Once upon a time, there was a nerdy girl in school who was always getting picked on.
One day, the school had a talent show.
She took off her glasses, and sang with a passion beyond all comprehension.
Every guy asked her out after that.
That's basically Estonia.
(intro music)
Hey everyone, I'm your host Barby. Welcome back to Europe!
And we have reach our first country in the Baltic:
Estonia.
This is gonna get good, trust me, but first...
Estonia is without a doubt Europe's little 'wild card'.
You never know what gonna get with these people, but they always seem to surprise you.
First of all, Estonia is classified as a Northern European country,
do not call them Eastern as it has former USSR connotations that they do not wanna be affiliated with.
Located on the Baltic Sea, just a short ferry ride south below their brothers in Finland,
bordered by Russia to the east and Latvia to the south.
The country is divided into 15 counties or "Maakonnad", with the capital Tallinn,
located in the north, just on the coast of the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic.
However, it's been said that the country kinda rotates capitals around the year as Tartu is considered
the cultural capital with its juxtaposition of classical and postmodern architecture,
and a meriad of conceptually abstract statues.
And then there's Pärnu, considered the summer capital with its rocking beach and bonfire parties.
These three cities also host the largest airports.
The country owns over 2200 islands and islets, and the largest ones being Saaremaa and Hiiumaa,
which act as their own counties.
When it comes to their borders with Russia things get a little weird.
To this day many maps of Estonia in Estonia, still include the areas of East Narva, or Ivanograd,
with the two opposing castles facing each other on the river,
and the south Petseri or Petserimaa region, which were respectively annexed by Russia, technically,
but there's still an ownership dispute, kind of. It's-it's weird.
Not only that but there also some strange border disparities;
Like the Narva River waterway exit into the largest lake:
Lake Peipus, or Peipsi,
{Strange laugh} Pepsi
The largest transboundary lake in Europe.
And then there is the "Saatse boot"
A part of Russia that overlaps the Estonian 178-Road, for only 900 meters.
Drivers from Estonia are not required to carry permits when passing through
on car, but they're not allowed to pass on foot, or stop by and pick any of the mushrooms.
The Latvian border is pretty simple and straight forward
until you get to the town of Valga
In which you get another half school library incident
in which the entire town is split in half by the border running straight through streets and roads.
Speaking of roads, in the winter time when the Baltic freezes over
a charming little miracle happens.
Estonia gains the worlds longest ice road that travels from the mainland to Hiiumaa island in the west.
The road is about 26 kilometers long and operates between January and March when the ice
is just thick enough to carry the weight of most vehicles.
Speaking of roads again, Estonia has stricked rules on wearing reflecting clothing at night.
If you are caught at night not wearing something that helps others see you
you could get up to €400 in a fine.
Otherwise, Estonia is quite a charming place
with quaint and saunas everywhere
and clear Wi-Fi can be found even in the most remote areas in the country.
Even in the middle of the forest, which is actually kinda growing pretty fast.
Let's explain in:
Okay, I didn't really think it was gonna be this easy,
but one way you can remember what E-STONY-a is like
is that it's really actually kinda stony.
Found in the lush forest and meadows
Estonia is actually home to more giant bolders than any other European nation.
Over 60 of which have diameters over 30 meters wide
all of which are protected by the government.
Not only that, but Estonia has more meteorite craters per square kilometer than anywhere else in Europe for some reason.
The most notible ones being the Kaali craters on Saaremaa island
And the massive 8 kilometer wide Neugrund crater under the sea
with impact resident pieces found all over the coast of Osmussaar in the North.
And not only that, but Estonia is also Europe's largest shale oil producer, second in the world after China.
With most of the rocky deposits found in the North and North-Eastern parts of the country.
By the way, little sidenote
Shale oil is an unconfentional source of fuel in which the oil is trapped in rock fragments
and extracted in a process that adds hydrogen to remove impurities.
Simply put, Estonia is pretty lush and beautiful.
They're actually going through a reforestation fase right now.
Partially thanks to declining population
in which now, over the half of the entire country, some numbers estimate over 60%,
is covered in forest.
Estonia is generally flat. I mean, the highest point, Suur Munamägi, or 'Egg Mountain',
is only 318 meters tall.
And over 1400 they have a ton of lakes and even more small ponds.
The rest of the country is comprised to open bogs, fens and wetlands.
They're never shorten supply of fresh, boggy mud.
And waterfalls, oh my gosh, some amazing ones like in Valaste, Jägala and Keila-joa Falls,
are some of the most pristine nature sites.
But definitely try not to miss out on the national animal,
this charming blue barn swallow.
In terms of produce, Estonia is a very 'hardy meat and potatoes' kinda country.
With national dishes like blood sausage and lingonberries
and 'Räim', or Baltic dwarf herring.
They love that hard liquor, and it comes really cheap too.
Because the alcohol is expensive and highly reculated by their government
Finnish people typically take the 45 minute ferry to Estonia
simply to just buy cheap alcohol and come back.
I'm not even joking.
Oh Estonia, you're people are so unique.
Let's tell the world who you are.
Estonia, you want so bad to be labeled as Nordic. You're so close.
But, nnyeah. Not quite there.
First of all: the country has about 1.3 million people and has seen a 19% population
decline in the past 2 decades.
The country is made up of 70% of people that identify as ethnically Estonian.
About 23% of the country is Russian
and the rest is mostly Finns, Ukrainians and other people groups.
The national currency is the Euro, they use the type 'F' outlet, and drive on the right side of the road.
Estonians speak Estonian. A Uralic based language in the same group as Finnish
(Hungarian is technically a far off distance cousin that they kinda lost contact with)
Almost every Estonian I have talked to have said that they can probably understand Finnish
better than the Fins can understand them, due to the fact that they have regular acces to Finnish TV
Whereas the Fins don't have to Estonian
If they listen very hard they might be able to have like a very basic conversation with eachother
however, to speed thing up, they usually just speak English.
By the way, Estonia is fairly English friendly as it is taught in schools
and most of the younger generation can carry on a decent conversation.
Now culture wise, Estonia may be small, but it's packed with detail.
First of all: throughout history, they were either subject to the Danes, Swedes
and the Germans of the Russians, until finally they gained independance from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Literally by singing. Seriously.
In 1987, Estonia was the first Soviet Republic to defy the Soviet Army
and they started to gather in huge crouds and spontaniously started singing Estonian national songs,
which where strictly forbidden.
And without any blood-shed, they eventually won their independence.
They gained freedom through song.
Which is why it's no suprise that over 133,000,
Estonia has the largest collection of written folk songs out of any country in the world.
They take singing seriously here, and swinging!
Estonians invented the sport of 'Kiiking', which is like
when a person gets on a swing with solid arms, made of steel,
with the objective to swing an enitre 360 degrees around the fulcrum.
Today, Estonia has developed dramatically from its former years.
Estonia is a highly tech-savy country with more start-ups per capita than enywhere else in Europe.
They invented Hotmail, Kazaa and Skype
which was pretty much invented by Estonians, I mean there was a Swede and a Dane involved somewhere
but the Estonians did pretty much all of the programming.
There is a thing, to this day, Estonia has the highest prevelence of females to males
in the world with 0.84 men for every 1 women.
It's been said that the reasoning behind this is because so many of the men where killed during the Soviet times,
leaving an influx of women behind.
To this day Estonia also has the highest number of international fashion models per capita in the world.
I mean after all those years of getting the pick of the litter I guess Estonians bred some really attractive people.
Unfortunately, Estonia also has one of the highest unmarried and single parent ratios in Europe as well.
Part of this has to do with the fact that Estonia disputably has the lowest importence of religion
on any country in Europe, as less than 20% claim to be affiliated with any religion at all.
Therefore, many people don't really see a need for marriage as grounds to find their relationship
as it has just social and sometimes even religious institutional condentations
that has no berance on their lives, and choose to just kinda by-pass it all together.
To this day, many Estonian children are raised by a single parent, who may cohabit with
another partner, but almost likely will never get married.
Which is funny because they really do well at 'wife carrying competitions'.
We'll explain more about that in the Finland episode.
But we will talk more about Finland in:
Okay, so since the fall of the Soviet Union, Estonia has pretty much rerevolutionized the entire way
that they engage with outsiders.
In 2004, they joined the European Union and quickly gained ties to the Nordic countries
that they've longed to unite with to like forever.
Iceland was actually the first country to recognize their independence
and Estonians even to this day consider themselves to Nordic,
Although the term is kind of debateble with other Nordic countries
Again, after the fall of the Soviet Union, Estonia actually kind of kept closed ties with all the other former states
that also gained independence.
Like in central Asia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, as well as the Caucasus regions
Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.
It was kinda like "Hey remember the old days when big old Russia used to control us? Well, not anymore!
Highfive bro!"
Lithuania and Latvia are kind of like the two friends that they use to play with in
the sandbox when they were kids, but then they kinda grew up and kinda stopped hanging out.
Lithuania and Latvia are kind of like "Estonia, just except the fact that you are Baltic,
not Nordic. Join us!"
Their best friends however whould have to be Finland.
Finland is kind of like the bigger brother that has always loved his little sister, but
hated seeing her get tossed around from empire to empire.
They share the same cultures and general life values and have always been there for each other
as the last surviving Uralic peoples on the planet.
In conclusion: if Europe was a choir, Estonia would be that like one girl who didn't get any solos
but then gets to sing that one high note that caused the whole crowd to giving her a standing ovation.
Stay tuned. Ethiopia is coming up next.