Actress Merle Palmiste celebrates Midsummer on Hiiumaa: here I can truly rest

Actress Merle Palmiste is spending this year's Midsummer on Hiiumaa, an island close to her heart where she has been holidaying since childhood. Palmiste recalls how her summer holidays were spent in Pühalepa, which was once a border zone and therefore a particularly exclusive destination.

Actress Merle Palmiste (55) is spending Midsummer 2026 in the place where she feels most at home, on Hiiumaa. The bond between this island archipelago and the actress stretches back to her childhood, when she spent all her summers at her grandmother's in Pühalepa.

"I grew up with smoked fish, and that's what I associate with the summers I spent at my grandmother's," says Palmiste, whose roots run deep into Hiiumaa.

Palmiste recalls that Pühalepa village, where her grandmother comes from, was located in a border zone during the Soviet period. "Pühalepa was a border zone, you could only enter with special permission! For a Tallinn girl like me, it was something very special and exclusive," she laughs.

Today, Hiiumaa remains a place where Palmiste can truly breathe and escape city life. It is precisely this secret that makes Hiiumaa an alluring Midsummer destination for her year after year.