Green Girl Abroad: Finnish holiday in Estonia

After getting to know our host farm families and other people in the agriculture field (pun intended) I’ve noticed an interesting trend. These people work so hard everyday on their farms cultivating, tilling, caring for animals, thinning forests and often all these things on a regimented schedule. With the help of their employees and municipally granted holiday workers these families have a couple opportunities a year to take a few days off the farm. Usually, at least one of these breaks are used to visit other farms in foreign countries or large exhibitions of new machinery. This hardly seems like a ‘vacation’ in the way Americans might idealize but it is a hallmark of Finnish farmers’ dedication and love for refining their craft.

This week the exchange students were included on a trip to Estonia with SeAmk’s first year students. This seemed to me a fitting ‘Finnish Holiday’ where we enjoyed each other’s company and let loose a little, but in between visits to various Estonian farms, learning about how they function. The journey started with a bus ride to Helsinki where we boarded a ferry to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It was a small marvel to me that the charter bus we took to Helsinki was loaded onto the boat and came to Estonia with us! Though the ferry only took a few hours to reach Estonia, just 80km across the Gulf of Finland, we slept in cabins on the boat to rest up for the next day. We got back on the bus at 7:30am to head inland towards the center of the country. The architecture throughout the country seemed split into three styles. There are new, modern buildings with simple design, square build and large glass windows. There are very old structures with rustic cobblestone and brick that held an air of timeless charm despite the weathered appearance. Lastly there are remnants of the Soviet Union; very plain cement blocks with uniformly patterned windows and little color. Many of these buildings are still used as apartments. Estonia officially gained independence in 1991 and joined the Euripean Union in 2004. Quality of life, infrastructure and the economy of Estonia have improved greatly over the last couple decades and it now has the highest GDP per capita among the former Soviet Republics, though it is one of the smallest.

We were lucky to have gorgeous weather during our two days in the country. The flat landscape similar to Finland gave wide view of the blue sky and sprawling fields. Driving to our first destination I noticed less managed forestland than I see around Finland. It seemed for a while there were less agriculture fields as well until we got to the center of the country. We stopped at Kure Mõis-tila, a farm with 1200 hectares of crops and 580 dairy cows; a good example of the average sized Estonian Farm. The average Finnish farm might only have 35-40 Hectares and 30 dairy cows so this was interesting to see, especially in a country with a quarter the of population of Finland and less than 15% of the area. The farmer who showed us around had come from Finland to work on this farm that has only been operating about 20 years but had some barns still that dated back to Soviet Estonia. I was shocked that they only had one (very cool) CLAAS combine harvester for their hundreds of hectares of crops. They milk twice a day in their 24-stalled herring-bone style parlor and feed with mainly corn, though they grow grass as well to compensate if the corn has a bad year, such as this rainy one. The dairy they produce for is only 550 meters down the road, which fetches a lot more profit than transporting their milk long distances. Better for the environment, too! However, I was a little shocked to see that a vast stretch of crop fields were located about 100 meters away from Lake Peipus. Although building a summer cottage on the lake would be illegal for construction damage and waste impact purposes, structures and crop fields can be located as close as 100 meters from the shoreline. Additionally, there are no regulations on spreading manure or fertilizer on Estonian fields. The farmer said the 100m buffer would filter out the chemical runoff but considering the hundreds of hectares of crops around this lake, the largest in Estonia though only a few meters deep, I have my doubts. In Finland many fields neighbor lakes, obeying a similar buffer rule, but there are limitations on fertilizer and manure spreading. There are also mandates for wetland plants in the buffer zones to absorb the excess nutrients… but this is still very different than watershed management in California. Look for an environmental impact regulation post coming in the next week or so, I have one brewing but I want to get it right.

After Kure Mõis-tila we had a nice lunch and visited the research farm at the University of Tartu. We talked with a girl from Finland who studied be a veterinarian at the school and decided to stay. She was obviously very worldly, intelligent and friendly. We were impressed by her grace transitioning to a new country and welcoming visitors. After the school farm we went to Parna Talu, a stable where Estonian horses were bred and trained for jumping, dressage and carriage. The Horses were beautiful and clearly well trained, as were the young girls showing us the horses and helping interested students ride a little. After a day of bussing around visiting farms the Finnish students were excited to relax and have a nice night in Tartu. We went to dinner at an Irish pub called Big Ben’s where we enjoyed cheap food and beer compared to Finland. After a fun night out we called it a night in the stylish Hotel Dorpat and woke up early again the next day for one last stop before the harbor.

The Olustvesi School of Agriculture and Rural Economics is a pre-university facility where students can learn about raising animals, cultivating crops and practicing handy crafts. We were led by a retired teacher who showed us the animal houses, the craft shop and a couple old museum rooms including a taxidermy zoo and traditional carriage models. Like much of the trip, the English spoken was only from our friends and teachers but we enjoyed looking around and admiring the old-style buildings. Some of them had been renovated from as early as 1600’s. After a delicious three course meal in the elegant summer cottage we got on the bus for Tallinn. Before leaving the harbor we stopped at ‘Super Alko,’ an alcohol outlet store where the Finnish students stocked up on cartfulls of cheap alcohol. Many of the Estonia trip veterans had brought their own dollies to wheel their purchases home. It was quite the sight seeing everyone load their purchases back on the bus before boarding the ferry back to Finland.

After arriving in Helsinki, were on the bus at 9pm to continue our journey back to school. The exchange students realized a few interesting things about Finnish culture simply in transit. One point was that Finnish people are rarely ever in a hurry and rarely continue a single activity (such as driving home) for longer than 90 minutes straight without a coffee or cigarette break. Another point was that Finnish students will party all night. It doesn’t matter if they only had three hours of sleep the previous night or how haggard they are in the morning, they will run on a reserve battery of terrible music and party on. Between the abundant leisurely breaks and incessant noise we were very glad (and utterly exhausted) when we finally arrived home at 3:15am.

Overall, we had a very fun and eye-opening trip to Estonia. The language barrier was not as heavy as I expected, we are very thankful for the people who willingly answered our questions as well as the Finnish students who translated for us. The teachers who went on the trip, Anu and Kirsi, have a level of saintliness that is only matched by their cool, along with our hard-working bus driver. This Finnish vacation was definitely one for the books.

A bunch of California kids who never thought they would be in Estonia

Our cozy boat cabin

Machine yard at Kure Mõis-tila

Combine harvester

Getting left behind by the tour group

Milk truck!

Fashionable hygenic jumpsuits

Kure Mõis-tila fields

Lake Peipus (you can almost see Russia!)

University of Tartu Research Farm

A window into the cow's rumen (grey circular window on the black cow)
Cows being cleaned by the round brush (between the brown and black cow)
A cow having its hooves trimmed (cow in the red box)