The City of Kuressaare

This nice young lady helped us with the bows and arrows inside Kuressaare castle.

It's been an entertaining experience to watch the culture clash between our group of boisterous Americans and the local Estonians. There are a few from our choir who constantly remind the rest that we're too loud, and that we needn't shout at the breakfast table in order to be heard.

Wooden wares at the market

It also seems that we're extremely friendly and ever eager to talk to people we don't know. Maybe it's a Portland thing, but until today, it was rare that one of the locals would approach one of us and strike up a conversation.

Unless they were selling something, that is. This morning, after last night's concert, we hopped on the bus to briefly tour the immediate area. We drove down the street, past the church and headed south. The beauty of the old buildings continued through the main town square, eventually opening into a tree-filled park.

On the other side of the park was what we had come to see: Kuressaare castle, it's tiled roof rising above the city proper and casting a distinctly romantic shadow on the scene around it. We circled the ancient structure and made for the southermost part of the city, where the land sticks out into the Baltic sea.

We stopped there for a few minutes, pausing to skip rocks on the rough beach, and boarded the bus once again. We were dropped off back at the hotel and lit out for the city to explore, shop and eat.

This is the entrance to the market, facing the street.

Our first stop was the small market about a half mile from our hotel, which sits just off the center of Kuressaare. The market bent around a building and filled the alleyway behind it with a handful of stands selling handmade wooden products, handmade clothes and handmade jewelry. This wasn't your typical cheap American flea market, it was real.

I was fascinated with some of the woven and knitted sweaters, and one of the vendors caught on to my interest. At first she tried to show me a t-shirt with a map of Saaremaa on the front for 14 euros, but the run-of-the mill wasn't what caught my eye.

I'd describe it, but it's a gift for one of my readers and it would spoil the surprise, but I will say that I haggled the price down 10 euros using only the words 'tere,' 'vaga ilus' and 'aitah.' The lady thought it was for my 'boyfriend,' though, but I suppose I'll need to work on my Estonian.

A few minutes later, gift in hand, another woman tapped me on the shoulder. In broken English, she told me that our concert the previous evening was beautiful, and that she planned on bringing her husband to our next concert. She also was saddened that we hadn't gotten more publicity, because the beauty of our music was worth it, according to her. It was a touching reminder of how much the people appreciate the things we do. It came out as part of our conversation that she was Finnish, but still understood the depth and value of the music we had performed last night.

After the market, we made for the castle, which I'd been excited about for the last several months. It was exactly as magical as I had expected. To enter, you cross a bridge and walk through a 20-foot wall into the main courtyard. The castle itself stands directly across from the entrance. Some members of the group payed the five euros to wander the castle, but a smaller group of us went around the corner and happened upon a selection of bows and arrows, and spent six euros for 15 minutes of fun with the backdrop of the 14th century castle. 

Once we'd had our fill, the group gathered on the bridge to watch the birds fish from the moat before walking back to the main square for a late lunch. I shared a delightful pizza and salad with the best fetta I'd ever tasted.

We are now back at the hotel for an hour or so of rest before our konsert in the castle this evening. I'm as excited for this performance as any we've had so far. This castle was built in the 1380s, making it around 630 years old. I'll have more photos up on my Facebook page, in case this blog continues to have problems with uploading pictures.