Jaanipäev, which is Estonia's big summer holiday, was today. Monday is for bonfires and grilling and parties, much like Fourth of July but bigger. Most Estonians get Monday and Tuesday off work. It's technically "St John's Day", but is more a general summer celebration and is merged with Victory Day, a holiday for remembrance of the Estonian War of Independence following World War One.
Ave and I went to Otepää Friday afternoon with Arx and Olja. The usual great food and relaxing countryside over the weekend. Ave made wonderful chicken fajitas and I made pretty good refried beans and guacamole on Saturday to share some mexican cuisine with the Estonians. They seemed to enjoy, but I'm not sure they'll be making these recipes in our absence.
On Monday I played soccer in the rain with Argo and some of his friends. It rained most of the time over the long weekend. Apparently, in the past 15 years or so they've only had a couple dry Jaanipäevs. But dry or wet, I'm not real good at soccer. Afterwards we went back home and Arx made me partake of the sauna, another thing I'm not real good at at. But I survived the heat (110 degrees celsius or 230 fahrenheit) for about 10 minutes which was about as long as Argo stayed, though he went back in later.
Then grilling all evening and lots of eating! It doesn't really start to get dark until about 11:30 (and even then it's just sort of dusky until the sun rises again at about 3am) so we could grill till late at night. Most of Ave's extended family was there, and it was nice to see them all.
Oh, and Thursday before we left we went to a "walking play". Not sure what else to call it; it was sort of like a thespian pub crawl except no pubs. Just outdoor areas and the Patarei prison. This is a very old, now abandonded, prison was as location in much of the movie "Stalker" by Tarkovsky, which is one of my favorite movies. Pics here.
No comments:
Post a Comment