Outlandish

Summer has arrived which means that not only nature but the city also becomes alive again! The cold and dark and very unfriendly winter has made space for dry pavements and smiley faces. Tallinn is a proper summer city. It used to be a hansa town because of its brilliant location by the sea on the way to and from St. Petersburg, which is why Tallinn's summer is filled with medieval festivals, markets and events. The Old Town has already been littered with terraces that are filled with tourists every day of the week ready to part with their cash in some of the worst but most expensive restaurants in the city. Now it reeally reminds me of Prague and oh I love it! Last weekend the museums of Tallinn opened their doors to visitors for free from 6pm onwards. There are hundreads of museums in Tallinn so there was surely something for everyone! I was a little sceptical whether the museums really were free because the last time in Bratislava the "free museums" ...

This was my 3rd visit to Vienna. I suggested to my parents to book the same hotel in the Mariahilf area where I've stayed before with my friends, because from there I knew how to navigate to certain places. The shopping street Mariahilferstrasse was right next to the hotel and the Schönbrunn castle a short walk away. I was checking the weather reports for Vienna every day for a week and the closer we got to the weekend, the worse the weather looked. But despite all the promises of rain we hardly had any. I went to meet my parents and my godmother and her husband to the Vienna airport. While I was waiting for them I thoroughly enjoyed myself watching people arriving and how their faces spread into wide smiles when they saw the people waiting for them. You can't help but smile yourself while watching these happy encounters. I hate flying but I do like airports. Because my parents had had to start their journey from Turku at 2am, the first day was a rather l...

What a perfect weekend. Yeah, I know, there is no such thing as perfect but last weekend was pretty damn close to it! How lovely it was to have my friends over and show them around my new home city that I've grown to like so much, Bratislava. We climbed to the castle and to Slavin and we pretty much emptied one of the shoe stores here but we also ate a LOT! I was myself surprised with the quality of restaurants that I took the girls to :D On Sunday we took the train to the neighbour city Vienna. I had one thing that I really wanted to see in Vienna and that was the Schönbrunn castle which was a very humble summer house of the empress Maria Theresa. One day I will have a summer house just as glorious.... or not. The castle is nicely situated in the city, unlike the palace of Versailles which is quite far outside of Paris. We got to the Schönbrunn castle just fine on foot. The gardens there are just as magnificent as the castle: they include a labyrinth, a zoo and acres o...