Parnu and the Swamps of Estonia
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View Larger Panoramic Version stitched from 6 photos
While moving on from Tallinn, I had two choices of places to visit in Estonia – Tartu and Parnu. Tartu is charming little university inland from Tallinn. The other choice was Parnu – a historical beach-side sea resort and Estonia’s summer capital. I chose to go to Parnu as it would allow me to get to Riga (my next destination in neighboring Latvia) easily. Also during the summer, Tartu would would be pretty much dead silent.
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Parnu Breakwaters
Luckily for me, I got a CS host (I stayed in a tent in his backyard as his house was small) in Parnu. During the day I went around Parnu Town and visited the beach. While enquiring tourist bureau in Parnu, I came to know I was apparently the second Indian to visit Parnu that year. Later in the day, JP (my CS host) took me to Parnu Breakwaters. The Parnu breakwaters at the mouth of the Parnu river extend 5kms into the sea from either side of the banks of the river. They were built over 10 – 11 years in the 1800s. As you walk towards the small lighthouses at the end of the backwaters into the sea you can see stones marked with roman numerals (see pic below) marking the years in which certain parts of the breakwaters were completed.
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Swamps of Parnu
While chatting with JP, he offered to take me to a swamp nearby. Since I did not rent a car, I had pretty much given any hope of visiting the Baltic Islands or inland swamps so visiting one was a pleasant surprise. Estonia is a flat country with the lowest point being the Baltic sea at 0m and the highest being Suur Munamägi at 318 m. Being a flat country there are a bumber of large swampy areas (such as the Soomaa National Park). It was getting late in the day so we had to rush but we reached just before sunset to catch a glimpse. Many Estonians are nature worshippers and JP was one of them. They believe that the swamps are places of negative energy and people stay away from them. The swamp were really lifeless with only small grass growing on the surface and no life (not even frogs or insects in the water logged areas).