Family winter vacation - Otepää, Estonia

Last and our first winter in Estonia was unusually warm and snowless.  So when the second winter came around and we still had not much snow it Tallinn, we decided to rent a small log cabin in mid/southern Estonia in search for some lasting snow.  

We arrived to Otepää a bit earlier and while the house was being cleaned we decided to explore a local speed/high jump tower.  It was really neat to see it in person how high the top is and how steep the landing is.

Moments later we drove to the house and met up with our friends Erika, her husband Margus and son Joonas.  We invited them to stay for a weekend and show us how they do it the Estonian style.  So they did.  The first night Margus fired up the sauna.  We also had an owner come back and fill the hot tub (or wooden barrel) with frozen pond water so boys and we can use it later that night.  The hot tub took about 5 hours to heat up as the pond water temperature was about -3C.  While the hot tub was heating the boys were sitting in the sauna and then running into a "cool" hot tub.  Adults on the other hand did the real Estonian ice hold experience.  Erika and Margus told us how long we need to stay in the sauna and explained the heat level you should reach/feel in your limbs to be able to jump in the ice hole.  Chris and I were nervous but there was no way we would chicken out now:-)  So I went first and I couldn't believe how exhilarating it was to free your body from the heat while dunking your whole body and head under the freezing water in the pond.  Then it went Chris and I repeated the second time as my teachers instructed.  Chris was happy to have done it once and be over with it:-) Non the less it was a very cool experience one you can only find in the Northen European countries.

Next day we went to do some cross country skiing on Tartu ski marathon course also known as Song Festival of Winter because of it's proportions and international fame.  It brings approximately 10 000 participants.  Even we are not ready to cross country ski 63 kilometers yet, we had to go out and at least try miles and miles of perfectly manicured ski tracks.  After about 10km boys got tired and decided to go sledding and playing in the snow.