Sitting on the porch of our scandinavian hut in the middle of nowhere I looked into the distance, where mother nature was presenting its power in form of a thunderstorm, which was illuminating the dark blue sky with occasional electrical bursts. After an eventful day, which led us through Saaremas pine forests down to a lighthouse marking the meeting point of the baltic sea and the Gulf of Riga, before turning to explore Kurresaares castle, we eventually returned to our refuge in the North West of the island, where we decided to take an ice-cold bath in the sea that swallowed the setting sun, leaving behind an orange glow and cloudy silhouettes appearing like starships hovering in the sky.  

Our group of ten adventurers had just made dinner and warmed ourselves in the sauna of our hut, before we took a quick dive in the pond behind our shelter. And now I was sitting alone on the porch, the sky dark by now and only illuminated by electricity – thinking how lucky I am to explore this beautiful country:

Estonia.

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Okay okay. I know it took me some time to finally let you in on how I experienced my actual destination of my travel: Tartu. 

But now here are – finally – my first impressions of my home for the next four months. 

After driving through the Estonian landscape for around 3 hours the bus eventually made it to the first sign of civilisation of the journey. When driving into the city, my eyes were glued to the window like I was driving through Times Square for the first time, instead of a 90,000 inhabitant town in the south of Estonia. 

This 90,000 town should be my home for the next four months. In my first impressions I was a McDonalds and several shopping malls. So far, not great not terrible. 

When I was leaving the bus I made the following discoveries:

Tartu seemed even smaller than I expected, which also has its good sites though, since everything is in 10min walking distance. 

Already in my first 30 minutes I realized that Tartu is either completely inhabitated by students or – during summer break – not at all. 

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Tartu is a city that seems like it really wants to be a big city, (with skyscrapers, companies and a busy life) but actually is just a little town in the south of Estonia.

But for what it is, it is pretty impressive.

After my first day in the romantic student capital of Estonia, the following days and weeks should reveal more and more experiences and discoveries about the town and university itself, the student community as well as the often forgotten country in the North East of Europe I would aspire to explore in every detail. 

Looking back at the 4,5 months I spend in the self-proclaimed cultural capital of Estonia, I think there could not have been a better place for me to end up in. Many of you might know that I was not super happy when I first found out that I would end up in Tartu.

Looking at it now however, I feel just grateful for the experiences and friends I made in this country and would not have it any other way. I am happy to say that all the people that told me this would be an absolutely amazing experience, were right.

And this not despite, but because I ended up this remote place somewhere in the north of Europe in a country most people could not find on a map. It was amazing.

In the next days I will upload a condensed form of the notes and bits and pieces I already wrote, about Estonian nature, culture and my life in a remote city in the south of Estonia.

Sorry for the mega-delay:D!

above you can see the ¨kissing students¨, the university museum in an old church on the ¨toome hill¨, which is the campus at the same time, and cute store a Tartus ¨shopping boulevart¨ Rüütli Street.