Mõisaküla #visitestonia #Eesti100 #estonia100 #mõisaküla

Mõisaküla is a town in southern Estonia, part of Mulgi Parish of Viljandi County, just next to the border of Latvia. It is considered to be the smallest town in Estonia. The town has 32 streets, with the total length of 15,5 km.

Mulgi- Mulgimaa is area in South-Estonia, with own culture, traditions, food and dialect.

Mõisaküla was born because of railway. Trains do not travel here today… This is just one last and least wagon…

This area and culture is perfect example about the globalisation already in 19th of century. During the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865 was lack of cotton and price was very high.
So, was demand for alternatives. South Estonia, Mulgimaa has perfect conditions for cultivation of linen. Bondage was in Estonia abolished 1816, but still farmers were very poor and land was owned by landlords. But because of America and demand for linen, farmers gets enough money to buy from landlords land and farms. And this area become rich and successful. This made others little bit jealous and they started to call people and this area Mulgimaa 🙂
In Latvia means word- Mulk- ” silly” and in Estonia it means “hole”- in meaning that the all richness went in to the one hole…:)

My maternal family is from Mõisaküla area and there lives my aunt and cousin.
Near to the Mõisküla is Vanamõisa. My grandmother and grandfather died long time ago  but their house is still here.

Estonia is the Paradise of Introverts 🙂 Estonians saying : A good neighbour is one where you can just barely see the smoke of their chimney from your window.’
In South- Estonia  you can feel, how is to be the last soul in the Earth 🙂 You can drive through the Estonian countryside and not see another living soul for miles.

Close to Mõisaküla

• Start your tour from Valga. Valka and the Estonian town Valga are twins, separated by the Estonian/Latvian border
• Have lunch in Tõrva and admire beautiful lakes,
• The ruins of Helme Order Castle and the Helme caves, which are an unrivaled sight in Estonia
• Taagepera Castle. Baron Hugo von Stryk built this great Art Nouveau style castle more than one hundred years ago.
  
• Tering Landscape Reserve. To get an overview of the Reserve and enjoy the marsh nature, a 4.5 km long round plank road has been built, to go through it you need approximately 2 hours. There is a lot of information on the track about the flora, fauna and birds, and there are also resting benches along the track.
• now you very close to Latvian border. Visit Latvia 🙂 And alcohol in Latvia is much cheaper than in Estonia 🙂 🙂  And Latvian ice cream is amazing!
• Before you arrive in Pärnu, visit Lottemaa.

In Estonia

• Practically all Estonians speak or at least understand English. Generation +40 speak and understand Russian. Because of the similarity of languages Estonians are able to understand Finnish. Children learn German, French and some Swedish or Chinese at school
• almost everywhere you can pay with a card. ATM -s are in bigger places and petrol stations.
• and yes, this is not fairy tale. almost everywhere in Estonia is Wifi

In South Estonia and Mulgimaa:

• check for my blog tag ” Mulgi”. Mulgi cuisine is famous and you should eat Mulgi kapsas, Mulgi puder, Mulgi korbid.
• swim in a forest lake after smoke sauna
• Berries and mushrooms can be picked from July until the first snow falls. And yes, this is very ok, eat wild berries picked from the forest.

Best Souvenirs to buy from Estonia

• Kalev chocolate, liqueur Old Tallinn/Vana Tallinn, Balbiino ice cream and Tallinna spiced sprats (Tallinna vürtsikilu)
• Handicrafts made of linen, wool, wood, juniper or limestone. Haapsalu scarf.
  (NB! In Tallinn Viru Street you can find a lot of amber and Matrjoschka. Amber is from Lithuania and Matrjoschka from Russia. Both countries are beautiful and with rich culture and interesting history. I suggest to visit Lithuania and Russia :))
• for children, everything about and with Lotte.

Estonian Food you Must to Try

• visit Estonian supermarkets and buy some Estonian dairy products: kohuke, kodujuust (cottage cheese), hapukoor (sour cream). Buy Kama and rye bread, handicraft beer
• In restaurants ask for quark cake, soups with dumplings, meat balls or cabbage. Semolina cream, quark cream or bread cream. Local lake fish. Drink kefir, kvass or local beer. Värska mineral water. And Estonian tap water and forest spring water are clean, pure and drinkable.

Culture:

• check and google timetable for Viljandi Folk, Pärnu Weekend, Jazzkaar, PÖFF or Laulupidu.
• buy movie about Estonian history: ” Nimed marmortahvlil”, ” Tants aurukatla ümber”, ” “Tuulepealne maa”. Or ” Malev”, this is comedy and pseudo history, but very good summary about Estonians.
• Music: Pärt ja Tüür. Tõnis Mägi, The Sun; Metsatöll and TradAttack. And read my blog posts. I gave a lot of links for good Estonian music.