22.08.2025
Mrs. Inge Sepp from Rapla is still packing her suitcase in the summer, when new train connections allow her to travel further afield by rail. Her hometown is still waiting for an international high-speed railway and a future that she has already experienced.
Inge is not a super-fit, crazy cosmopolitan – she is seemingly a completely ordinary grandmother from Rapla: she moves around with the help of a rollator, is a beloved member of the Rapla congregation and a long-time instructor of its craft circle, unfortunately she has buried both her husband and most of her friends. But at the same time, she is not afraid to leave the idyll of a small town: she packs skillfully and compactly for travel (“everything in one bag”) and says that a long journey does not bother her – as long as the rest periods are timed correctly. “You rest in the hotel,” she explains. “And then you move on.”
Rolling Stone
It is not entirely clear where Inge caught the travel bug, but she has been on the move since she was a child: Inge Sepp, who was born in Laiksaare, Pärnu County, and raised in Halliste, Mulgimaa, went to Tallinn Medical School in 1955 after graduating from Abja High School and then worked as a midwife at Rapla Hospital for 40 years. After retiring, she has filled her days with handicrafts and flower arrangements, helping the church, and her grandchildren and now, great-grandchildren. But of course, all this does not mean staying in Rapla.
But why now to Warsaw? Since January, you can travel by train from Tallinn via Tartu to Riga and Vilnius, and the line is more popular than expected, with over a hundred passengers on some days, which even came as a surprise to the train company itself. But not for Ingel – for her, traveling by train is definitely the most comfortable and longer journeys, albeit in the last century, have still lasted weeks. So she didn't wait for the completion of Rail Baltica, which runs through Rapla, but started the journey with numerous transfers now.
Nine people, one idea
This summer, Inge crossed three national borders in one week of travel. From Rapla to Warsaw by train, four generations were in the traveling party: granddaughters Ene and Mari with their mother Marge and their families, including three-year-old Ülo and one-year-old baby Iko. Nine people in total and one simple idea: that traveling is not a matter of youth, but of will and interest.
While reminiscing about the trip on a sunny afternoon in a café on Rapla's main square, Inge makes no secret of the fact that without her granddaughter Ene's organizational skills, neither she nor the whole group would have gotten anywhere – there is no unified and simple booking system for train tickets and the whole undertaking requires internet surfing skills that not even all of the younger generations have. But she doesn't feel any false shame about it, for decades she was the family's tour operator and her grandchildren's first travel memories are from Åland, where their grandmother took them. It was time to pass the baton and now go on a trip with only the dates and destination agreed upon and her only concern being to pack her bag on time.
A walker is very practical when traveling!
Of course, everyone is nervous before such a trip, but it quickly became clear that the travel group was at the perfect pace for her – the children also needed breaks, and you can't move faster with a stroller than pushing a rollator. Ene had booked hotels near the train stations in the city center – paying a little more for a room than spending time and money on trips between the city center and the hotel. This way, she could also stop by a hotel for a break in the middle of the day if necessary. In addition to everything, it turned out that the rollator is much more practical on the trip than she might have thought while doing daily errands in Rapla – it can comfortably accommodate all her luggage, and if she really needs to take a break, the frame can also be used as a seat!
On their way to Warsaw, they stopped in Kaunas. They changed trains in Kaisiadorys before taking the train that would have otherwise left Valga for Vilnius. It turned into a frantic game of seconds for the colorful, multi-wheeled group, but it worked out perfectly in the end. They saw both the sights of Kaunas and the numerous cafes.
New tastes, new acquaintances
But of all the cafes we saw on our trip, the restaurant car on the Polish train impressed us the most, where after we placed our order, the sounds of a meat mallet could be heard through the kitchen wall. Inge noticed this with satisfaction. “Real food,” she says. The grandchildren played at the same time, everyone had space and something to do. Inge is not afraid of new and foreign foods; on the contrary, she had the principle that everywhere we went, we had to try something new and local. She has been doing this quite consistently for decades. She considers the new, modern European passenger trains and, of course, their restaurant cars to be very comfortable compared to the ones we could travel on during the Soviet era. In the 1960s, she traveled by train across Lake Baikal – for three weeks across the Soviet Union, sharing a compartment with complete strangers – by the end of the trip, of course, they weren’t so strangers anymore, she made a friend from Pärnu that way for many years. “I don’t remember where we washed or ate,” she says. “But somehow we managed.” It doesn't seem like he misses traveling like that very much. Later, bus trips came everywhere, from Bulgaria to the Carpathians, then to Åland, and a few decades ago, he even made it to New York.
Reminiscent of Manhattan
The city center of Warsaw, seen this summer, is already reminiscent of Manhattan: a couple of years ago, the city's highest peak was the Foster + Partners-designed Varso Tower, the tallest building in the European Union. On one side is the Google office in a skyscraper, on the other a law firm looms, and between them are bar terraces that creatively fill the empty spaces in this urban jungle. But in Inge's opinion, it still can't compare to Manhattan. "High-rise buildings on both sides of the street, no end in sight," she describes her first emotion from New York.
Overcoming fear
When he says this, he smiles – not arrogantly, but happily. He loves all the times he has overcome his fear and gone on a trip, only to discover that his own limits are actually much further than where a train or plane takes him. It all depends on himself – and of course on a good and supportive travel company.
In Warsaw, the river cruise took us from one part of the city to another at a leisurely pace. Numerous cafes offered opportunities to rest during walks. The cobblestones of the old towns were probably the most challenging part of the entire trip for the walker. He complained a little about the sidewalks, swore a little in his mind, and in the end he still felt that the trip was very beautiful. “The number of benches could be more,” the elderly traveler sends a message to city planners he has never met. “But there are enough cafes.” In Vilnius, he walked five kilometers and later couldn’t believe it himself.
Trips to churches and the zoo
She doesn't go out that much in Rapla. It's not about money at all or that there aren't any good cafes or places to go in Rapla. She doesn't dare to go out alone, of course she goes with her family, but she has few girlfriends left. Her second family is her church, which is also infected with the travel bug. Every year she goes out to a church in Estonia and Inge is always there. This year she has already made a trip to Kullamaa, whose church Inge thinks is beautiful. When asked what else she dreams of, she shrugs her shoulders. She has travelled a lot, but she has also missed seeing some Western European countries. "Maybe France. I haven't been there yet."
The grandchildren are planning their next train trip to Lapland. Maybe in the winter – granddaughter Ene and her husband Brian work as ski instructors and feel just as good or even more comfortable on the snow than on a boat trip on the Vistula River. Inge bursts into laughter at the idea of going along, although there is nothing strange about it for her granddaughters. Grandma is not forced to ski, but why not go and see the Northern Lights!
He doesn't post, he remembers.
So indeed, Inge is, by nature and upbringing, like all of our grandmothers. That is to say: reserved, careful, and stubborn. She doesn't like noise. She doesn't collect souvenirs, except for the occasional magnet. She doesn't post, she remembers.
She also remembers what Rapla's connection to the world used to be. These are perhaps some of the most stunning times in Rapla's railway traffic. In the old days, you could get to Riga and at least Pärnu from here. On a beautiful summer day, you would jump on the train in the morning, a few hours later you would spread your towel on the sand of the Pärnu beach, and when you were driving home in the evening, you would open the windows wide so that the wind would cool your skin, which was tender from the sea salt and the sun. It is a beautiful memory that makes many Rapla residents breathe a nostalgic sigh. Inge does not miss the past.
She is attentive to the future. Inge's hometown is changing: in five years, the high-speed railway will figuratively pass under the door. The future, Inge knows from her own life experience, will come even if it doesn't go her way. Would she take the Rail Baltica to Pärnu?
“Would I ride the Rail Baltica?” he repeats thoughtfully, as if incredulous that such a thing could even be asked. And he answers with a laugh. “Of course I would!”
The story was first published as a content marketing story in Õhtuleht on August 22, 2025, 16:07
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