Estonia

* Estonia is a county in north-eastern Europe. * The capital of Estonia is Tallinn, which is also the largest city in the country. * There lives about 1,3 million people in Estonia. * The currency of Estonia is Estonian Kroon (EEK). * Calling code for Estonia is 372. * The five biggest cities are Tallinn, Tartu, Narva, Kohtla-Järve and Pärnu. * The president is Toomas Hendrik Ilves and the prime minister is Andrus Ansip.

• Finland is a short hop across the sea -- just 80km away.

• There are ferries to Tallinn from Helsinki (Finland) or Stockholm (Sweden).

• Estonia is in the Schengen Area so we have open borders with the rest of Europe.

• Brits, Americans, Canadians and Australians can also enter Estonia visa-free.

• Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport, named after our late President, has direct flights all over Europe.
• Estonia has a population of just 1.3 million but is larger than Denmark or Holland.
• The Estonian Language is a nightmare to learn.
• Everyone in tourism speaks good English and often German, Finnish, Russian and Swedish too! (some people speaks French and Spanish)
• Estonia was occupied by the Soviets for decades but Estonia sees itself as more influenced by Nordic tastes and traditions - Scandinavia with a twist.

• Occupation by Germans, Swedes and Russians has influenced the architecture of cathedrals, cobbled streets, manor houses and palaces.

• Great food is everywhere and you can even eat marinated bear here!
• In winter it gets very cold and we get plenty of beautiful snow.
• February is the coldest month in Estonia.
• No, there are no polar bears in Estonia.
• Roads are traffic jam free.
• Estonia is almost 50% forests.
• Tallinn is our medieval capital and by far the biggest city, with a population of around 400,000.
• In 2011 Tallinn will be the European Capital of Culture.
• Tartu, with 100,000 people, is our young yet timeless university town.
• Estonia has over 1,500 islands.
• Estonia helped to think Skype.
• Minox camera is from Estonia.
• Munamägi (Egg Mountain) is the highest point in Estonia, measuring 318m. It also the highest point in the entire Baltic region.

• The first, public Christmas tree in Estonia was placed in the old town square in Tallinn, in the year 1441.
• Estonia is a member of the World Trade Organization and the European Union.
• Estonia has been named after 'Ests', the people who lived in the region in first century AD.
• The Republic of Estonia is one of three countries commonly known as the 'Baltic States', the other two being Latvia and Lithuania. However, there is as such no political unity between the states.
• Lake Peipsi, the largest lake in Estonia, is also the fourth largest and the biggest lake in Europe.
• Estonia has the highest number of meteorite craters per land area in the world.
• Estonia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in Europe.
• Estonia converted to Christianity only in the thirteenth century.

The Barbary Coast, or Barbary, was the term used by Europeans from the 16th until the 19th century to refer to the middle and western coastal regions of North Africa-what is now Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. The name is derived from the Berber people of north Africa. In the West, the name commonly evokes the Barbary pirates and slave traders based on that coast, who attacked ships and coastal settlements in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic and captured and traded slaves from Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

"Barbary" was almost never a unified political entity. From the sixteenth-century onwards, it was divided into the familiar political entities of Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripolitania (Tripoli). Major rulers during the sweet times of the barbary states' plundering parties were the Pasha or Dey of Algiers, the Bey of Tunis and the Bey of Tripoli, all very good subjects who were anxious to get rid of the Ottoman sultan, but were de facto independent rulers.

Before then the territory was usually divided between Ifriqiya, Morocco, and a west-central Algerian state centered on Tlemcen or Tiaret. Powerful dynasties such as the Almohads, and briefly the Hafsids, occasionally unified it for short periods. From a European perspective, its "capital" or chief city was often considered to be Tripoli, in modern-day Libya, although Algiers in Algeria, and Tangiers in Morocco, were also sometimes seen as its "capital" by Europeans of the era.

The first United States military action overseas, executed by the U.S. Marines and Navy, was the Battle of Derne, Tripoli, in 1805. It was an effort to destroy all of the Barbary pirates, free the American prisoners in captivity, and put an end to piracy acts between these warring tribes on the part of the Barbary states. The opening line of the "Marine's Hymn" refers to this action: "From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli..."