Outlandish

I might have mentioned it before but I need the sea close to me. It’s one of these things you  take for granted when growing up because it’s there anyway, but as they say, you don’t know  what you have until you lose it. I have fully started appreciating what the sea means to me after  living in countries and cities far away from any sort of coast. It means peace. Here in Tallinn the sea is inevitably part of my life every day and it makes me insanely happy. I  see it from my window at work (if it’s not cloudy…) and no matter which way I walk (grocery  store, towards Kadriorg or home from work) it’s so close all the time. Last weekend I went for a  walk around the Kadriord area and there’s a really nice beach on the way. And there I saw  waves! Such a simple little thing but I went berserk. They were so beautiful and calming and the  sound is the best in the world. Just what I needed after the worst work week so far. That beach...

Estonia, a country I didn't know much more about than that everything there is cheaper than in   Finland. By now I've learnt such interesting things as the fact that Estonia has two Independence Days. First in 1918 when Germans lost the First World War and second after the Soviet Union had been demolished in 1991. Tallinn has been an unknown center of some pretty major historical events, such as the sailing competitions in the Moscow Olympics in 1980. For this occasion the communists built one of the ugliest things my eyes have ever had to endure, Linnahall. It used to be a concert hall on which you can climb and look around the harbour and the sea. The idea is so lovely that I cannot comprehend how they could fuck it up with such an abominable structure. The view's nice though. Another highlight for Tallinn was in 2011 when it shared the status of the European Capital of Culture with the almighty city of Turku. How splendid! But my favourite thing about Tal...

Another position in my pocket, this time the one I've been reaching for for many, many years; project manager! Ooh it's good to be me :) And being a new citizen in another country once again I had to get all the paper work done. So, one evening I decided to take care of the registering. Unlike in Bratislava, here the registration office is in the city centre and people speak English.   That doesn't mean, though, that things would go smoothly for me: I found the correct street alright but stepped into a building way too early. I marched to the receptionist and announced in my unFinnishly loud voice that "I'm here to register!" Everybody in the lobby went quiet, the poor receptionist even looked a bit frightened. She mumbled something which I didn't hear and so I kept telling that I just moved from Finland blabla blablabla. She looked so embarrassed (for me perhaps?) when she finally managed to say in a teeny tiny voice "This is a theate...

How perfect it is that I still had time to go check out the Budapest Christmas Market before moving away from Slovakia. And to check it out with the company that I had... I am just so fortunate when it comes to friends. When traveling, the company you have is a very important factor in how successful the trip will in the end be. The worst trip I ever had was unfortunately a long weekend in Paris - as gorgeous as the city always is - because schedules do not belong to a holiday. In my opinion the best thing in Paris, or any destination, would be to get a bottle of wine, some brie cheese and relax. This trip to Budapest was exactly that; complete relaxation, no schedules, no plans (except going to the Christmas market) and in the end we did see a lot of Budapest, mostly places I haven't even seen yet, like the Basilica. I had been quite sick for two days and was really afraid that I wouldn't be well enough to go. But working from home turned out a very good idea and o...

Crossroads... I'm there again and it's time to decide whether to go right or left. Or more accurately, which I prefer, South or North.  Last week I applied for a job in Tallinn and another in our team (a promotion if you will). And I stupidly thought that the decision would be made easy when one of them I either didn't get or my salary requests were not met. But no. I got the job in Tallinn and here I was told that even though I didn't get the promotion my skills are needed. I could not decide so I listed some pros and cons. Bratislava is a sunny, warm city in the middle of Central Europe. Easy and cheap access to all big European capitals. People are nice, open and helpful. I have the most amazing team in a big company, which usually equals multiple opportunities for developing professionally.A big company has ensured the fact that I have forged friendships that I would never have even dreamt of. I have been able to arrange activities and events ...

Lately I've come face to face with the biggest cultural difference, not just between Finland and Slovakia, but between Nordic  (and some Western European)  countries  and the entire rest of the world: equality between men and women. I grew up in a world where my sex didn't determine anything for me or the people around me. I had a lot of boy friends (not boyfriends) already in kindergarten and it could never have occurred to me that I couldn't or shouldn't do something that they did just because I was a girl. In my family I was the only girl child and I was usually the one who did all the crazy things that boys are expected to do like climbing trees, walking first in line to a dark forest and jumping off rocks. As I got older I as a person was never seen as someone whose main function in life is to settle down with a man, not necessarily a man I would like, just some man, and produce children and be content with the fact that that's all my life would ever be. ...