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Like last
month, this month too we are replacing the article of
“Popular Places Unusual Attraction” with ”An Emerging
Destination” Estonia and first hand account of the place
by an Estonian, Maris Kurme. Maris is part of a tour
company called Gondvana Reisid in Pärnu, Estonia. Maris
has sent us interesting details about her beautiful
country Estonia - one of the four Baltic Countries that
includes Poland, Latvia and Lithuania as well. Estonia
is emerging as a popular destination especially for
those who wish to experience a skiing holiday in one of
the most beautiful countries close to the Gulf of
Finland. |
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About MARIS
KURME |
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Maris Kurme is a young art historian working in the field
of tourism. She's been leading groups around Europe for
several years, following the footsteps and experience of
her mother and grandmother before her. She is mainly
working in the field of outbound tourism, taking tourists
to different parts of Europe -such as France, Greece and
the UK, but starting from May 2006 she also has a license
to guide groups in and around Tallinn and Pärnu - two
cities and counties in Estonia. Herewith she is trying to
give international readers a short insight to the still
undiscovered country in the Baltic region. Maybe it'll be
of some inspiration in choosing Estonia as your next
holiday destination. |
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ESTONIA -
a beautiful little country
A tiny country of Estonia in the outskirts of Europe
doesn't happen too often on the route of tourists.
However, once you've seen the great tourist meccas of
Europe, you might actually consider discovering this
more peaceful corner of the continent and come here. Or
step in on your way to Finland or St. Petersburg - it's
so conveniently located on the way to either of these
countries. |
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The small
country of about 1,350000 inhabitants is situated in the
North-East corner of Europe and it celebrated its
Independence Day on February 24th. When the Soviet Union
collapsed in 1991 Estonians were among those who got
their own independent state. Now it is one of the
fastest developing country in whole Europe and in 2005
it also joined the EU - to the disappointment of many
people here, by the way. However, the EU has at least
brought the country some attention and in some fields
Estonia is already quite noticed. But there are still a
lot of people who think it could be a basketball team or
a chocolate. Hopefully this will change in the nearest
future. Estonia is a low land and it has always been of rural
character. People here have traditionally been farmers
and peasants under foreign rule, whereas Germans,
Russians, Danes, Swedes and Polish masters have governed
them and enjoyed all the benefits for centuries. Our
noticeable towns appeared around the Middle Ages and
were inhabited also mainly by foreigners. Ironically
those medieval cities and towns are now one of the
country's biggest claims to honour - especially the
medieval centre of our capital Tallinn is
very well preserved and has a lot of
atmosphere. |
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There aren't many
towns in Europe that would have such a magnificent
ensemble of turrets and town walls, spectacular
buildings and cobbled stone roads as Tallinn and also
some smaller provincial towns. The Middle Ages are
exploited a lot therefore too - in all the fairs and
street shows people dress up to the medieval clothing,
there are medieval restaurants and street vendors
dressed as they would have in the year 1200. There are
Tallinn's medieval conferences and so on. But I must say
- they fit well in Tallinn and it is good that this
image is still kept. One of the churches here was, by
the way, Europe's highest building for centuries (from
1500s to 1800s) and the skyline of Tallinn is still
dominated by it. There is actually a law that no
building or skyscraper can be higher than the church
steeple of St. Olav's Church, which is pretty unique and
stops the building of awfully high glass towers.
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To try
and think of Estonians’ most famous things and important
people, the first thing that comes to our mind
especially after the Turin Olympics is sports. It isn't
easy to find world class athletes from among less than
1,5 million people, but in the Olympic Games in Turin,
Estonian skiers got 3 golds (in cross country, not
mountain skiing, because the highest hill
here is only 318m high) and this is
appreciated a lot.Estonians consider
themselves ski people and it is a very
popular sport in the winter months. |
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Normally winters are long, cold and very snowy, the snow
comes down at least in December and lasts until March.
In January and February the temperatures drop often to
-350C and on March 1st it would still be -15 0C outside.
So that's partly a reason why Estonians love their
skiing as much as the Italians love their football.
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Another
thing that is typically connected with Estonia is music
and its huge song festival that takes place every 4
years. Every single choir in the whole country (and
there are many, because choirs have a strong tradition
here! Even the revolution that brought us independence
from the Soviet Union was called Singing Revolution,
because it was started by everybody coming to the
streets and singing together) practises given songs for
years and then when this song festival takes place, they
all gather together in Tallinn under a huge arch and
sing the same songs under one choir leader as one. It is
entitled as the World's Largest Choir, comprising of
some 30000 to 50000 singers and it is a great audio and
visual treat. People from different parts of the country
dress in their region's folk dress, there is a huge
parade and they continue singing for 3 full days. The
first such event took place in 1869 and it has grown
ever since. By the way, there is also an equivalent of
dance festival, where all folk dancers dance together,
form highly choreographed patterns while dancing and
enjoy themselves a lot. It is an event on a grand scale
and if any of you should consider coming to Estonia -
there's no better time than during the Song Festival!
The next big one will be in 2009 though, but in June
2006 there will be Baltic University Students' Song
Festival and in the Summer of 2007 there will be
National Youngsters' Song Festival and also a joint
festival with Estonian and Finnish choirs. So there is
plenty of variety! |
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The
spoken language in Estonia is naturally Estonian. Very
many people tend to think we're actually Russians and
also try to speak it with us. But the fact is that we're
very far from Russians both linguistically and by
origin. And as our big neighbours have kept us under
their occupation for centuries, there is mutual dislike
between Estonians and Russians still strong under the
ashes. We have about 25% to 30% of Russians living in
Estonia now and they cause quite a stir every now and
then. They don't want to learn Estonian, so they have
their own schools, papers, books and they distance
themselves from us, being very bossy and arrogant. Then
when they grow up, they don't find a job because they
don't speak the national language and as a result they
are poor, they drink, use drugs and also most of our
criminals come from this sector. Estonians find it
pretty nasty and in fact there is no bigger insult to an
Estonian than to be asked: “Are you Russian?“. Well…of
course there are really nice and smart Russians too I
have several good friends among them myself, but this is
what the general picture looks like. |
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As for the people here - I suppose Estonians
are a typically northern lot. We are calm,
cold, modest, hard working, patriotic,
quiet, jealous, very loyal and don't show
our emotions very often - for example hugs
are only for special events and not shared
easily. We are also very close to nature,
probably thanks to our origin. Estonia has a
lot of forests, lakes, islands and for
bigger holidays people always get out of
towns to go to villages and smaller places
closer to nature, where also their family
roots lie. Everybody loves going to the
forest to pick berries and mushrooms and
farming is going through a reawakening right
now. |
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This closeness to nature is also why we prefer very
fresh food - this is something for example Americans
found unheard of. We go to a grocery store every day for
we drink fresh milk, eat fresh salad and sausages or
meat products last perhaps a week when kept in a fridge.
Estonian owned products are kept free of preserving
chemicals and when Americans see our fresh milk they
normally discuss among themselves how they thought fresh
milk didn't exist anymore. Our culinary side isn't very
inviting for foreigners though… Judge yourselves, but
our traditional dish is black pudding (alias blood
sausage) with potatoes, sauerkraut and cowberry jam. But
there are more delicate and delicious things to be found
too, so no worries! As a guest you have a right to ask
for whatever…
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All in
all Estonia is one of the unspoiled places of Europe.
Tourists come here exactly to enjoy the nature and
charming old cities that aren't too overcrowded, fairly
cheap and we are friendly people. True - I said
Estonians are quiet and keep to themselves, but
everybody still loves meeting foreigners. I suppose this
is the best sign of not being overly touristicised yet.
MTV even showed a clip where Estonia was
called the “party capital of Europe“ because
of beautiful blonde girls, who are attracted
to foreigners, and cheap drinks. This isn't
certainly a reputation to be proud of
though. |
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But some American newspaper giants also placed Estonia
amongst the top 10 of the “worth visiting“ places, which
is also a good advertisement and maybe a bit more
dignified one. Anyway, I do believe this small country
has a lot of potential and it won't stay ”the unknown of
the North“ for too long anymore. But I am also sure it
has a lot to offer to anyone, so when you're in the
area, do hop in!
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We thank
our readers for the overwhelming response to the new
feature started in 2006. We had got quite a few of our
readers answering correctly to the “TEST YOUR
DESTINATION KNOWLEDGE” Quiz on the Know International
Antarctic Centre Contest (April 2006 issue)
Our Three Lucky Winners are :
1. Michelle Fernandes from Umerkhadi
2. Momin Ali from Bhiwandi
3. Smita Patil from Vasai
Congratulations! Each one of you win a voucher of
Rs.1000 which can be used either for any international
holiday package that you book with COMPACT TRAVELS OR
get a concession for any of the courses offered by IHCTM
or IMFAA of RBCS GROUP. So continue participating, keep
winning and test your destination knowledge as well.
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.1. You
will find the Jan Becher Becherovka Museum in Karlovy
Vary
2. Ceske Budejovice is the original Budweiser Beer Town
3. At Sedlec, you will you find a chandelier made of
every bone in the human body
4. Malá Strana of Prague city is also known as Lesser
Town
5. Karlovy Vary is famous for its film festivals
The Winners of the May 2006 quiz will be announced in
our July 2006 issue |
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