You know you are from Estonia when...

You know you are from Estonian when...

1. You use the word ‘normal’ if something is ok.

2. When visiting friends abroad you bring along a box of Kalev chocolate.

3. You attended a song festival at least once either as a performer or as a spectator.

4. You know that going to the sauna is 80% about networking and 20% about washing.

5. You are nationalistic about Skype (it is actually an Estonian company)

6. ‘Kohuke’ belongs to your menu

7. You declare your taxes on the internet like all modern people

8. You actually believed for a while that Latvians had 6 toes per foot when you heard that as a child

9. You are convinced that Estonia is very strategically located

10. You spent at least one midsummer in Saaremaa, Hiiumaa or one of the smaller islands

11. You can quote films like "Viimne reliikvia" and "Siin me oleme"

12. You spit three times around your left shoulder for good luck

13. Words like "veoauto", "täieõiguslik" or "jää-äär" sound perfectly pronouncable to you

14. You are disappointed that Jaan Kross never got the Nobel prize in literature

15. You have been to Finland

16. You say 'Noh' (sounds like NO) even when you speak English, just to confuse people

17. You know the lyrics to "Mutionu" and "Rongisõit"

18. You would never mistaken Kreisiraadio for a radio station

19. You would agree that wife-carrying is a real sport (at least as long as Estonians are winning)20. Your best friend's girlfriend is your English teacher's daughter and they live next door to your grandparents, who were colleagues with your advisor, who is friends with your...

21. You check the thermometer before going out

22. When someone asks you "where is Estonia?" you quickly reply that it's located in Northern Europe close to Finland...

23. Sour cream tastes good with everything

24. A foreigner speaks to you in broken horrible Estonian and you go on and on about how wonderful their Estonian is compared to "the Russians'"

25. You have ever worn or seen anyone wear "karupüksid"

26. You have heard the phrase "Estonians are slow" at least once

27. Kui sa saad aru, mis siia kirjutatud on

28. You find yourself continually ignoring the gender in other languages

29. When someone says "Estonians are so beautiful" you answer almost without emotions "I know"

30. You don't think that terviSEKS is a funny word

31. You think that the combination blue-black-white is cheerful

32. Everyone in your family has pictures from funerals

33. You are so proud of every Estonian that you correct foreigners who say that the population is 1 million, not 1.3 million as it actually is.

April has arrived...

Spring is approaching - and the nature will soon be blooming. At least, in Muhu island it is already so - my mom has brought me hepaticas already twice: in March 21 and in March 30. My favourite spring flowers!
Photo: Hepaticas on our kitchen table.

A promenade in the morning

Photos: By Erik, Harju county, Estonia, March 2008

In the morning dusk: portrait and hunting mice

Photo: by Erik, Harju county, Estonia, March 2008

Photo: by Erik, Harju county, Estonia, March 2008.

Winter is back!

27 March 2008 - Even when Spring officially arrived last week, it doesn't mean that The Mother Nature thinks the same... As our Estonian proverb says: "No winter remains to the sky", it's true also this year. FINALLY we're having snow... everything from lovely soft snowflakes until terrible snowstorm with loads of traffic problems... But it's fun :) Better late than never!

Eastertime :)

Dear friends!

We wish you an Easter filled with

love, peace and joy of Springtime!

With sunny greetings from Estonia -

Karin, Erik and Kert

A looong Spa Weekend: March 13-16, Toila Spa

To celebrate Erik’s birthday, we decided to pamper ourselves in a spa hotel together with our friends Eda, Andres and their almost-1-year-old son Märt. We headed to Toila (in the eastern part of Estonia, on the coast of the sea) on Erik’s birthday – on Thursday to stay there for 3,5 days. We had a full package called „Relaxation Package” – accommodation, catering in the restaurant of the hotel and body treatments like water gymnastics, invigorating bath (I took the milk bath) and cryosauna (a cold capsule of -140 degrees of Celsius!).
It was an enjoyable weekend. About 2 years ago, the hotel was extended with Thermae (inspired by ancient Greek bath places) – which means many different saunas, pools, bubbling baths. We could go there all afternoons for 3 hours. Photo: Toila Spa Hotel

Photo: On Saturday with Andres, Eda and Märt in front of the hotel; and on Sunday morning (just me).

Photo: Erik's enjoying the bubble path in Thermae.

Photo: The end of Erik's birthday... Boys are tired!

Photo: Walking in Toila Park. I and Eda.

Photo: I and Erik in Toila Park.

Sightseeing

We also had a „culture program” for us (=sightseeing tour) which we did on Saturday afternoon. We decided to visit the most well-known nunnery (monastery) in Estonia – called Kuremäe Monastery (established in 1891). It belongs to Russian Orthodoxy Church, and probably most nuns living there are Russians as well. It was an interesting place – a small village surrounded with long walls. It had a Russian church (called Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God (built in 1910)), many chapels, living houses, also a guest house.
After that, we drove along the coast of the largest lake in Estonia – called Peipsi Lake. It offers white sand and popular swimming places during summer-time, but right now – in March – the beaches were empty... Only us...
On our way back to Toila, we passed Iisaku – the highest place in eastern part of Estonia (as Estonia is very flat, then the highest point in East Estonia isn’t very high either – only 94 metres!). I and Erik climbed to the top of the watching tower, which was one of the highest I’ve ever climbed in Estonia – but the view was very foggy as it had started to snow. It continued snowing in the evening as well, and on Sunday morning, we woke up to a winter again! We went for a walk along the coast, it was beautiful!

Photo: I and Eda walking in the area of Kuremäe Monastery. On the back, you can see the towers of Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God (built in 1910).

Photo: Eda, Andres and Märt in Kuremäe Monastery.

Photo: The map of the closed area of Kuremäe Monastery. The tourists can walk freely in marked roads, but cannot talk with the mobile, and actually, cannot photograph either... (at least the sign told so!).

Photo: The graveyard in Kuremäe. It doesn't look like an Estonian graveyard at all...

Photo: Peipsi Lake - halfly frozen.

Photo: View from Iisaku watching tower. It was very foggy as it started to snow.

Photo: Can you notice Eda, Andres and Märt? They stayed on the ground while we climbed up to the tower.

Photo: Eda, Andres and Märt and the Iisaku watching tower.

Photo: Sunday surprised us with a nice snowy weather... In the morning, we took a small walk to the beach of Toila.

Photo: The stairs to get down to the beach.

Photo: Erik's longing a little bit warmer weather to sunbath and swim :)

Photo: To be sure everyone knows we were there...

We enjoyed the weekend in Toila a lot – even when it was meant to be a relaxing and slow long weekend, we didn’t have time to feel bored at all: all the time, we had something to do!