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Official name: Eesti
Vabariik (Republic of Estonia), abbreviated Eesti
(Estonia). The name derives from the old
tribe of the Aestii (also: Eistr)
- a Finno-Ugric tribe once coming from Asia and
settling in recent Estonia around 2000 yearsd
ago. It doesn't seem to be clear what the name
for the tribe exactly means. In medieval times,
the area was also refered to as Livland
(Livonia).
From 1940 and 1944 resp. until 1991, Estonia was
called Эстонская
ССР (Estonian Socialist Soviet
Republic) - one of the 15 republics of
the Soviet Union.
Area: 45,226 km²
- Estonia is twice as large as New Jersey and
slightly bigger than the Netherlands.
Population: Around
1.34 million* (2004) - same as Idaho.
The population density is relatively low, adding
to that there's a very low birth rate and therefore
a negative population growth rate.
Ethnic groups: According
to the census in 2002, about 65.3 % of Estonia's
population are Estonians and 30.1% Russians. Furthermore
there are minorities such as Ukrainians, Belorusians,
Finnish and more. Until the middle of the 20th
century, there was a strong German community,
but almost all of them left.
Religion: Traditionally,
Estonians are mostly Protestants, but nowadays
religion doesn't seem to play an important role
any longer. Only one third of the population claimed
to be religious. Today it's almost a balance between
Evangelic-Lutherians and Orthodox Christians.
Time zone: Eastern
European time: UTC +02 hrs, with daylight-saving
time (+1 hour) in summer
Language: Estonian. For
most people a rather complicated language, since
it doesn't belong to the Indo-Germanic language
family (such as English, French etc) but to the
Finno-Ugric family. Closest
to Esonian is Finnish, spoken at the opposite
shore of the Gulf of Finland. The proximity to
Finnish becomes clear in written Estonian, too.
However, there are countless loan words from Swedish,
German, Russian etc. Finno-Ugric languages are
agglutinating, i.e. tenses
are mainly expressed by glueing endings on verbs
and nouns, forming new and often long words.
Estonian uses a confusingly high number of cases
- while German features 4 and Russian 6 grammatical
cases, Estonian uses not less than 14
cases. On the other hand, nouns do not
have a gender such as in Russian, German or French.
Estonian uses the Latin script;
Russian is virtually no where to be seen. But
Estonian features some diacritics
(see below), among them also the umlaut. It's
important to know that Estonian is almost exactly
pronounced the way it is written, making things
much easier. Therefore, same as in the Finnish
language, written Estonian makes intensive use
of combinations such as "üü" and "õõ"
etc. - it simply means that the vowel is long
(but there's a third "extra long vowel"
sound which is not displayed in written Estonian.
The English word "vast" for example
would be written "vaast" in Estonian
since it's a long vowel. The stress is usually
put on the first syllable.
The following characters do not exist in English
or differ from pronunciation in English (note
that I can't speak Estonian - most of the following
is what an Estonian explained to me):
- A is a clear
[a] sound such as the [au] in [laugh].
- AA is a long
or very long [A]; it also resembles the English
[R] ( ɑ: ).
- Ä is
a short, open [a] such as the [ u ] in [ cut
] (phonetical symbol: ɒ)
- ÄÄ
is simply the long version of the same sound,
i.e. [ɒ:].
- Õ marks
the schwa (ə) sound, such as the [the]
in [the letter].
- ÕÕ
You name it - the long version of the latter,
(ə:)!
- Ö - seems
to be a sound between the [u] in [nurse] and
the [oo] in [good], phonetically [ ʊ
].
- Ü Close
to the English [oo].
- ÜÜ
Not exactly the long form of the latter but
rather close to the [y] in [mysthic].
All other letters are pronounced as in Italian/Latin/German.
Obviously, Russian is substantially less frequently
used as in →Lithuania
or →Latvia
- that was at least my impression. Many people
are fluent in English so it's not difficult to
get around. German can be helpful, too - for example
when studying the city map: Words like Eesti
Kunstimuuseum are easy to understand for
German speakers (in English: Estonian art museum).
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As the other Baltic states, Estonia was almost completely
formed by the last ice ages, therefore offering
a typical glacial landscape. The country doesn't
have mountains but nice, rolling hills, numerous
lakes and even more islands and islets. Altogether
there are in the 1520 islands in the Baltic Sea
belonging to Estonia. The country is bordered by
the Baltic Sea in the West (namely the Gulf of Riga)
and in the North (Gulf of Finland). The East is
dominated by the large Peipsi järv
(Lake Peipus). This lake is connected to
another large lake - known as the Pskovskoye
Osero (Lake Pskov) - by a narrow river. Large
stretches of the Estonian-Russian border are marked
by those lakes.
Larger hills can only be found in the Southeast,
with the Suur Munamagi as
the highest summit with a breathtaking, oxygen-demanding
altitude of 318 m. Same as Finland, wide parts of
the Northwest coast are characterized by islands
and countless bays. West of the mainland, the large
islands Saaremaa saar (also:Ösel
Island) and the smaller Hiiumaa
saar (aka Dagö) are worth mentioning.
It goes without saying that Estonias climate is
rather maritime. This means that the summer is not
very long and rather cool, the winter is not so
long either and rather mild - considering the longitude.
Mild still means that there are only very few days
above freezing point between the end of November
and February. Precipitation is highest in summer,
but the annual precipitation is around 500 mm only.
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Nowadays, Estonia is an independent country with
a full EU membership. However, full independence
is a rather rare phenomenon in Estonias history.
Shortly before the beginning of the common era,
the tribe of the Estonians moved from somewhere
behind the Ural mountains to the Baltic Sea - and
so did the Finnish. After that, not much happened
for a while. Finnish, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians
settled down and fought against intruders - mainly
Slavic tribes from the East.
Around the year 1200, Teutonic crusaders first invaded →Latvia,
shortly after that the Danish tried to conquer Estonia. It didn't work well, so the crusaders
went North and christianized Estonians by force.
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Evidence of the German influence: 'Kiek in de Kök' tower
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From that time on, Danes ruled the country, but German influence grew stronger and stronger.
The country started to boom. In 1347, Denmark surrendered their Estonian territories to
the Teutonic Knights, hence creating the Livonian Confederation. Strong ties with
the mighty Hanseatic League proved to be extremely useful. However, most Estonians
were downgraded to simple farmers without any political influence. Imperial Russia wasn't lazy and
tried to overrun Estonia in 1558, and so the Germans called Sweden for help.
The Swedish arrived in 1561 and did much more than they were asked for. The North remained in Swedish hands,
while the South became a part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1700 the Russians visited again -
ironically called by the Germans. This marked the beginning of a long and cruel war.
The Great Northern War soon spread over wide parts of Europe. Eventually, the war
was over in 1721 and due to the Treaty of Nystad sealed in 1721
Estonia became a part of the Russian Empire. But this didn't change much - Germans ruled and Estonians
starved. From 1816 to 1819, serfdom was abandoned. But that didn't change much either.
Neither the Russians nor the Germans didn't do much good to the Estonians. Several uprisings and
the First World War let the situation escalate. In February 1918, Estonians
declared independence of the Estonian Republic, but soon after that
Estonia as well as the rest of the Baltic States was about to be occupied by Germany.
The October Revolution which started in 1917 in nearby St. Petersburg had found many followers in
Estonia as well. But a nationalist coalition in Estonia fought against the Bolsheviki in a long and
bloody civil war. Resistance was too strong, and so Russia or the Soviet Union resp. finally
renounced its claims on Estonian soil with the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty.
From 1920 to 1922, a land reform was enacted, with the result that many German-Baltic families
lost their influence. Thanks to that, the situation of Estonian peasants gradually improved.
But at the same time, the new country more and more developed into a dictatorship. An attempted
coup d'etat failed in 1934.
In 1940, Estonia became just another victim of the secret protocol of the
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (aka Treaty of Nonaggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
and was invaded by the Soviet Union. During the first purge in 1941, ten thousands of Estonians were
murdered, deported or forced into military service in the Red Army. Pure terror reigned the
country for the next time. Things didn't get much better when the
Nazi German wehrmacht occupied Estonia to make it a part of the
wide Generalkommissariat Ostland (Central province of Eastland). The terror continued.
But in August 1944, the Red Army took over again. Especially in 1949, the hunt for the so-called
"enemies of the nation" started. Again, Estonia saw ten thousands of its citizens deported or
killed. At the same time, forced collectivization of farmers, massive industrialisation and russification
started. The original language, Estonian, was gradually marginalised.
And so the communist era started. Especially the environment but also the Estonian
culture fell victim to the new policy. But in 1988, a silent revolution started -
peacefully, slowly, and with much music. Thanks to Perestroika and Glasnost',
Estonia managed to declare its independence on 20 August 1991
for the second time in its long history. Estonian became the official language again.
And the Estonian culture was heavily promoted. Strong ties to Finland, the rich
neighbour in the north, helped Estonia to recover quickly. On 1 May 2004, Estonia
gained full EU membership without any problems. The country is very modern now -
the constitution for example guarantees each of its citizens (partially free) access to
the internet.
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Prologue:
After a visit to Latvia and Lithuania we were quite curious about Estonia - what's the difference to the
other Baltic states? The very first impression was rather bad: An ill tempered border guard didn't promise
a hearty welcome. Unfortunately we only had three days in Estonia - one of the reasons for the short stay was
the lousy weather in November - definitely not the best time to explore the islands of
Saaremaa and Hiiumaa for example.
Visa:
Most Europeans and Americans, Canadians etc. do not require a visa. Some nationalities can even enter with
a valid ID card. However, it's always best to check with the Estonian embassy first.
Money:
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25 Estonian Kroon
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Bills are more used than coins, with 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500 kroon bills circulating. Additionally,
there are 5, 10, 20 und 50 Sent as well as 1 and 5 kroon coins, with the latter rather rarely used.
It's as easy to withdraw money in Estonia as it is in any other central or western European country. ATM's are everywhere, accepting all common credit and cash cards, such as Cirrus- and Maestro cards etc. Many banks also exchange foreign currencies. Needless to say that the Euro is
the best foreign currency to get along with in Estonia. Most banks charge € 4 or so as a fee for transactions using foreign cash cards.
Costs:
Unfortunately we've only been to Tallinn, and as everywhere the capital is the most expensive place in the country, so the following information might differ from what you'll find in the countryside.
However, one thing is for sure: Estonia is the most expensive place of all
Ex-Soviet Union countries! No matter if it's lodging, eating out or entrance fees - it's
substantially more expensive than in →Lithuania,
→Latvia, not to talk about the
→Ukraine etc. Expect to pay the same as in
Germany or Austria, or even more when in Tallinn. But it's still possible to stay in a basic place
near the old town in Tallinn for some 20 euro per person or 15 euro for a bed in a dormitory.
Eating out will set you back 10 euro or more, although there are also much cheaper eateries outside the tourist spots. Prices for souvenirs in Tallinn are almost exorbitant. This is probably due to the countless visitors coming from the North (ie Finland). Transportation is still rather cheap, but since the country is not very large, it doesn't cost too much to get from one corner of the country to the other. A bus ticket from →Tallinn to Narva at the border to Russia costs around 4 euro. Travelers should count on spending around 50 euro per person and day. This can be much less in the countryside, depending on accommodation, activity and where to get food.
Getting there:
There are many ways to get to Estonia. The fastest of course is by plane.
Not many intercontinental flights serve the small country, but some airlines such as www.easyjet.com offer very reasonably priced tickets to Tallinn from several destinations in Europe since autumn 2004. Tickets start from 29 € for a one-way flight. Add some extra fees, but it's possible to fly to Tallinn from Berlin for example for as less as 50 Euro. Provided that you can book far in advance and online. Several other airlines fly to Estonia, too.
It's also possible to get to Tallinn by boat. Several ferries
a day run between the Finnish capital Helsinki and the Estonian capital. The trip takes between 1½ and 3½ hours, prices start at 15 €. There is also a daily ferry to the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
This tour takes some 16 hours, prices start at 400 SEK (around 40 €).
Unfortunately, Estonia doesn't seem to be eager to keep it's railway system. The one and only international connections left are those to Moscow and St. Petersburg. Once there was a train via
→Riga to →Minsk, but this line is out of service now.
The best way to get around quickly is the Bus. The dominating bus
company is called Eurolines. Almost all international busses bound for Estonia from the West and the South go via →Riga.
There are countless busses per day running between the two capitals. The trip takes some 5 hours, the fare is 8.5 Lats (around 13 €) from Riga to Tallinn or 230 EEK (15 €) from Tallinn to Riga respectively.
Border crossings: Estonia shares several border crossings with →Latvia and Russia.
The main crossing to Russia - if not the only one, foreign travellers can use - can be found right in the centre of the border town Narva halfway between Tallinn and St. Petersburg. Note that everyone must obtain a visa for Russia beforehand.
Entering / leaving the country:
The usual custom regulations apply to Estonia. Entry and exit procedures do not take much time, but be prepared that the vehicle might be examined by detection dogs - even when coming from Latvia. I have noticed that the attitude of border guards towards non-EU citizens can be quite rude. Maybe it was an exception, but at the time I was crossing it was more than obvious.
Food and drinks:
Staff in the hostel in Tallinn seemed to be in trouble when I asked whether they knew a good restaurant serving traditional Estonian food. I didn't get a clear answer - instead, they started discussing what traditional Estonian actually is. One thing is for sure - there's an obvious German influence. Quite famous seems to be the Verivorst (which almost sounds like "very worst", making every order pure fun: I go for the very worst!).
Veri means blood and "vorst" derives from the German word "wurst" for sausage. It's some sort of black pudding. The sausage often comes with potatoes and sauerkraut (so much for the German influence). Another common dish is Sült (aspic). Some smaller food stalls also sell the typical Russian diet such as Pelmeni or pirogi. These food stalls are relatively cheap.
One Estonian told me that there's one characteristic Estonian dish called Kama -
coarsely ground cereals, mixed with buttermilk and sweetened with honey. Breakfast cereals so to say.
There are many good bakeries around, many of them selling some dark-brown cake, which looks very much like brownies but
contains candied fruits and raisins. Very sweet but very tasty.
Most restaurants serve rather international food. The quality in general is quite good but, again, prices are quite high
compared to other countries (except Finland of course).
Beer is very common in Estonia, with most of the brands being quite strong and sweet. Half a liter costs around 0.50 € in the supermarket and starts from 1.50 € in restaurants. Stronger types of alcohol are quite expensive, but very obviously still cheap enough to attract thousands of thirsty Finnish tourists each day.
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www.rk.ee: Official
website of the Estonian "Riigikantselei" (interesting:
the approximity to the German word "Reichskanzlei")
- the parliament. Good resource for offical information.
www.visitestonia.com:
Website of the board for tourism. Including English
version and very helpful.
www.infoweb.ee: Large
Estonian internet portal. There's also an English
version.
www.hot.ee/privatetours/sights:
Very interesting English portal for visitors to
Estonia. Introduces sights all over Estonia.
aare.pri.ee/dictionary.html:
Always helpful: Very extensive Englisch ↔
Estonian online dictionary.
Do you have or do you know a good
website on Estonia? Don't hesitate, let me know!
After checking it, I would love to add it to the
link list. Please note that commercial websites
will be declined. For e-mail link see menu on
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