This post was primarily written for my wilderness blog, The Grizzly Bear Diaries. I posted it here too as it has some (very limited) bearing on the geopolitics of Europe’s eastern frontier.
As my summer travels take me to different countries in Europe, I have just spent a couple of nights at a hotel in Tartu, Estonia’s attractive second city and home to one of the oldest universities in the region.
It is also the birthplace of my wonderful late wife Kristin, and each summer I endeavour to spend a few days in this Nordic country, catching up with her family and spending time with friends of hers who are now also friends of mine.
For those of you who haven’t been to Estonia, it is a peculiar country.
It has an outlandish and indecipherable language, somewhat similar to Finnish. And it shares some of its thousand-year history with the other Baltic nations to the south: Latvia and Lithuania.
But it is also strongly influenced, sometimes positively, more often negatively, by the presence of its hulking and ill-tempered neighbour, Russia.
Perhaps it is the constant threat of Slavic hordes arriving from the east that has driven Estonians towards a disposition that is quiet, stubborn, awkward, and occasionally, taciturn.
But in a world that is all about volume, showmanship, and drama, I find its low-key charm increasingly appealing.