{"id":142743,"date":"2025-01-24T02:06:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T00:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/?p=142743"},"modified":"2025-01-22T14:14:52","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T12:14:52","slug":"heikki-nenonens-favourite-spots-in-east-estonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/heikki-nenonens-favourite-spots-in-east-estonia\/","title":{"rendered":"Heikki Nenonen’s favourite spots in East Estonia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Finnish photographer, priest and columnist Heikki Nenonen<\/b> enjoys his time in Estonia. His trips to the country began twenty years ago as ordinary tourist trips. In recent years, they have also become business trips for Nenonen since he started working first for the Tuglas Society and now as a content producer for the Ida-Viru County Tourism Network.<\/p>\n

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What are your favourite destinations in Eastern Estonia, and why are they special to you?<\/b><\/p>\n

“The cobbled beach of Toila is amazing! It’s a really picturesque place and has a great atmosphere. Next to the beach is a stunning park, maybe the most beautiful park in Estonia, the Oru Park. From some angles, the park looks like it’s right off the island of Capri. <\/p>\n

As a history buff, the Kreenholm factory in Narva is quite a building. The proportions are mind-boggling and the building exudes a sense of a bygone world. The former fabric mill has also been very important for Narva.<\/p>\n

Sillam\u00e4e\u2019s Mere puiestee is a Stalinist classicist street, unlike any other in Estonia. Looking at it is like looking at a giant history book. At the same time, there is something eerie about the spectacular view. I love the fact that where the park promenade represents the history of the city, the new promenade represents the present: there is a gym, observation points, and more. The promenade and the park promenade are a bit of a different pair, but they complement each other.”<\/p>\n

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The pompous Mere puiestee street in Sillam\u00e4e.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Valaste Waterfall can be admired from the observation stairs that descend the cliff. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Has any place or experience surprised you? <\/b><\/p>\n

“There’s a real sense of activity and a desire to change the perception of what Eastern Estonia has been like in the past. People have a strong enthusiasm and a burning desire to develop tourism through innovative initiatives, such as old industrial sites that have been converted into tourist attractions. These include the Kivi\u00f5li Adventure Centre and the Estonian Mining Museum.<\/p>\n

I am also impressed by the good service. East Estonians are warm-hearted people. Even those whose mother tongue is Russian try to speak Estonian when they are served.”<\/p>\n

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What places would you recommend to people travelling to when in East Estonia for the first time?<\/b><\/p>\n

“You can take a nature trip, a bicycle trip, a city holiday, a beach holiday or a spa trip to East Estonia. I would recommend exploring the steep and high coastline of the region because it is so different from what you find in Finland. Good places to stop on the coast road include the Valaste Waterfall or the Ontika Coastal Gorge.<\/p>\n

Narva-J\u00f5esuu beach is another place to head for. There you will find a beautiful, long sandy beach. It reminds me of J\u016brmala in Latvia, where the history of the spa town is still very much alive. Narva-J\u00f5esuu was clearly once a favourite holiday and social destination for the upper classes – something that no longer exists in Finland.”<\/p>\n

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Narva Castle has defended city from many enemies. It now houses the Narva Museum.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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How to travel to East Estonia? <\/b><\/p>\n

“The region is an easy place to travel because it is accessible by all means of transport. Of course, some places require a car, but you can easily get to places like Narva, J\u00f5hvi or Kivi\u00f5li by train or bus.”<\/p>\n

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The Kreenholm factory employed the whole town in its heyday. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Finnish photographer, priest and columnist Heikki Nenonen enjoys his time in Estonia. His trips to the country began twenty … Read more<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":142744,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[14140,18058,20403,23079,23797,24344,24345],"class_list":["post-142743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-person-en","tag-narva-2","tag-ida-virumaa","tag-kreenholm-factory","tag-east-estonia","tag-toila-2","tag-heikki-nenonen","tag-oru-park"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142743"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142777,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142743\/revisions\/142777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}