

Hacker's life in Tallinn, Estonia, end of week 1. - etherael
http://skepticalphoenix.blogspot.com/2010/02/tallinn-end-of-week-1.html

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cromulent
Tallinn is a great place. I worked there for a week last month. Nice people. I
stayed in Parnu last summer briefly, that seemed nice as well. However, as the
OP says, it's a very different place to Sydney.

I'd watch out for those icicles though.

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cubix
I'm curious what the red tape was like. Did you require a visa or work permit?
How long/painful was the process? I take it you had a job lined up before you
went, did the employer assist you?

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etherael
Both Australia and Estonia are party to the Schengen agreement, what this
means is that you are automatically granted a visa upon arrival in Estonia for
a period of three months, I lined up professional contacts ahead of time with
a view to work, but nothing has been nailed down in terms of work yet.

I'm not concerned by this because with my final paycheque from Sydney at the
end of this month I have enough funds to finish my experiment entirely, so
worst case scenario I have to go, but I'm ok. It would leave me two months to
work on my personal projects which I've wanted for a while, and an
unobtrusive, peaceful and friendly environment to do so.

That said, I'm totally open to working with people over here and in fact
looking forward to it if it comes to pass, I'm just not staking my game on it.

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rue
Tallinn is definitely a nice place nowadays! If it does not work out for you,
Helsinki is just a short ferry ride away and Stockholm is not too far
either...but unfortunately both are quite a bit more expensive :)

 _Edit: That is, it is relatively simple to check for jobs in either location
and even go to interviews while still stationed in .ee_

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etherael
Thanks for the tip, I must admit I find both those places quite interesting,
of course it turns out harder to live there completely independently off my
freelance revenues, but as you say if the wages are higher getting a "real
job" again might be an option. :)

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sushi
"I strongly believe that religion and respect for religion breeds ignorance
and mental decrepitude."

If only everyone in the world understood that. Loved the post. Have been
considering to move to Northern Europe temporarily myself.

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ShabbyDoo
How was the Aussie able to converse with the customer service people with the
state-run telcom? He didn't mention any knowledge of Estonian or even Russian.

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plaes
Because we can also speak English here...

Although, as an Estonian, I'm a bit disappointed he chose Tallinn as a city to
live in... :S

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ShabbyDoo
How hard would it be for me to live in, say, Tallinn as an Ugly American
(joking, I hope) who speaks and reads only English?

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mlni
You won't have too much trouble as long as you keep to the center of the city.
As in pretty much any Eastern European country, anybody under the age of 30
can speak english more or less acceptably. And expect to get ripped off by
taxies if you don't speak at least one local language.

