hi. because all of my previous posts in this blog have been in Estonian, i chose to write the next one in English, not only to appeal to foreign readers but also to use this chance to introduce some of the things you can do in this slushy November here in the southern town of Tartu, Estonia. namely, i had such an interesting week that i had the feeling i should write about it. note: photos in this post are illustratory, i google image searched them.
last monday i had the unique pleasure of visiting St. Anthony’s Guild. for those who don’t know what a guild is – a guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The golden age of guilds took place way back in the Middle Ages and since then there are but a few left who want to maintain the know-how of handicraft. we opted to visit the Stained Glass House to make some glass birds.
after the workshop, we wanted to have some Chinese food so we visited Tsink Plekk Pang. Chef’s noodles with honey chicken is a delight worth trying.
moving on to Tuesday, the break of the crisp morning invited us onto a barge (lodi in Estonian) to catch an early boatride. The Peipsi lodi is an unique one-masted sailer adjusted for transport on the nearby lake Peipsi and its’ rivers. According to historians lodi was used in hanseatic trade on River Emajõgi already in the 14. century. Peipsi barges brought furs, wax, honey, flax and hemp from Russia, also most of the firewood ended up in Tartu the same way. after sitting under lambskins an sipping seaman spirit out of a steel cup, listening to the captain talk about the history of boating on the river in a crackling voice, we felt quite good.
it was also nice to go below deck to sit near an old iron stove and get warmed up before the ride. after the windy ride we took a cab to the nearby Italian restaurant “La Dolce Vita“. most of the people took a standard pizza but i chose a nice creamy salmon pasta.
