Disclaimer: Most people are not cold or hostile but are just a bit more shy than e.g. people in the southern countries (or even in Germany or the Netherlands). And in Tartu some are annoyed that it is so overrun by students ( I get it). 

But nevertheless I experienced the Estonians I met, to be really sweet and also interested in foreign students. 

It seems that most would rather jump out of a plane than striking up a conversation with a random stranger but if you initiate it, you can have a great conversation with them. 

But it is true, that making friends is not done in one day, which makes everything a lot more meaningful in my opinion. 

So I made one Estonian friend during my time in Tartu, but this friendship feels way more special because of it:D. 

Estonia is an interesting place to visit, because it really is a melting pot of different cultures that will be hard to find so closely together somewhere else. Estonians themselves are very much Western oriented, but there are nevertheless many Russians, Ukranians and Belarussian people to be found – mostly in the second or third generation. 

But apart from those Eastern cultures, mixing with Estonias Baltic, even somehow Scandinavian culture, there are a fair number of expats from Turkey, Azerbaidschan or other countries from the middle-east- especially academics with the background in IT, business or political sciences. 

Many of them value the startup culture and western orientation (a certain freedom which is missing for them back home), but most see Estonia as ¨backdoor of Europe¨ and try to immigrate further into countries like Germany or Scandinavia. 

The Russian Influence – and a love for singing

But above all the russian influence is probably the strongest – not politically and also not necessarily culturally (which is also very important for the Estonians themselves) – but mostly demographically. 

Being occupied by Russia for decades and in the location of ¨Europes gate to Russia¨, Estonia is still home to many Russians. In some cities, such as Narva at the Russian border (with 90%) there are more Russians than Estonians living. 

And also the economy is still more or less connected to Russia – or at least Russian speaking people – and therefore many Estonians, also in my generation, speak basically fluently Russian (in the older generations, Russians is logically much better spoken than Estonian). 

When you see a Ukranian, Estonian and Lithuanian conversate, it won´t be a surprise to see them speak Russian with each other – even though almost anyone in my generation speaks basically flawless English as well. 

As already mentioned, Estonia has a special relationship with Russia, because of decades of Soviet occupation. 

Before the Russians there was also Germany, Sweden and Poland, that took turns in occupying this poor home of 1.5 million souls. Since Estonia finally gained its long-ached-for independence thanks to the Baltic Way of 89/90 ( a 2 million long singing chaing, of which I experienced a small version HERE LINK RIGA), you can see how much they value, simply being a united, independent country. 

I experienced Estonains to be patriotic in a nice way. They don´t put themselves above anybody else, but simply value what their country has to offer and – at least I had the feeling – that many young people work hard to bring their country forward. 

They are proud of their country but also recognize that it is not a big global player, which is why they sell themselves or their country short sometimes. In my opinion – even though Estonians are happy and proud to be Estonians – they don´t always realize how cool their country actually is:). 

As already mentioned in my Blogpost about Riga the story of how Estonia reached its independence is one of the most beautiful stories in modern history I have ever heard. 2 million people standing hand in hand and singing for their independence, which should be granted to them just shortly after, when the Sovjet Union fell apart.

Already decades before this incident, the Estonians created their annual song festival to come together and sing and keep the Estonian culture alive (you have to remember that the Estonians had many rough times of occupation and are simply not a huge country – counting around 1.3 million people as of this moment).

By now over 30.000 from all around the world come together in Estonia and sing together, performing for an audience of 80.000 people. This makes it one of the biggest Amateur choirs in the world. I unfortunately did not witness this myself but below is a little video about it 🙂

Dance and Singing has always been a strong part of Estonias culture. But I believe since gaining independence this gained a whole new importance. And this goes through the whole country – rich poor young and old.

Many people I met cherrich dancing and singing and presenting traditional Estonian culture like that.

Emanzipation and Ambition

Apart from the obviously amazing sauna culture, vast nature and its ambitious IT and startup scene, I was also positively surprised by Estonias schoolsystem, emanzipation and its peoples active lifestyle. 

I saw more women in leading positions or thriving to achieve something big another way, than in anywhere else. Also, our teachers mentality generally, was more that of an animator and helper than that of ¨rule-maker¨. 

To about any teacher I had, you could speak openly and they saw themselves – while not putting themselves beneath us – serving the students and not the students serving them. This was really refreshing and (even though there are of course always exceptions) Germany and the Netherlands really have some things to learn here :p. 

The last point about Estonia in general I want to touch upon is the mentality of the other students I met. Many of them have a driving ambition to create and make the best out of themselves. 

Similar like in the Netherlands, many students are active in university organisations, while still learning a new language (Chinese is quite popular) and participating in the local sport club (they do appreciate their nature and outdoor (winter) sports are quite popular, as long as the weather allows).

Estonians might be a bit introverted, but they are surely not inactive:)!