Today was in interesting day that started with an accidental sleep in. I woke up, looked at my watch and it was 9.45am! That is unheard of for me!
We started with a quick supermarket shop. I’m loving the different foods they have here. I got a couple of pastry type things that looked a bit like enclosed sausage rolls. Mine had cabbage inside, and Mikes had meat. They were delicious. I also bought some pickled cabbage and roasted chicken pieces to have for lunch. I do love me some good pickled cabbage.
As we left the small village of Loksa, we noticed lots of Soviet-era abandoned buildings. For some reason I find this fascinating. We stopped to explore one of the old buildings. It felt surreal, stepping through a crumbling doorway into a space that, not so long ago, would have been completely off-limits and probably even top secret. A lone security camera was still mounted on the building, adding an eerie layer to the atmosphere. Were we being monitored? Or was it a relic from the past?
These buildings have likely been empty since Estonia regained its independence in 1991. One building still had faded curtains fluttering in the broken windows.
We continued driving along the north east of Estonia, no great plan. We are the worst tourists, and google isn’t much help either. We stopped at a little food truck set up on the seaside that was selling smoked perch, so we stopped and had some for a snack. It was yummy.
Then we turned down a rutted gravel road, with no idea what we’d find. In the distance, I spotted some castle ruins, and this excited me. So we took a short walk to check it out.
It turned out to be Toolse Castle, an impressive structure perched on the edge of the Baltic Sea. Though crumbling, it’s still clinging to the life, hanging on since the 1400s. It’s one of the northernmost medieval castles in Europe. Wandering around the ruins was fascinating, and best of all, it was free to visit. Bonus!
Tonight we are camping in a campground again as the free spots we’ve seen are not that great. We are planning to go to Narva tomorrow, a town on the border with Russia.