We decided to go back to Europe for E, visiting the tiny country of Estonia. I can admit, I did not know a lot about this Baltic nation before we “traveled” there.  But I now have new respect for Estonia. It is one of the most high-tech countries in Europe and it also has one of the highest literacy rates in the world. Estonia has come a long way since their communist era, and we all really loved the way Estonia ended Soviet rule with the “Singing Revolution.”

To learn more about Estonia, please browse our info sheet: EstoniaINFO

And test your new knowledge on this awesome crossword puzzle: ESTONIA_CW

Below are some interesting facts that we learned

1. Estonia has about 1,500 islands
2. About two-thirds of Estonians live in apartment buildings
3. Estonia finally became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991, in part because of the “Singing Revolution,” where hundreds of thousands of Estonians expressed their freedom in song.
4. Estonia inventing a sport called kiiking, where competitors stand on a swing and try to flip it completely around in a circle

COOKING

Cooking Estonian was familiar ingredients put together in new ways.  They have influences from Finnish, Russian and German roots. Breakfast was a big hit and half of dinner was. Dinner was kind of summed up by Andrew when he said, “Why does Estonia food smell stinky but taste good?”

Breakfast

1. Estonia Kringle – This is delicious and beautiful cake of sorts, that is a close cousin to to the cinnamon roll. It’s actually a special cake typically made for birthdays, but we thought it would make a great break aft – and it did!
2. Brown bread with melted cheese. This actually what a typically breakfast is. But its usually more a sweetened cheese curd.
3. Yogurt with crushed cereal. They usually have yogurt with  something called kama – kind of a crumbly topping made from different flours, but as I could not track that down, so we used a easy to find alternative.

Dinner

1. Muglikapsad – We did this in a crock pot for a few hours and turned out great. (We also wanted to break apart the pork until the end.) I also added caraway powder as another recipe suggested it. And as the recipe states, it does taste even better a day (or few) after.
2. Estonian Potato Salad – After looking at a few recipes we went for this one, but without the sausage and with pickles instead of cucumbers. Andrew was a particularly big fan of this!
3. Brown bread with butter. A staple in all Estonian meals

Culture

We learned that singing is of huge importance to Estonians. As mentioned above, singing helped them break free of Communism and gain their independence! From 1988 to 1991, several gatherings were held in Estonia were hundreds of thousands of people sung Estonian songs to express their freedom to the Soviet Union and the world. One time they even formed a human chain that stretched across the length of Estonia and sang.

So we decided just to look at some videos on the Singing Revolution and practicing singing the song they sang (but in English).  Here is an informative YouTube video: Singing Revolution History  And Here is a preview for a film about it all called the  “The Singing Revolution”

And here are the words. Best English translation of “Mu isamaa on minu arm” (Land of my Fathers, Land that I Love), the most powerful song of the revolution :