Explore Estonia

When we were kids, dad had a thing about the water god of ancient Estonian tradition. In his mind, this was Taara – more of a weather god, actually, a version of Thor – and I carved the word as a name plate for a 10-foot wooden dinghy dad built in the 1970s. The boat still exists and so does its name. In Estonian myth, as elsewhere in northern Europe, the spirits reside in the trees, the water, stones, everywhere. For ancient Estonians, nature is alive, and they saw no disti

In Estonian, the word for sea is meri , which always struck me as like German Meer , Latin mare , or Russian more . I thought the Estonians borrowed the word from other languages, but it could be the other way around. “Based on different historical language sources, the use of the word ‘meri’ has been in the Estonian language for 10,000 years or more,” - Estonian Mythology for the Beginner (2023) by Marju Kõivupuu. Strengthening this idea is the word in related Finnish, also

100 blogposts in, and to collect what Estonia and its people uniquely offer to the world. This tough little country has hung onto its culture, language and traditions, despite centuries of foreign invasions and occupations, while over the last 34 years swiftly adopting western, liberal democracy, and the best of digital technology, mixed in with a can-do attitude. What have the Estonians done, and how have they earned their place in Europe, and in the world? In the style of t