2026-05-17
Traveling abroad and experiencing different cultures was something that I had wanted to do all my life. I've achieved the first milestone of my dream when I visited Japan in December 2025. That was my first time abroad.
I really liked Japan, but it felt too familiar. I had spent most of my middle and high school years consuming Japanese media. And when I finally went there, everything felt exactly as it was supposed to be. I also think that Turkish and Japanese people are really similar. But still, it was the best experience ever and I will do everything in my power to visit there again and again. Nevertheless, it wasn't quite the uniquely foreign experience I was looking for.
Then I visited Northern Cyprus. Everyone there spoke Turkish, which is my mother tongue. And their culture was almost the same as Türkiye. I also had a great time there, but I still wasn't able to get the feeling that I am in a completely different place.
That's why I was so excited when the laboratory I work at asked me if I would be interested in visiting Estonia with them as a dissemination assistant. I wanted to visit Europe for the longest time, especially countries that are in the European Union. But to go there I would have to apply for a Schengen visa, which is notoriously hard to get for citizens of Türkiye. When going with the laboratory, there wouldn't be a need to apply for a Schengen visa because I would be on a service mission to my university, and in turn, to my country. When you are on a service mission, you get a special short-term passport. And when you combine that passport with a service acceptance letter, you are allowed to visit your destination country.
I, of course, jumped at the opportunity as it would be a great chance for me to visit Europe.
After an unnecessarily long entry process, I saw a European city for the first time, or at least the airport of the city :)
It felt a little bit weird. Because everything was almost the same. The people looked the same. The architecture looked the same. Only difference I could find was the language difference.
Explaining what I felt back then this way may seem extremely surface-level. But because of my lack of experience, every time I travel to a different country I always expect everything to be drastically different. And every single time, I am pleasantly surprised that people are almost the same wherever you go.
There is a Turkish idiom, "Aklın yolu birdir" which translates to roughly "The path of reason is one". When I visit different places I always think of this idiom.
But I soon realized that these similarities were only to a certain extent…
The first difference I noticed was when I arrived in Tartu. There was a river going through the center of the city, which has the beautiful "Mother river" name. And when I walked alongside this river, I noticed that the locals were utilizing this river as much as they could. They were kayaking through the river, running alongside it, having picnics, riding bicycles, and generally having fun as much as possible while being in nature. The river wasn't just a sight that added to whatever activity people were doing, but the main actor in a play where people want to be side characters.
Türkiye has a lot of rivers, and many of these rivers are running through major cities. But most of the time, they are either seen as props or a way to promote the city to the tourists.
When I talked with people that lived there, I learned that Estonians have a general philosophy of revering nature. They have a rich history of being really close and in-tune with it. And you can really see this when walking into an Estonian city. It is really hard to not get caught up in this spirit. I also learned that Estonia experiences harsh winters for half the year. And because on those winter months there is barely any sun, when sun comes out they make sure to savor every minute of it.
I also admired their relationship with work. When they are working, they take their job seriously and give the necessary effort. But when they are off the clock, they are off the clock. They stop thinking about work. And this result in people not defining themselves as their profession or as the work they do. This is a big problem in Türkiye. You can almost always guess the general type of work a person does within a few minutes of talking to them.
I really liked the architecture of traditional Estonian homes. From my experience, they are either restored buildings from the early 20th or 19th century, or buildings that have the style of old houses.
Other than that my days mostly consisted of doing street photography, going to local bars, and riding a bicycle alongside the river.
In these local bars, the thing that caught my attention the most was the local beer of Tartu, A. Le Coq. While it wasn't the best beer I've tasted, it has a light and sour taste that goes great with the local scenery. I really enjoyed drinking it and would love to have it again if I ever encounter it.
I also visited Fotografiska Tallinn, a beautiful photography museum. My visit there made me incredibly emotional as I both saw the most impactful photographs of our history as humans and looked at an exhibition called "Places Called Home". The exhibition featured a collection of photographs, taken by Inta Ruka, that showed the everyday lives of the people in her native country. I can only describe the exhibition as real, lived, and human.
I can easily say that my first time in Europe was great. I am really grateful that introduction to the continent was through Estonia.
As a side note. I am going on a bus trip at the end of June. And on that trip, I will visit 8 different European countries. Since I've had such a great time in Estonia, I am much more excited about the bus trip. I hope I will be able to take lots of photographs and also share my experience there with you.