_{Img src estonianexperience.com}

Happy Birthday to Estonia and also to all estonians! Today we celebrate the 100th year of independence for our country. For those not familiar with our history - i'l do a recap and i'll make this superbrief for you, i promise.

Estonia has always been dragged to the spoils of war, where the danes, swedes, germans, poles, russians and many others have battled for our lands and better access to the Baltic Sea. We have always had people willing to fight, but Estonia is a small country and has had to suffer the massive amounts of foreign boots on our grounds. Germany and Russia play a big role in controlling the region in the previous few centuries. In the 20th century our identity began to gather strength again and rise above the foreign identities forced on us, and this time, on the 24th of February, in 1918, we declared a democratic Republic of Estonia.

The story goes on, as foreign oppressors, especially Soviet Russia and Germany tried, succeeeded and failed again to regain control over the Estonia and other Baltic states, but this is a story for another time ( i know a few cool stories). If you want to know more about our history, read up here on estonianworld.com

Enough about the violent history. Estonia is a beautiful country worth visiting, our nature is magnificent, our girls are pretty and our beer is good.

Pictured: the hills of Haanja, southern Estonia, during winter.

_{Haanja, Estonia - Wikipedia}

Not only winters are beautiful. Pictured below is one of our national parks, which has territory big enough for you to hike and camp for days. If you want to see more beautiful nature and abandoned soviet outposts mixed together, which hide some kind of beauty in itself, visit a post from me about our camping trip last summer Weekend camping trip in Northern Estonia - beautiful views. Also check out our canoe trip on Ahja river and the subsequent hike

_{Lahemaa National Park, Estonia - Wikipedia}

Our flag is 3-striped blue, black and white. Boring, right? Not exactly - wait until you find our flag in the nature:

_{A view from a watchtower at Paukjärve Lake - Wikipedia}

So happy birthday, Estonia! Today we celebrate!

Want to find out more about what's going on in Estonia? Visit the EV100 site https://www.ev100.ee/en