Three degrees of separation in Estonia

"6 degrees of separation" (originally from a Hungarian author, Frigyes Carinthy, in his work Chains) is the idea that you know everyone in the world through a chain of 5 'middle-men' at maximum. Estonians say that in Estonia, this number is three. It's interesting for an American to see that Estonian celebrities - even the President or the Prime Minister, can enter any grocery store without getting harrassed or even spoken to by a stranger. I had so many Estonians tell me about times they saw the President or some celebrity in an everyday place, and wanted deeply to say something to the person, but ultimately did not, due to shyness or not being able to articulate what they wanted to say.

I had a funny experience with the 3 degrees of separation in Estonia on Jaaniõhtul this year. Jaaniõhtu is the evening before St. John's day (Jaanipaev), and is celebrated with large bonfires all night among other festivities. It comes second only to Christmas.

Märt and I started the drive to south Estonia. We planned to visit his friend Eston first, stay for a short time, and then go to his relative's place in Utita where his parents and sister's family would meet us, among others, as we did last year.

His mother asked us to bring fresh potatoes. After we had departed Tartu we realized we forgot to get these. Shortly after our realization we spotted a car parked at the side of the road with a cardboard sign for fresh potatoes. Problem solved.

Further on, there was a white stand next to the road advertising smoked eel, sült, and strawberries. The strawberries were a bit expensive so we purchased 3 smoked eels. They filled the car with an intense and delicious smell.

Later on, we entered an area surrounded by strawberry fields. Märt spontaneously called to his friend, the owner of these fields, and asked if we could trade a smoked eel for some strawberries. His friend agreed, and as soon as we arrived at the barn where they were stored, we were told that another friend of Märt's, who I had coincidentally met over coffee at his parents' house a few days ago, had already found out that Märt was buying strawberries here and not from him, as he also had strawberry fields. Märt joked that he only buys the best strawberries.

As we loaded them up, another car pulled up. It was Tanel and his family. We had spontaneously (literally, on 24 hours notice) gone to Thailand with them last winter and had quite an adventure there. Somehow Märt convinced me to go, even though we didn't yet have a place to stay, and had two people in wheelchairs in a country with limited accessibility options. That turned out to be even more interesting than I expected, because Chinese tourists had booked nearly everywhere full due to Chinese New Year.

Anyway, there was Tanel, who also happened to be going to Eston's place, and was buying strawberries from the same person.

Kids after sauna on Jaaniõhtul