Estonia, estonia vlog, tallinn, tallinn estonia, digital nomad, digital nomad estonia, europe life, indian in europe, shreya mahendru
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You would have asked me 5 years ago Shrea would you like to visit Estonia I would say wait fast forward here I am having witnessed all five seasons in Estonia yes there’s a secret Fifth Season which I’m going to tell you about very soon in this video and having enjoyed so many
Experien es in Thailand and in other cities in Estonia I am narrating and sharing all of my experiences here Today Estonia surprised me in the ways that I absolutely could not have imagined and here I am going to share some of my stories and some of my experiences with you fast forward here I am having witnessed all five seasons in Estonia yes there’s a secret Fifth Season which
I’m going to tell you about very soon in this video and having enjoyed so many many experiences in thain and in other cities in Estonia I am narrating and sharing all of my experiences here in this Video starting off my journey from chaotic streets of Delhi actually chandigar because that’s where I’m from taking a train and then with all of my luggage getting to New Delhi by train and then taking a flight uh with a small layover to Estonia and I had lovely experiences I really enjoy
Traveling sometimes I feel like you don’t even see me well this is the condition and my face when I started my journey still relatively fresh and going to have nice meal excited for it perhaps my last Indian meal in India before I have my few further travels in Europe and I’m
Going to share my after photos and videos as well so stay tuned I had this amazing power baji one of my favorite dishes it was so so so Good I had a nice journey and a quick layover in Germany after which we were transferred to another plane of course and this plane was so cute look at it uh it’s so small and I barely almost if I stand I almost hit my head on the top
Such a cute plane I had a very nice Journey um onward from here as well from to Estonia look at that it’s so cute and fast forward we’re in Estonia again yay and here’s me almost really tired and almost Sleepless as well but for Still full of energy to explore Estonia again in the fall season it’s my first time to experience Autumn season because I’ve never experienced it ever in North India we don’t get this season at all so we don’t see um you know all of the leaves going away from the trees and
Then the city to get prepared for all the snow and the cold to come I haven’t really experienced that because even in Winters the leaves usually are still intact on the trees yes it can get a little dull because there’s no sun in the um you know when the winter start
But I haven’t witnessed a full-blown Autumn season and this is surprising for for me to see how the leaves are cleaned and it’s a whole responsibility to make sure that the city still looks fresh and nice look at that what a View sometimes in terms of night life I have my own preferences but I would say there is a lot of lively atmosphere on the Friday and Saturday nights especially and if you are a young person who is here for the first time and likes to party yes uh surely there’s a lot for
You but if you’re like me who likes some silent activities or maybe some different types of activities apart from clubbing and uh drinking and other things then perhaps you might not enjoy the nights in Talent a lot if you’re not a history fan still Estonia and Thailand
Have a lot to offer by the way if you are watching my video for this far I assume that you are enjoying it so please do not hesitate to support me and be kind in dropping a like and also subscribing to my channel so that I get
Some more support from you and I keep creating more amazing and nice videos for you okay fast forward I came here for the first time in November 2022 and this is my second time now which means that I um I’m on the same Visa but I’m able to travel again to Estonia because
It was a multiple entry Visa so I’m here again and when I came here for the first time I was in Hunt for some local chocolates because I have a big sweet tooth so I was hunting for chocolates and came across this brand that I could see almost everywhere it’s called Civ I
Don’t know if I pronouncing it right so if there are any Estonian people watching this video please comment if if that’s the right pronunciation so when I saw that uh name kive not only on the chocolates but also at other places I was curious to know what um what lies
Behind the significance of this name and let me tell you a story about it just kidding I’m really bad with storytelling and also I tried looking up to make sure that I’m understanding that the story is right but I saw some things at KIK in the cook that’s an important historical
Monument but then not much happened I don’t have a lot to say about it you can search it online or just drop it in the comments if you know anything about khv I know that khv was an important and historical figure in the uh folklore but
I don’t know much beyond that what was the significance of this hero and what it has to do with stones and something else oh my God you will not believe what all I had to go through to get here I was in India and as you know Indian
Passport is not the strongest in the world of course and there was so many rejections of people around me and I was all set to uh submit my application I had applied for a d Visa which is a long-term Visa shenen Visa that allows me to stay that would have allowed me to
Stay for 1 year in Estonia but when I reached the embassy they said that I cannot apply for it because they were demanding for some almost unreasonable documents and that’s when I was like and that’s when I decided I’ll just go for a short-term visa to begin
With and was able to get that with lots of back and forth on the documentation it was all covid period And I think the embassies were mostly barely functioning and only taking up Visa applications that were only for essential travel that’s like business travel or related
To studies and mine was neither so it was extremely difficult I was emailing almost all the embassies to see if I could get in through some other shenen country and then enter Estonia as well um finally after lots of back and forth and all of the paperwork as well I got a
Reply from Estonia and I had their e residency I don’t know if if you have heard about it or not but Estonia is pretty famous about it they have an e residency which allows you to set up a new business uh virtually completely virtually and you
Get a card that is the e- residency card it doesn’t guarantee it doesn’t give you the way to get to Estonia physically but you can open a business virtually so I had that maybe it was that that made them understand my interest in the country and um upon sharing all of my
Application Etc everything I was able to get the visa but that was only for 90 days finally after all of that strugg once I landed in Estonia on the short-term Visa I applied for a long-term one from here itself and got that Too Anyway enough about the bureaucracy and the office stuff and all of all of that uh let me take you to a quick nice Advent Ure into the forests that is one of the things I absolutely love about Estonia how easily accessible um nature spots are so even if you’re a walk away
Or you know you you take a small drive you are all into the forests immersed in it and it’s such a surreal experience because there’s nothing but trees and nature around you so let me take you to one of the quick trips and show you what Estonian Forest s they look
Like they are within the city I’m not even going far away so just a small driveway almost 20 minutes from here I am going to join a group and we are going to be hiking around in this Forest Area and look at that I had such a nice
Time looking at the streets the true Autumn season I can see that these leaves won’t be around for very long and they have a short span of life left but yes after winter it will be summer again it will be very very beautiful as usual even the winter as well it’s just so
Gorgeous it’s stunning I I’m truly in love with Estonia all of the Four Seasons they are also beautiful I had the opportunity to witness almost I think three seasons before I left to India but now I’m back and I’m going to see the Autumn season A [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] A I love going on these Works they just make me forget all other pains and all other anxiety and I’m all by myself myself here um maybe almost leaving my friends uh to move forward for a bit and just to be immersed in nature these walks are called as bog
Walks U which is something that I just learned about when I got to Estonia so all of these forests are well equipped with areas to clearly walk and hike and you can see it’s still so convenient and well-maintained uh really hats off to the authorities for making it so easy
For the locals and even for the tourists to be exploring forests in such a cool way even during the winter time when it’s snowing these BS are still so convenient to walk and find your way around when everything is white around You and so this is a pretty good time here for me and it’s my first Autumn so I’m so happy I’m here I’m able to enjoy it and I can walk through the woods it’s not so cold it’s not warm of course but I’m so happy I’m at the same place now
That the trees are still green almost and it’s not snowing and we started with a group but uh they were kind of behind so we started walking and let’s see if we are able to meet them and meet more folks it’s so good people from different countries different cities are here we
Have a dog we are walking and it’s a beautiful hike we love being in nature so [Applause] Good A okay now that we are done with some nature let’s have some glimpses of the city back to the city live back to things being too fast forward lots of people around and Estonia is still Gorgeous Even though I have been here for the last few months I can still navigate my way around pretty much I don’t know what the localites have um you know placed the landmarks as I don’t know the names of these places but this is uh near the
Nautica mall and yeah that that’s how I refer to this place so this is a walking distance away from the natica mall almost near to where the fairies are parked and they disembark for the different travels to Sweden to Finland Etc and it was so nice to see in the
Night all of these ships parked by the side looking so beautiful and the light City Lights also sparkling down in the Waters Another day another view of the beautiful city this is a little far away from the city this is near H I forgot the landmark but yes this is also such a gorgeous view of the city and you can see those old down buildings shining nice and bright from here as well the
Waters are so so calm it’s so nice to be sitting here dreaming oh yeah you deeper than I let anyone else before with my broken pieces took them all and made them Yours European public transport in general is extremely amazing so in most of the new cities that I visit even in Europe rest of the Europe it’s pretty easy to navigate around I make sure that I have Google Maps offline downloaded for that city um public transport may not be visible on
That but at least I can get a sense of the directions even in Estonia we have uh so many different modes of Transport this one is a bus where you have Metro and Metro are also once you see them you’ll see that they are uh two types um
It doesn’t differentiate in terms of how they function but there’s a one uh there’s one of them that’s a nice old vintage one and then there are modern trams as well which even have I find them so amazing there also trains that operate inter city but since some of the stops
Might lie in TR City so you can also travel within tyin on the train for some of the regions some of the stops and then there are so many other modes of Transport especially in the summer you would also see see those bikes by bolt that are also available that you could
Take those and Ro around then there are taxi scabs that also you can easily get using Uber Bolt And even uh just by waving hand with conventional way in some of the areas in Talon the old Talon is still kept pretty um protected so in some of the lanes the cars are not
Allowed to be uh driven so you would not see them being um operated in many of the areas in the old town but outside of that you can pretty much access any place using any of these modes of Transport here we are at NoMa I think it’s called Nom or Noma I
Don’t know the pronunciation uh and this is also one of my favorite spots which I had visited in the winter season when it was heavily snowing also and now I’m here to also see the Autumn season and to see how how it looks like with all of the greenery
Almost still on but fading away we came here to witness one of the cleanest Springs to drink water from directly so let’s go there and try out fresh water Yay I have to admit even though it was freezing cold of course I was not ready to use my hands to drink the water because it would take me hours to make them warm again so I took out my bamboo sty and had the water I’m so glad I was
Carrying that I don’t know why I put it in my bag but I’m so glad I did not have to wet my hands to have the water it was so refreshing it was so good and I cannot be thankful enough for all of these experiences that I have been
Collecting um not just in Estonia but in Europe in life I’m so so glad to be experiencing these walking through these Woods just just almost a few kilometers away from the city and experiencing so fresh such fresh air such fresh water it’s just so Good and I have to tell you something after visiting Estonia being um in the Clean Air with the air quality index we call that aqi which is almost in single digits and going to India after that oh my God I don’t want to rant but getting into a three-digit aqi after a single
Digit one is painful I always get a sick throat when I’m in India especially after the travels outside where the clean air makes me feel so [Applause] Fresh Okay a quick fact about about the Estonian blue black white tricolor flag and it’s more than just a national symbol for sure it dates back to 1885 the blue symbolizes the sky and Freedom the black represents the country’s past struggles and white stands for the bright future Ahead Estonia has recently adopted the Euro as its official currency it’s not older than 2011 but it makes everything so much easier for the tourists and eliminating the need for currency exchange even for any Financial transactions with the other countries in Europe by the way did I tell you I also
Visited taru it is rightly said that it’s the city of goodas because it’s the second largest city and a hub of intellectual activity the amayori river flows through taru and it is also a university town which has one of the European Europe’s oldest university is University of tharu he was founded in
1632 so old another amazing thing I discovered about Estonia was the singing Revolution something that got them freedom from the Soviet rule imagine singing to get Freedom [Applause] He sh I don’t know if it’s the locals favorite or not but while wandering I really liked the Ral Cafe and when I got to know about that I also got to know that Ravel is another name of t talin and it was the name that was used during the
Medieval period but it was then changed to talin which is now the modern Estonian Name [Applause] Estonia is known for its traditional smoke saunas which use an ancient method of heating stones with wood fire and then allowing the smoke to flavor the sauna so it’s a wooden structure and it has an aroma in it as well which might be due to the oils that are added but
It’s an amazing experience for those who haven’t tried it for sure it’s not original um there’s a fight going on between uh countries like Finland Estonia Etc about who came up with the SAS first but as far as it’s confirmed now is that it was Finland who first
Came up with saunas and there are literally sauna competitions where participants test their Endurance by enduring high temperatures in sonas oh wow and the person who stays the longest wins in the competition what a cool sport the saers are not just places for for relaxation but they are also amazing
For socializing even in today’s world I also heard some of the estonians telling me about the significance of saas and I was told that in the olden times maybe also today in some of the um rural areas women give birth in sonas and that was an amazing fact for me to Know Some practical things I learned about Estonia and especially about surviving the cold in Estonia by living here were that I really did not have to get winter clothes from my country because of the amazing culture of sustainability and pre-loved clothing in Estonia so using clothes which were used earlier by
Someone else is not frowned upon and not considered something that let’s say you know homeless people would do even common people they take up these practices in which they would um get clothes from secondhand shops and then wear those and then even donate those later once they’ve used it and maybe
Keep them for someone else to use later on and that’s just so cool I even got some of these clothes this jacket that I’m wearing here from one of the thrift shops which was a pre-loved clothing shop From all I knew about Breads in India was that breads are unhealthy for for your stomach and they are not good and they don’t digest well but when I came to Estonia everything changed uh not just in Estonia actually it was mostly in Europe where I saw that Bread is made
Fresh it’s the staple just like we have chapatis in India which are also made fresh during every meal similar is bread for the European Cuisine so I really enjoyed the break the bakeries and the fresh bread in Europe while I have been here and been enjoying all of these you
Know gorgeous smells that you get on the way when you are passing through the Bakeries another practical thought of making friends or getting to know people in Estonia is to learn that they are not in for the small talkg you know yes they they can be difficult people to be friends with I mean not be friends with but actually make friends with so it can
Be difficult to get that initial barrier of conversations going but once you’re in you are all in so they’re not in for that small chat um it’s good if you take some initiatives in meeting up perhaps and give them a rest of let’s say a week or two in
Between and then ask them again to meet it’s absolutely fine with that maybe take something thoughtful with you um perhaps not like a gift but something that they would find cute and creative take that with you and that will surely impress them by the way here’s that rivel cafe that I
Was talking about I really like sitting there and working from there sometimes or just tasting different Bakery items they Have by the way now that the weather is so good let’s get dressed and maybe go out for a straw and then in the evening get some groceries and I’ll also take you on a c quick tour to the grocery store where you can see what all we get
In the Estonian grocery stores and maybe you can pick what you Like [Applause] One N [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] n Yeah A Oh A All right so let’s go to one of the grocery stores called Maxima and this is a smaller Maxima which is the X and there is xx and also XXX that’s the biggest one but we’ll go for the smaller one for now because that’s near my place
And it’ll be easy to get all of the stuff back to the room A Oh Yeah Oh The most exciting of all in the Estonian grocery stores is the dairy section and that’s because there’s so much variety of dairy and it’s so high quality after that let’s go and try some of the products that on sale and there’s so much stuff that has been put on
Propotion so I’m going to check this section Out Oh N Oh A N N Oh Oh Oh Okay I’m going to rewind a bit from here and as I promised in the beginning of the video I’m going to share about the fifth season in Estonia that I winess and I’m going to take you there virtually with me We Come [Applause] Ah Now that we are in the waters let me tell you the story of the fifth season that we witness in Estonia so how this happens is that when the winter is fading away and the summer is about to start all of the snow melts and it causes this area to be almost flooded
So this is the S National Park and this area is supposed to be a forest on most of the months of the year but during this special month it gets flooded when all of the snow melts and this water gets accumulated here where we can do canoeing and just explore the scenery
Around you can see that the trees are now trying to get their leaves back again and it’s all going to be greener very soon but now that the harsh winter is gone all of the snow is gone here we have the fifth season to enjoy by ourselves and explore in the Som National Park We were in a group and we had two boards so it was so much fun chasing our friends clicking their photos maybe sometimes even scaring them to have them fall into the water but it was of course all safe and the was very steep it’s
It’s not deep at all I’ll be honest I was scared because I do not know swimming especially when I was here in the video um I did not know swimming after this yes I learned a bit of it but I’m still not so confident and I’m hopefully at least not scared of this
Shallow water anymore uh it was definitely still overall a surreal experience and very unique because it’s not all of the cities or all of the places where you get to see this um the certain thing right the fifth season so Estonia is extremely unique that way and
I’m so glad that I got to witness It this uh phenomena usually happens in the month of around April and it’s for a very few days so we were really lucky that we got this and it’s only I think for 20 to 30 days that you can see this 30 days also on a maximum um on a good
Year when you actually see 30 days of uh of the fifth season but usually it’s very short and the summer starts getting in so this water usually would get dispersed or evaporated Etc and this um you know this entire Canal won’t be visible anymore after the fifth season
Isn’t that very interesting how do you find It [Applause] A Oh [Applause] [Applause] The Highlight He N That’s it thank you so much for all of your support in my journey and I hope I see you in another video and I really hope that you enjoyed virtually traveling Estonia taru Dalin all of these places with me thank you and see you in another video Bye-bye hi
8 Comments
Hi Shreya: great video. Your enthusiasm is infectious. I hope you have many great adventures. 🇨🇦
Sweet shreya….charming content, much love.hearty welcome.shamim zahuri from bangladesh ⚘ 🕊 🤝 👫 🇧🇩
Hi Shreya! Such a nice vlog. Best wishes!
😍😍
Glad that you are enjoying Estonia!
Wow what a nice country, not that crowded.
I'm so happy that I have been such a big part of all this! Really love offering new experiences to other people 😊😊
I guess it's snowing ❄️🌨️ now ⁉️