Parnu

On Friday we took a bus to Parnu which is the spa and beach city of Estonia.  Our bus ride was 2.5 hours which was the quickest and most direct route but we drove through the tiniest towns on the smallest roads- I swear we only went 30 kph for at least an hour!   We arrived in Parnu and we were starving so we headed to the local pizza place for lunch which was yummy.  Then we wandered the city, it was raining so we couldn't go to the beach.  We saw the main street, the beach and it's promenade and the mud bath building that made the city famous - unfortunately it is closed down now.  

The main street

We also saw St. Catherine's church and the Tallinn gate which was part of the city's fortification in medieval times.  We then when to a nearby spa hotel and booked massages and treatments.  We had a light dinner at a local restaurant then Sarah went to her massage.  We had the same masseur.....unlucky for us the masseur spoke no English.  Sarah had a nice massage and I was excited for mine the next day.  While Sarah was getting her massage I found a cute coffee house and had a hot chocolate and read.  We then played cards in our room till we were exhausted.

Inside the local Eastern Orthodox Church

The mud baths that made Parnu famous- they are now closed

We found an excellent bakery in town and ate breakfast there everyday.  They had fresh donuts, pastries and my favorite kolaches!  The next day I had my massage- I had opted for a honey massage- it sounded different and relaxing.  Boy was I wrong....it was the most painful massage ever!  It wasn't really even a massage but more of a skin treatment - it was sticky and basically felt like an indian burn....I kept thinking "this part will be over soon -it can't last the full hour" - nope it lasted the whole hour!  If my masseur spoke English I would have asked for something different but I was out of luck.  The same day Sarah had a milk bath that was nice but they didn't give her a towel or tell her she needed one- obviously the Estonian version of a "spa" and our version were slightly different.  Later that day we shopped (it was still raining) and had dinner at a Tex-Mex place- which was humorous to say the least but the margarita was good.  Then we headed to a bar that was inside the walls of  Tallinn gate for a drink.  

The Harmonica Festival!

The next day as you might have guessed it was cool and overcast again so no beach for us.  Parnu really relies on the beach so there is not a lot to do besides beach stuff - so when it is cold it is struggle to entertain yourself.  Well we saw that there was a "parade" today so we went to see it.  It was basically 5 guys playing some instruments walking down the side walk with regular folks following- so we joined it and were members of the Estonian parade!  The parade lead us to the old beach salon which has an outdoor amphitheater so we paid our $4 and sat and watched the Baltic-Nordic HARMONICA Festival.  It was actually pretty fun - we had a nice lunch and some beers and took in the sights of small town Estonia.  We stayed there for a few hours.  Later that evening we had a nice Italian meal with fresh homemade pasta.

Sarah enjoying a beer with some great harmonica music!