On the 19th of January, 2024, I announced that an EU long-term residence permit was granted to me on some of my social media channels! Recalling an article titled “How to Get the EU Long Term Residence Permit in Estonia.” that I published In December, 2023, this new article is a developed version of it. However, truth to be told, my mind was unstable until I made the final decision to apply for the EU long-term residence permit. Sometimes I wanted to apply for it and some other times I planned not to do it, which I repeated over days and months… The reason why I decided to apply for it eventually is too messy to explain so I skipped it here, but it is relevant to the article “Zooks Decides To Stay in Estonia”.
When I applied for the EU long-term residence permit, I was in quite a special situation. Hence, here I will talk about three things: documents I prepared, a flow till I went to a PPA office in Tallinn and how I was treated at a window in the PPA office. (In other words, if you have lived in Estonia for more than five years legally, worked for an Estonian company, and passed an Estonian language exam at the level of B1 or higher, you don’t really need to worry about it!)
Let’s begin with the required documents. Roughly speaking, I needed the below documents:
Certificate of a legal income
Certificate of health insurance’s coverage in Estonia
Proof of a language proficiency (B1 or higher)
Application form
Certificate of the payment for the application
Let’s take a look one by one.
1.1 Legal Income
Generally, if you work for an Estonian company, you can probably just bring your work contract. Or, as PPA can see your information, you may not rather need any documents for this purpose. (I was told so after graduating from a postgraduate school when changing my student TRP to the TRP for a graduate.)
However, in my case, due to the fact that I was already working as a freelancer when applying for the EU long-term residence permit, I had to prove that my income was legal. Here “legal” basically means that you pay tax in Estonia. If you work as a freelancer or remotely from Estonia, your taxation can be complicated. Also, based on your gross income, the tax rate may differ. I will write another article about taxation in Estonia. Here I’m just talking about my case.
I use LHV’s entrepreneur account. With LHV’s entrepreneur account, once you add your funds, the income tax (including the income tax, social tax and pension) is deducted immediately. Therefore, you might just need to submit a balance statement on your LHV’s entrepreneur account, and yet my reality wasn’t so simple. 🥹
As a freelancer, even though my income was legal for me because the tax was deducted, the PPA who assessed my application had no idea what kind of business I earned from. It could be selling the weed. What is worse, it could be prostitution. Hence, I reckoned they may not grant the permit as “earning might not be legal” without any documents which would prove the source of income, and they might have asked me for additional documents, which seemed to be troublesome. For this reason, I submitted the documents on the source of my income as well. However, my case was still intricate, so I wrote down the flow of paying a salary to myself, and collected all the necessary documents as earning in USD was one of the reasons as well that made the situation complicated.
The flow was [(1) earning → (2) remitting from the work platform to my PayPal account → (3) remitting from PayPal to Wise → (4) converting from USD to EUR in the Wise app → (5) remitting from Wise to my LHV entrepreneur account → (6) remitting from the LHV entrepreneur account to my Estonian bank account].
This is why I had to submit all these documents. The most burdensome part was [(1) earning] since the work platform did not have any function to export all the earnings in PDF by just a few clicks. What I did was save the whole screen one by one in a printout mode on a browser, and merge all the files into one on the site called Smallpdf. For the fact that I had to prove my income for two months, there are more than 200 pages in the file in total.
The number of pages of partial income of a month
Then I printed these out on both sides…
Although the documents were only for two months, it was onerous.
1.2 Health Insurance
Given that you work for an Estonian company, you will automatically be covered by Tervisekassa (the Estonian Health Insurance Fund), but in my case, since I intentionally set my income as low as possible, the social tax I paid was below the minimum amount to get covered by Tervisekassa. Therefore, logically, I didn’t have any health insurance.
A private health insurance like ERGO is also acceptable, but my past experience of depression was utilised here.
In summer in 2021, I published a blog article titled “Zooks Got the Work Ability Card Issued in Estonia.”. This was it. The certificate of “partial incapacity of work” took advantage at this time. Strictly speaking, I didn’t bring any copy of this per se as the PPA could see that I was covered by Tervisekassa.
Then, here is the reason why this certificate of “partial incapacity of work” is relevant; as long as this card is valid, regardless of the amount of social tax I pay, I have Tervisekassa’s coverage.
Since I always bring my card anywhere, when a PPA lady asked me about the health insurance, she made a copy of it.
I know it was really troublesome. 😂
I finally thank a lot the Brazilian customer support manager who depressed me, tormented me, didn’t provide me as a new employee with any training at work, limited my access to necessary platforms for work and prioritised her own profits, two Russian colleagues who were perfect frenemies and takers, the Nicaraguan marketing manager who discriminated at work, and the CEO who asked me to work from the hospital while I was taking a sick leave. I will never forgive them all and I do believe sooner or later they will be destined to come across a complete hell in their life at some point, which I think of in this way only when I remember them owing to some trigger. Right now I am happy without them in my life and I do not care what will happen to them. What is more, thanks to them, I can still have Tervisekassa’s coverage without meeting the minimum amount of social tax. 😛
1.3 Language Proficiency
I really didn’t have to print this out, but just in case I brought it there. I am not sure if only completing a language course is sufficient as a proof. I took Harno’s official language exams, which results are visible on Estonia’s national portal.
1.4 Application Form
As for the application form, you need to download it on the PPA’s website, fill it out, print it out and bring it to the PPA office. You don’t need to add your photo there. You can take a photo in the photo-shooting machine in the PPA office, and the machine will send the data to your ID. The machine also lets you have your fingerprints, so I recommend you to do so while waiting for your turn at the PPA office. (However, I’m not sure if you would be asked for your fingerprints at a window.)
What is more important, you must fill out the application form in Estonian. It’s nothing big if you need to just fill it out. However, in my case, I had to explain the above information on my income in the note section of the application form. (I wasn’t really told to do so and it might not be mandatory, but since it was onerous, I wrote it in advance in order to avoid being asked a lot later.)
1.5 Payment Certificate
You don’t need to worry about this either as you will have to pay for the application fee at the window. Should you apply for the EU long-term residence permit by snail mail, you need to pay online and send the receipt as a document.
2. The Flow till I Went to the PPA Office
Since my legal stay turned out to be 5 years as of the 11th of November 2023, I decided to apply for the EU long-term residence permit after that date. In terms of time, I had stayed in Estonia for more than six years as of that date, and yet in terms of a residence permit it was five years.
On PPA’s website there was a reservation option, so I tried to book an appointment, but it was impossible. Therefore, I went to the PPA office directly and a PPA lady at a window just told me to book an appointment.
What’s happened?
It didn’t let me book an appointment.
Asking her further, she told me to book an appointment on the coming Monday because then there will be new appointment calendars for December and January, and this happens specially for the fact that there will be many TRP applicants who will come to Estonia based on their employment in winter.
If you are thinking of booking an appointment in winter, keep this in mind;
You can book from 8 am but all the slots will be taken within 15 minutes.
I was really struggling with the booking page after taking a shower in the gym. Consequently, I successfully booked an appointment on the 5th of December, 2023. It wasn’t an ideal date and time and yet better than nothing.
However, I still wanted to have applied during November so that I didn’t have to prepare such a lot of paper documents to prove my income. 😅
3. How I Was Treated at a Window in the PPA Office
On the 5th of December, 2023, I went to the PPA office again.
Just like the first visit, when they came to know that I went there to apply for the EU long-term residence permit, they asked me “Can you speak Estonian?”, and I always responded:
Ummm… I will do my best!
😂
This is because B1 is not enough for fluency (subjectively speaking).
At the window the PPA lady checked my documents one by one.
As for Tervisekassa’s coverage, as mentioned above already, since I had a certificate of partial incapacity to work, I explained it to her at the window and she took some copies of it.
After checking all the documents, she told me that usually the result would be notified within two months, and yet this time it might take up to three months as it was the time that there were a lot of other TRP applications.
Though eventually it didn’t take even two months. 😂
★Summary
As for the notification, since I received an email in Estonian from PPA so suddenly, I thought:
Wait, what is this? Did I do anything wrong that involved the police?
I read it and translated it just in case, and I was like:
Wait, wooooowwoo!?!?!?!?
So I messaged my previous colleague who I talked about my application with the other day:
Can I be pleased!? Do you see different texts!?
And he replied to me:
I think you are in a dream.
He sounded so seriously, so I was like:
Nooooooooraaaarr!!!!
He still continued to tell me seriously:
You should use a translation machine once again. Wake up.
Oi. Then I sent him a GIF of a desperately disappointing pikachu. Then he finally said:
Congrats.
“Just tell me that my understanding was right,” I thought. It was sort of startling.
Due to this silly conversation it took time to make sure, and yet anyway I was glad about everything.
Anyway, I will keep living like a weed in Estonia (at least for a while).
Until around August, 2023, I had told people who have been close to me that I was planning to leave Estonia in or by 2024, and yet in September, 2023 I changed my mind that I had had since I graduated. However, why did I change my mind when I was almost making it come true? This time I will reveal this story.
First, let me talk about why I wanted to leave Estonia.
1.1. Inconvenience
Estonia is very inconvenient. A delivery fee from Amazon Germany costs quite a lot albeit it’s not easy to find something reasonable in Estonia. When it comes to personal parcels from Japan, (probably) owing to COVID (and the Ukrainian war), we still have only three options: EMS, by air and by ship. SAL – the most reasonable option with less amount of time – is not re-available yet as of 2023. Plus, as Tallinn Airport raised tax to airlines, we have less flight availability by Ryanair. (However, airBaltic is doing rather well with more routes.)
1.2. November and February
November is the most depressive month whilst February is the most dangerous month because February, in Estonia which is relatively humid in Europe, is the time for both preparation for spring and the remaining coldness, which results in making icy roads! Almost every year I get my ankle sprained, for whom February is a month of fear! The 24th of February is Estonia’s Independence Day and around this date it’s most dangerous! I’d request the Estonian government to ban commuting to offices in February. 😂 We should work safely at home (though it’s not my business anymore as a freelancer. 😂) By the way, you can still survive in November with sufficient preparation and prevention. The hacks are to start taking vitamin D 4000 IU from September and proactively get sunlight!
1.3. No Fulfilment for Some Reason
This reason is unreasonable and I feel sorry for the Estonians, and yet I couldn’t feel fulfilment, being in Estonia. I was like “It’s not so fun to be in Estonia”. This is probably because Estonia has little entertainment.
These three reasons above are that I had wanted to leave Estonia for three years, but then why did I choose to stay (or at least postpone staying) in Estonia when the third quarter of the year 2023 was about to finish? I also have a few reasons for this.
2. Reasons Why I Decided To Stay in Estonia Longer
2.1. I Noticed How More Grateful I Had Been to People Around Me
One day, I invited two of my university friends to my place and cooked for them as they had always helped me with my CVs and portfolios. I cooked 0.5kg of chicken thigh as well as three cups of rice, which were almost completely gone. They said my meal was good, and ate nearly everything, which made me so happy and think. “Isn’t it absurd to leave friends who are happy with what I cooked and have always helped me, and move to somewhere I don’t know anyone? Don’t I need to be so hard on myself?” I guess they are the biggest reason. Besides them, I am grateful for my life support who has helped me since I was trying to recover from depression, helped me with my Estonian learning, explained to me how to take care of a chinchilla, and told me where in Estonia I could buy something I was specifically looking for, my previous colleague who reconnected with me regardless I had completely forgot about him for two years, and another university friend who I still communicate with, meet once in a while and loves a tote bag as a souvenir from Japan (with illustration of an anti-mosquito). “Do I need to make extra effort by myself being away from such amazing people from the beginning? Nope.” I thought.
2.2. Changing Career Was Too Hard
From July 2023 till September 2023, I had taken a UX course, aiming to change my career. However, in 2023 the overall Estonian labour market seemed to be worse than before. Considering volunteers as well as internships, companies prioritise colleague students, so those appeared to be difficult options. Thus, instead of changing career asap and leaving Estonia, I thought it might be a good idea to work on freelance entry-level UX-design-related jobs.
2.3. Convenience in Estonia
You probably thought “That’s completely opposite!” It’s, in fact, not opposite. Here what I mean by “convenience” is situations with the use of my Estonian ID card, for instance, banking and prescriptions. (I personally believe these two are particularly convenient.) I wondered “If I left Estonia and started living in another country. I would miss this convenient system.” Plus, my long-term thought that “Estonia is okay. No matter how long I live here, my second hometown remains as Ireland where I studied as an exchange student” had changed. It was like: wait…I actually like Estonia….! 😂
I know my reason is too realistic or non-dreamy at all, but since I noticed this, I have thought “Not Ireland anymore but Estonia has become my second hometown…”
2.4. Advantages in an Inconvenient Life
Sorry for the locals again, but I realised how grateful I was by feeling “this is inconvenient, that is annoying in Estonia”. (This is a complement.)
For example, the other day I published an article, revealing that I travelled to 10 countries in 2023. In Gothenburg, which was one of the destinations, you can have tantanmen with thin noodles. I love it! But if I could have the same one in Estonia, I wouldn’t think “I’d murder tantanmen!” as a non-ramen fan, or I wouldn’t think “This is so good!!!” in Gothenburg. Also, everywhere has tedious scenery in Estonia, and this is why I’ve travelled a lot, which is still inconvenient. However, probably because Estonia is like this. I feel “I want to go there again (in the world),” I think.
Just like if I could buy more Japanese products in Estonia, it’s convenient, but I feel much happier when my mum or friends send me a package from Japan.
I thought there is happiness that comes from insufficiency.
★Summary
Funny, isn’t it? Strictly speaking, I have more relevant stories, but I won’t be able to summarise them if I write them here. Based on this decision, there is also something further, which I will talk about in another article another day. By the way, though I decided to continue staying in Estonia, it does not necessarily mean permanent. Maybe I say “Ah! Estonia is still unbearable!” in one year, maybe I will have lived here for decades.
To conclude, I hope you will keep enjoying my blog posts!
This year, I published blog articles about my trips to Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden, but as announced on Facebook, I had taken a break till now, and didn’t publish any further articles on other trips I made this year. (This was because I thought the articles on my trips might not be so interesting to read, and I got busy. Though I will write articles about trips if you would like to know something specific in terms of travelling!) However, in fact, I travelled to 10 countries in total this year. This time, I will clarify and answer a question which only two people have asked me so far thought many people might actually wonder about as it’s about finance:
How did I finance my travel expenses?
Don’t worry, it was completely from my legal income.
I managed the travel expenses only with an income as an employee in an Estonian company.
Luckily, I had a generous CEO and a benevolent COO, who raised our salaries by 25%, starting from the work done in January 2023 (i.e. from the salary I received in February 2023). As it was said to be 24% inflation rate in Estonia, the CEO and the COO made such an employee-friendly decision. Therefore, I was wealthy enough. This is the first fact to have managed the travel expenses well.
Secondly, I should reveal where exactly I travelled. Here’s the list of my travel destinations and the period for each trip.
Ireland + the UK (Northern Ireland) – 1 week
The Netherlands (Rotterdam + Amsterdam) – 3 days
Sweden (Gothenburg + Lund) – 5 days
Italy (Venice) – 4 days
Austria (Vienna) – 2 days
Latvia (Riga) + Lithuania (Siauliai) – 2 days
Georgia (Tbilisi and its suburbs) – 3 days
The Czech Republic (Prague) – 1 day
That’s all!
Yes, a lot!!
I believe I travelled a lot this year because I was no longer poor, the COVID time (more or less) ended, and my favourite musicians resumed their tours.
Anyway, if you look at the list above, you notice that I had only one long trip for one week, and the other trips are short. Since the number of stays was small, I believe you realise that I didn’t go on trips that are generally assumed/imagined from the word “trip”.
In addition, my monthly basic expense is roughly 900 – 1,000 EUR. In other words, the amount which came from the income after deducting the basic expense is for saving.
Then, from this part, let’s talk about how I handled that saving.
Firstly, before a new year, I usually roughly decide where and when I want to travel in a coming year. In accordance with that rough plan, I consider how much I can save till the month I will travel. (Of course, I bear in mind saving for some urgent expenses beside the travel budget.)
I always check the website called Budget Your Trip to build a budget for a specific trip, and estimate a bit more than the provided information there. Then, I determine the monthly saving amount for that trip by dividing one overall travel budget based on the number of days of that trip by the number of months till that trip to save separately.
For instance, if I want to save 1,200 EUR by June to visit Ireland, starting from January, I save 200 EUR per month.
The point is that as I travelled almost every month in 2023, I did this every month.
In more detail, in addition to a trip to Ireland in June (the above example), given that I want to travel to Sweden a bit in August, and I need to save 800 EUR in total, [the entire saving amount – (minus) the fixed saving amount (for urgent expenses) – 200 EUR for the Ireland trip = the monthly amount that I can save for the Sweden trip]. (E.g. 600 (as the entire saving amount) – 200 (for urgent expenses) – 200 (Ireland trip) = 200 EUR for the Sweden trip.) Therefore, if ideal destinations are all expensive countries, I can’t save enough budget by the travel month, so I needed to think about a bigger picture as well.
The cost of living always comes first, so if the net income is not so big, there is less money for travelling.
Fortunately, I experienced both getting higher positions and increased salaries, I travelled a lot in 2023. However, in 2021 and 2022, I didn’t do it as often as in 2023. In 2024, I will try to stay in Estonia more (as I enjoyed myself too enough.)
As a side note, I often saved budgets even during the trips since I just needed a shower and a bed by choosing hostels. (At some points, I travelled just to achieve my purposes, so I didn’t even think about “chilling in a hotel”. Though I believe hotels are surely better when a trip has a longer itinerary to rest well.)
In other words, not all my trips in 2023 had hotel stays nor luxurious vacations.
By the way, the total travel expense in 2023 was around 4,700 EUR. Except for the last three trips, they were all expensive countries in general so maybe it makes sense?
But really, I have enjoyed gigs and concerts as well as travelling in Europe overall since I was 21, so from next year I will reduce the frequency to travel for this good reason. It’s like focusing on quality as I’m done with quantities.
I won’t stop this favourite activity as long as I am alive, and next year’s main goal is definitely to visit Japan!
Here’s my expenses on the trip to Sweden for 4 nights and 5 days!
The budget was 1000 EUR, within which 350 EUR from “the Others” was converted to Swedish Kronor (SEK). Plus, I had some Swedish Kronor in cash so I added it too, and the total budget in Swedish Kronor is around 400 EUR.
Since I prepared the budget in Swedish Kronor, the expenses in Sweden were in Swedish Kronor.
The details are below:
Item
EUR
SEK
Budget
€1000
4,355.76 SEK
Transport
Flight
€181.83
Public transport
€40.25
490.00 SEK
Accommodation
€14.97
893.00 SEK
Food
€9.37
1,604.46 SEK
Leisure
Sightseeing
€0
515.00 SEK
Ohters
€0
159.00 SEK
Souvenirs
For myself
€0
85.90 SEK
Souvenirs
For others
€0
178.95 SEK
Travel insurance
€14.70
0 SEK
Others
€355.60
8.83 SEK
Sum
€616.72
3,935 SEK
Remainder
€383.28
420.62 SEK
★Attention!
Since I stayed in a hostel, if you stay in a hotel, it will be more expensive.
As I wanted to have some Asian cuisines and in fact ate ramen, Thai food and Nepalese food, if you have Swedish cuisine (such as Swedish meatballs or seafood), it will cost more.
Due to the fact that I visited Lund as well, I call the trip “Sweden trip”, but you shouldn’t compare it with Stockholm in my opinion.
Stockholm in Sweden is very well-known but few people go west in Sweden. Some people may feel better to live in smaller cities in the west of Sweden, but when it comes to travelling, the number of visitors should be much less than in Stockholm. In fact, Gothenburg has few options for accommodation either.
If Gothenburg is like that, how is Lund – a more unfamiliar town for most people – like?
The history of Lund begins with Viking time. Archaeologically, there have already been residents since the 10th century.
In 1103, the Lund Cathedral which is the centre of Christianity in Scandinavia started to be built. The Lund Cathedral is the icon of Lund nowadays.
In the Middle Ages, Lund became an important place as a centre of religion and education. Then, Lund University was established in 1688, and it gained a position as the hub of wisdom and culture.
Also, since Lund is near Denmark, during Swedish governance, it has been influenced by Danish culture. However, due to the Treaty of Roskilde, the Skåne county including Lund has ceded to Sweden.
In the 19 to 20th century, Lund developed in a modern way. Lund became a bigger town, new industries were introduced, and Lund advanced in terms of physics and astronomy.
I went to Lund in May in 2023. Looking at this graph, it appears to be cool weather until the middle of June…but at that time the weather was really sunny, and I felt the strength of the sun.
I do not personally recommend summer in Northern Europe a lot (unless you do love heat). Though the summer is pretty short, there are some days when it is extremely hot! I prefer travelling in Northern Europe during March till May as it’s more comfortable, and yet events frequently take place between June and August, so ultimately it’s up to you. I said “it’s extremely hot”, but the temperature is a bit more than 30 degrees, so it’s not as hot as Japan or other hot countries.
You can go to Lund from Gothenburg by train. It seems there are buses too, but the trains are easier, and SJ (railways in Sweden) is decently comfortable. You can charge your phone too.
I think it took around 1.5 hours from Gothenburg to Lund by train. You can buy tickets both on SJ’s website and Omio. (In case you can’t find any tickets owing to construction or whatever, check those websites from time to time such as one month or two weeks prior to the trip. Sometimes at such timing they may announce the train schedules.)
Honestly, Lund doesn’t have big sightseeing places as Lund is a small countryside university town. If you want to go to Lund, half a day should be enough (subjectively speaking). In Lund, I went to only Lund University, Lund Botanical Garden and a cinema. (I went to the cinema to see the newly released “The Little Mermaid” because I was too bored in Lund.) 😂
Lund University is surrounded by nature. There was a fountain, lots of trees, and I thought that would be the best environment to study. (Kyoto University of Foreign Studies and Tallinn University are in the city, facing the streets and roads, so they didn’t have much nature. In Dublin City University where I studied as an exchange student, we had lots of green though.)
The purpose of visiting Lund University was to buy Lund University’s T-shirt! When my friend who went to the same high school and the same university in Japan as mine visited Tallinn in 2018, she bought a T-shirt of Tallinn University, and works at a restaurant called “Tsukumo” in Shirahama, Japan, wearing that T-shirt. Since then, me, myself and I decided to give her a T-shirt from a university in Europe as a souvenir.
When visiting Japan in 2019, I could spend some time in Warsaw for one day during a transit, so I gave her a T-shirt from Warsaw University. However, as I visited Japan in 2022, I had no opportunity to buy a university T-shirt beforehand. Therefore, using the opportunity to drop by a store in Lund university, I shipped Lund University’s T-shirt to Japan from Estonia.
She seemed to love it a lot. What is happier, she immediately started wearing that T-shirt at Tsukumo. Everyone was interested in which place that T-shirt came from. She also told me that just one day it took her to get a smell of coffee in the T-shirt. I would be more than happy if she wears it until it completely gets damaged. 😂
Let’s talk about Lund Botanical Garden. Compared to Gothenburg Botanical Garden, the size of Lund Botanical Garden is much smaller, but you can spend some good time for a walk. It was more fun to walk in Lund Botanical Garden than in Kadriorg park in Tallinn as it was quieter.
Also, this is pretty common in summer in Europe; we, the Japanese, tend to think “sunbathing is an activity on a beach” whilst in Europe as long as there is the sun, they sunbathe on the grass, wearing bikinis. In other words, in Europe whether it is on the beach or in a park, they do sunbathing if there’s the sun. Hence, in Lund Botanical Garden, some people were sunbathing. (Men also did with swimming pants.)
I tried to cut out the sunlight with sunglasses as hard as possible, and was walking, looking for shades.
Since this was my first visit in Lund and this chapter is not even a recommendation, and yet I went to two cafes in Lund, I’m going to report how they were.
“Botan” means “paeonia × suffruticosa” (a group of flower trees) in Japanese, so I wondered if it was named like that because the cafe is located in the centre of Lund Botanical Garden, and yet I don’t know the truth at all.
In front of the cafe, there is a building like a visitor centre and a lake. The cafe’s tables are set around the lake, and you can enjoy their refreshing lunch in summer there. (The cafe has some inside tables too.)
The cafe basically has only sandwiches, salads and some types of cakes, but since the salad is pretty big, you can get full. Their salad has a few types, and I chose a salmon salad.
The salad contained asparagus which is hard or expensive to get in Estonia, so I was really excited inside of myself. The salad had a sauce like homemade mayonnaise, and it matched quite well the potatoes in the salad.
As no one comes to your table to take your empty plates away, you need to return the used plates and cutleries by yourself. Otherwise, crows and other birds come to the table and eat and scatter the leftover food on the table, messing it up too.
After walking a lot under the strong sun, I went to a cafe called Ramklints Konditori. I was also looking for some place to charge my phone. If I had gone to a chain cafe, almost for sure they would have had some charging tables and seats, but I found this cafe on the way to a chian cafe. I roughly looked around in the cafe, and found just one table near the socket.
I just ordered a cup of coffee, and browsed on social media. (Since my stomach was not empty after lunch yet, I didn’t want anything sweet.)
However, after a while, I had a special version of a Swedish cake called “Princess cake”. (They had both pieces of a whole regular Princess cake and a small solo version of Princess cake with a strawberry for some reason.) Besides that, they had some other cakes, baked sweets and sandwiches.
Firstly, in Lund, you can pay by card basically. If you want to consume your Swedish cash, you can ask. Or sometimes they have a note of “Only cash” at a checkout, so pay attention to such small information.
Lund has buses but since I didn’t take it, I have no idea what kind of payment system they have.
As I have no experience of the night in Lund, so I don’t know too many things, but in summer the night is so bright, which makes us a bit secure even at night. (However, the majority still sleeps, hence there wouldn’t be a lot less people in the town.)
During the daytime, you see a number of students or young people or elderly residents in lund. Since I explored in Lund on a weekday, there were not so many people anyway, and yet I didn’t feel it was dangerous. (It was also because the small town has much less population.)
I didn’t see a lot of immigrants in Lund either, but if you are used to natural safety and security like Japan or Estonia, you could become a criminal’s target. Lund is not a dangerous town but still keep in mind there might be pickpockets as it’s still in Europe. (Additionally, Malmö which is close to Lund is said to be more dangerous.)
So this is all about my Lund trip. I arrived in Lund at around 10.30 am, and took a train at 7 pm to Gothenburg, however, you may not need such a lot of time. 😂 Lund has some museums and other stuff, and yet the heat took my energy to walk much enough, so I couldn’t keep walking.
I went to Lund as a day trip on my birthday, which was much better than spending my own birthday in Estonia. (I don’t want any birthday party for myself anymore. It exhausts me. I want to celebrate myself quietly or thought a birthday trip might be the best.)
On the latter half of the trip in Ireland 2022, I felt I wanted to be able to drive a car in Europe. After the trip, I searched for information about driving schools in Tallinn and made a plan. I’ve already had a Japanese driving licence for MT cars so I could drive outside Japan too (as in countries like Ireland or Germany, MT is more major than AT), and yet I was not allowed to get an international driving licence in Estonia anymore due to the Geneva Convention, in which it’s written that those who have lived in Estonia more than one year need to get an Estonian driving licence if they want to drive in Estonia.
In this article, I will explain all the process to get an Estonian driving licence which is called the “B category” licence in Estonia.
Since I decided to get a driving licence in Estonia, I started searching for information about when to start going to driving school in Estonia and how much it would cost. This was my first step as it costs to get a driving licence.
I decided to take a B-category driving course in Sky Autokool which I bookmarked on Facebook a long time ago because many people recommended Sky Autokool in the Expat group on Facebook. There are a few additional reasons for this.
Firstly, they offer the driving course in English. Though I’d already had B1 in Estonian, I wasn’t sure if I could understand the traffic rules in Estonian. Also, whatever the language is, it is hard for me to deal with information by listening, so I was sure that my brain wouldn’t work sufficiently well if I listened to the language I was learning. Therefore, I didn’t have any other options but English. As many expats are not so fluent in Estonian either, if a driving school has courses in English, it easily becomes popular.
Secondly, many expats in the group simply said “Sky Autokool was good!”. I checked some other driving schools in Tallinn and compared them with Sky Autokool. Based on the comparison, Sky Autokool seemed better for me as well.
Lastly, Sky Autokool offers in-class theory classes with live-streaming and on-demand theory classes. The latter option includes the self-learning platform for the theory exam called Liikluslab. As I thought I just needed to be online for the live-streaming theory classes after work and didn’t want to use Liikluslab yet when starting the course, I chose the live-streaming (in-class) one.
Sky Autokool has the pricing for the B-category course on their website. However, the payment option and how to calculate it was not really written there. If you have questions, you can always ask them. (I literally asked them a lot before starting!)
In their calculation, it appeared to cost around 1100 EUR in total, and yet considering cases where I fail in exams, and I need additional driving lessons as well as the subscription for Liikluslab, I calculated how much I would need to save every month.
Since I-don’t-know-when, I started “one-cent saving”, and after one year, I use that saving in case I need a relatively big amount of money. So using that savings, I had a budget of 2000 EUR in total.
In Sky Autokool, what you firstly need to pay is the registration fee and the theory classes, which cost 260 EUR. When starting the driving lessons, salaries of 210 EUR for a driving instructor (as they are entrepreneurs) and 420 EUR for the lesson car (15 EUR per lesson), which costs 630 EUR in total, will be paid. This amount is actually divided into the minimum number of lessons, so one class costs 22.50 EUR. However, in Sky Autokool, they conduct two classes per time/lesson, meaning that if you take one driving lesson, you need to pay 45 EUR. Plus, most likely you will be asked to pay in cash. (The calculation is a bit weird and old here so I recommend you skip the detailed calculation part and access the page from the paragraph below.)
In addition to the basic lessons above, you will need to pay for other special courses such as a night driving course, a slippery-road driving course and a first aid course.
In the end, you will also need to pay for the exams in Sky Autokool and for the state exams (ARK’s exams).
Though I wrote a bit of details, Sky Autokool’s pricing page explains much visually easier anyways. 😂 Also the prices above are as of 2022.
By the way, whichever AT or MT you choose, it costs the same. (In Japan, AT costs less.)
I personally recommend you get a driving licence for MT so you are allowed to drive AT cars too. It’s just more convenient.
The process to get a driving licence in Estonia starts with a theory class in a driving school unlike Japan. When I went to a driving school in Kyoto, the first lesson was a driving lesson. However, the reason why in Estonia they let a learner start taking the theory lessons first was to learn the traffic signs and rules before driving on the real roads. In Estonia we practise driving on the real roads basically and the exams are conducted on the real roads as well whilst in Japan we mainly practise in the practice areas. This is why without knowing the Estonian traffic rules, you can’t really drive on the real roads in Estonia.
In Sky Autokool, they recommend students start driving lessons after taking a few theory classes because of the reason above.
In Estonia, the minimum number of driving practices is determined, which is 26 times. This excludes the special courses like a night driving course. Since you can take the driving lessons after a couple of theory classes, in fact from some points you need to attend both the theory classes and the driving lessons.
When starting the first driving lesson, my driving instructor recommended that I should take Sky Autokool’s theory exam and ARK (Autoregistrikeskuse — vehicle registration centre)’s theory exam after finishing all the driving lessons. I think this is because then you are used to the real roads so you know better after completing the driving lessons. Therefore, the flow is to take the driving school’s theory exam after completing the driving lessons, and to take ARK’s theory exam after passing the driving school’s theory exam.
As for ARK’s driving exam, like their theory exam, you cannot take it without passing the driving school’s driving exam. Plus, ARK’s driving exam was much more difficult than the driving exam in Japan, and you might need to queue a lot. (Strictly speaking, this depends on the season and timing.) So my instructor advised me to book one exam anyway, and if the date and time are not ideal, I could change a few days before the exam because sometimes students cancel the booked exams.
In Sky Autokool, there are seven theory classes in total, and it takes two hours per class. Every class began at 6 pm, so I accessed the live-streaming class right after getting home from work. Although they said one class would take two hours, in reality the classes often finished within two hours. Since it was live-streaming, students could also ask questions online from home.
What is more, we had homework videos and quizzes after homework.
What I felt while taking the theory classes in Sky Autokool was there were so many traffic signs. 😂
In my case, I started my driving lessons during the week when I had the third theory class in Sky Autokool.
When I asked the person-in-charge in Sky Autokool how to register for the driving lessons, he did it immediately on his own. Since I already went to see my GP to check my body condition for the B-category driving licence before starting the theory course in Sky Autokool, the process went very smoothly. This health check is a must-do before driving a car. You can ask your GP for the B-category health check. Mine charged me 40 EUR for the health check for the B-category driving licence.
In addition, on the side of Sky Autokool, they had to register me as a driving learner in Estonia. Since they do for us, students do not have to do anything specific. After the registration, I received an email from Transpordiamet (ARK).
Also, the person-in-charge in Sky Autokool asked me AT or MT, so I told him MT. Then he gave me the phone number of my instructor.
As it was a phone number, I wondered if I should ring or message him, but as I don’t like calling strangers, I messaged him eventually, and he replied to me. I booked one session which was conducted in the practice area. In this area it costs extra unlike the driving schools in Japan, you need to enter there with your phone. If your phone cannot charge you, the instructor should pay alternatively, and you can pay them back later. That is what I did.
In Estonia, in order to graduate from a driving school, you need to take special courses separately. (However, these courses do not require separate exams.)
As they are special courses, you need to pay for them separately.
First of all, let’s talk about night driving. Personally, this course was very appreciative because there was no such a course in Japan. You will also drive on a highway in the dark in this course.
I had the night driving course in winter in Estonia, and suddenly one question popped up in my head while doing it, so I asked my instructor.
“How do you conduct the night driving practice in summer?”
In Estonia it’s bright at night in summer, even at almost 0 am, it’s pretty bright. (Technically, it’s very slightly dark, but you can walk around and see everything.)
In such a season in Estonia, when a student practise for the night driving, he said
“They use a simulator.”
Also he told me that
And every time, the student driver hits an animal there.
😂
However, as long as it’s dark outside, they offer the practice outside, so even if the environmental condition is with snow, ice and/or rain, which is scary for the beginners, the instructors still take us to highways. 😂
However, even though it was scary in the beginning, on the way back, you will already be used to it. 😂
I’m not sure if it is only in Sky Autokool, but it seemed the course usually took place with one instructor and two students. However, in my case, the other student didn’t come so I just had a special course with the usual instructor like always. 😂
By the way, before this night driving lesson, I had to watch the video that Sky Autokool sent me. (It means that this course has a “theory class” too.)
In Estonia in winter, it snows a lot and there is ice on the ground in February, which is too dangerous to walk. During the winter time, a car owner needs to change their tyres for the winter version too. (In Estonia they sell all-year tyres as well.)
This is why in Estonia another special course “slippery-road driving” is a must-take. In Sky Autokool, you also need to watch the lecture video beforehand.
Roughly speaking, you learn the differences among driving on the regular asphalt ground, half asphalt and half frozen/slippery ground and slippery ground.
It was also a pair (two students for one instructor) course. We met in Laagri, Harju county in Estonia, and a person-in-charge from Sky Autokool drove us to Laitse Rally Park in 20 minutes. (She also drove us back to the meeting place on the way back from Laitse Rally Park.)
The other student was learning how to drive cars with an AT. The instructor was a guy for this course. Since I was practising for MT, the other student tried first.
I was too scared of the sudden brake at 30 km/h. 😂 (Though after the first try I was fine because I knew when it would happen.)
However, I realised how easy it was to drive a car with AT because you can reach a faster speed so quickly. Since that AT car didn’t have a switch to turn off ABS, we switched to a car with MT.
It got me scared twice.
Firstly, I drove at 50 km/h on ice and then turned the wheel (without acceleration or brake).
Too scary as the car spinned 150 degrees or so.
Then I drove on the asphalt on the left and on the ice on the right without ABS. The speed was around 50 km/h.
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
I literally screamed like this while driving but not like MJ.
It was very scary because I literally felt the car per se was turning diagonally.
After the course, I seriously thought to be careful driving in winter.
On one weekend in February, 2023, I had a course of first aid. I expected it would take a few hours in the morning, and yet in fact the theory class took place in the morning and in the afternoon there was a practical lesson.
In other words, I had to spend a whole day on the first aid course.
Besides, they changed the plan from Saturday to Sunday.
In more detail, the theory for the first aid course took place online at 9.30 am. I thought it would last until around 12.30 pm, but there was a 10-minute break and it ended past 11 am. Since there were some medical terms, I was taking the class by checking those terms’ meanings from time to time.
The afternoon lesson started at 1.30 pm. We checked what we learnt in the morning, and how to place an unconscious person’s body and how to do chest compression. I knew how to do chest compression as I learnt it in Japan. However, I felt it was my first time learning how to place the unconscious person’s body. We had to perform this as a pair. There were some students who had already known each other and they were a pair of a man and a woman. So in the end, I was left because I didn’t want an unknown guy to touch my body, but the lecturer didn’t point it out, so I didn’t have to perform this activity with an unknown guy.
I never wish an unknown guy to touch my body unless it’s urgent/highly necessary and/orI’m unconscious. (In other words, paramedics, doctors, nurses and gym trainers are okay.)
I wished the instructor had considered such a thing better in advance.
The first aid course in Sky Autokool had a test, and we had to submit our answers in three days after the course. The test was really simple with around 15 questions in a word file.
Once you pass it, you will receive a certificate. (I’m not sure what will happen if you fail in it.)
In the beginning of November, 2022, all the theory classes finished. As Sky Autokool’s rule, the students had to take the driving school’s theory exam on Liikluslab (a self-learning platform for the driving theory) within four weeks after the end of the theory course.
According to the lecturer, he mentioned this in the beginning of the theory class, but of course I didn’t remember it at all, so I thought “Shit!” and registered on Liikluslab immediately though I planned to do it in the middle of November. The reason why I had a plan for the registration on Liikluslab was because Liikluslab’s subscription for one payment was valid for three months and I didn’t want to pay for another three-month subscription by failing in the theory exams.
I read each chapter in Liikluslab five times, passed the quizzes of each chapter once, and did the mock exams 10 times. (In Liikluslab, it is recommended to pass the mock exam three times in a row in order to pass the state theory exam in one time. However, to feel more sure, I took the mock exam 10 times on Liikluslab. I wanted to pass the theory exam with one try. 😂)
One day in November, 2022, I was in Osaka, Japan. While I was staying in Osaka, I had a plan to meet someone only in the evening, and didn’t want to take the driving school’s theory exam just before the due date, so I took the driving school’s theory exam on Liikluslab three or four days before the due date. In Sky Autokool, the borderline to pass the driving school’s theory exam on Liikluslab was allowing up to four mistakes out of 40 questions, within which if an examinee has two mistakes or more on the traffic safety, then they fail. In other words, even though you have four mistakes in total, if you have two mistakes about the traffic safety, then you fail in the driving school’s theory exam.
In my case, I had three mistakes in total and no mistakes on the traffic safety.
Therefore, I passed the driving school’s theory exam in one try!
I was so relieved after the driving school’s theory exam as the first step to get the driving licence was completed.
By the way, in Sky Autokool, if you take the driving school’s theory exam within four weeks after the theory course finishes, and should you fail in the theory exam, according to them, you don’t have to take the second theory exam within the same four weeks.
I took the driving school’s driving exams twice. To put it another way, I failed in the driving exam on the first try, and passed it on the second try.
However, I knew that I would fail on the first try because I had to postpone the exam appointment due to the sprain on my foot which caused the blank time for two weeks with no driving experience, and because I had a confidence that I would not be able to confidently drivewell in one of the tricky area in Tallinn called Nõmme. In addition to these reasons, it is fairly normal in Estonia that learners almost always fail in the first driving exam, so the failure was not a big deal for me.
Though it was the driving school’s driving exam, the examiner was not my instructor, and the car was different as well. Since I had no idea about both the driving exam and the car, before the driving exam, the examiner in the driving school explained to me what I can do at the ARK’s driving exam before its exam.
First of all, some people had told me that I could use the lesson car at ARK’s driving exam whilst Sky Autokool didn’t have such a comfortable option in ARK’s driving exam and I was told to use ARK’s exam car, which means that a car model and its functionalities are different from the lesson car. Therefore, the examinees are allowed the examinee to check functionalities in the car on their own and to ask some questions to the examiner before the exam starts.
Then, the driving exam begins with a few questions. For example, they ask the examinee how to turn on the wipers and how to turn on the emergency switch. You can also check these questions on Liikluslab.
After the questions, you start driving on the real exam route.There are some exam routes in Tallinn from the easier one to the tricky one. (My instructor let me practise these exam routes in the latter half of the driving lesson course.)
Of course I had no idea which exam route the examiner would choose. However, as briefly mentioned earlier, I failed in Nõmme where there were roads from one-way with two lines to one-way with one line, and from 30 km/h sign to sudden change of 50 km/h, etc.
In addition to them, there was one misreading of the sign, so I didn’t pass the exam.
Otherwise I had no problems (like using a car itself).
For the driving school’s driving exam, it cost the same as one driving lesson in the driving school, which was 45 EUR (as of 2023).
In Sky Autokool, the examiner shared my mistakes with my instructor, so I could practise once again, focusing on driving in Nõmme, before the second exam. I got a lot of confidence because I practised driving for 90 minutes almost only in Nõmme.😂
I also practised the place where I misread the sign, so I reviewed all the failed parts, and went for the second driving exam in Sky Autokool.
On the second try, though we didn’t go to Nõmme, there was one place where I got confused; there was an intersection and where we had two lines, and there was a sign. The examiner told me to go straight, but I saw all the cars in front of me only turned right, so I wasn’t sure what I saw. I didn’t want to make a mistake, hence as a safer solution, I turned right. Although I didn’t follow the examiner’s order, the action I took was acceptable because the most important thing in the driving exam is “to drive safely”. Should I really have misread the sign and gone straight from the lane where I was and it allowed only turning right, I would have failed in the exam again. However, since I took the safer solution, it was alright. The examiner will take you to the correct direction after such an incident in case it happens during your exam so you don’t need to worry about that.
Also, while it was March and there was still some snow on the ground, since it was not as snowy as January, I had to drive at 90 km/h on a highway. (90 km/h is the legally maximum speed on highways for learners and junior drivers in Estonia.) However, I was chicken and tended to increase the speed little by little, so the examiner asked me what the speed limit was when I had a big difference between the speed limit and the speed I had. Of course I knew what the speed limit was, so I was increasing the speed. However, then I almost caught up to a white van in front of me, which made me reduce the speed to 70 km/h.
Then, my examiner requested me to take a U-turn on a highway. Coincidentally, this van also took the U-turn, due to which I could not decrease the speed in the deceleration lane properly and increase the speed in the acceleration lane either.
What is more, two cars passed our car while I was making the U-turn on the highway, and they and I had to drive at 40 km/h on the highway because of that white van. I instinctively said “That white van…”, and my examiner just said “He’s a motherfucker.” 😂
Since a truck was coming, I couldn’t overtake the white van, and yet they started stopping on the edge of the highway, so then I passed them. After that, I successfully finished the exam.
The driving exam was not ideally conducted because of that white van, but I passed the driving school’s driving exam!
When I finished the exam, my examiner told me “Even if today’s exam was ARK’s driving exam, you can pass it. If you can drive this car so smoothly, you won’t have any problems with the exam car.”
All I remember after his comment is that I was wondering which cake I should buy at Kaubamaja (a department store in Tallinn). 😂
I took ARK’s theory exam at the end of 2022. Since I’m stingy and I wanted to pass ARK’s theory exam on the first try, I studied on Liikluslab almost every day.
ARK’s theory exam cost 46 EUR including the registration fee. If you need to take it once more, you will need to pay 46 EUR again.
ARK’s theory exam took place in ARK’s building in Tallinn. Once the examiner opens the exam room’s door, you need to bring only your ID card, check your registration with the examiner and take an assigned seat. The examiner explains a bit in Estonian.
Each examinee has one tablet, and you can choose the exam language from Estonian, Russian or English. Then you need to enter your ID number.
Before you start the theory exam, you can take a short mock exam that consists of three questions. Just in case, I took it, and then did the theory exam.
It the real theory exam, you can skip or mark questions, so I went through everything by marking concerning parts to check them later. There were three questions that I was not sure of.
In ARK’s theory exam, you can have up to five mistakes, and if there are six and more mistakes, you fail. Plus, even if the total number of the mistakes is five, there are two or more mistakes about the traffic safety, you will fail.
The result was too quickly shown on the tablet, and I passed ARK’s theory exam with three mistakes (which are the ones I marked.)
Before that, everyone said to me that “Most people fail on the first try”, and yet I thought you wouldn’t feel even the tricky questions are really tricky as long as you prepare for the theory exam well enough on Luukluslab.
Like the driving school’s theory exam, I was more than happy to pass ARK’s theory exam on the first try.
I couldn’t take ARK’s driving exam right after completing the driving school’s driving exam because I needed to do something in Sky Autokool. (However, I’m not sure about other driving schools.)
Firstly, I had to bring the learner’s card (a document where my instructor and the driving school’s examiner wrote about lesson details and the driving schools’ driving exam result) to Sky Autokool. However, at that time, the person-in-charge was absent, and I was going to travel for a while, so I couldn’t bring him this document immediately. Also, he asked me if I completed other special courses (such as the slippery-road driving, the night driving, and first aid). This is because without completing these, you cannot graduate from the driving school.
I honestly thought it would be faster if the instructor brought the document to him. 😂
As for ARK’s driving exam, as a principle, it is conducted in Estonian, so I had to bring someone as an interpreter. (I said “interpreter” but technically it was my instructor on the first try and his colleague on the second and third tries.) You could bring your friend or partner, and yet I personally recommend your instructor as in case you fail in ARK’s driving exam, the instructor explains in more detail when practising again, and they can guide you better as they know traffic terminology in English as well. They charged me 45 EUR per time, but it might depend on the instructors or the driving school.
As you might be aware, I tried three times. (I passed ARK’s driving exam on the third try.)
I took the first driving exam in ARK on the 4th of April, 2023. The result was: fail.
The examiner was quite a strict person, however he didn’t finish the exam and let me drive a bit more.
ARK’s driving exam starts from the parking area in the ARK building, so if you fail at the intersection after the parking area, it means some examiners can end the exam within 5 minutes. I also made a mistake at the intersection (though I didn’t notice my mistake), he let me drive on a highway as well. After that, I had to stop.
I took the second driving exam in ARK in two weeks, on the 21st of April, 2023. The result was negative again. As I wasn’t confident enough last time, my instructor told me to be more confident, but I felt that was not the point. 😂 That day my instructor’s colleague came with me as an interpreter, who was very good as an! He advised me which examiner has what kind of tricky points they like to challenge examinees!! However, I couldn’t imagine the ticky places he told me well, so I failed in the driving exam again. In more detail I failed because I turned to the left from the right lane on a one-way road. (Although he told me about this place in advance! 😂)
In Estonia, a person who is over 16 or something 18 and more is allowed to get a driving licence. Summer in Estonia was coming, and schools were nearly over, probably because of which I had to wait a month until the next driving exam in ARK. I booked an exam before the trip to Sweden, which was the 26th of May, 2023.
Since instructors constantly accept new learners and offer lessons to those who are in the process, my instructor didn’t have many options for many practice dates for me. Hence I booked one lesson one week before the driving exam. If my body is used to driving, it’s the best of all, and yet daily lives are not always ideal and the instructor told me my techniques were good, so instead of having multiple driving lessons, I watched Sky Autokool’s videos about the exam routes five or six times. I wanted to be engaged with driving somehow, and every time I drove the instructor told me to concentrate on driving more. I know the reason; as I have ADHD, when someone told me to turn right, I tended to focus on the action “turning” and missed the signs around there. Therefore, I watched their videos and remembered the tricky points in the routes. (I knew that I was able to remember stuff as images quite well.)
On the exam date, the same person (my instructor’s colleague) came with me as an interpreter, and the result was positive! Though I passed the exam, I thought I met the minimum score. The examiner told me my driving score was three out of five. I also know why; since I’m not good at multitasking in some situations due to ADHD, I couldn’t deal with multiple information quickly enough such as whether I had a priority on a road or someone else. (The comments from the examiner were about such things.)
When I went to driving school, my previous Italian colleague who eventually got laid off despised me, saying “Videos are not useful! lol”, but you know that people who want to look down on you are simply idiots. Besides, this previous colleague has gotten a fine ticket because he drove in Estonia in an Italian way (he didn’t show the indicator). In fact, Sky Autokool’s videos were highly helpful. I drove in the exam, remembering “I saw this place in the video” or thinking “Soon there will be a tricky point”.
However, as written earlier, ARK’s driving exam starts from the parking area and ends when you park the car in the same parking area. Therefore, when you come back somewhere around Nõmme, and feel “Soon the exam should end,” you still need to concentrate on driving. My ADHD trait appeared again when the examiner told me to park a car in ARK’s parking area. I focused on parking, and forgot to check the right side when moving in the parking area.The examiner asked me what the rule there was, and he seemed to think I understood the rule itself, and luckily there was no one on the right so we didn’t have any accident either.
The ARK examiners are all attentive to details but they have different strictness. On the third try, the examiner seemed to judge me that I didn’t ignorantly drive a car. I would say he was sort of considerate but also I think I was fortunate.
In the end, for some reason, my instructor was also in ARK’s parking area, and he took a photo of me. 😂
In Estonia, after passing ARK’s driving exam, it takes some time until you receive your Estonian driving licence. However, it does not mean that you are NOT allowed to drive yet!
Since residents in Estonia have their personal IDs, their ID and their driving information are connected. Therefore, after passing ARKs’ driving exam until you receive your Estonian driving licence, you are allowed to drive a car with your Estonian ID card. (I admire this kind of point in Estonia because it’s so convenient.)
Also, once your Estonian driving licence is shipped, you will receive an email from ARK. It says you will receive your Estonian driving licence within 10 days, and yet in my case I got mine the next day.
In Estonia, a self-learning platform for the theory exam called Liikluslab is available in Estonia, Russian, and English. You can use the demo version for free, but you need to pay if you want to learn more seriously and take some mock exams.
In the beginning I thought I might not need Liikluslab, but in Sky Autokool, unlike the driving school in Japan, the students didn’t get any materials. The theory course only gives the students permission to watch the archived lecture videos, which means if I wanted to review the theory by myself, I had to watch those videos one by one.
I was too lazy to watch all the videos and can understand much faster by reading, I reconsider Liikluslab’s subscription.
Although Liikluslab says they have subscriptions, their popular plan is not one-month subscription but valid for three months. I don’t remember the other optison as I didn’t need them. 😂
Liikluslab’s three-month subscription contains the materials with which I could review what I learnt in the theory course as well as go through mock exams. What is more, there are functions with which you can mark some questions as favourites and relearn the questions that you made mistakes on. Also, Liikluslab’s platform shows the possibility to pass the theory exam in a percentage, which varies depending on the number of correct answers in quizzes or the mock exams in addition to the status of leaning. Last not but least, Liikluslab’s platform visualises whether you passed the mock exams three times in a row so that you can pass the real ARK theory exam too. On Liikluslab, 50 mock exams are available.
It cost only 35 EUR, so I really felt it was worth subscribing. Now it costs 42.95 EUR, and yet they have some special gifts: a voucher that the user can park in a paid parking called Snabb with 20% OFF and a 20-EUR voucher of Casco insurance.
What is more, when I subscribed, I could access the platform only from a browser but now their app is available on Android too as of June 2023.
As for the private driving practice, if you legally register, you can practise driving privately. Of course you always need to bring your private instructor when practising driving. Anyone can basically be your private instructor but they have to have a driving licence for at least five years, and no penalties for one year at minimum.
Though I had an opportunity in my case, and the guy willingly offered it to me on his own, I couldn’t get connected with him, so I kept going to the driving school.
I thought “Hell to you. ⭐” (It means “Don’t let me expect.”)
When you practise driving privately, don’t forget the learner’s signs on the car.
Given that you want to get a driving licence in Estonia, based on my own judgement and prejudice, I would recommend starting at the end of summer or the beginning of autumn.
The reasons are that you can practise driving in the real darkness for the special course “night driving”, and it could be much easier to pass ARK’s exam if it’s heavily snowy as you can’t see the signs and the road lines properly enough so the examiners tend to choose the easiest routes (according to my instructor).
However, if you take and pass ARK’s exam without snow, you would be more authentically confident when driving alone.
Ah, I’m so happy that I’m finally eligible to drive in Europe!!
Here’s the expense summary for the trip to the Netherlands.
Since the currency in the Netherlands is EUR, it was easy to calculate.
I didn’t mean to be stingy or extravagant, but the total expense for two nights was 450 EUR, so it’s fairly expensive. I feel I spent more money than the trip to (Northern) Ireland.
2023
26/03/2023 to 28/03/2023
3 days
Destination
Amsterdam
Budget (total)
560
Transport
Flight
156.98
Public
68.90
Accomodation
74.65
Food
€73.11
Leisure
Sightseeing
€43
Souvenirs
For myself
€5.95
For others
€21.73
Insurance
€10.00
Sum
€454.32
As for the travel insurance, as mentioned in the article on the expense for the trip to (Northern) Ireland, I just divided a travel insurance policy for a fortnight into two just for my own calculation, thus I paid 30 EUR for Globe Traveller in total.
My university friend in Japan and I give birthday gifts to each other every year, so this year (in 2023) I asked her what she wanted, and she said Verkade’s chocolate. At that time, I had two trip plans: to the Netherlands and to Sweden. This is why I asked whether she had something she wanted from one or both of the countries.
I had never heard of Verkade before, so I was not confident to find their chocolate, and yet I found Verkade’s chocolate at the supermarket I randomly went to in order to find souvenirs.
Plus, they had different flavours!
I chose the flavour of “hazelnuts and caramel” as well as “cappuccino”. The former was a new flavour and the latter one sounded unusual, and this is why I chose them. My friend can’t drink coffee, but I thought she could eat it if it’s just a flavour in chocolate. (I assume she just can’t handle the bitterness in black coffee. What is more, cappuccino itself has more milk than espresso.)
I once gave her Ukrainian sweets on her birthday, and her granny ate without knowing it, but it won’t happen this time again as Verkade’s chocolate is not a bar but a slab.
2. The Dutch people’s favourite sweets – “Drop”
When Japanese people hear of “drop”, they will definitely imagine sweet candies called “Sakuma drops”, but Dutch “drop” isn’t like that.
When my Dutch friend came to Japan for the first time, she brought a bag of “drops”, and she gave me one, which was the beginning and the end.
It’s worth trying though.
I decided to have this for my friend’s birthday as a joke. 😂
I tend to have “a surprise” when giving someone a gift.
However, it’s completely up to her to try to consume all or throw it away after trying it. (I personally don’t like “drop” so it’s okay even if she wants to throw it away this time.)
3. The Dutch people’s breakfast ingredient – “Hagelslag”
The last thing is “Dutch home breakfast” you can enjoy at your own home, which is “hagelslag”!
Whenever I stayed at my Dutch friend’s parents’ place before, they had this. She taught me it was
“mice’s poops”
At her parents’ place they always had Belgian chocolate and colourful sugar, but in fact there are more types. Like her parents’ choices, I bought chocolate for my friend in Japan, and chocolate and colourful sugar for my company.
The way to eat them is very straightforward.
Spread butter on a slice of bread and scatter hagelslag as much as you want.
Then eat it.
That’s it!
Personally this colourful sugar one goes well with greek yoghurt.
★Summary
The first two souvenirs could be typical, but I think no travellers would buy the third one unless they know.
It’s not healthy, but it looks fun, so I like them. Be careful with the calories because you consume it with bread and butter…
I personally consider Amsterdam as a city where you can enjoy yourself as long as you have sufficient money.
In addition to the fact that Amsterdam is an expensive city, museums in Amsterdam basically charge you. In my opinion, it is hard to enjoy Amsterdam with little budgets.
But!
That was because I was a student when I visited Amsterdam twice!
Now I have a job with a good salary! Besides, I save money for a trip, so I had enough funds to enjoy myself in Amsterdam. Since I spent only two days in the Netherlands, and did some sightseeing in Amsterdam for only one day, I went to two museums and three restaurants in Amsterdam this time (2023).
First of all, let’s talk about the museums that I went to in Amsterdam.
In Amsterdam there are a number of museums such as Madam Tassau and Van Gough museum, but this time I chose Nxt museum and the torture museum.
a. Nxt museum
Nxt museum is located in the north of Amsterdam (more north than the Amsterdam Central station), and you can go there by ferry. Once you arrive at the opposite side by ferry, it only takes 15 minutes by walk to the Nxt museum. When I went to the Next museum, although there was construction on the road, it was not difficult to get to Next museum as the route was not complicated.
I bought a ticket for the Nxt museum in advance. Depending on the entry time, the prices differ so keep in mind that. If I had been a student, I would have definitely not come because the ticket price was more than 20 EUR for one adult. So expensive. I’m not sure if it was because it’s in Amsterdam or because the Nxt museum is so special or both….
It seems the exhibition’s theme varies from time to time. When I went to the Nxt museum, it was the world of video games and something like Takashi Murakami’s art. I like contemporary art, so it was worth paying 20 EUR to the Nxt museum.
Some artworks are visitor-engaging, and it was extraordinarily interesting.
It appears to take more time than an old-fashioned museum, and yet it took me only one hour or 1.5 hours to spend time in the Nxt museum.
b. Torture museum
If you have read my article on the Belfast trip, you may know that I like visiting a creepy museum. Therefore I went to one interesting but creepy museum in Amsterdam…. It is the “Torture museum”.
It’s a small museum in Amsterdam, where you can see torturing items that were used in the middle ages. The ticket price was 10 EUR per adult.
When showing my ticket to the torture museum, the old guy who checked cheerily said
“Enjoy yourself!”
and immediately I thought
“This museum’s atmosphere is definitely not “to enjoy”…
The way to display all those torturing items was creepy, and the door and stairs clattered…
It’s not good for a person who is chicken!
But I got relieved as I heard other visitors’ fun voices later so I had fun there. 😂
Partially there was really a creepy object, and I couldn’t spend time there. Every torturing item has an explanation which was interesting.
The last was very good. The last should be like that!
The ticket only specifies the date, so you can go to the torture museum at any time during the day.
2. Restaurants
As I like eating, I want to enjoy food as much as possible during a trip because in my daily life in Estonia, I save money and eat something very healthy.
It does not mean that I will be extravagant for food on a trip, but it means that I want to eat what I want to eat during a trip.
Since my stay in Amsterdam was very short, I visited only four restaurants in Amsterdam, three of which I will introduce here.
a. Anne&Max
Anne&Max is a chain cafe in the Netherlands. Depending on where Anne&Max is, the opening hours differ. There was Anne&Max in 15 minutes by walk from the accommodation in Amsterdam, which opens at 8.30 in the morning, I decided to have breakfast in that Anne&Max cafe.
I ordered only a scone (with clotted cream and lemon curd) and a cup of coffee.
I wondered if I should eat a bit more, but
I couldn’t give up a scone…!!
It was probably because I went to Amsterdam right after travelling to Northern Ireland. Plus, I love lemon curd! I sometimes bought a jar of lemon curd when I lived in Ireland in 2015.
Although it didn’t meet my stomach, it did meet my mind.
Besides them, there are other breakfast menus and lunch menus at Anne&Max, if you can find anything interesting on Anne&Max’s website, try and go there.
b. Pancakes Amsterdam
I found Pancakes Amsterdam on Twitter.
A twitterer said that you could have fluffy pancakes in Amsterdam!
However, when looking at Pancakes Amsterdam’s menu before going there, I changed my mind…
“I want to eat this banana chilli pancake!!”
It does sound like a pancake with disgusting combinations (plus bacon)m and yet I tried.
It was actually good…
It was sweet and salty or chilli’s spiciness that matched the banana’s sweetness… I don’t know how to explain because I’m so bad at reporting how good the food is and I don’t have much vocabulary, but anyway it was surprisingly tasty…
Also, I thought Dutch pancakes were small takoyaki-like pancakes. However, the Dutch pancake Pancakes Amsterdam served was a thinner pancake than a crepe.
What is more, I found “Dutch coffee”!
Researching “Dutch coffee”, it’s coffee with eggnog. I had this coffee too.
They served me a cup of Dutch coffee with a stroopwafel.
It wasn’t as bitter like normal coffee. Since it had eggnog and cream on it, it was more like a dessert coffee.
I didn’t know about Dutch coffee until then! I learnt one more thing on this trip.
Pancakes Amsterdam doesn’t have only odd pancakes. (Or rather this banana-chilli pancake is the only unique one, I would say.) Pancakes Amsterdam have both sweet pancakes and savoury pancakes. You can customise your own pancakes as well.
I happened to go to Pancakes Amsterdam Negen Straatjes at 12.00 pm on Monday, and I had to wait for 40 minutes. I was glad that it was already the end of March… Imagine, if it had been February … as I needed to wait outside. Since it was so busy even on Monday, I assume the weekends and holidays there may be a longer queue Pancakes Amsterdam.
Pancakes Amsterdam accepted only the card payment.
c. Vlaams
When you go to Amsterdam, you should definitely go to Vlaams!
You can eat Belgian chips!
(You may have thought why it was not Dutch chips, but honestly I think there is no big difference. Tell me if you know the differences.)
It’s actually a chips stand, and they have a lot of kinds of sauces in Vlaams!
When I went to Vlaams in 2018, I chose the hottest sauce, and I was killing my mouth. It was tasty though.
This time I chose green pepper, which is just a mayonnaise sauce with green pepper, and it was not so spicy, so even people who can’t handle spiciness should be able to have it.
But if you wonder which sauce you should choose, order “satay sauce” (with peanuts)!
(To be honest, I’m not 100% sure if they have this in Vlaams, but they should because in the Netherlands food cultures from some Asian countries such as Indonesia are there.)
The Dutch people like this satay sauce. I know it’s good, but I want to challenge myself.
This is why I choose something odd.
The sauce costs extra, so if you simply want to have chips with salt, you don’t need to pay for the sauce.
★Summary
Earlier I wrote I went to four restaurants, and the fourth place that I didn’t include in this article was a Vietnamese restaurant. Since I went there for my own self-satisfaction, I believed there was no point to describe it.
I spent only one day in Amsterdam whilst it was very satisfactory, and I enjoyed myself in a different way than when I was a student.
Although I walk a lot during a trip so that I can eat as much tasty food as I want, on this trip to Amsterdam I suddenly decided to buy an Amsterdam public transport ticket.
It’s not anything big but it might be helpful to read this article about public transport in Amsterdam.
The whole Netherlands rather than Amsterdam are the country of bicycles! Therefore there are a number of bicycle riders, naturally there are bicycle lanes on the roads as well as you can see how huge the number of bicycles in the bicycle parking areas are.
However, I personally think that other normal (?) public transport is safer and easier for travellers to avoid accidents unless they are a huge fan of bicycles or they definitely want to explore Amsterdam by bicycle.
While I had been to Amsterdam twice before this trip in 2023, it was my first time to use Amsterdam public transport as otherwise I walked.
This is because Amsterdam is a walkable distanced city.
なぜなら歩ける距離だから。
However, after exploring Rotterdam for half a day, and participating in a walking tour in Rotterdam, I had no physical energy to walk 25 minutes to walk to the accommodation in Amsterdam.
Originally I planned to walk to the accommodation so I had no research on the public transport in Amsterdam, but it was not a big problem that I decided to buy an Amsterdam transport ticket.
Also, the public transport in Amsterdam is called GVB.
2. msterdam public transport tickets
Since I tiredly arrived at Amsterdam Central station from Rotterdam, I took a tram in Amsterdam. I didn’t have to buy a public transport ticket beforehand. They have a ticketing counter in the Amsterdam tram. However keep in mind that the payment option is only by card.
As far as I remember, a one hour ticket for Amsterdam public transport was something like 3.40 EUR or 3.90 EUR. I was surprised as it was more expensive than Dublin. Even in Dublin, you don’t need to pay more than 3 EUR for a sightseeing distance. (By the way, the prices in Dublin depend on the areas in Dublin and the price in Amsterdam is dependent on the time.)
Since I had a plan to use the ferry at least twice the next day, and I thought I would additionally use Amsterdam public transport the next day too, so I bought a 24-hour ticket. I remember that it’s a better option if you take Amsterdam public transport more than three times.
A 24-hour ticket cost 9 EUR, which I bought at the ticketing counter in the Amsterdam tram.
As GVB has a mobile app, you can buy this ticket in the app, too.
3. How to get on a tram in Amsterdam
Amsterdam trams are unique in my opinion. There are both entrance only and exit only doors. I didn’t know these, and once I tried to get on the tram from the exit door. 😂 As I was pressing the button to try to open the door, I found a sign saying “no entry”. 😂
You should remember this if you plan to use Amsterdam trams.
★Summary
Amsterdam is a compact city so you can basically walk around unless you have plans to move from the edge of the city to another edge of Amsterdam.
As for ferries, there should be ticket checking machines or something but I couldn’t find anything or anyone to check my ticket so I used the ferry twice without verifying the ticket. No one noticed me or said anything to me.
zooks.ee 
