Yesterday myself and a few other international students went to a nearby town in Estonia, only an hour away from Tartu. Viljandi is an old town in Southern Estonia and is known for its rich history. After enduring an hour bus ride with some drunk guys behind us (at 10 AM!!!) we finally made it to Viljandi. We started our day out by walking to a very large park that lead to the castle ruins of a Teutonic order from the 1200s. The castle was located on top of a big hill and the German Knights started construction in 1224, and wasn't completed for over 200 years. Unfortunately as wars throughout history have always wrecked havoc on ancient structures, the castle was ruined by a series of wars; the Livonian War (1558-1583), The Polish-Swedish Wars (1600-1623), and lastly the Northern War (1700-1710). What remains of the castle today are a few high stone walls, as well as "Villus Dungeon", still very well intact. The castle overlooks a large lake and although while we were there it was frozen and covered with snow I can imagine that in the spring the whole area would be absolutely breathtaking! After our walk through the ruins, I started noticing some things. Because it was the German Teutonic Order that had control over the town of Viljandi, quite a few of the history displays were shown in German. Now everywhere in Estonia I have been so far I have seen it is common for the languages displayed to be Estonian, Russian, or Latvian, some places don't even have English. So, when we went a cafe in Viljandi I saw the menu had a few common German dishes. We also had lunch at a pizza joint, that had menus in German. The German influence from over 800 years ago is still alive and thriving and I find that very fascinating :) The only thing that was a let down for the trip was that their history museum was closed because apparently they;re only open Monday through Fridays, a bummer to miss out on that because of all the archeological excavations they said they have performed and all of the artifacts are in that museum. My favorite part about that walk was either the giant swing thing we found or the very well preserved dungeon. Both pictured below!
Giant Swing, hard to get started, but so fun!
The Dungeon!
We went to pizza restaurant for lunch and it was quite an experience to see the creations they had come up with... crazy things! For example, there was a pizza with sausage, eggs, cucumbers, and olives... then there was another that had bacon, peppers, and peaches. It was interesting to read all the choices, some very different. Pretty much after we saw the ruins, attempted to see the museum, and then had lunch, we realized that there was nothing else to see in the town. A lot of the places were seasonal and open only during the Spring and Summer. I definitely want to go back during that time because I feel like there was so much I didn't get to see! A short day, but a great one and spent with great friends! :)
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