Estonian leading blog now in English!

Me and my husband Inno in Hay-Adams hotel (with White House View!) drinking champagne on Inno's birthday a couple of weeks ago in Washington, DC, during the first days of our coast-to-coast trip to the US.

We are a couple from Estonia who created a blog that became immensely popular in our own country. Some people loved it, some hated it, it caused quite a stir and shook up our little society, gnawed its roots. Some people were even fired because of it... We've loved every second writing it and i believe that our fans have loved reading it too. So far we've only blogged in estonian but now that our friends abroad have asked us to write something in english, we've decided to do just that. So here it is! Our first entry in english.

My name is Irja and my husband's name is Inno. I'm 31 and he is 38. I'm half finnish, half estonian and he is estonian. We met three years ago in a university city named Tartu, at a street café. He was sitting there with some of his friends, on the run from his wife... He was married to the most formidable woman in Estonia, i was dating a portuguese playboy who was about to propose to me. I was about to leave for Portugal, for good... But then we met, his friends introduced us and from that day we became unseparable. He didn't return home, i canceled my flight. His wife tried to get him back, booked him a psychiatrist and told my brother to tell me to leave him. The psychiatrist and my brother, they both tried but we didn't listen. My playboy wrote me an angry letter that was supposed to make me go back to him but i didn't listen. I told him that i was in love. He didn't understand but i didn't care. All my life i'd done what people had expected of me. All his life he'd tried to please people. First his father, then his wife. We'd grown tired of that. We'd grown tired of life that's sole purpose was pleasing others. Some people called us selfish; we like to think that we are free.

We like to tell the truth, tell our honest opinions. Say what we think. And that angers people. Especially in a small country like Estonia which is basically like a village where everybody knows everyone. Like i said, we've caused quite a stir... When we attacked the media, the witch-hunt started. I didn't tell you that his wife, the most formidable woman in Estonia at that time, was also the chief-editor of the most-read celebrity-mag. She used all her connections to silence us. Our only chance to defend us was to start blogging. So we have to thank Ingrid for the immense success of our blog. When she got the boot, and for that, i'm afraid, we are greatly responsible, the media started showing us some respect. It proves that if you do something that you really believe in and if you do it long enough, so that others start believing in it too, you can really change something. You can even cause a small revolution. Become a phenomena in a small northern country that's priding itself on its economic prowess but is still following the cultural norms of the middle ages. Estonia.

Then again, why limit yourself to just your own country. We want to reach out. Chances are that there are people in the world who think just like us. Who treasure freedom just like us. We want to find these people. Maybe YOU are these people. We want to hear from you, talk to you. So we invite you to read this blog and write to us. We think that in order to be happy you have to be free and you have to be with someone who is your lover and your best friend. We belive in freedom of speech and in breaking taboos. People should be able to talk about everything. I believe that this is the essence of freedom, the ability to talk about your innermost feelings and not be ashamed of them. On the contrary, courage should be applauded.