The official language of Estonia is Estonian, a language in the same language group as Finnish and Hungarian, but there are also two other very useful languages to know here! These are Engish and Russian. Since I live in a university town, Tartu, the location of Estonia's flagship university, there are many international visitors and temporary residents. As a result, English is a very common working language here. Fun fact: in a recent test of English fluency in non-native English speaking countries, Estonia ranked seventh in the world, signifying that there is a high number of English-speaking Estonians. Russian is also useful because Estonia borders Russia, and almost one-third of the population is ethnically Russian.
The euro is used in Estonia, since the country is part of the European Union (E.U.). Before Estonia joined the E.U. in 2004, the currency was the kroon. Today, the exchange rate between the euro and the American dollar is 1 euro to 1.14 dollars.
A one liter water bottle, if bought at a cheap gas station or convenience store, is around 1.50 euros, so about 1.80 in American currency. Estonians are very wary of plastic consumption, though, since they are protective of the environment, so they encourage everyone to drink tap water.
