As a visitor to a coastal community, be sure to visit the village museum and, given the opportunity, eat at a local restaurant. But also respect the local way of life – leave the hustle and bustle of city life behind and your car in the car park.
Nine different nationalities live by the Baltic Sea: Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Poles, Germans, Danes, Swedes, Finns and Russians. Roughly 15 million people live by the Baltic Sea.
700 million people or 10% of the population of the entire world live by the sea, whose everyday lives are one way or another connected to the sea. The sea gives coastal inhabitants work and has shaped a unique coastal culture.
Coastal culture is characterised by close-knit cultural contact with neighbouring peoples, but also a certain independence compared to inland communities. The skirts of the women on the island of Kihnu, which are called ‘körts’, gained colour only when sailing men brought them dyes from abroad, while in Rannarootsi in Lääne County, many locations still have Swedish names. Even today Swedish and Finnish are used in a mixed fashion in the Turku archipelago.
The inhabitants of small islands and the coast often have their own unwritten rules, which visitors who come from further afield should respect. Everything you brought with you should be taken back to the inland or city, for example – be it a soft drink bottle or a chocolate wrapper.