Estonia

Image: Tallinn, Estonia

10 October 2023

I flew from 40 degrees in Morocco to 10 degrees in Estonia. Winter was coming! I was in Tallinn to visit my darling friend Liis and meet her delightful husband, fun stepson and adorable son for the first time.

Besides being very excited to see Liis, I was super excited to be in a tall person country. I was about average height which meant everything was the right size for me. The aeroplane had more leg room, the cafes have high counters, the tables have more leg space, etc. I would think about moving north forevermore if the weather was more agreeable and the sun shone a bit more – an average Estonian December sees 21 hours TOTAL of sunshine… Winter sunshine hours vary across Australia, but for comparison Sydney averages 180 hours of sunshine in June.

Liis is the best tour guide you could hope for on a visit to Estonia. She’s passionate about her homeland and as an avid tourist herself, makes a point of knowing what the tourist wants to know and see. Our 100km drive east of Tallinn took us halfway to Russia. While the sun was shining, we visited an ancient grave site, explored a stunning waterfall, played in a 13th century castle, rubbed the balls of a famous bull statue, visited a family farm, strolled on a beach and had a traditional Estonian lunch in a traditional roadside tavern.

I ate an apple from this tree on the left at the family farm near Rakvere. Less than 2 weeks later, that’s the same tree in the middle of the bottom photo, covered in white fluffy stuff. Brrr…

Estonia is awesome in many ways. One particularly impressive fact is that it is the world’s first digital society. There is an app to pay for parking and pay for petrol, there is an app to scan and buy your groceries at the supermarket, your home delivery food containers are tracked, returned and reused, and robots deliver your groceries – see picture below. There is really no need for cash in Estonia.

There is a digital wallet for almost everything related to government and Estonian’s have been voting securely online since 2005. The data is secured through a blockchain technology with citizens having control over who can access their data. Estonia also offers e-residency for global entrepreneurs to register a business in Estonia but work wherever they want. The benefit to the individual is significantly reduced bureaucracy with all legal and tax requirements completed online. Estonia benefits from the tax of the business turnover and by attracting new investment. Very clever people, these Estonians!

Estonia is home for 1.3M people, is physically tiny (about 2/3 of Tasmania) and very flat (its highest point is 318m). Estonia is very practical and its street signs demonstrate that – I particularly like the car shower below. But the inclusion of Stockholm on the distance sign is somewhat unhelpful (in my opinion) given there is a whole lot of water between Tallinn and Stockholm called the Baltic Sea!

The Estonian word for ‘cheers’ (or ‘salude’) is ‘terviseks’, which when I first heard it sounded like ‘terrible sex’. But don’t let my poor hearing put you off Estonians! They are fun, creative, beautiful and passionate people. They love their history and telling a story through music, art and theatre. Because of this I decided to do a walking tour of Tallinn with a guide who was role playing a merchant from the 1200s. Why was he doing this? Well, the 1200s were when big things happened in Estonia which led to current day Estonia, and because Tallinn is one of the best-preserved medieval cities in Europe, it was appropriate to pretend to be in 1248. I forgot to pack my peasant tunic and chemise. Silly me!

The tour was great and I learnt a lot about medieval Estonia. In the midst of the tour, we walked past the Russian Embassy which was on the receiving end of much frustration about the war in Ukraine. There were flags, petitions, photographs, signs, candles and missing person notices. And a police riot vehicle just in case. It was pretty confronting and surreal. Estonia has welcomed many Ukrainians and Russians fleeing the war. It is a very difficult time.

Having a difficult time in a totally different context, was my nose, toes and fingers because it was 4 degrees and my body was still attuned to Morocco desert temperatures. After a wonderful week with Liis in excellent Estonia, I was heading to sunny Spain to finish this trip with an extravaganza of cava, jamon and socialising.