Day 17: Fishing, history, and dinner in the castle

We meet Mrs. Filipova for another interview. We already visited her house in August, but we have more questions, and we also want to ask whether her sons could take us fishing someday. As we arrive at her impressive home, it turns out she's very happy to see us again, and is very ready to talk about this and that. We talk about her family business, the fish factory, which her husband and other people bought right after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and which by now is their family business, and an important employer in the region. She talks about the fishing quotas, and that the amount of fish they are allowed to take out of the lake is being reduced year by year. Apparently there's the ironic (but not entirely unexpected) side story that the Russian Federation and Estonia respectively the European Union agree on fishing quotas for the lake, and then these quotas are observed only on the Estonian side, while Russian fisherman are continuing to do whatever they please. We can't know, but certainly this is what Mrs. Filipova tells us: That they can observe the Russians fishing in the times of the year when no fishing is allowed, and that they suspect that they exceed their quotas significantly, be it because there's a lack of control, or by simply bribing the officials. On the Estonian side, the quotas are apparently respected indeed, even though the local fishing industry as well as the individual fisherman are certainly not happy about them. It seems the quotas are barely enough for them to survive, many have become unemployed, some have moved abroad, and also Mrs. Filipova's family business seems to face uncertain times.

But we didn't only talk about fishing. The family history was a very interesting subject, her stories of the war times, how German forces had this region under control and were waiting for a Russian attack from the lake, but then the Red Army came from the swamplands. However, as Mrs. Filipova tells us, there was little to no fighting, and people were treated relatively well by the German forces. After the war, Mrs. Filipova's father was deported, since he was suspected to be a member of Omakaitse. He served his sentence, and only years later was allowed back home, only to be killed in what looks like it was an assassination. It's often difficult to imagine what these times were like in places like here, that were located (or caught) between conflicting empires in a devastating war. It's always a remarkable experience to have the opportunity to speak with people who were here, who remember, who have first-hand stories to tell.

After a long and very nice conversation, Mrs. Filipova gives us some fish (of course!), and invites us to visit her at the factory soon, and also to go fishing with her sons if the weather gets better in the nearest days. Offers we're certainly more than eager to take.

In the evening, we decide to try a new place for dinner - one we hadn't actually realized it existed. In the Alatskivi castle, there's a restaurant, and since we're a little late as always, it also seems to be about the only place that is still open. The fact that many places close at 18:00 is quite tricky for us, because we need to film until around this time, as the daylight is just perfect in these late afternoon hours. Well, the Alatskivi Castle restaurant is still open. We're the only guests, there's one waiter who, as we suspect, also cooks himself (at least this would explain the long time it takes), and the atmosphere is somewhere quite close to a Dracula movie. We're sitting in a room with a very high decorated ceiling, there's a giant tile stove right next to us, some 8 tables of which ours is the only one occupied, dimmed light, candles on the table, and when the waiter comes, we can hear his footsteps long before we actually see him. Obscure, but nice.

Later this evening, with Bettina and Katya going to sleep after enjoying a sauna, Marc and Rene are still sitting in the lobby room and meet a bunch of youngsters from the region who decided to film a commercial about Aarde Villa. They're a very nice and enthusiastic bunch of people, who are apparently beautifully rooted in this region, come back regularly, and spend their time renovating houses and apparently doing various art and similar projects. We use the opportunity for a very nice conversation about this and that, and the history of Aarde Villa; and also to start talking about installing a webcam somewhere here which would allow a live view over the lake for our future project website.