FIRST TIME IN ESTONIA (Tallinn blew my mind!) 🇪🇪

Estonian ussr wasn't established - Estonia was occupied by ussr. That is a huge difference and a vital question for Estonia until the very day, as we still have that agressive neighbour who talks about the need of occupying us again.

Great video and not to put a damper on it in any way but worth noting that the ‘Soviet Era’ was through forced occupation, not by choice. Estonians never wanted to be a part of the USSR and suffered tremendously throughout the occupation. More than 15% of the population was killed or deported and economic development on standstill for 50 years. Our language and culture aren’t similar to russian.

Yes, Estonians absolutely love a good sauna. Growing up in the countryside most houses had a sauna, that traditional in our culture. Same as our brothers in Finland 😊

Thing is neither people in the Baltics have ever felt “Russian” in any way, much of our history is actually pretty much being the frontier or border region whete various powers and coslitions of the “West” have fought each other or Russians for that matter. Russia has always been for us either the place we go to war to, or they come with war to us. It has never been a place we see as our own or some attachment to

Hotel Viru, "one part cement and one part microphones, by KGB"

Fun fact - the earliest Viking artifacts were discovered in Estonia (Saaremaa island also known as Ösel), and some of the oldest too. Western and Northern Estonia used to be inhabited by Estonians and Swedes. That is until WWII when most Estonian Swedes left their homes in Estonia and fled to Sweden. Some families remained on islands and parts of Western Estonia to this day.

As a Finn, I'd say that Estonia indeed produces the best beer in Northern Europe. Also, if you come back to Finland, you should try an ancient beer variety called sahti. Sahti is the oldest type of beer still in production. It can't be exported, because it gets spoiled within a week, and it gets spoiled even before that, if stored in a warm temperature, or shaken.

Estonia is beautiful. Hello from Finland 🎉

Estonian history is very complex and can't be told generally. For example almost the entire time Estonia was in the Russian Empire, it was actually ruled by Germans that were there since the crusades. That is why you had sauerkraut with bloodsausage as sauerkraut is a German dish that became popular with locals. German culture has had overwhelmingly biggest effect on Estonia. Next is the North Germanics as that connection has been there for thousands of years. And in current times I think American is replacing whatever we have left from Russian culture. As for sauna, I don't think I ever tire of repeating that saunas are not Finnish but Finnic in origin. The idea is thousands of years old. Estonia and Finland with some remnant groups in Russia are part of the Finno-Ugric group.

Estonia is awesome country and been travelling in there quite a bit. Tartu in southern Estonia is awesome city and also currently the cultural capital of Europe and definitely worth a visit.

During the communist era , the Estonian watched secretly Finnish TV .

Now you know why we Finns like to travel to Estonia 🍺

I was in Tallinn once. When I was a soldier in soviet army. My unit was located near estonian border. Even then it was like in other country, like Europe. And I like it very much.

At this point, we cannot fail to note that during the Soviet era in Estonia, most of the orders from Moscow were not fulfilled or their fulfillment was marked. At the same time, things were done the way they used to be, their language, culture and traditions were preserved. Even during the Soviet era, Tallinn was not like other Soviet cities, gray and boring, even from Petersburg, that is Leningrad at that time, people traveled to Estonia as if they were "abroad". If we had not been so stubborn and principled, we would probably have become Russia, like most of the "republics" of the USSR. We did very well...

Your first Estonian Saku beer, canned, you got already in Tampere on the 1. of May. I saw you walking with it in your hand in the video. It was fun for me to see the Viru Hotel. It is built by a Finnish construction company in the early 1970, and my Finnish Godfather was a foreman and a construction engineer for the build. He told us already then about the whole floor reserved for espionage and KGB. He lived some years in Tallin during the building process. He said that it was a nightmare. The corruption and theft of all the building materials took his health and nerves.

Finland misses you two already.

Mad respect for taking shoes of when going indoors in estonia

If you happen to make a supermarket tour here, then you gotta try a dairy dessert called "kohuke", curd/cottage cheese snack that looks like a candy bar found in the fridge aisle. Very popular dessert in the Baltics and some other Eastern European countries.

saun is inherent part of also estonian culture. for thousands of years all estonians were born in one (unheated ofc hehe). everything important in person's life happened in the sauna building – being born, being prepared for one's wedding and later also funeral.

You two should go to the Põhjala Brewery & Tap Room. Really good place to drink and eat. Also do not forget to taste those dark beers.