Not-for-profit organisation operating in the field of
Projects, training & mobilities
From morning of the first day meeting we have visited Tipu Nature School – nongovernmental organization, working in remote area of Soomaa National Park. Estonian partner has chosen Tipu Nature School as best practice example for our compendium as well as perfect example of experiential adult education. This school organizes various environmental educational events for children and adults – seminars, workshops, guided tours, summer camps.
After presentation of Tipu Nature School and conversation with project leader Dagmar, partnership was invited to observe Kopu Manor and listen to its history. It was cultural visit to see, how historical building is preserved and brought back to life in the smallest municipality of Estonia.
The lunch we had in vintage Rohelise Café – small vegetarian café in Viljandi, former pharmacy.
After lunch we continued historical-cultural tour in Viljandi. We have visited puppetry, The Kondas Centre of Naive Art, Viljandi Castle ruins, observed traditional handicraft items. This tour helped us to understand the advantages and weaknesses of the area as touristic destination (valuable observations for SWOT analysis).
The day was finished with dinner in Fellin café, which is in the competition of Best Café of Estonia in 2016.
Second day – the day in Tartu.
Barge Society – the 2nd best practice example of Estonian partner – is situated in Tartu. It is non-profit association building and restoring historical ships and providing on them educational trips by Tartu river. The type of tourism, which Barge Society provides, is entertainment integrated with nature education, cultural traditions and history, for the most part shipping history. Partnership observed the premises, where ships are constracting and restoring, experienced 3-hours guided tour on barge on Tartu river.
During the day in Tartu partners visited Tartu Centre of Creative Industries, Science Centre AHHAA and had the tour in city.
The dinner was in Estonian Traditional Music Centre in Viljandi– an example of successful restauration of old caving building and transforming it into modern culture center. After dinner partnership participated in musical event of Nordplus Music Network – Nordtrad.
The third day of meeting mainly was dedicated for project administrative matters: final amendments in Compendium of Best Practice Examples, SWOT analysis, dissemination issues, next deadlines, final report, future Nordplus Adult project NordTourNet-2, evaluation of meeting and final evaluation of project.
Coordinating organization ERCC presented dissemination event (public discussion) by using World Café method, which took place on 12th of April in Klaipėda.
The lunch was very exciting, because hosting institution invited us to the family house to try new service of Estonian partner taken over from Icelanders – Meet the Locals. We had home made food in family who owns strawberry plantation and summer café. The aim of this attraction is by having lunch or dinner in local family to get a better understanding of the lives of the locals.
During this day partners also visited Loodi Manor Nature Center, listened to stories of amazing storyteller, settled in old house in the forest, Piret Päär. At the end of the day partners had ceramic workshops. In the near future this route with Meet the Locals service, storyteller and ceramic workshop entertainments is planned by Loodi Manor Nature Center to be developed for tourists coming to explore and to get to know better the remote area of Southern Estonia, the locals’ life and culture.
Main findings of meeting in Estonia in term of adult education: the importance of participatory/experiential learning in adult education, multitasking by running small business in remote area, the course about time management for multitasking people in NordTourNet-2 project.