BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

20 Estonian men yoked to the Baltic Queen

Twenty Estonian men yoked to the Tallink's cruise ship Baltic Queen move the 20.000-ton cruise ship, to set a new record, during the Tallinn's Maritime Days in Tallinn on May 20, 2011. The event was organized as one of the key events on Tallinn's Maritime Days by Tallink company.

The Baltic Queen is one of the Baltic Sea's largest cruise ships, with a length of 212 meters, beam of 29 meters and weight of close to 20,000 tons. In 2010 the Estonian men hauled a 200-ton train and in 2009, one of the muscle men, Andrus Murumets, single-handedly pushed a 40-ton Estonian Air Boeing 737-500.

Mosquito-catching championships

Estonia hosted its first-ever mosquito-catching championship.Thirty-seven participants recently gathered in a field in the city of Tartu to take part.

The field was divided into three-square-meter segments where participants, either individuals or in teams of three, collected as many mosquitoes as possible in 10 minutes.

The rules did not state whether the collected mosquitoes had to be dead or alive.The first place winner received a yacht sailing trip on the biggest lake in Estonia.

Estonian industry output shows record gain on exports

Estonian April industrial production rose at the fastest annual pace in at least a decade as export demand improved, signalling the Baltic economy is on track to recover.

Output increased 18.4 percent from a year earlier, the most since records started in 2000, compared with a revised 11.1 percent jump the previous month, the Tallinn-based statistics office said on its website today. Output rose a seasonally adjusted 2.5 percent from March.

An export-led recovery may help Estonia’s economy expand 1 percent this year and 4 percent in 2011, the central bank said last month. The $17-billion economy will probably grow this quarter from a year earlier and compared with the first three months when the economy shrank a seasonally adjusted 2.3 percent on weak consumer spending, the Finance Ministry said.

“An export-led recovery is materializing, as expected in the Estonian economy,” said Annika Lindblad, an economist with Nordea AB in Helsinki, in an e-mailed response to questions. “The upbeat annual growth was significantly boosted by the low base last year, but all in all the industrial production index continued on its gradual rising trend.”

Manufacturing, Exports

Manufacturing of electronic and computer equipment jumped 107.7 percent from a year earlier, and wood processing increased 24.4 percent, the office said.

Kristi Kuudisiim in Pärnu over Christmas

Estonian model Kristi Kuudisiim, who lives in Ranelagh with boyfriend Paul, is flying back to chilly Parnu for Christmas before returning in the new year for friend Conrad Gallagher's opening party for his new restaurant on Aungier Street, Dublin ...

DNA test turns Estonian pastor into multi-millionaire

TALLINN - An Estonian pastor has struck it rich after a DNA test proved that he was the son of one of the Baltic state's wealthiest men, according to a news report Thursday.

The weekly Eesti Ekpress said a local court formally had recognized Riho Pors as an heir of the late Aadu Luukas, who was a high-profile figure in Estonia.

Luukas died aged 67 in 2006, leaving reported assets of hundreds of millions of kroons (tens of millions of euros, dollars).

Indrek Luukas, who on paper was Luukas' only son and heir, was reportedly unaware that he had a half-brother. Pors, a pastor in the Estonian Pentecostal Church, went to court to prove his claim.

Luukas, who made his fortune in the transit business, was well-known in this country of 1.3 million people and highly respected for his charity work.

If only "The Simpsons" took place in the old country, in simpler times

Perhaps it would look...strikingly similar. Estonia's TV3 has produced a spot that re-imagines the show's classic opening sequence and it doesn't miss a beat. Not to say there aren't slight modifications: Homer's now a blacksmith, finding horseshoes in his collar, and Bart's flying through crowded sidewalks -- but instead of a skateboard, he's galloping along on a toy horse.

And that comfy couch they plop down on at the end? A nice sturdy, wooden bench.

Well done, Estonia, well done.

Brothel Watch

Two years ago, a women's rights organization claimed there were 60 to 100 brothels operating in Tallinn , the capital of the former Soviet Republic of Estonia. The police cracked down, and now it's believed there are fewer than half that number. You can't deny the progress, but if you look at the numbers for very long (old or new, take your pick), you start to see brothels everywhere. You start to think your neighbors are operating bordellos. Which mine actually happen to be.

I live in what is supposedly one of the more upscale residential suburbs. It's a small enough neighborhood that I know most foreign residents. At the beginning of last summer I heard English spoken on my neighbor's deck. They were just over the fence, through the hedge. The accents and voices changed daily, and it struck me as a very social family.

I wondered if I should I stick my head over the fence and introduce myself? "Hi, I'm Scott. Strange we haven't met before." But for some reason I didn't. Something held me back.

"It's probably a brothel," my wife said. "There's one up by the petrol station which they just closed. They're all over."

A week later, I ordered a taxi and got a driver who liked to talk. He was 70 years old, had been driving since Soviet time.

La Tour Eiffel de Hiiumaa - Estonie

The ‘Eiffel tower’ of Hiiumaa-31 meters high, was built by one man in 4 months only! This crazy tower situating in Reigi village, created by local man without architectural or engineering background have to be taken apart by the end of September, as it is considered dangerous both for visitors and for the creator and was built without building permit.

Russia ready to destroy island drifting in Estonian border lake

MOSCOW - Russian authorities plan to destroy an island drifting in Estonian waters over threat to a Russian hydroelectric plant on the Narva Reservoir, Estonian media reported on Tuesday.

A four-hectare tract of land that was part of Russian territory split off in June and floated over the border before getting stuck near high-voltage lines.

The island is currently 106 meters from the dam at the Russian hydroelectric plant.

An emergency plan to destroy the island will be put into effect if the island moves another 50 meters, the Delfi web site reported.

Both the Russian and Estonian sides are unable to predict the island's movements, but say it could damage nearby buildings.

People are banned from approaching closer to the dam than 500 meters.

There are more than a dozen of islands drifting on the Russian side of the Narva Reservoir, which is on the border between Russia and Estonia.

From the Google Eesti-English translator ... !

Väike õhtune vahepala sellest, kuidas äsja avatud Google translator eesti keelest inglise keelde tõlgib :

Hiir hüppas, kass kargas, vanakaru lõi trummi = Jumping mouse, the cat jumped, vanakaru created the drum'n'bass

Julge hundi rind on rasvane = Brave in front of the wolf is a high-fat

Aias sadas saia = Rainfall in the garden of pastry

Tee tööd siis tuleb ka armastus = The job must be in love

Parem pool muna peos kui varblane katusel = Right hand side of the egg when the roof of sparrow

Vara tööle, hilja voodi nõnda rikkus majja toodi = Assets to work, late to bed in the house so violated

Hirmul on suured silmad =  Frightened eyes are large

Kes püüab kõigest väest, saab üle igast mäest = Who is going all out trying to, can be transferred from each hill

Estonian women make much better wives than American women

An American woman has several fundamental problems that will never go away and that will get much worse a few years after she is married :

1. Her inherent anti-male bias and pre-occupation with fairness that was drilled into her at high school, college, and through the media. Her constant confrontations and trying to prove herself and to make a point.
2. Her self-centeredness, her ridiculously high expectations, her sense of entitlement, her high-maintenance, superficial, and stuck up attitude, her snootiness and her sense of superiority. This "princess" syndrome means that she will always think that she is better than you, and that she deserves and she is entitled to whatever she wants from you.
3. Her general mental instability and psychological disorders.
4. Her using sex as a weapon and reward to get things.

Estonian women generally don't have any of these problems. Marrying an American woman simply does not make sense. The ONLY reason men stay with American women is because they did not have enough exposure to Estonian women. Any man who spent a few months in Estonia or Eastern Europe will not even look at American women again.

Estonian bear caught trying to enter Russia

TALLINN - A brown bear was caught by an Estonian environmental inspector in the Narva River swimming toward the Russian border, the Eesti Paevaleht daily reported on Friday.

The bear had swum almost 100 meters until it was noticed by the official, who was on a barge. Frightened by the barge horn, the bear swam back to Estonia.

However, when the barge moved away, the bear reentered Russian territory, swimming to Ivangorod, some 160 kilometers west of Russia's St. Petersburg, before later swimming back to Estonia.

Mystic poster from partytown Tallinn

http://www.fatbmx.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4107

Picture by : Thomas Elson

Estonia presents their webovision 2008

Audition video with einar kuusk ...

Click here

Publicity

New Estonian money as from today 01-01-2008

Lenna ahead in the top boobs competition, ahead of Nicole Scherzinger

Lenna Kuurmaa (born September 26, 1985 in Tallinn, Estonia) is an Estonian musician, singer, songwriter, and a member of the girl group Vanilla Ninja. Born to Rain and Anne Kuurmaa, she has one brother, Raido, who is 3 years older.

At the young age Lenna joined the ETV girls choir and had a great interest in, and studied music. At this time Lenna was learning to play the violin.

Lenna's hobbies are music and sport, she likes soccer (football), enjoys dancing, listening to music and of course she likes to sing. Preferring R'n'B, Hip-Hop and Punk, she was influenced by the 80’s music era and likes bands Depeche Mode, The Rasmus and P!nk.

Lenna Kuurmaa grow up in Tallinn and there she was educated and attended the same secondary school with Maarja Kivi.

After leaving school Lenna with her class mate Maarja Kivi and 2 other Estonian girls of similar age Piret Järvis and Katrin Siska, met a producer in Tallinn and together formed the band Vanilla Ninja. Lenna played guitar but also developed into the lead singer and the band had great success across Europe and in Japan. The band were also contestants in the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. Later Lenna expanded into writing songs for the band, with one of her songs entered for the Estonian 2007 Eurovision Song Contest, titled ‘Birds Of Peace’. However the band were unsucessful and the entry not chosen.

Lenna Kuurmaa lives in Tallinn the capital of Estonia. She is Fluent in Estonian, German, and English, and Lenna cooks and likes Chinese food. Lenna is unmarried, has a dog (labrador) named Ninja. She has green eyes, has a pierced tongue and has recently had a controversial tattoo to her left leg. Lenna’s natural hair is fair - light brown, but she styles it blond or black.

Francais : si vous ne voulez pas etre dans la merde ! Reflechissez 2 fois ...

Deep in the merde !

A French citizen was rescued from a Vilnius apartment on Oct. 16 where he had been handcuffed to a radiator for several days after being robbed by a woman he met on the Internet.

According initial reports, the French national met the Lithuanian woman online and came to Vilnius for the weekend. The girl invited him into an apartment, where she and a friend deprived him of his cash and credit cards, and then handcuffed him to the apartment’s radiator.

On the morning of Oct. 16, the Frenchman tore the radiator off and started yelling for help from the window. When water starting to pour from the broken pipe, neighbors thought the commotion was a fire and called the fire brigade, who rescued the captive.

Tallinn stag weekends - a stag party guide to Tallinn, Estonia's Capital

Stag weekends in Tallinn :

The city centre of Tallinn is like a chocolate box picture, it is simply stunning. Its old city centre is walled, and within the walls almost all the building are original, with spires and quaint churches everywhere. Go up to the castle for a great view.

For a stag party Tallinn is great, as most of the bars are on a few streets around the city of the walled heart of the city, so you can easily walk from one to another. There are a couple of bars almost directly opposite on another is the centre called Nimega (Bar with a name) and Nimeta (bar with no name !) -

Nimega is a great place to go for pre clubs drink and it has its own little dance floor at the back. Ask for a guy called Adam, behind the bar and he will be able to give you some good advise on places to go to and places to avoid. Nightclub wise I would recommend Venus and Hollywood which are in the city centre and Parlament which is a taxi ride away. On lap dancing clubs I would recommend X Club - it not cheap but then again neither are the other, and this one is very good !

Accommodation wise we stayed in a hostel, on my first trip we stayed in one terrible hostel on the first night (and it really was terrible), and then moved to a pretty good hostel called Old town hostel. The second time I went we stayed in a hotel about 3 miles from the city centre and I really would not recommend it to be honest - its a real pain in the neck having to get taxi's into the city centre - a word on taxis here, everywhere we went in eastern Europe we got completely ripped of by them, they all have convenient buttons under the dashboard they press to rig their meters and I am not joking when I say we paid sometimes 8 times the price for exactly the same ride, by different firms !!

Also never, ever ask a taxi driver for recommendations for .......

Prostitute accused of murdering elderly husband

A greedy prostitute murdered her elderly husband after becoming dissatisfied that he could no longer fund her lavish lifestyle, including a £800 for a breast op, a court heard today.

Pretty blonde Tatjana Edwards was working at a massage parlour when she first met 72 year old marketing consultant Gwyn Edwards who fell in love and began lavishing gifts on her.

Within months the unscrupulous 27 year old had married Mr Edwards's, moved into his Chestey home in the mistaken belief that was wealthy, and began fleecing him.

The couple took regular holidays to the Mediterranean and the Baltic and she even spent more than £1,200 on hairdressers in just six months. She regularly sent cash back to her family in Estonia.

In letters found on her computer written in both Russian and English she complained of his miserliness, detailing the lack of flowers at the wedding, his failed attempts to buy two houses, a luxury bed and his inability to pay for the breast operation.

When the money finally dried up Tatjana stabbed Mr Edwards in the stomach killing him in June last year, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor Wendy Joseph QC told the court : "She .......