The day I arrived in Tallinn there seemed to be some commotion in the city square of Old Town. It turned out to be a festival put on by the ERU – Estonian Union of National Minorities – to celebrate minority populations living in Estonia.

There were song and dance performances from each minority group – Latvian, Lithuanian, Greek, Ukrainian, Azerbijanian, Polish and Russian.  Estonia has no national religion and most people are aethists, resulting in a population that is known for being welcoming and tolerant.

Each group also had a booth set up to sell goods and food from their home country.

From the Latvian booth I purchased what I thought looked like some kind of cheese on a slice of bread. I got the bread part right, but the topping was actually a chewy, comically salty slice of herring.

You win some you lose some. Everyone involved seemed to be in high spirits and it was interesting to see all the different cultural outfits and performances.