Estonia wins Olympic gold in women’s fencing

Estonia is celebrating tonight. Not since 2008 has Estonia won gold at the Olympic Games but thanks to the women's epee team, victory was achieved.  This is a fantastic, well deserved achievement which has made the country extremely proud. Over the weekend Katrina Lehis also won bronze in the individual round. Congratulations! 

Estonia's epee Team:

Julia Beljajeva, Erika Kirpu, Katrina Lehis, Irina Embrich

There is a tradition in Estonia that whenever an athlete wins gold at the Olympics, the government gives them the national flag that was flying atop Pikk Hermann Tower on the day that they won. Not sure what happens when four athletes win at the same time. ;)

The official medal count can be found here

Similarities between Finno-Ugric languages

Whilst Hungarian, Finnish and Estonian all belong to the Finno-Ugric language group, modern Hungarian shows little resemblance to contemporary Estonian and Finnish. It may, however, come as a surprise that many words and their meanings are indeed related. 

Estonian co-production 'Compartment No.6' wins prestigious award at Cannes

The Estonian film industry is celebrating today. The film Hytti No.6 (Compartment No.6) was awarded the second highest honour at the Cannes Film Festival last night - the Grand Prix Prize. Hytti No.6 is an Estonian/Finnish/Russian/German co-production directed by Juho Kuosmanen. The film tells the story of a Finnish woman who is forced to share a small train compartment with a Russian miner as they travel 1100 km across Russia. 

More information can be found here: 74th Cannes Film Festival

How similar is Estonian to the Finnish language?

 This interesting video will show you!

The relief of being vaccinated

We have been living with the coronavirus pandemic for over a year and a half now and it's unlikely to disappear any time soon.  We all still need ro excerise vigilance, wear a mask in public and adhere to social distancing rules. Top proirity should be to get vaccinated.

Three weeks ago I had the Johnson & Johnson jab and I am now fully vaccinated. Naturally I was concerned about side-effects but I didn't experience any. Such a relief! I now have my EU vaccination passport and can travel without restriction to many places.  A summer holiday in Estonia is definitely looking favourable at the moment. My brother in Poland (vaccinated with Pfizer) is likely to join me.

The situation in Australia is quite concerning. The government has done a dreadful job rolling out the vaccine despite having ample time to get organised. There is no excuse for such poor management. Most of my family live in Australia and they are only starting to get vaccinated now. One family member had a bad reaction to her first dose of AstraZeneca and is worried about her second. Pfizer seems the way to go but it is only available to people under the age of 50. 

We must keep in mind that the vaccines don't give 100% protection. The risk of infection is greatly reduced, however you can still catch covid and be sick for several weeks afterwards. It has happened,  cases have been reported. Being vaccinated should keep you out of hospital and the intensive care unit. Vaccination gives you peace of mind and saves lives.

Estonia is the only EU country where the risk of poverty has decreased

According to Eurostat, Estonia is the only country in the European Union where the at-risk-of-poverty rate decreased compared to the 2019 figures.  The below graph shows the majority of EU countries are stable however the risk level has risen in Spain, Italy, Sweden, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Slovenia, Bulgaria and Austria. The coronavirus pandemic is the main cause for the rise in unemployment and reduced working hours. Estonia has weathered the storm reasonally well due to the ease of working remotely. 

For further reading visit Eurostat

Earlier this year Big 7 Travel named Tallinn as the best city in the world for remote workers.

Tilt Reigo: Mina olen eestlane - I am Estonian

There are many interesting stories of Estonians who fled their country due to World War Two.  This video featuring 104 year-old Tilt Reigo was made in February 2015 and tells his story. He was a key figure at the Estonian House in London from 1959 until his death in July 2015.