Parnu

Another great weekend as we traveled around the countryside in a rented car by this great guy Andres (+3726612400).

On Saturday it was really hot so we decided to spend the day at the beach and headed out to a popular resort town Parnu. The city is substantially larger than we remembered.

There was Hanseatic fair going on and we stopped to walk around different stolls. There were great numbers of them but that was not Kazuka's Fair. They were a bit on the boring side with a few exceptions.

Beach area is well developed with loads of attractions – from playgrounds and squirt fountains for the little ones to surfing kites and beer shacks. Young kids sell ice-cream at the beach. The water was comfortable 20 degrees Celsius and  it did not get deeper than your knees until you reached Sweden. Well, we can only attest to the first 750 meters or so. Kids had a great time.

We had lunch at some local joint and headed back to the beach. By the time we reached the city in the evening it got nice and cool again and we took a stroll in the evening.

We stopped by “our bar” but there were swarms of mosquitoes in the air so we walked around the little bay area where the bar was parked and saw that some of the concrete slabs that make up the boardwalk there had cracked up pretty badly. Instead of waiting for the authorities to ever remove this junk locals had put some wooden sections on top of these plates effectively turning them into a multi-dimensional picnic area. A bunch of people were having dinner or supper on a few of those plates. A few steps further and we were at the stone city beach. Some more people and with families despite it being past 11pm. Someone was even swimming. It is strange but dilapidated place like this feels very safe and you could see that locals and tourists alike really love it.

On the main square another variety of bachelor party was taking place. The victim was dressed in a straight jacket. The torturers wore scrubs or medical robes. They were reciting “no sex before marriage” and doing various funny things in the process. A crowd gathered to watch. As we were leaving we saw a bachelorette party approach them. We missed any outcomes of that exchange.

About the people. They seem to be very warm. Racially it is more integrated than Lithuania. There are plenty of all nationalities here: Asians, Indians, African-Estonians J, and of course Brits like I mentioned before. It is nice to see the kids of the mixed unions. Lots of Russians here and lots of Russian being spoken around. 

Other observation - it seems very fashionable for women to wear scarves on their heads styled to look like something like a Girl with a Pearl Earring. We saw some of the in Vilnius last year but here a lot more women and young girls wear it and it looks lovely.

We read on the news about multi-national efforts to stop the human trafficking. It is interesting to hear it being discussed here as well.