Day 7: Sunrise, fish, harbour

We all get up rather early every day, partly because we don't stay up too late, partly because of all the fresh air we get, and partly of course because it's good to get up between 6 and 7 and then have some breakfast and discussions, and get to work early. But today, Bettina got up extra early in order to film some sunrise sequences and storks - she was out there sometime between 3 and 5 in the night, while she let the rest of us sleep.

Today, we went north, to Kallaste, actually to get some money out of the ATM there. There aren't exactly a lot of ATM's around, and Kallaste is the nearest we know about. We did some shopping, and on the way we noticed a cute little cafe in Kallaste, so we decided to visit it, and during lunch decided that it might be interesting to have a little interview-style chat with the owners on video. The place is Anna's Cafe, so we talked with Anna, a young lady who owns the cafe and lives in the same building with her mother, who had originally started the place.

This turned into a very funny and of course also interesting conversation about life, ambitions, living in a very small town, careers and activity. As we know already, there isn't a lot of work in these places, so most people live from their pensions and/or from selling onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, or fish, whatever they can catch or grow. There are some work places in the area for instance at the Kallaste harbour where fish is processed, but not a lot. So we were rather impressed with these two ladies from Anna's Cafe who, facing this situation, simply decided to become entrepreneurs and start their own cafe and guesthouse, catering to tourists, who apparently like this cozy place very well.

As we walked around their house to have a look at their garden, next to the small cliffs that form a part of Kallaste's lake shore, we stand there and see a neighbor grilling fish. We must have looked rather curious: He suddenly came over to the fence, started talking with us very interested and in fluent English, told that this is his summer house and he actually lives in Tallinn, and then gave us two hands full of the fish he was just grilling. A great snack!

We went on to the harbour in Kallaste, where behind some abandoned buildings a rather new yet small building is home to the fishing harbour, receiving and processing the catch of the day. Some fishermen refused to be filmed, but a few kids who were playing there were immediately ready to talk with us about how they see the place.