Memories of Germans from Estonia

Hi,

today we're publishing the next part of the compositions written by the German students who travelled to Estonia in May. 

Enjoy the reading!

My Comenius days in Estonia

On Thursday the 29th of May we started our trip to Estonia. We met at the airport of Nuremberg and took the plane to Frankfurt and then to Tallinn. There we had to wait for the bus of another group to pick us up and drive us to Kivioli. When we arrived our hosts were already waiting for us, so we went home, had dinner and then recovered from the trip.

In the morning we went to school and our hosts showed us parts of the school, before we went to the presentation of the films about our topic: Our way to EU/NATO. After lunch in the cafeteria, we went by bus to the Vaivara war museum. There we made a walk around the area to see where battles took place and to see some old bunkers. In the museum we saw original weapons, uniforms and other things they found in the woods after the fights. Next we visited Narva-Joesuu and had a picnic at the beach and then travelled back to Kivioli with a short stop at a waterfall. On Saturday we went to the capital Tallinn. First we visited the museum of Occupation where we learned something about the history of Estonia. After that we had a guided tour around the old town. I think it’s really beautiful, because of all the old churches and old houses. We had some free time with our hosts after that, so we ate something and went shopping. When we went back we ate in a traditional restaurant with very delicious food and had some time at the seaside again, because we had a flat tyre.

On Sunday I went to a park with my host and her boyfriend. It was very beautiful there, because you have there gardens, old woods and the seaside.

In the evening we went to the beach to make barbecue. We had much fun and it was really beautiful there, because of the sunset. So on Monday we were very sad to say goodbye to our hosts and we all wished to stay there some more time.

Johanna Mehringer

My Comenius Days in Estonia

On the 29th of May, late in the evening, we finally arrived at our destination, the small but beautiful city Kiviõli in Estonia. We all were warmly welcomed by our host families and then went with them to our home for the next few days.

The next day started pretty early, because we had to be in school at 9.30 am, and my host sister wanted to give me and my friend a tour around their school, about which I can say now is more modern than our school. At 9.30, we all met in the Assembly hall to listen to the school choir and to watch national dances, performed by some younger students. After that, we watched the presentations from each country, with a short cake break and the presentations about Estonia. We had lunch in the canteen of the school and went later to Vaivara, a small town with a museum about the two World Wars in Estonia. In the evening, we had free time with our families, so my family took me canoeing on a beautiful lake near Kiviõli. Astonishing was, that we stayed at the lake until 10 pm, but the sun was still up as if it was at 5 pm.

On our second day, we went  to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. After a guided tour in a museum about the two World Wars, we had another guided tour, through the charming old town. The whole afternoon was free for us students again, so we had another chance to get known to Tallinn by ourselves. For dinner time, we drove to a traditional Estonian restaurant near the seaside. The food was there, as always actually, incredibly delicious.  Before we went on with our bus, we all went to the beach and walked a little bit. When we arrived in Kiviõli that evening, we all were too tired to do something, so we went to bed.

Sunday, the last day arrived too early, but our host families all knew a way to let us forget that the next day  we had to leave. After we all slept very long, my family took me to a Spa in Rakvere. We were there two foreign exchange partners (a girl from Spain and me) and our host sisters with family. Later, we had lunch and went to a mall, where we girls went shopping of course (Estonian stores have opened on Sundays!).  In the evening, we met other Comenius students again at a barbecue party near the seaside. We ate a lot, went barefoot to the beach, and some even took out a guitar and sang a bit. For most of us, this was the best way to end this exchange.

On Monday it was time to say good bye to my family and to fly back to Germany, where we arrived pretty late in the evening, tired, but happy that we were there.  I would like to say a big thank you for all the people that were in this magnificent journey, especially to my lovely host family!

Friederike Schattke

Comenius project – Estonia 2014

After our long journey by flight from Nürnberg over Frankfurt to Tallinn we finally arrived at the airport. A teacher from our partner school welcomed us there and together we waited for some of the other students that would take part in our project. When they finally arrived by bus, we climbed in and together we went to Kivioli. At school in Kivioli our exchange partners were already waiting for us. So we went home with our new families and had a great evening with them together. The next two days we had a very interesting  program. We visited the war museum in Vaivaraand, went to a look-out where we could see half of Estonia (more or less), had a beautiful picnic at the beach and went to Tallinn to visit the „old times of Tallinn“-festival. We were all enjoying the ambience and bought traditional candies made in Estonia. Sunday we had free time with our partners and so my host family went to a swamp with us. On the way I had the probably most exciting moment of our visit: I saw a bear in wildlife. In the evening  a group of us went to the beach to do a barbecue. With some of the Spanish people and our Estonian hosts we were making plans about visiting each other again and so we were all sad when the sun finally set in the sea and we had to go. The luggage was packed fast and in the next morning we were all so sad about leaving, but we finally had to. So we started out for our travel back. It was such a wonderful time with the whole group, so our thoughts are all the same: the time we had was too short, but thank you very much for the great time we had!

Annegret Lehmeier