Mensagens

A mostrar mensagens com a etiqueta baltic

Estonia and Slovenia: half-sisters?

By João Lopes Marques ( Eesti keeles ) "Tallinn is like Prague after the neutron bomb!" This funny and simplistic joke invented by my Dutch friend Thomas has proved quite popular among my Estonian network. We don't need an hermeneutical exercise to conclude locals tend to agree Prague shares lots of things with the capital of Estonia. Yet today I decided to upgrade the challenge. The question: "What is the most similar country with Estonia?" A tough one, isn't it? Is it Czech Republic? Truth to tell, in my mind it has been clear for years. Slovenia, of course. "How come Slovenia has to do with Estonia?", you may ask. Well, the Germanic influence in the last thousand years. This is undeniable. Just visit Ljubljana: it's center is different, but the spirit reminds Old Tallinn's. Those are cities originally designed with human scale. The local castle it's a kind of Toompea and the only big difference would be the river Ljublianica