keepsaketartu

My hometown is Tartu. It’s second biggest town in Estonia and it’s situated in the South part of land. There are many students because our biggest and oldest university is situated there. It was established in 1632 by Swedish king Gustav Adolf (Estonia was under the Swedish power then). Our biggest river Emajõgi (the Mother River) flows through the Tartu. There are many parks and little hill town with the ruins of old castles in the centre of town. We have good theatre with three theatre houses and concert hall, nice pubs and cafes to spend good time. The new swimming pool with water park (biggest in Baltic States) was just opened. I like to live there, it’s peaceful town, but there is always much to do if you like culture.

It's difficult (at least to my mind) name the monuments
or buildings which are Estonian biggest tourist attractions, because there aren't any this kind of buildings like Eiffel Tower in Paris etc. It's more easy to talk about the places which are the biggest tourist attractions.
Our capital Tallinn is famous for it's old town where are narrow
streets and interesting old houses and there is possible to feel the "smell of old times", although form other side it's quite modernic and there are many opportunities for entertainment. Usually all tourists find something interesting there : history, great architecture, market, sea, good theatres, shops etc.
We have many island and islets, some of them are big (Saaremaa,
Hiiumaa, Muhu, Vormsi) and many people live there, the others are quite small and only birds live there. The islands are like some kind of little worlds with their beautiful nature and different traditions. There are many junipers, dry stone walls and windmills in Saaremaa and there are also many churches and ruins of ancient fenced fortification. The language is also little bit different. In each island people speak the different local dialects, although nowadays only old people speak it and young people use the literary language mostly. These places are very friendly for tourist and there are many good opportunities there to spend the night, eat local food, see the local traditions are very beautiful nature.
The other beautiful part of Estonia is the South-Estonia. There is very beautiful landscape and many places to see. It’s full of small lakes and there are many hills. Maybe it’s too much to call them hills, because our highest hill Suur Munamägi is only 318 metres high. Many people like to spend their summers there and it’t also popular skiing place in winter.
I like one more area in Estonia, it’s situated in the South-West part and it’ts named Soomaa (the land of bogs). There are many rivers, bogs and forests and little civilization. It’s good place to enjoy the nature and silence and it’s popular for hiking and canoeing, too.

To my friend from abroad I would certainly show the places I mentioned before. Tallinn with it's old town which is full of different museums; the places not far from Tallinn (the waterfalls, the places of ancient burial mounds which help to explain more about our history); my hometown Tartu with it's university, Toomemägi (the Toome Hill) and lovely pubs where are opportunities to talk with local people; the South-Estonia with it's picturesque landscape; the islands where is different culture and traditions; the Soomaa with it's primeval nature. Maybe I'll
show the North-East part of Estonia, too where is mostly industrial area and Russian people are living, but it gives my friend from abroad good chance to see this part of Estonia, too and it's totally different by contrast with all these beautiful places mentioned before.

One of the traditional holidays is the Christmas and I think nowadays Estonian christmas aren't very different from the Christmas in other countries. There were many traditions in old times, but now people only like to spend the time with their family, sometimes visit the
church, do the presents to each other, watch TV and eat a lot. The usual Christmas dishes are black pudding (it's the sausage made from blood) and sauerkraut and it's usual to bake the ginger-snaps, too. The other famous holiday is Midsummer Day (the 23th of June). At the night of 23th of June is tradition to light the campfire and lot of people gather together to have a party around it. There is tradition to play every kind of sociable games, sing and dance, although nowadays people like more only drink the beer and sit around the fire.
We have the Shrove Tuesday, it's mostly in February and there is tradition to go in a sled and eat the pea soup and the whipped cream buns. The tradition of sledding is from old times when the people grew the flax and there was said that the person who does the longest slide in sled will have the best flax in next year.
Another nice days are the Mardipäev (the Mart Day) and Kadripäev (the Kadri Day). Mart and Kadri are the Estonian names, the first is male name and the other is female name and these days are both in November. Then people, especially the children, put the funny clothes on and go visit other people. They sing and dance and talk the stories and people
give the sweets them for that. It's such nice tradition and when I was younger I enjoyed it a lot.
We have also Women's Day and Mother's Day. The Women's Day is in 8th of March and it was celebrated during the times when we were the part of Soviet Union (then the Mother's Day wasn't accepted). Many people celebrate the Women's Day nowadays, too, because it's good opportunity to give the flowers and presents and more attention to women who aren't the mothers yet. The Mother's Day is in May and we also have the Father's
Day in November, but it isn't so much known. We have some holidays borrowed from other traditions like Valentine's Day in February and Halloween in November and people celebrate them as they was used to celebrated in other countries.

It's hard to find something original to say how Estonian people spend their free time, because we mostly do the usual things. Young people go to the bars and nightclubs for entertainment. The connection between family members and different generations aren't so close like in some other countries where the different generations live together and are very close to each other, but many people visit their parents who live in the country or spend the time with friends and relatives. Estonian people visit the theatre a lot because we have many good theatres, but most people watch the TV because it's easy and cheap way to spend the free time. We read the books, go in for sports etc, so there isn't anything more to say.

My childhood was in time where Estonia was occupied by Soviet Union and so we didn't have the toys which the nowadays children in Estonia have. We also didn't have the chance to watch the Western cartoons, but actually I am really happy that I had the chance to watch the Russian cartoons, because they are so different from Western cartoons. There wasn't so much violence and the persons where also different, they weren't so similar to each other. We had also many good TV telecasts for children, more than nowadays commerce TVs have. During my classmates was so popular to watch the Finnish TV (it was Western TV for us this time). In my childhood I played the many games which the girls usually play, like the home with the dolls, school etc. I lived in the country and there were mostly boys besides me, so we plaied a lot with animals, built the shanties to the forest, make the little ships swim in spring when there was much water everywhere, spied the people who seemed strange to us and conceived that they are the spies, played the Three Muscetaries (by the famous book of Alexander Dumas), clambered in the trees and much more like that.

I know that many men like Estonian woman, because they seem to be so beautiful their mind. It's truth, because feminism isn't so widely spreaded in Estonia like in Scandinavian countries for example, so women still wear short skirts and take much care of their outlook. I also know that many people from South Europe (Italy, Spain) say Estonians to be so reserved and not temperamented at all. It's right, we are reserved and slow, but we are still so friendly and most of us are open-minded and interested in new experiences.

The most beautiful thing in my country is the beautiful nature, I guess, many picturesque places and reservations where is good to get the contact with nature and enjoy the silence. I am proud of Estonian people who have suffered many hard times and many occupations by different empires, but we are still alive. The population of Estonia is only 1,5 million people, but we can get the higher education and publish the scientific researches in Estonian language. It's really nice place and worth visiting.

Estonia is small country, one of the three Baltic States (the others are Latvia and Lithuania) and the former part of Soviet Union (nowadays Russia). We were occupied by Soviet Union for 50 years almost, but no we’ve been independent 10 years already. There is so much changed during these years and the life is probably much better. There are more goods available and more chances to study, get good job, travel etc, but there are also the problems which are typical for postcommunist society like economical problems, unemployement. Estonia is beautiful country. It’s surrounded by sea from North, West and South-West. In the West border with Russia we have big lake (Lake Peipsi). Our neighbours besides Russia are Finland in the North and Latvia in the South.