Estonia

Densely forested fairy tale Europe still exists in Estonia along with the highly competent developers of Skype. The fun part, of course, is to talk about the fairy tales.

What was it like for medieval Estonia when knights and monks forced their version of Christianity on the population? The Man Who Spoke Snakish by Andrus Kivirähk is a delightful way to imagine it. A Tolkien like setting combined with shadows of Mark Twain’s humor and Kurt Vonnegut’s satirical political commentary gives us this Estonian folkloric fantasy of the last few pagans and their snake allies. (I bought it used on Amazon for $2 then passed it along to my Estonian friend Elmar who hadn’t read it yet.)

To continue the fairy tale theme, Project Gutenberg has a collection of Estonian folk tales in The Hero of Esthonia and Other Studies in the Romantic Literature of that Country at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19438

If you still aren’t picturing the setting, Wild Baltic has two beautiful nature documentaries covering both Estonia and their neighbor Latvia.

· The Baltic Forest and Moorland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJqFgOrHy8s

· The Baltic Coastline: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pZziPy1jLM

The natural setting might give you some idea, but the real power of the Estonian people is in their music. How they gained their freedom from the Soviet Union without firing a shot is shown in The Singing Revolution (both on Kanopy and Amazon Prime). On Kanopy, I also watched To Breathe As One: The Estonian National Song Festival about the Laulupidu Song Festival which commemorates their independence every five years.

For more Estonian music, see:

· More than four hours of youth choir music from the Estonian public broadcast service: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFuuqiR3Ggk

· Estonian singer Kerli in her fairy tale like “Feral Hearts” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx4bBuD2TX8&list=PL-WQaFSB_ZX_Sjw163aA1sAdCKlKyOyrW

· Search for “Estonian music” on YouTube and start the chain. Some songs are even in English.

To experience Estonian food, watch season 4, episodes 3 and 6 of Tarequ Taylor's Nordic Cookery on Amazon Prime. I found pretty pictures of Estonian foods at https://www.tasteatlas.com/most-popular-food-in-estonia and one of the recipes at https://www.panningtheglobe.com/rosolje-estonian-potato-beet-salad/

In celebrating Estonia’s strength, beauty, and tradition, I don’t want to ignore Estonia’s suffering under communism. See the novel Purge by Sofi Oksanen (I picked it up at the San Bernardino County Library) or any of the several Estonian movies on Amazon Prime. They include The Fencer, Hi Rasma, Helen's Birthday, and Tangerines (also available on Tubi).

For an example of art in Estonia, see the Saints Nicholas and Victor Altarpiece in Tallinn’s Church of St. Nicholas at https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/renaissance-reformation/northern-renaissance1/xa6688040:baltic-region/a/hermen-rode-saints-nicholas-and-victor-altarpiece

Words Without Borders has fourteen contributors from Estonia. Here are just three of them:

· Carolina Pihelgas poetry, notes from this city https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/coronavirus-voices-from-the-pandemic-notes-from-this-city-pihelgas-cullen

· Sveta Grigorjeva poetry, [You’re Right] https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/april-2018-estonia-youre-right-sveta-grigorjeva-adam-cullen

· Urmas Vadi short stories, Neverland https://www.wordswithoutborders.org/article/april-2018-estonia-neverland-urmas-vadi-adam-cullen

More beauty from Estonia and options for a great trip can be seen at https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-estonia/ When this pandemic is over (and hey, the vaccine is approved!), you might want to plan travel to fairy tale Estonia using your local travel advisor. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive - may we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Estonia and throughout the world.

Photo Credit: Erik Karits https://unsplash.com/photos/QjKt4vXn-S0