Tere!

On 22 of July 2021, I visited a small town in the south of Estonia called Viljandi!

From Tallinn you can go there by train. (Maybe there are busses, but I didn’t consider it at all this time.)

Recently I got a card called Work Ability Card issued. I will write the details about it in the future though. (I didn’t spontaneously issue one, and I didn’t know that such a card existed until I got one.) The card indicates my work ability; either I can work partially or not at all.

Then I found that I can use that card when buying a train ticket on Elron which is an Estonian railroad. I usually bought regular tickets on Elron so far, but this time I bought discounted tickets.

This discount is applied to pensioners, those who are disabled, and someone who can work partially or not at all. If you buy such a ticket, you need to show the certificate on the train. In my case I would need to show my Work Ability Card. (You can read more about it here.)

It takes a couple of hours from Tallinn to Viljandi. However, Viljandi doesn’t have many sightseeing places, due to which I bought round tickets, selecting the time when I could arrive in Tallinn in the pre-evening. A regular one-way ticket costs 7 euro, and yet my discount ticket cost about 5 euro, so 10 euro in total.

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Table of Contents
Arrival in Viljandi
To the Main Destinations
Cafe Viljandi
Legend
Others

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★Arrival in Viljandi

I planned to go to some sightseeing places, have lunch, take some break, and go home after spending approximately two hours on the train.

One of the surprising facts about Viljandi is that there are (relatively) more slopes. Compared to my hometown, those were just hills, but in contrast to Tallinn there were a few more steep slopes in Viljandi.

The first destination was Kondase Keskus. This is an art museum, but this time I wasn’t that interested in it, so I took a photo of the statue of the strawberry in front of the entrance.

To be honest, I went there just because I wanted to see this strawberry. In fact, such strawberries are here and there in Viljandi, and as far as I know, there was one in the station and near a hotel.

I don’t know what its concept is.

★To the Main Destinations

In Viljandi, there is an abandoned castle as well as a bridge on a hill. I wanted to go there, but I couldn’t because there was a festival on the hill.

Just in case, I asked a festival staff at one of the entrances whether the castle and the bridge are in the festival area. She said yes, and I thought:

Why did I freaking come to Viljandi…?

I was so shocked.

This is because those were my main purposes, I like castles, and the bridge seemed beautiful.

It was still 10.30ish, so many cafes and restaurants around the hill were still closed. Thus it wasn’t straightforward to find an open cafe.

★Cafe Viljandi

Then I managed to find one called Cafe Viljandi. That day I had freelance work, which had to be done on the train, so I had my laptop.

I changed my plan; I would drink something and do some work on my computer.

The inside was so empty (of course), so I got a huge table just for me. I looked up the menu and found “Viljandi Beer”.

I want to try it!

Then I ordered.

Sorry no.

I think she meant that they couldn’t serve alcohol owing to the time.

That day I woke up at 6.00 for the first time in a while, and I was already hungry, so I forgot but it wasn’t even 11 am at that time.

I couldn’t go to the hill, and couldn’t order a beer…

I was shocked and even more shocked. 

Anyway I needed to order something, wondering about what to get, and I found Irish coffee for only 4 euro!

This is really cheap. Even in Tallinn Irish coffee costs at least 6 euro. What is more, in Ireland it should cost at least 6-7 euro.

So Irish coffee in Viljandi is really cheap!

It was a great opportunity though other types of coffee were cheaper, I ordered Irish coffee.

My review is:

There was little whiskey in it.

I think it was cheap as they didn’t use much whiskey.

Then I was about to work on my laptop, asking a staff about WiFi, and she said:

We don’t have WiFi.

No way!

For the first time ever, I heard there was no WiFi in a cafe in Estonia…

I think this is not good as a town in Estonia…

They should have WiFi in a cafe if they have WiFi in the woods.

My review on Viljandi was getting so low.

I gave up working online, so I wrote a draft of this article on Word.

Then in my mind I thought:

I would never come to Vlijandi again.

This is because this trip was the worst ever. (Poland is also a travel destination that I would never go again except for the purpose of necessity or Auschwitz.)

By the way, I have been to Tartu, Pärnu. Rakvere, and Narva in terms of destinations in Estonia. Rakvere and Tartu were the best ones.

Of course Viljandi is the worst one.

★Legend

After spending some time in the cafe, I went to a restaurant called Legend as I was hungry.

They have terrace seats, but it seemed those were somewhere slightly far from the restaurant, and I wasn’t aware of it, getting a seat inside.

I wanted WiFi anyway.

I went to the counter and checked the menu, but it seemed available only in Estonian. However, I could understand at least the menu, so it wasn’t problematic for me.

I chose a burger that shouldn’t be untasty. Here’s some fact; in Estonia there are so many burger shops. If you want to eat out, burgers are available pretty anywhere.

Considering that, I thought I was lucky to be Japanese because there are a lot of types of dishes, with which we can enjoy different cultures. We can do this only in Japan. (But perhaps so is China.)

Then the burger was served; it had an ordinary look.

The taste was ordinary too. No good, but no bad. The ingredients were ordinary as well.

I can’t make any more comments about it.

There were chips aside, and a cup of mayonnaise for them.

I know the Estonians love mayonnaise.

It’s not rare to have mayonnaise as a default sauce for appetizers everywhere.

However I don’t like mayonnaise.

It’s said that the Western people like Japanese mayonnaise, but personally the Japanese mayonnaise is the worst. For me European mayonnaise is better. But still I can’t take it unless it’s used for egg salad sandwiches, tuna sandwiches or sauce for a burger.

Anyway, I dipped a few chips with mayonnaise, but not more than that. The chips were salty enough.

★Others

After spending one hour at the restaurant, I went to Coop which is a supermarket usually in relatively rural areas. I looked for Viljandi beer but there was nothing.

I didn’t have anything to do, so I headed to the station.

I was walking, thinking:

I don’t want to live in such a countryside.

Though I’m from the countryside.

Maybe this is because I don’t have local friends there, and just didn’t know about fun places.

Besides, when I was walking, following the Google map, I found the main road was under construction, and got a cloud of dust. What a bad day.

I stayed in Viljandi for about five hours, which was long enough.

If you are interested in Viljandi, just try. For me a day trip was satisfactory enough.

I rather want to go abroad.

あー外国へ行きたい。

Aitäh! 😊