© Photo by Ilya Dubovsky
Of three Baltic republics, only Estonia has relatively big islands on the Baltic Sea. Until World War II there were lots of Swedes living on Saaremaa island, but fled before Red Army retook the area in 1944. They are now major force behind the tourism, but many more nationals come to enjoy mild Baltic summers - not to mentioned Estonians themselves, who come in especially big quantities for Midsummer festivities. Kuressaare is the administrative centre of the island and sports a very attractive castle which is now a public museum.
