Outlandish

It's December so I am "allowed" to spread open my suitcase and start filling it with shoes and clothes for the Christmas holidays in Finland. Three weeks is a relatively long time for having only one suitcase but this time the biggest challenge is that I should fill it with things that I can leave home when I fly back after Christmas. There's no point to drag, for example, summer clothes and shoes from here to Tallinn when I won't be needing them for at least six months. 1st of December is also the holy day when everyone gets to finally open the first doors on their Advent calendars. I remember how difficult it was as a child to wait for December to dawn on when we knew in which closet the calendars were standing and waiting. I also remember one time when the first of December came and it turned out that my brother had already emptied the entire calendar of all chocolates. Why he had then closed the doors again and left the empty calendar in the close...

Oh Turku, Turku, you beautiful, wonderful city. Even though it's been only couple of months since I was last in Finland it's good to be back again. Especially because the weather has been amazing! Spring is here... which only means that the second wave of winter, we call it after-winter, is only few days ahead.  I don't see any point in coming home for just a week so I'm staying for a month. I do appreciate having a job which I can do also from home! A month is quite enough time to see all my friends and family who I didn't have much time to see during the Christmas holidays. I came home because my mum turned 50 and she obviously had a big party.  The party was held in a beautiful wood-house area just outside the city centre in a theater. As is customary my parents had traveled to Estonia couple weeks before to buy alcoholic beverages and I had to go shopping for a dress (because I can't wear a dress that the people invited might have seen before...

I can't remember ever having a good weather on my birthday. On the other hand, if you are born in January, what can you expect? This year, though, on my birthday Bratislava was enjoying a weirdly warm weekend. Whereas on last Saturday, when I had arranged a birthday party for us four girls who were born in January, I opened the curtains in the morning to a terrible winter storm.  Despite my fears of people cancelling because of the weather we only had two cancellations and one of them was due to sickness. So, the party could begin! For a venue I chose Urban House café/bar in the Bratislava old town. It's a big sister of my favourite café here, Gorila.sk. Most people describe the place as a hipster place. Whether it's an accurate description, I don't know, but in my opinion it has the most relaxed atmosphere, nicely inconsistent furniture and good local wines. If you find yourself there (which I would highly recommend) do try the halloumi burger!  Unlike...