Traveling Around Estonia Halfway through our program, we spent a week traveling around eastern Estonia.
Our first stop was Toila, a well-known seaside resort town. There, we took a VR tour that introduced us to Toila’s history, and later relaxed in the saunas, pool, and hot tubs at our spa hotel.
The next morning, we continued east to Sillamäe (pictured left) for a brief visit, taking a walk along the promenade before getting back on the bus to Narva, a town directly on the Estonia-Russia border. In Narva, we had lunch at the university cafe, explored the town, and even saw Russia across the river.
On our way to our next location, we headed to southeastern Estonia to visit Alatskivi Loss, a 17th-century castle. Unfortunately, we arrived about an hour after closing time and couldn’t tour the inside, but we still enjoyed wandering through the surrounding woods. Along the way, we saw a frog and discovered a “magical” spring, said to be the place where an old man once drank water from and returned as a boy.
Continuing south, we arrived in the town of Varnja on Lake Peipsi, which forms part of the border between Estonia and Russia. We stayed there for two nights in a guesthouse that we had entirely to ourselves. Using groceries we had picked up in Narva, we cooked all our own meals, including omelets, piroshki, borscht, and quiche.
During our stay, we visited Varnja’s Samovar House (pictured right), home to more than a hundred samovars. Our final stop was Tartu, considered Estonia’s intellectual capital, home to the University of Tartu, one of the most prestigious universities in Northern Europe. We were given five hours to explore the city, during which we walked around Old Town, ate at a restaurant known for having the highest pub ceiling in the world (pictured left), visited the university’s art museum, and even saw an old student lock-up—a 19th-century disciplinary room used for offenses ranging from overdue library books to dueling. Later that afternoon, we met with the head of the University of Tartu’s Ukraine Center.
The next day, some students continued on to Riga, Latvia, for a weekend trip, while the rest returned to Tallinn.