A Holiday in a Vacation House in Estonia

You have probably noticed that Estonia is our favourite summer holiday destination. While others head south, we head north again. This time we did not stay at a campsite or one of Estonia's celebrated SPA hotels, but instead chose to rent an entire family house on the seashore via Booking.com. The large glazed windows, the private sauna, and the proximity to the sea were the selling points. Moreover, the Kabli area was already familiar, as it is home to one of the few sandy beaches on Estonia's western coast. The other shores are either overgrown with grass or so rocky that entering the water without swim shoes is simply out of the question.

The location near Kabli (15 km from the Latvian border) was also ideal because there is no internet there and no way to sit at a computer. A whole week cut off from the outside world - just the local music radio station, which could be turned up to full volume (a privilege, unlike in a Rīga apartment). The only accessible Wi-Fi was at the beach in Kabli itself, by the wooden hut and the observation tower.

The Estonian coast always appeals with a touch of wildness - non-commercial (no changing booths, ice cream vendors, parasols, or sun loungers), with large stones emerging from the water here and there, reed meadows and pine forests.

Estonian landlords are typically very trusting and write everything out in great detail by email, but do not agonise over paranoid security considerations - you will find the house key under a log on the porch, and on your way out simply drop the rent money in the letterbox. All so simple and relaxed. The house had everything needed for living, including crockery, porridge oats, oil, and spices in the kitchen, shampoo and soap in the shower, even a crate of beer and cider, towels - only bed linen had to be brought along, as the landlady's washing machine was broken. Firewood was prepared for the sauna and charcoal for a large, quality grill.

On the first day, once settled into the house, we shot off to browse the shops in Pärnu (55 km away) to stock up on provisions for the week - meat for grilling, the delicious Tere yoghurts, Saaremaa cheeses, and the like. The following days, given that the temperature had climbed to +35°C, we swam, lounged in the rocking chair on the spacious wooden terrace, devoted ourselves to literary reading, and in the evenings to culinary indulgences and Monopoly. A couple of years ago such idleness would have irritated me, but this time it was exactly right.

There was time to study the neighbours. The house to the right was probably also let, as the occupants changed every two days - first a cheerful group of young people, then a middle-aged couple. To the left - the "mad old dear" - every day (every single day!) she mowed the grass: first with a petrol lawnmower, then with a trimmer, then with a ride-on mower, and at six in the morning she washed the windows of her large log house. The grounds, which looked like two adjacent plots that had been bought together, were immaculate - yet it was never enough for the old lady.

Across the road the neighbour had a sizeable dog (we named him Koer - "koer" being Estonian for "dog"), who was friendly with everyone and prowled the terraces of surrounding houses begging for something to eat. A few houses further on, an old man was digging potatoes in a small garden. This was unusual, as at most Estonian detached houses no kitchen gardens were to be seen - only a well-kept lawn and the occasional fruit tree or ornamental bush or shrub. When we came over to ask whether he might sell a kilogram of potatoes, he replied in the typically unhurried Estonian manner - in Russian: "Ja ne dumayu, chto mne nado prodavat' kartoshku." ("I don't think I need to sell potatoes.")

The sea was some 100 m from the house. The only problem was that the shore was covered in seaweed, which smelt as one might expect, and the seabed was strewn with rather sharp stones. One could wade out as far as the safety buoy but the water barely reached one's neck. So on several occasions we drove to swim at Kabli beach, a couple of kilometres away, or the shore near Kosmonautika, which has since been cleaned up by industrious Estonian hands and is now very pleasant for sea bathing. Kosmonautika holds a certain nostalgic significance - it was the first place we had come upon in Estonia and declared to be worth visiting. From that point, the annual summer trips to Estonia began.