The PicuMarZ Diary

I wanted to spend the morning in a very lazy way today, instead of driving around exploring different places as usual. Panga guesthouse is such a peaceful and relaxing place, especially since we were the only guests today. At first we ate breakfast in the cafeteria, and then I and Miranda went outside to play in the grass while Stephen went for a little walk. Miranda played very well on her own in the grass and after a while she fell asleep in the pram, so I could just relax and read a book, really perfect!

When Stephen came back from his walk we were a bit undecided what to do next, wether to take it easy all day and stay another night at Panga, or to pack our things and start driving towards Muhu. After quite a lot of hesitation we decided to move on, we had relaxed enough and felt that we were "ready" with Panga. The receptionist seemed a bit surprised and disappointed when we told her we are leaving, but we did not regret our decision. It felt good to be on the way again, and to get closer to the mainland, so that our drive the following days would not be too long.

During our drive we stopped by at two churches, Metskula orthodox church and Karja church, before arriving at our destination Orissaare. Orissaare is situated in the north-east part of Saaremaa, very close to the bridge which leads to the smaller island Muhu. We visited the tourist information here to find out which accomodation is available in Orissaare, but it turned out that the choice is very scarce. The only available place seemed to be a school which has been converted into a guesthouse. We went there, and were shown an extremely small room on the second floor, nothing more than the bed fitted into the room, and it did not even have a proper window. We were not very tempted at the prospect of sleeping in this room, which would probably be very hot, and would not even fit our luggage. So we decided to drive to Muhu, and find accomodation there instead.

This turned out to be harder than expected . The tourist information gave us a few options, and we drove around to several Bed&Breakfasts, but they were all fully-booked. When the owner of the last place on our list told us it was also full, we started to panic, but luckily she suggested that we try in Koguva village. So we went there and parked outside the village (you are not allowed to enter with the car in the old-time village, since the whole village is a museum). Stephen went to check for availability, and came back with a smile on his face. He had found a B&B with very reasonable prices (he even started to doubt whether the price mentioned was per cottage or per person, luckily it was per cottage), and it was a very beautiful place! We could not believe it when we saw the cute, old-time houses, the large green area in the middle, and our spacious, clean cottage. This was the best accomodation we had during the whole holiday!

As cherry on the cake they asked us if we wanted to eat dinner there, and we said yes of course, because we had not eaten any lunch and were both starving. The food was really delicious, I ate a tasty chicken wok, and Stephen ordered perch, the best fish dish I think I have ever tasted! As soon as I had tasted it I told Stephen we should eat here tomorrow too, and then I will order the perch as well! We ended the perfect meal with ice-cream. Another good thing with the meal was that we could sit at a table outside in the garden, where Miranda could play in the grass and did not bother us at all during the whole meal.

Before going to bed in our cute cottage we went for a walk in Koguva village. When we arrived back Stephen chose the bed underneath a window, while I and Miranda settled in one of the two remaining beds.