Estonian jokes

It's Sunday morning and a good time to explore this Estonian jokes animation series. Got a chuckle from a few of them. Enjoy.

Far to Tallinn?

Fox or rabbit?

The pleasure of marriage

Man's treasure

Head vanavanemate päev / Happy Grandparent's Day

Today is Grandparent's Day in Estonia. According to the Estonian Bureau of Statistics there are currently 129,780 grandfathers in Estonia and 224,990 grandmothers. Best wishes to all!

It's mushroom season in Estonia

One thing I noticed when I first visited Estonia in 2003 is that Estonians love their mushrooms. As I drove through the countryside, I saw no-one for miles yet at times I would come across a car parked by the side of the road and see a figure in the forest, bucket in hand, searching for mushroom. In time I learned Estonians have their favourite spots to pick mushrooms and they return year after year.

During me recent trip to Estonia I spent five days on the island of Hiiumaa and was regularly in the forest. I saw many different species of mushroom, ranging from the most sought after to the most deadly. I'm no expert on mushooms but I follow the rule, 'if I don't know, I don't touch.'

Porcini (means little pig) are highly sought after mushrooms.

The death cap

If you eat this mushroom you will become violently sick then die from liver failure.

It is recommended not even to touch this mushroom with your bare hand as it is extreemly toxic.

Avoid, avoid, avoid.

How Estonia's postage rates compare to the rest of the world

With my summer holiday to Estonia drawing near, thoughts have crossed my mind about what the current postage rates are.  I have promised many postcards to relatives in Australia and Russia and I also want to keep a few stamps for myself. A quick look on the Omniva website revealed that the current price of sending a letter abroad from Estonia is 1.90€. This price applies to both postcards and letters weighing under 20g. 

Postage prices always seem to be on the rise and I am curious to know how Estonia compares to the rest of the world. When I was last in Australia I was shocked at how expensive sending letters had become. When I lived there in 2011, the price of sending a letter overseas was $2.20, now it's $3.40. In the UK, overseas stamps costs £1.70 but in Lithuania it's only 0.81€. From my recent trip to Venice I discovered that Italy has some of the highest postage rates in Europe. It cost me 3.11€ to send a postcard to Australia, I was quite taken aback at how expensive it was, however, the price was slightly cheaper within the Eurozone. Germany has very reasonable postage prices, a postcard to anywhere in the world costs 0.95€ and a letter is 1.10€. Across the Atlantic, stamps in the USA cost $1.15 for a postcard or three 'forever stamps'. This is a term unfamilar to me and anyone else outside of the USA but the price seems quite reasonable. All in all, Estonia's postage rates for postcards and letters seem normal compared to other countries. 

Just can't wait to be back in Estonia! Not long to go now!

Political map of Estonian territory throughout the ages (1200-1920)

Many wars have been fought over the territory of Estonia. Foriegn rulers have come and gone over the centuries, leaving their mark on the land. This video (in Estonian) shows the changes that have taken place during the last 700 years. It took some time for Estonia to achieve its independence but with determination it did.

Estonian writer Jaan Kaplinski dies

Estonia lost one of its acclaimed cultural figures yesterday. Jaan Kaplinski was an renowned poet, translator, philosopher and cultural spokesperson who passed away aged 80 after a period of serious illness. During his career Jaan Kaplinski published numerous collections of poetry, prose, and essays which have been translated into over fifteen languages. 

Jaan Kaplinski was born in Tartu on 22 January 1941 to an Estonian mother and Polish-Jewish father. His father was a professor of philology at Tartu University who was arrested by Soviet troops and later perished of starvation in a labour camp in 1945. In 2009 Kaplinski published the semi-autobiographical novel The Same River (Estonian: Seesama jõgi) which is set in Tartu during the 1960s.

Kaplinski was awarded many prizes during his career including the Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature, the Arts and Science (1997),  the Laureate of the European Literature Prize (Prix Européen de Littérature 2016) and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in the same year. He also has an asteroid named after him, main-belt asteroid 29528 Kaplinski.

In January Jaan Kaplinski celebrated his 80th birthday. To mark the occasion, a poetry program of Kaplinski's work was produced by the Tartu Poetry Theatre group and the literature circle "Ellips".

Poem by Jaan Kaplinski from his book 'The Wandering Border'

We started home, my son and I.

Twilight already. The young moon

stood in the western sky and beside it

a single star. I showed them to my son

and explained how the moon should be greeted

and that this star is the moon’s servant.

As we neared home, he said

that the moon is far, as far

as that place where we went.

I told him the moon is much, much farther

and reckoned: if one were to walk

ten kilometers each day, it would take

almost a hundred years to reach the moon.

But this was not what he wanted to hear.

The road was already almost dry.

The river was spread on the marsh; ducks and other waterfowl

crowed the beginning of night. The snow’s crust

crackled underfoot – it must

have been freezing again. All the houses’ windows

were dark. Only in our kitchen

a light shone. Beside our chimney, the shining moon,

and beside the moon, a single star.

Short story of Estonia: 1918-2020