Life in Estonia's 2nd largest city during the country's Covid lockdown

Venturing out of the capital to “explore” Estonia’s university town at the peak of covid, as Estonia attained the status of "worst-hit country in Europe".

Tartu, Estonia

When: Mar 2021

Where, exactly?: Tartu old town

Why/how we picked it: With our long-stay visa, we could stay up to 12 months in Estonia. It made sense for us to remain in the country, but in another city! 

What we did: 

Quarantined indoors, because soon after we arrived in Tartu, Estonia became the WORST HIT country of the entire European continent lololol. Extremely ironic since we were desperately trying to leave the UK ASAP just 2 months earlier to escape their ‘mutant’ variant of the virus.

• Drank lots of beer because Eric found a craft beer shop nearby where we stayed

• Spent a lot of time just…living life. The weather was cold outside; we worked inside. 

• Went on many cold winter walks

• Ruins of Tartu Cathedral that’s now part of Tartu University 

• Tartu Town Hall

• Self-guided day trip to the Peipus Village, next to a lake bordering Russia

Our favourite part about it: 

The airbnb was the most memorable part – hands down the best bed and couch we’ve every slept and sat on. Really regret not asking the host what brand his bed was! :P 

Key takeaways

Honestly we didn’t do very much that month due to the lockdown and seriousness of covid in the country at the point in time. It was my birthday month and I was turning 30, so I also remember Eric making me a red velvet cake from scratch and lighting 30 candles on it hahaha. I suppose we could call that a chill and relaxing month of doing nothing in our home away from home!