Wow, I'm really impressed by the unique architecture of Estonia. So many different styles but it's aligned with the history and the spirit of the area. I like it very much! And also the Nordic weather is so familiar 😂❤ Hope you fully enjoyed these places :)
If Estonia got a nickel for every time someone said it was 'underrated' or 'not what we expected', they'd be as rich as Finland! All the same, glad you enjoyed it. It def is underrated and worth a visit.
Yes. But why is it that we are so unexpected? What do people expect? A Soviet geto? Well, we never were on, not even during the Soviet occupation. We were very mindful not to become one, to just wait until this historical error would end. And thousands years of history and amazing nature does not get erased by some 50 years of stupid occupation. It did its damage, of course, but I do not see the point of showing the first time tourists all of that. We will deal with that on our own. You can just enjoy the beauty. It is there and it is real and well preserved. We know our own price
@@HelenGolovina-y9h I live in Estonia and love it. I did not mean to imply that people have negative expectations before they come ('Soviet getto'). I meant more to say that they generally just have very little knowledge of what is here, given it's a relatively unknown country. That is all changing though, with Estonian's tech marketing and it's growing role on the world stage lately (NATO/Ukraine). I for one however hope that it keeps some of its underrated reputation. That is part of its charm.
@@eddyengelman5125 I had no idea what you personally expected but a lot of people do expect the Soviet geto. My comment was more about the general expectations than your personal expectation. I got it from the tone of your comment already that you had a positive attitude. We are so much more than a tech market. I personally do not give much damn about that. We have an amazing culture, literature, theature. And amazing nature.
@@HelenGolovina-y9h I think where we disagree is: "a lot of people do expect the Soviet geto". In my experience, that is something that occurred 10+ years ago. Today people come in with little to no expectations, and are pleasantly surprised for exactly the reasons you mentioned (culture, nature, etc..). Agree to disagree on people's perceptions of Estonia. What we DO agree on is how cool this country is ;)
Next time I recommend this: towns like Haapsalu (another resort town but smaller with a typical Estonian small town vibe, also a really well preserved mediaeval castle, one of the best we have and lots of bird watching, and very very nice spas (or just nature watching towers because lots of bird species stop here on their travels), Kuressaare and the island in general (just the drive to Kuressaare, the capital of the biggest island Saaremaa) is worth it: first you take a ferry, then drive a little, then you take a bridge, which really feels like driving in the sea, to the actual island) It is a trip through the sea twice. maybe also go to Tartu. But to understand the pleasures of Tartu one probably needs to live there. I went to university there (founded in 1632, among best 500 in the world). It is basically a university town with its own vibe completely. But to understand it, you probably need to have memories here. For the eye of a tourist it would probably look weird. Just go to nature. Some national parks. You get the real feeling of nature without the dangers of it. No poisonous snakes or spiders. You will not meet a wolf (unless looking for her in specific hunts built for photographers) because we some so much nature and so few people that the wild animals do not have to come into your front yard, they still have their own homes left. Or go to a bog, this is a unique experience. And you would not sink because there are wooden trails built sightly above ground for walking. We have hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres of marked nature trails with huts you can stay overnight and make a fire inside, some even have the firewood ready, all free of charge. Might have wifi there as well. Another thing worth seeing are the manors (of the Baltic Germans, mostly from the German period) Some of them are simple houses, some are real palaces. And everything in between. And always amazing parks around them. Keila Joa is my personal favourite. Another place to try is Pakri peninsula. I will not even say why. Just drive to the top of the peninsula from Paldiski (easiest) or walk, and then you will see. And you can also walk all the way from Tallinn to Paldiski along the seaside. Of course, most of it wild nature, not nice sandy beach. You will have one trail right at the sea and another one higher up on the cliffs, going parallel all the time. If you do all that you will have some idea of Estonia, of what it means. Tallinn Old Town is great, and I am a fifth generation Tallinner myself and I love my home. But it does not equal Estonia I am telling all this since you had the wits to find Pärnu, not a typical tourist thing to do, esp first time. Curious how you thought of it. Was it suggested by a tourist information centre or something?
Great video! Glad you liked our small and partly ancient town here. We are really far from being independent right now as are most countries in the world but getting there slowly😉 Welcome back!
I've been to the medieval restaurant too and the landlady has her witty way of treating people. We ordered moose soup and she scolded us for not bringing our own spoons 😂 I think the most well known restaurant in the old town is Olde Hansa which is also medieval themed.
Estonia would have been Nordic for sure if not ~50 years of soviet occupation that threw the country back to stone age. Estonia had an economic and financial prosperity compared to Nordic countries before the occupation. And the whole world just turned a blind eye to what soviets did with Baltic states. This is the reason why we 🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹 better than anybody understand Ukraine and that's why ruzzian embassy looks like this.
I agree with everything but slight correction, it was less than 50 years, not 80+. Unbelievable, the Kingdom of Sweden had us for longer, Denmark and the Russian Tsardom (under the German nobility) too, yet it feels like the Soviets broke us the most. Finland really got lucky.
I think it can be explained simply using basic values like the second language (which has a significant cultural and political impact) and work ethics. So, what do "Nordic" and "Baltic" mean for a country that calls itself Eesti? If we say "Nordic," it would imply that the second language is Swedish (which is why the international name is Estland), and it suggests that the country is naturally aligned with other Western nations. In terms of work ethics, it would mean the presence of trade unions, as collective bargaining better protects workers' rights. On the other hand, if we say "Baltic," it would imply that the second language is Russian (which is why the international name is Estonia), and it suggests that the country is more aligned with Eastern Europe. In this context, work ethics would mean that you do your best, but if someone else can offer your employer cheaper labor, you could be fired and replaced by that person
@ragnarlaine4065 , well, before WW2 there was a significant Swedish community in Estonia. There were even Swedish schools in Estonia. And "Baltic" is surely not "Russian". Russification of the region did it job, but if talking linguistically: baltic languages (Latvian and Lithuanian) are as tied with russian language as are, for example, italian or greek, Estonian has no ties with russian language. If talking nowadays: try speak russian langiage in Lithuania where there is only ~6% of russian population or in the southern part of Estonia, or in the islands. And work ethics in Estonia are definately different from those in, for example, Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Ukraine etc.
Hey, we did our research even before coming to Estonia. We were expecting something beautiful and nice of course, but you know, it was a different kind of place then we thought, still interesting and in a positive way. Also, I guess the Baltics are the lesser known European countries, so we are happy to introduce them to a larger audience.
@@LiraNeo2023 Do not call Estonia Baltic. We are SO different from Latvia and Lithuania that I cannot even begin to describe it. Latvia is very eastern Europe in a bad way, very corrupt and unsafe, and pretty poor. Lithuania, I do not know. Been there only twice and briefly. But the people in both Latvia and Lithuania seem to be angry all the time. On the edge. And Riga seems more of a Russian town than Latvian. Not just by the amount of Russians. But the general atmosphere. For example, all the guards around their Statue of Liberty. First the supposedly nice-looking traditional guards. And then also the stupid looking municipal police with their ridiculous neon vests. All this completely ruins it visually and what is there to protect? We have no guards around our Freedom statue (or anywhere else, only in some supermarkets) and even no cameras. They claim to have cameras but I have never found one. And nobody is doing anything that needs to be interrupted by guards. So a completely different mentality. We want to be and are, safe and well behaving, without constant double or triple security walking around. I was walking around Riga a year ago, alone at night. A police car stopped and asked me what I was doing. In Estonia the police would NEVER EVER do that. Ask a person, who has broken no laws, what they were doing in a public place. It is none of anyone"s business. So todays"s Latvia reminds me of Soviet occupation a lot. So when Estonia is lumped together with the rest of the Baltics, I get annoyed. We are so different. Riga Old town is also pointless. A lot of ruined buildings all over the place, random soviet or warehouse or broken down buildings in the middle of Old town. Oh, and the biggest difference: the Latvians yell like crazy. Walk around Riga and you will hear it. Are the people deaf or something? Why do they scream like crazy all the time? That also makes the tourists scream the same. In Estonia, we are pretty quiet, we do not talk louder than we have to to be heard. And the tourists also keep more quiet because they see this is the way to do it here
In general, the baltic sea coastline is is very nice. I recommend driving along the coastline, or camping along the coastline. The cultural "nordic" vibes and architecture are also quite similar along the coastline but You will see more red brick the more south you drive - the better clay deposits were there. Cultures, tribes and countries across and along the pond have many-many ties :)
Yes, I get what you are saying. Estonia is also divided. In so many more ways than one. There are things we will never compromise, things like our independence. But other than that everything is an endless debate. And we are not very good at debating, more like insulting each other.
The "mediaval" place you went to was not mediaeval at all. Just a dump really, and overpriced. There are two really nice ones right around the corner: Olde Hansa and Peppersack. Next time try them. They know what they are doing and they do proper research about their food, music, furniture, costumes..... They will know every detail about each food they are serving. Who exactly ate that, where and how the ingredients where shipped from and so on. Unfortunately, there are places who tale advantage of tourists and make a minimal effortto LOOK mediaeval by having clay cups and candlelight. But this is not enough. This place is usually quite empty and there is a good reason why it is empty. Mostly drunk Finns go there who are so drunk they do not care where ther are going By the way, if you want to park without paying here, just put the emergency lights on and do whatever you want and go whereever you want. This is what we do here, nobody ever checks:) It only is annoying when some people get too arrogant about it. Like putting on emergency lights and parking in the bus stop to bring their kid on the bus. Like you cannot "break down" a few meters away? the kid cannot walk for 5 meters? But if you do it rationally and do not bother anyone by it, by all means ... Cool you went to Pärnu. Most first time tourists would not think of it. I think it is the third biggest city, after Tartu being the second. It is called the summer capital because it is basically a resort town. What characterises it for me is that it is all over the place. It has mediaeval buildings and jugend and modernism and classical and old wooden houses all mixed together. While in Tallinn all that would be kept very neatly separate. It gives Pärnu a different vibe. One of the most beautiful buildings in my opinion is the hospital which is partly imitating a gothic building but with a lot of glass and light.
Thanks for the parking insight, that's good to know. Parking in the country wasn't exactly hard. I would go as far as saying it's pretty easy in general.
@@aimurtaim Вряд ли ты сможешь хоть как то обосновать этот вздор. А то что я сказал в заглавном комментарии, ты даже и не попытался опровергнуть. Крыть то тебе нечем.
Wow, I'm really impressed by the unique architecture of Estonia. So many different styles but it's aligned with the history and the spirit of the area. I like it very much! And also the Nordic weather is so familiar 😂❤ Hope you fully enjoyed these places :)
You should visit one day! It's a fascinating place.
If Estonia got a nickel for every time someone said it was 'underrated' or 'not what we expected', they'd be as rich as Finland! All the same, glad you enjoyed it. It def is underrated and worth a visit.
Yes. But why is it that we are so unexpected? What do people expect? A Soviet geto? Well, we never were on, not even during the Soviet occupation. We were very mindful not to become one, to just wait until this historical error would end. And thousands years of history and amazing nature does not get erased by some 50 years of stupid occupation. It did its damage, of course, but I do not see the point of showing the first time tourists all of that. We will deal with that on our own. You can just enjoy the beauty. It is there and it is real and well preserved. We know our own price
@@HelenGolovina-y9h I live in Estonia and love it. I did not mean to imply that people have negative expectations before they come ('Soviet getto'). I meant more to say that they generally just have very little knowledge of what is here, given it's a relatively unknown country. That is all changing though, with Estonian's tech marketing and it's growing role on the world stage lately (NATO/Ukraine). I for one however hope that it keeps some of its underrated reputation. That is part of its charm.
@@eddyengelman5125 I had no idea what you personally expected but a lot of people do expect the Soviet geto. My comment was more about the general expectations than your personal expectation. I got it from the tone of your comment already that you had a positive attitude.
We are so much more than a tech market. I personally do not give much damn about that. We have an amazing culture, literature, theature. And amazing nature.
@@HelenGolovina-y9h I think where we disagree is: "a lot of people do expect the Soviet geto". In my experience, that is something that occurred 10+ years ago. Today people come in with little to no expectations, and are pleasantly surprised for exactly the reasons you mentioned (culture, nature, etc..). Agree to disagree on people's perceptions of Estonia. What we DO agree on is how cool this country is ;)
HAHAHA, sorry I didn't know it was already a cliché...
Not bad at all! Great video. Greetings from Estonia 🇪🇪 🫂 . 👋
Thanks! We were happy to be there! It was a nice surprise for us
Glad that you guys enjoyed Estonia🇪🇪
Thanks! We really had a good time
Next time I recommend this: towns like Haapsalu (another resort town but smaller with a typical Estonian small town vibe, also a really well preserved mediaeval castle, one of the best we have and lots of bird watching, and very very nice spas (or just nature watching towers because lots of bird species stop here on their travels), Kuressaare and the island in general (just the drive to Kuressaare, the capital of the biggest island Saaremaa) is worth it: first you take a ferry, then drive a little, then you take a bridge, which really feels like driving in the sea, to the actual island) It is a trip through the sea twice. maybe also go to Tartu. But to understand the pleasures of Tartu one probably needs to live there. I went to university there (founded in 1632, among best 500 in the world). It is basically a university town with its own vibe completely. But to understand it, you probably need to have memories here. For the eye of a tourist it would probably look weird.
Just go to nature. Some national parks. You get the real feeling of nature without the dangers of it. No poisonous snakes or spiders. You will not meet a wolf (unless looking for her in specific hunts built for photographers) because we some so much nature and so few people that the wild animals do not have to come into your front yard, they still have their own homes left.
Or go to a bog, this is a unique experience. And you would not sink because there are wooden trails built sightly above ground for walking.
We have hundreds, if not thousands, of kilometres of marked nature trails with huts you can stay overnight and make a fire inside, some even have the firewood ready, all free of charge. Might have wifi there as well.
Another thing worth seeing are the manors (of the Baltic Germans, mostly from the German period) Some of them are simple houses, some are real palaces. And everything in between. And always amazing parks around them. Keila Joa is my personal favourite.
Another place to try is Pakri peninsula. I will not even say why. Just drive to the top of the peninsula from Paldiski (easiest) or walk, and then you will see. And you can also walk all the way from Tallinn to Paldiski along the seaside. Of course, most of it wild nature, not nice sandy beach. You will have one trail right at the sea and another one higher up on the cliffs, going parallel all the time.
If you do all that you will have some idea of Estonia, of what it means. Tallinn Old Town is great, and I am a fifth generation Tallinner myself and I love my home. But it does not equal Estonia
I am telling all this since you had the wits to find Pärnu, not a typical tourist thing to do, esp first time. Curious how you thought of it. Was it suggested by a tourist information centre or something?
Haha we found Pärnu on the map in the first place then did some research. Turned out to be a great choice! Thanks for the tips, much appreciated.
Great video! Glad you liked our small and partly ancient town here. We are really far from being independent right now as are most countries in the world but getting there slowly😉 Welcome back!
We were so glad to have visited there, will be back one day for sure!
I've been to the medieval restaurant too and the landlady has her witty way of treating people. We ordered moose soup and she scolded us for not bringing our own spoons 😂 I think the most well known restaurant in the old town is Olde Hansa which is also medieval themed.
Yeah we saw the other one around the corner as well, seems legit
Estonia would have been Nordic for sure if not ~50 years of soviet occupation that threw the country back to stone age. Estonia had an economic and financial prosperity compared to Nordic countries before the occupation. And the whole world just turned a blind eye to what soviets did with Baltic states. This is the reason why we 🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹 better than anybody understand Ukraine and that's why ruzzian embassy looks like this.
I agree with everything but slight correction, it was less than 50 years, not 80+. Unbelievable, the Kingdom of Sweden had us for longer, Denmark and the Russian Tsardom (under the German nobility) too, yet it feels like the Soviets broke us the most. Finland really got lucky.
@@hangingontheWildside , thank You for the correction! 😊 Didn't notice that mistake 🙉
I think it can be explained simply using basic values like the second language (which has a significant cultural and political impact) and work ethics. So, what do "Nordic" and "Baltic" mean for a country that calls itself Eesti?
If we say "Nordic," it would imply that the second language is Swedish (which is why the international name is Estland), and it suggests that the country is naturally aligned with other Western nations. In terms of work ethics, it would mean the presence of trade unions, as collective bargaining better protects workers' rights.
On the other hand, if we say "Baltic," it would imply that the second language is Russian (which is why the international name is Estonia), and it suggests that the country is more aligned with Eastern Europe. In this context, work ethics would mean that you do your best, but if someone else can offer your employer cheaper labor, you could be fired and replaced by that person
@ragnarlaine4065 , well, before WW2 there was a significant Swedish community in Estonia. There were even Swedish schools in Estonia. And "Baltic" is surely not "Russian". Russification of the region did it job, but if talking linguistically: baltic languages (Latvian and Lithuanian) are as tied with russian language as are, for example, italian or greek, Estonian has no ties with russian language. If talking nowadays: try speak russian langiage in Lithuania where there is only ~6% of russian population or in the southern part of Estonia, or in the islands. And work ethics in Estonia are definately different from those in, for example, Romania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Ukraine etc.
Hi! What is it actually that you didn't expect? (A local asks) What did you not expect? (from Estonia) And what did you expect? (from Tallinn)
Hey, we did our research even before coming to Estonia. We were expecting something beautiful and nice of course, but you know, it was a different kind of place then we thought, still interesting and in a positive way. Also, I guess the Baltics are the lesser known European countries, so we are happy to introduce them to a larger audience.
@@LiraNeo2023 Do not call Estonia Baltic. We are SO different from Latvia and Lithuania that I cannot even begin to describe it. Latvia is very eastern Europe in a bad way, very corrupt and unsafe, and pretty poor. Lithuania, I do not know. Been there only twice and briefly. But the people in both Latvia and Lithuania seem to be angry all the time. On the edge. And Riga seems more of a Russian town than Latvian. Not just by the amount of Russians. But the general atmosphere. For example, all the guards around their Statue of Liberty. First the supposedly nice-looking traditional guards. And then also the stupid looking municipal police with their ridiculous neon vests. All this completely ruins it visually and what is there to protect? We have no guards around our Freedom statue (or anywhere else, only in some supermarkets) and even no cameras. They claim to have cameras but I have never found one. And nobody is doing anything that needs to be interrupted by guards. So a completely different mentality. We want to be and are, safe and well behaving, without constant double or triple security walking around.
I was walking around Riga a year ago, alone at night. A police car stopped and asked me what I was doing. In Estonia the police would NEVER EVER do that. Ask a person, who has broken no laws, what they were doing in a public place. It is none of anyone"s business. So todays"s Latvia reminds me of Soviet occupation a lot. So when Estonia is lumped together with the rest of the Baltics, I get annoyed. We are so different.
Riga Old town is also pointless. A lot of ruined buildings all over the place, random soviet or warehouse or broken down buildings in the middle of Old town.
Oh, and the biggest difference: the Latvians yell like crazy. Walk around Riga and you will hear it. Are the people deaf or something? Why do they scream like crazy all the time? That also makes the tourists scream the same. In Estonia, we are pretty quiet, we do not talk louder than we have to to be heard. And the tourists also keep more quiet because they see this is the way to do it here
In general, the baltic sea coastline is is very nice. I recommend driving along the coastline, or camping along the coastline. The cultural "nordic" vibes and architecture are also quite similar along the coastline but You will see more red brick the more south you drive - the better clay deposits were there. Cultures, tribes and countries across and along the pond have many-many ties :)
陈道明、张国立心仪的美丽国度。
Yes, I get what you are saying. Estonia is also divided. In so many more ways than one. There are things we will never compromise, things like our independence. But other than that everything is an endless debate. And we are not very good at debating, more like insulting each other.
Tallinn and Pärnu is must turist citys in Estonia. If you vist those two citys, you dont see the real Estonia... :( Those are for tourist......
The "mediaval" place you went to was not mediaeval at all. Just a dump really, and overpriced. There are two really nice ones right around the corner: Olde Hansa and Peppersack. Next time try them. They know what they are doing and they do proper research about their food, music, furniture, costumes..... They will know every detail about each food they are serving. Who exactly ate that, where and how the ingredients where shipped from and so on. Unfortunately, there are places who tale advantage of tourists and make a minimal effortto LOOK mediaeval by having clay cups and candlelight. But this is not enough. This place is usually quite empty and there is a good reason why it is empty. Mostly drunk Finns go there who are so drunk they do not care where ther are going
By the way, if you want to park without paying here, just put the emergency lights on and do whatever you want and go whereever you want. This is what we do here, nobody ever checks:) It only is annoying when some people get too arrogant about it. Like putting on emergency lights and parking in the bus stop to bring their kid on the bus. Like you cannot "break down" a few meters away? the kid cannot walk for 5 meters? But if you do it rationally and do not bother anyone by it, by all means ...
Cool you went to Pärnu. Most first time tourists would not think of it. I think it is the third biggest city, after Tartu being the second. It is called the summer capital because it is basically a resort town. What characterises it for me is that it is all over the place. It has mediaeval buildings and jugend and modernism and classical and old wooden houses all mixed together. While in Tallinn all that would be kept very neatly separate. It gives Pärnu a different vibe.
One of the most beautiful buildings in my opinion is the hospital which is partly imitating a gothic building but with a lot of glass and light.
Thanks for the parking insight, that's good to know. Parking in the country wasn't exactly hard. I would go as far as saying it's pretty easy in general.
Нацистская страна, где одна нац-община уничтожила школы другой и вытесняет её язык.
best land in the world !
@@horstwessel8048 Awaiting the Nuremberg Tribunal.
Единственной нацистской страной сегодня является Россия, которая действительно ждет нового Нюрнбергского суда.
@@aimurtaim Вряд ли ты сможешь хоть как то обосновать этот вздор.
А то что я сказал в заглавном комментарии, ты даже и не попытался опровергнуть. Крыть то тебе нечем.
Põle põrgus vene nats ! Sitaratas siin on riigikeeleks eesti keel .