Estonia is...

...around 1,100 miles (1,780 kilometers) from England and 1,270 miles (2,045 km) from Turkey, "as the crow flies," according to Google Gemini. A Ryanair (FR) flight from Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (TLL) to London Stansted Airport (STN) is two hours and forty-five minutes, an airBaltic (BT) flight to London Gatwick (LGW) is three hours and five minutes, and a WIZZ Airlines (W) flight to London Luton (LTN) three hours and ten minutes. A Turkish Airlines (TK) flight from TLL to Istanbul Airport (IST) is three hours and thirty-five minutes.

Getting from IST, one of the largest airport terminals in the world, to the heart of Istanbul, a metropolis with more than 15.5 million residents, requires five stages: 1) walking from the arrival gate to the terminal exit (through passport control), 2) walking from the terminal exit to the subterranean M11 metro platform (through the fare turnstiles), 3) riding the M11 to the Gayrettepe metro station, the metro line's southern terminus, 4) walking from Gayrettepe in underground passages to the M2 metro platform (through different fare turnstiles), and, lastly, 5) riding the M2 to the final metro station (like Taksim).

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...small. At least that is what most Estonians themselves say. Children's author Leelo Tungal wrote a poem about "This Little Land" ("See väike maa") and jazz musician Urmas Lattikas, who was born in Tapa, turned her poem into the song Little Land (Väike maa), which was sung during the finale of Estonian Song Festival XXV in 2009.

Among European Union member states, Malta (300 square kilometers), Luxembourg (2,500 km²), Cyprus (9,000 km²), Slovenia (20,000 km²), Belgium (30,500 km²), [the, if needed nowadays,] Netherlands (41,500 km²), and Denmark (43,000 km²) are all smaller than Estonia (45,000 km²)! For the record, Switzerland (41,000 km²) and Israel (22,000 km²) are smaller, too — all according to Google Gemini. But is "small" the first adjective that would pop into your head if you were asked to describe any one of these countries?

In addition, Malta, Luxembourg, and Cyprus have fewer residents than Estonia. Yet, these three countries have averaged about a 20% increase in population since 2016 where Estonia has had only a four percent increase — again according to Google Gemini. Estonia's own bureau of statistics counts 1,313,271 residents (698,882 females) at the end of 2015 and 1,369,995 (720,242 females) at the end of 2025, an increase of just 4.32 percent.

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...a country of 15 maakonnad, like Lääne Virumaa (that is, counties, like Lääne Viru County), 64 vallad, like Rakvere vald ("rural municipalities" or "parishes," like Rakvere rural municipality), 15 linnad, like Rakvere linn (cities, "towns," or "urban municipalities," like the Municipality of Rakvere), 13 alevid, like Raadi  ("towns" or "rural towns," like Raadi), 185 alevikud, like Võsu ("small boroughs" or "small rural towns," like Võsu), and külad, like Järvekülas (villages, like the Village of Järve). 

More or less, depending on what you are reading or who you are talking to. 

Nevertheless, casually mentioning Rakvere (population 15,000) as a "city" with two sushi restaurants triggers an immediate correction from leftfield that Rakvere is not a "city." Referring to Võsu (population 500) during an improptu chat as a great beach "town" incites a correction from the balcony that Võsu is not a "town," preceded by a 30-second discussion on what Võsu's unit of governance is in Estonian and how to translate it into English.  

By the way, yes, Estonia is a free country (Eesti Vabariik), but in the context of the European Union, it is a "member state."

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...areligious, that is, according to the Oxford Dictionary of English, "not influenced by or practicing religion." So, even though the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church grew out of the Reformation five centuries ago, today, the Estonian federal government keeps Estonians on the straight and narrow by setting vacation schedules, requiring winter car tires from December to March, limiting alcohol sales from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day of the week, and painting zebra crossings that disregard the "shortest distance between two points" rule. Based on my own 16 years of Catholic education, I believe religion can be the root of life-long individual guilt, and, accordingly, the Estonian federal government makes non-native residents feel guilty for not speaking Estonian fluently.