Estonia, Tallinn, Saaremaa
Estonia
Estonia lies along the Baltic Sea, just below Finland. Tallinn, Estonia’s capital city is only about 40 miles south of Helsinki, across the Gulf of Finland. Sweden is Estonia’s western neighbour across the Baltic. Russia is to the east, with St. Petersburg just across the north-eastern border. To the south is Latvia with its capital city Riga. You can depart from Tallinn’s international airport and in less than two hours be in Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Riga, Moscow, St. Petersburg, or Vilnius.
- Official name: Republic of Estonia (in Estonian: Eesti Vabariik)
- Area: 45,227 km2 (ca 10% of Estonia’s territory is made up of 1520 islands, 5% are inland water bodies, 48% is forest, 7% is marshland and moor, and 37% is agricultural land)
- 1.36 million inhabitants (68% Estonians, 26% Russians, 2% Ukrainians, 1% Byelorussians and 1% Finns), of whom 68% live in cities
- Capital Tallinn (397 thousand inhabitants)
- Official language: Estonian, system of government: parliamentary democracy. The proclamation of the country’s independence is a national holiday celebrated on the 24th of February (Independence Day).
- The Republic of Estonia is a member of the European Union and NATO
- Estonia is on Eastern European time (GMT +02:00)
- The currency is Euro
- Telephone: the country code for Estonia is +372
- Estonian Internet catalogue www.ee, information: www.1182.ee and www.1188.ee
- Map of wireless Internet areas: www.wifi.ee
- Emergency numbers in Estonia: police 110, ambulance and fire department 112
- Distance from Tallinn: Helsinki 85 km, Riga 307 km, St. Petersburg 395 km, Stockholm 405 km
Kuressaare
Kuressaare (Finnish: Kuressaari, German: Arensburg) is a town and a municipality on Saaremaa island in Estonia. It is the capital of Saare County. The current population is 15 000. The town is situated on the coast of Gulf of Riga and is served by Kuressaare Airport. Kuressaare was the first city in Estonia to receive the official status of Healthy City in 1998. But really, the capital of Saaremaa has been an important health resort since the 19th century. In 1820s curative sea mud was found and already in 1824 the first spa in Estonia was built in Saaremaa. Then ladies with bright dresses and parasols and gentlemen in summer suits came to take mud baths, wander about the park, and listen to concerts in the bandstand.
There appears to be no end to the mud and the reputation of Kuressaare as a health resort seems to grow more and more. Seven great spa-hotels, three of which are by the sea, attract tourist all year round with mud and other procedures. The town is filled with people throughout the summer, but from late autumn to early spring, it gets rather quiet. The air is better than in most European cities, so you can feel like you are on the healthiest vocation in the world even when just feeding ducks in the park, walking by the sea or skiing on the frozen sea.
