Together with MeetnGreetMe and our cheerful locals we keep exploring best holiday destinations around the world. Today Elina, a knowledgeable and friendly local travel expert, is sharing some curious facts about her hometown, Tallinn, Estonia, with you.

A small digression: after 7 centuries of German, Danish, Swedish, Polish and Russian rule, Estonia attained independence in 1918. Forcefully annexed into the USSR in 1940, it regained the independence in 1991.

Nowadays Estonia is a Baltic gem offering visitors the chance to see a tiny dynamic land on the shores of the Baltic Sea. This country doesn’t have to struggle to find a point of difference: it’s completely unique. It shares a similar geography and history with Latvia and Lithuania, but culturally it’s distinct. That is why it attracts more and more tourists each year.

Enjoy and store this useful information in your mind – according to the words of Elina, Tallinn is just the right place to spend the weekends.

“Warm greetings from the Baltic!

Hello traveler! My name is Elina and I am Russian born in Estonia – one of the three little post-soviet countries of the Baltic that border with Russia. Whenever I travel around Europe meeting new people and telling them where I came from there are only two possible reactions I receive:

“Whoa, Estonia? Never heard of it” or “Awesome! I’ve been there, loved it sooo much!”

It is true, once you visited Estonia, there’s no way you won’t like it!

Living in a very small country, Estonians are a very proud little nation that honors its traditions. Last week Estonia celebrated its 100th independence anniversary. Being present in a relatively “young” independent country, you can see how it grows and changes every year, reconstructing 20th-century modern buildings, experimenting with totally new architecture and managing to keep so many different styles together in the small cozy heart of Tallinn.

Tallinn, however, has a rich history. One of the oldest parts of the downtown is The Old Town – a medieval part of the city where ancient houses are now shops, restaurants, and luxury hotels. Nevertheless, it does not lose its mysterious atmosphere.

Seeing Tallinn for the first time will definitely be a memorable moment, but even the locals never get tired of everyday life in such a small capital city. Every year there are festivals like Tallinn Music Week, Tallinn Fashion Week and Tallinn Art Week, and every year young musicians, designers, and artists from the whole Europe come and share their talents from the big stages (entrance is often free of charge!).

As an art student, I adore our creative community where Russians (and there are plenty of us) together with Estonians contribute to the prosperity of our city. Together we create the so-called new generation art spaces, anti-cafes (where you pay for the time spent there rather than amount of food eaten), cat cafes (yeah, you can cuddle with a kitten while enjoying a cup of tea), underground theaters and many more places where you can rest or work, share your thoughts and message in any form of art, meet new people.:)”

We hope you enjoyed the insightful opinion that was created for you by Elina. Now you know who you can turn to when you go to Estonia and Tallinn city, in particular.

Would you also like to tell the world about you and your city? Feel free to write to us at hello@meetngreetme.com or just use one of our social network pages.