put the SD card back in my camera so the photos I thought I was taking weren’t being saved – most frustrating!!

Upon arrival in Lübnitsa I was greeted with lots of onions! Again I headed to the observation tower to try and find a geocache. Alas, I couldn’t find the cache but I did finally realise I wasn’t taking photos so I was able to get some with my phone. In view across the lake were several Russian islands that the people here used to regularly visit by boat or even by foot in the winter. I’ll post more information about the people in this region when I go back to Lübnitsa Saturday for their annual Fish and Onion Festival.

Crossing into Setomaa, over Võhandu jõgi

View to Lüübnitsa

Veggie patch

Onions drying on rack

Old lady tending her onions

You can probably guess what I would caption this

On the way back to Räpina, I noticed some more information panels in the little village of Võõpsu so went check it out. Apparently the little orthodox chapel here is the largest wooden church in Setomaa – such an accolade! In the afternoon I spent a while on the outside terrace of a café/pub in town catching up with some writing.

Largest wooden church in Setomaa

Peaking inside

After this, I rode to a nearby meteorite crater, located in the middle of a forest. The walk in was very peaceful, until I neared the crater, which was filled with water and about ten squillion mozzies and marsh flies. When I wasn’t being attacked it was a pretty little spot. The crater itself was a little ill defined. I suppose erosion and plant growth have changed its shape over the years.