Now that Calib is home, and my birthday is over, we're back to countries. It's been a long time stalled at 110 countries, so I'm happy to finally move on. Unfortunately for the August average, we're leaving again next week, so best guess is this month we only get to 7 or 8. But, again, I've reconciled the fact we're probably not finishing by the end of the calendar year, and our new goal is before the Olympics in February. It'll be a good wrap up.
Speaking of Olympics, we're headed to Estonia, where it has something like 25.5 Olympic medals per million residents. Only 7 countries have a better average.
Their favorite sports aren't included in the Olympics though. Besides wife-carrying-competitions (like their neighbors to the north in Finland), they're also big fans of the unofficial national sport of kiiking. It's a big metal swing you stand on, and pump back and forth until you rotate around the bar a full 360 degrees.
Estonia is more modern than you might think. Did you know, Skype was invented here? I didn't. Apparently, the capital city of Tallin is sometimes referred to as the 'Silicone Valley of the EU'. The country also votes online, something they've been doing since 2005.
Our landmark is the KUMU Museum, a popular museum (rated 4.5 stars on Trip Advisor).
But really, where Estonia shines is in it's national parks and forests. Estonia is over 50% trees, making it one of the greenest countries in Europe.
Estonia is pretty flat, but that doesn't make the scenery any less appealing. A popular past time is to go 'bog shoe' walking marshy areas. I mean, marhsy enough. A bog is defined as 'wet, muddy ground, too soft to support a body'. Bog shoes are like snow shoes, except for marshes. (We found this fun blog about going bog shoe walking in Estonia. Consider it on my bucket list.)
Side note: When I discovered bog shoes, I thought 'Florida has lots of wet muddy ground, I wonder if we could bog shoe walk here', but when you google it for Florida, google asks me if I meant 'big shoe stores florida'. Sigh. Plus, I mean, gators. And snakes. So, probably not.
Anyway, Estonia might be little, but it is a big tourist destination. Somewhere around 50 countries in the world, see more tourists per year than their total population. A lot of those tourists come from cruise ships. (Estonia has 2,222 islands and inlets, so there's plenty of places for those cruise ships to stop).
The population has plummeted in the last 20 years. It's a country that has more females than males, with the three major cities as the only places with a population greater than 50,000 people. Also worth noting, in WWII, Estonia lost over 7% of it's population- and then 10% were later deported to Soviet labor camps. It has a bit of a tough history.
The country is also one of the least religious countries in the world, with over 70% of the population not practicing any religion. They do have a couple of old churches that are kind of interesting. The Ruhnu stave church is the oldest wooden building in the country (it was built in 1644).
Another church, Saint Olaf's, has been struck by lightning and burned to the ground three times in it's 500 year history. (It was also the world's tallest building back in the late 1500's)
The Estonian language is notoriously tough to learn. It does however, has one of the highest literacy rates in the world- third to Latvia and North Korea (or so North Korea claims).
The boys made their Estonian postcards, and I was impressed with their efforts after being out of the loop with countries for so long. I was also impressed with their flag, capital and location retention for the 110 countries we've already done. We have done them a few times over the last few weeks to help refresh, but they were pretty on point.
A couple of Estonian facts I missed up above (but the boys included in
Calib's card included Jagala Falls. I's like their version of Niagara Falls, as it freezes over in the winter in the same way. Well, I mean, sort of, perhaps a mini Niagara Falls. Although it is the highest waterfall in Estonia, it's only 26 feet tall. They also have their own Leaning Tower of Pisa, called the Leaning House of Tartu.
Peyton's featured some bog shoe walking through the forest, the art museum and Saint Olaf's church being struck by lightning.
Hayden focused on the folk tales. In one tale, after the giant is killed, he puts his head on his sword and walks to his grave. (In anther, the hero talks to hedgehogs). Hayden also had the kiiking swing featrued in his.
For dinner we had Hakklihakotlet (Ground Meat Patties) with Braised Red Cabbage with Sour-Cream Sauce, Wild Mushroom and Potato Gratin with carrots and summer berries.
Dinner earned three spoons up, from Asa, Calib, and me.
The cabbage was.... interesting. It's meant to be served on top of the meat patties, but I wasn't so sure, so I put it to the side. The first bite I took I was like 'ugghhhh.. not good'. But, I always try and eat more than just one bite. As I went, it wasn't so bad. I actually didn't mind it. Asa was in the same boat. The kids did try it (well, Peyton didn't, despite my repeated attempts to bribe him with Orange Julius later), but they took the one bite and they were out.
The meat patty was good, but a little salty. (Maybe it was our ground pork?) Peyton picked at that too. But he ate everything except the main dish (he then tried to give it a spoons up anyway, and I vetoed that idea).
Hayden didn't give it a spoons up, but he ate everything but the cabbage. So, while he wasn't a fan, it didn't shun the meal.
111 down, only 82 to go!
Next Up: Nigeria
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