"- Where is Estonia? - Who cares?! "

(That was a line in some advertising spot in early 90`s.)

Well, I do and probably there are more people who are interested now.
I´m pretty bad in "official" text, meaning - lots of facts about given issue.
Therefore I´m going to "loan" someone else`s words.

With an area of 45 000 sq. km, Estonia is larger for example than Holland, Denmark
or Switzerland; a little smaller, in other words, than New Hampshire and Massachusetts combined. Estonia stretches 350 km from east to west and 240 km from north to south.
Conversely, Estonia's population ranks amongst the smallest in the world:
an estimated 1 361 242 people live in Estonia — a density of only 30.2 people per sq. km.

Estonia, on the coast of the Baltic Sea, is at the same latitude in Europe as central Sweden
and the northern tip of Scotland. In North America, the middle latitude of Estonia
passes through the Labrador peninsula and southern coast of Alaska. However, due to the influence of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf Stream, the weather in Estonia is considerably milder.

Some useless funny stuff, just to help you to figure out who is Estonian :)

What do the Estonian names mean?

Eha Kaja Laine Leelo Tuuli Õie Kalju Koit Lembit Meelis

- dusk - echo - wave - folk song refrain, singsong - wind - blossom - rock - dawn - beloved - agreeable, pleasant

Some Estonian proverbs:

- Beauty does not fill your tummy.
- Make fun of the man, not of his hat.
- You shall have as good as you bring.
- Man is after money, but money is after his soul.
- Don't put off today's work till tomorrow.
- The mouth is the interpreter for the heart.
- Where there's work, there's bread.

What Estonians compare things with:

- As moody as the April weather.
- As big as a horse.
- As cold as a wolf's stable.
- As fierce as the juniper's flames.
- As unexpected as a bang from the broom handle.
- As fitting as a saddle on a pig.
- To sleep like a sack.

The Cunning Keeper of a Threshing Barn

The nature of a nation is revealed in its fairy tales. They document truths and store them in crystallized form for centuries. Let us have a look at Estonian fairy tales, which nearly always have a barn-keeper and a shrewd man called Ants. We do not find brave noble heroes fighting dragons and liberating imprisoned princesses from castle towers. There are no kings and powerful wizards, beautiful elves, or legends about everlasting love. The heroes are neither rich nor famous, and will never become king. Nor are they knights swinging their battle-axes on a battlefield. In fact, they never commit heroic deeds. Moreover, they hardly bother to leave their homes! They sit by the fire, puffing at their pipe or lie down somewhere with their toes pointing towards the sunshine. They can be chums with both the Creator and Satan. Sometimes they meet Old Nick or some other evil spirit, but they do not reach for their sword or cross. Instead, they have a nice little chat together, but there's always an ulterior motive. They may even enter the service of Lucifer himself, to do nothing particularly useful. Quietly, however, they'll pinch their master's things, and rip off their superior at the first opportunity. They are also familiar with all kinds of witchcraft, and use it for the sole purpose of amassing wealth and fortune for themselves. To that end, they may conjure forth treasure-bringing goblins, or turn into a whirlwind in the shape of a fly that crawls out of someone's nose; or charge off in a trough to a neighbor's barn for grain. After walking around a grey stone they may turn into werewolves. Once in a while, an enraged neighbor or landlord appears as a whirlwind, to claim the hero's treasure instead! But not to worry - the barn-keeper knows a remedy for that too - he hits the greedy intruder with a mountain ash branch and cripples him. And life goes on. Finally, the Prince of Darkness or the Grim Reaper comes to claim his soul. He asks the visitor to take a seat on a tar-covered bench, or pours some hot pitch down his throat. The enemy flees while the barn-keeper or Ants sit in front of the fire and puffing on a pipe as if nothing had happened. For ever after. These fairy tales portray Estonians as a cunning thicket of alders under the high and mighty timber forest. They're not afraid of either storms or an ax; they are here to stay.

And now it`s time for you to come visit Tallinn right here!