Baltic Sea

Time to take deep breaths and enjoy yourself

The word Baltic is derived from the Latin mare balticum, named in the eleventh century after the Gothic tribe the Balthi. In the Gothic language ‘balt’ means bold – in Lithuanian it means white. Another name in German for the Baltic is ‘Aestenmeer’, derived from the Aesti tribes (the Baltic Prussians) who lived by the rivers Weichsel and Memel. The Aesti were described by Tacitus as the people living farthest to the east in Germania on the mare suebicum, but they are also said to have spoken Celtic. ‘Suebicum’ was derived from the collective name of the Germanic tribes east of the river Elbe, the Suebi, who, together with the Goths (including the Balthi), occupied the coastal area and the Baltic hinterland. In the 19th century Ferdinand Nesselmann created the collective term Baltic languages, covering the languages of the Prussians, Lithuanians, Latvians, etc.

The Baltic has so many islands, groups and chains of islands, inhabited and uninhabited isles, that no one knows exactly how many there are, since there is no clear definition of an island or an isle.

more about this holiday destination