Why the Baltics?

The time has come for you to discover the hidden gems (or as we, people from the Baltics say, ambers) from the Baltic shores – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, with their page-turning history, potato-based cuisine and tongue-twisting languages! It is not going to be easy but totally worth it.

What you might probably know:

  • The Baltic countries, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are three countries at the East Coast of the Baltic Sea;
  • While they are called the Baltic sisters, united in the late 80s-early 90s by the relentless desire to become free again, lately, however, Estonia has been hanging out more with its Northern neighbours and not calling Lithuania and Latvia that often.
  • But it’s understandable, since it is probably easier for Estonians and the Finnish to hold a conversation, when both of their languages belong to the melodic Finnic language group, whereas Lithuania and Latvia are Indo-European languages, equally beautiful and equally impossible to learn.
  • We are the countries that sing! It is no coincidence that the movement that ended up in re-establishment of our independence is called the Singing Revolution. By the way: Estonia and Latvia have already won the Eurovision Song Competition. And Lithuanians? Well, we are good at basketball.

Haven’t heard anything about the Baltics? Another time you contact someone on Skype, bear in mind that it’s Estonian invention, jeans were invented by a Latvian-born US citizen, while George Maciunas, a founding member and the central coordinator of Fluxus, an international community of artists, architects, composers, and designers, is from Kaunas.