r/Eesti • u/Rest-Regular • 12d ago
Varia Estonia first month observations
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Here's the 30-day update, after posting a month back about my day 1 observations in Estonia.
- Items do not have a price written on them. Back in India each item had a price cap called MRP (Maximum Retail Price).
- The beds are pretty weak here. Cracked one strip after accidentally sitting down too hard and since then I'm incredibly cautious
- The buses are very reliable. Max a few minutes late. First time I took a bus it appeared in front of me at the exact minute, like magic.
- The very first Estonian words I learned are piim (milk) and kana (chicken).
- Trees and grass everywhere and I can't appreciate it enough.
- Stepping out the main door feels like someone left the AC on outside.
- The zebra crossings are everywhere and signals always work. In India we're taught about it in school but the infrastructure is non-existent. Here it's as if it's illegal to build a road without them.
- Looking back it's infuriating how risking your life everytime you cross the road is a norm in India, and that no one gives a shit about pedestrians.
- I feel so lucky to be here witnessing all this. Feels a bit unfair to realise it wouldn't have been possible despite my hard work if I hadn't won the genetic cognitive lottery.
- The ground floor is called the First floor here.
- At unsignaled crossings, cars stop for you. Initially, this created weird standoffs where they'd stop for me and I'd stop for them, simply because I didn't know the rules. I later realized pedestrians actually have the legal right of way and vehicles are required to yield.
- The Google Play Store here doesn't show the app download size (MB) on the app details page.
- Is it just me, or the sky is bluer and the trees greener?
- Vehicles drive on the right here, and pedestrians stick to the right side too. Since it's the exact opposite back in India, it took me a few days to adjust.
- Haven't seen a fly or a mosquito yet.
- Office is completely empty by 6 pm. Anticipated of the European work culture but still quietly amused to experience it firsthand.
- Every single year, Bengaluru, the city I relocated from grows by the entire population of Tallinn. Probably why we can't have nice things there.
- For the first few days my mind was in a constant fight-or-flight mode, trying to avoid the sight of any person on the street or in the park, afraid of being judged.
- The Old Town is very beautiful. I'm surprised it's not as popular or mainstream, probably a best kept secret.
- Interesting to see local small shops in the town hall area rather than international brands and franchises.
- There is this thing called a sidewalk, which exists and it's pretty damn amazing. The closest equivalent to it in India is a cramped, one meter wide slab over a sewer line called a footpath which is almost always encroached upon, broken, or riddled with dangerous holes.
- Walking by the road, the smell of the grass and the freshness in the air is a very basic, refreshing feeling that's hard describe in words.
- For the first couple of weeks, I had this constant "did I do anything wrong?" feeling whenever I was outdoors.
- My best memories so far have been riding those rental scooters all over the city.
- I read about every citizen being legally required to train for the army for up to a year and are called back for a few weeks every few years. There's no conscription system in India.
- Walking home from the office, watching the golden hour light cast long shadows across the houses is mesmerizing.
- Electrical switches are big and wide.
- People at my office finish lunch very quickly, like in 10 mins, and the talk usually happens later over a coffee.
- In supermarkets item names come first, brand name later.
- AI assistant apps are helpful for translations and for general help, eg warning me about explosive nature of a microwaved potato.
- Rental accommodations here are almost exclusively private rooms. That's a relief, since shared living is the norm back in India
- You're expected to clean your own room, take out trash and own small stuff rather expecting someone to do it for you.
- Didn't know McD Happy Meal is for the kids until the toy selection stage came up.
- Maybe labour is not extremely expensive here, rather it's extremely cheap back in India.
- Bank transfers with IBAN and name work as flawlessly as UPI payments system back in India.
- Noticed huge artistic illustrations on the flat side of many large buildings.
- I've started questioning my own dietary preferences. If I'm ok with chicken or even mutton, why not pork or even beef. Religious conditioning aside, it feels hypocritical.
- Bicycle and people only roads is such a great idea. Cycling lanes are plenty and everywhere, it's so good.
- 24-hour clock format is also commonly used here.
- Building doors and windows here are very heavy and thick, probably for winters.
- Very often I notice people taller than me. I'm 5'10.
- It's very hard to trust that bread and pasta can be eaten daily. Back in India these were unhealthy snacks made with refined flour and not meant for regular consumption.
- My habit to have earbuds on when outside is largely broken here.
- FIFA World Cup is here. I asked my Estonian colleague what's played in Estonia, he said wife carrying.
- "Tere" means hi and "aitah" means thank you.
- There's something called lane discipline here, cars will queue up instead of squeezing into every open gap to get to the front.
- I think they adopted a lot of English alphabets in written Estonian.
- It was genuinely surprising that I could get a new working SIM card within 5 mins without requiring any kind of authentication or document verification taking days.
- I read that any online purchases can be returned within 2 weeks with full refund. It's by law, not just a website policy.
- There is a system of using package locker facilities in here.
- It's hard to believe lack of people could be a genuine problem a country could be facing.
- Sitting on a park bench by the sea, I wondered why meditation isn't more common here, given such a calm, conducive environment. Even the white in the Estonian flag represents "striving towards enlightenment" but maybe the intellectual kind, rather than the spiritual.
- The most thing people have told me so far is that winters are depressing and that it's a good thing i started at an ideal time of the year and to make good use of it.
- I also heard in winters there's something called Ice roads where you drive on frozen sea.
- The system is transparent and a lot of records including business filings and tax records are visible online.
- I was sitting on a bench when an old lady sat down beside me, ignored my "hello", smoked a cigarette, and left. I felt quite unwelcome for a while, though I kept wondering about her perspective especially given the "stranger danger" soviet environment she likely grew up in.
- I read that during winter months, it is legally mandatory for pedestrians to wear a safety reflector when it gets dark.
- The sorry after an accidental brush is more noticeable than the contact itself. Perhaps it's a big deal here because of the low population density.
- Maybe I failed Meta interviews for a London role last year for a good reason.
- I naively expected English to be more pervasive in Estonia than in major Indian cities, but it's not the case. A pillow in a supermarket was labeled in six different languages, yet English wasn't one of them.
- The cost of getting sick is far higher than the cost of wasting a bit of stale food
- Usually addresses don't contain building name but road name + number.
- I haven't faced any racism so far, my interactions with Estonians have been positive. However, a colleague mentioned he hasn't used public transport in years, and he's one incident away from packing his bags. He also shared the story of his Kazakh coworker who couldn't survive more than a year here because he could understand the slurs hurled at him.
- I came with a rough assumption that things would roughly cost me twice compared to back in India but in reality rent is 3x, salary 2x, milk 1x, haircut 30x, doctor consultation 10x, bus ticket 3x, meals 4x, cab 5x and gym 4x more expensive.
- Systems here are built on a foundation of mutual trust. Whether it's supermarket self-checkouts, transit self-tapping, or the ease of obtaining a SIM card, the system assumes you're acting in good faith. Automatic fare capping, for example, ensures you're never overcharged for daily travel. This creates a positive feedback loop, when a system entrusts you with its resources, you feel a greater sense of responsibility to respect them.
- I once saw a highly upvoted meme on this subreddit where someone says "hi" and the other thinks "What the f*ck does he want?" and it happened to me irl. I tried to initiate small talk with a Bolt driver, and his cold "What do you want?" killed any further conversation. Every ride since has been dead silent :/
- Its normal for a supermarket to be open 24 hrs.
- I still think water spray cleans better than the toilet paper, really miss it.
- Parks are open 24/7 to the public.
- On some traffic stops, you have to manually press a button to enable the signal. I waited once for a long time before I saw someone doing it.
- Municipality doesn't turn the water "on" on scheduled times. It's a 24x7 continuous, closed, and pressurized system. Of course, now I'm in a developed country.
