Attaining 'Digital Nomad' status in Estonia

What better way to extend our stay on the European continent than by officially becoming Digital Nomads in the most digitised country in Europe?

Tallinn, Estonia

When: January & February 2020

Where, exactly?: On Toompea hill, perched on top of Tallinn Old Town

Why/how we picked it:

Estonia was the first country in Europe to launch a Digital Nomad Visa, and as our 6 months in the UK was nearing its end, we very quickly took advantage of Estonia’s DMV to extend our time on the European continent. Eric and I checked all the boxes in terms of the requirements, and we learnt that we could apply AFTER flying into the country. Despite knowing NOTHING about Estonia, off we went to Tallinn! 

What we did: 

• Because we were indoors a lot, we drank LOTS of gin, lol

• Alexander Nevsky Cathedral (my favourite!)

• Toompea Castle, now the Parliament of Estonia

• Patkuli viewing platform, literally a one-minute walk from our airbnb 

• Tallinn Town Hall

• Viru Gate (1300s ancient watchtower marking the entrance to the Old Town)

• Balti Jaama Turg (a food market with thrift shops above)

• Freedom Square

• KGB Museum (Hotel with former Soviet spy relics)

• Hellemann Tower and Town Wall Walkway

• Masters' Courtyard

• Telliskivi Creative City

• Kadrioru Park

• Kadrioru Palace

• Port Noblessner (a marina) 

• Tallinna Linnahall (a Soviet era amphitheatre)

• Bishop’s Garden viewing platform

• Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom

• Revali Raeapteek (Oldest pharmacy that’s still in use)

• St Mary’s Cathedral (we only walked by it 5 million times, for some reason)

(Restaurants and cafes)

• Sessel Speakeasy

• The Nautilus

• Cafe Maiasmokk

• Pohjala Brewery & Tap Room

Our favourite part about Tallinn: 

Estonia in the winter was an absolute beaut – it was like living in a magical fairy tale. But this was a double-edged sword (further explained down below).

Key takeaways

Two months was the longest we’ve stayed anywhere in the last three years. And two months was also a sufficient amount of time to make me grow attached to a space. I was so reluctant to leave the airbnb (even though it wasn’t even the best place we’d ever been!) The sweet spot for our long term travel started to feel like something between one to two months :) 

Another thing I learnt was that Eric suffers from seasonal affective disorder, which kinda means he was sad because of the lack of sunshine. The sun rose at 9am and set at 3pm. It was cool for me because I hadn’t experienced anything like that before, but Eric didn’t like it much :P 

Estonians felt like an interesting blend of Scandinavian, Russian and Baltic. They’re cold and distant like the Finnish (or so I’ve heard, haven’t been to Finland yet), not as passionate as their southern Baltic counterparts (the further south I went into Latvia and Lithuania, the more forthcoming people were), and also quite Soviet-ish due to its history (architecture, language, cuisine etc). 

We also couldn’t quite figure out what “Estonian cuisine” really meant. Our airbnb hosts recommended restaurants that were mostly Italian, or some sort of fusion cuisine, often insinuating that there wasn’t such a thing as Estonian food. Our google searches didn’t come back with any substantial answers to our questioning minds either. Other people on the Internet had similar difficulty in finding “Estonian restaurants”! Mind-boggling! We settled for supermarket versions of Estonian dumplings, sausages and cheese (thanks to the pandemic, too). 

Like the Internet says, Estonia is quite a digitised society! Besides being the first European country to launch the Digital Nomad Visa, they also have an e-Residency. Bolt was started in Estonia, and many tech start-ups have their bases there. Estonians even vote online for their elections! Many things could be applied for online, although IRONICALLY, when we applied for the DMV, it was such a new thing that we still had to bring our papers into the police station in person (we just had to make an appointment online beforehand!).