Outlandish

It's August but the worst kind of Autumn has already arrived in Estonia. It has been raining eeevery day, just as it did in February for a whole month. And since it's raining all the time it's also dark, which is the most frustrating thing, because in reality it should still be light most of the day for couple more months. Until the never-ending winter darkness descends. And no matter how positive a person you are there is no way the darkness wouldn't affect you. Especially when I lived much more South it was easy to recognize from people's reactions that darkness was descending here, because people started to complain more than usual. The closer to the end of the year we got the worse the complaining got, and the array of issues worth complaining about went to stratospheric lengths. French are famous for being very big complainers but I think we Finns could beat them hands down every time. It's in our genes. But in the end no matter how much you complai...

Finnish Summer, the tragicomic phenomenon and a global laughing stock. It is something that we Finns have developed a very black sense of humour for because otherwise we couldn't cope. We "proudly" advertise this special phenomenon in the social media where it has lately gathered quite an audience all the way in China. You always know how it's going to be and still you are every year just as or even more disappointed as last year when it was colder in July than in December and when after nine months of waiting for the sunshine all you get is black clouds that spit on you constantly. And then comes Autumn with a little bit less rain, but rain nonetheless, and the deepening darkness.  BUT! This summer so far has been surprisingly gentle. May and June were very sunny and warm, I even managed to tan so much that after a dozen years I finally got my freckles back! Obviously it rained every now and then but not all day every day. In Tallinn June was even bett...

I hate rainy days. They're so grey and dark and moody. Outside air feels colder than it would if it wasn't raining. And if you accidentally forget your umbrella home in the morning and get soaked on your way home from work you also freeze to the core. But I do also love rainy days. I can't think of many things that make home more cozier than a  hard-core rain  outside while you are warm inside  surrounded by pillows and drowning in your bathrobe . A cup of tea and a movie feel like a little bit of luxury then.  Rainy days do affect me a little, I always feel much more tired when it's dark and gloomy but when you're trapped inside you also get things done that you might not do if there was an option to be outside. Maybe finally grab that book from the shelf you've been meaning to read but haven't quite found the time for it or catch up with the TV series that everybody's talking about. I also like to use this time when going outside...

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...

I hate rain. I hate it a lot! It messes up my hair and my clothes and especially my expensive, beautiful, fragile shoes! It also makes a walk home from work unbearably challenging when accompanied by an outrageous wind.  Sometimes, though, rain is a great thing because it gives you an excuse for not leaving your apartment all day. For me this weekend with the shittiest weather in history was perfectly scheduled; I needed a day to clean up the whole apartment and to read the magazine I order from Finland, which has been untouched for two weeks.   I'm not a big fan of cleaning and I also find that living among a controlled chaos suits me much better than pristine tabletops and such. I tend to not find things in - what some might call - a clean environment. But every now and then even I reach a limit with the layer of dust on the table and the dust poodles rolling on the floor. And when I clean I clean everything at once with vigor. Starting from emptying of all surfa...

My first ever proper summer vacation and I can't imagine any better way of spending it than the way I did!  Just before flying to Finland the cultural differences and the leaving of important people from Slovakia was getting to be too much for me to handle. So a month in the same country with the most important people and all the familiar, if still boring, things couldn't have come sooner. Weather was horrid all month (minus the first weekend) but I had so much dog therapy and a perfect balance between activities and doing nothing that I couldn't care about such things as rain. The Best <3 Just after landing in Finland I started my vacation with a blast in  Ruisrock festival . Sunshine, best friends and awesome artists, what else do you need to throw off all the stress and gloomy feelings of the last couple of weeks! After the festival I was exhausted beyond any measure. So much so that before driving to our summer house I moved my wallet including my dr...

My colleagues in Slovakia were very surprised when I told them that I was going to spend a month vacationing in Finland... In Finland! Not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about summer vacation destinations. Truth is that July and August are usually very warm and sunny in Finland. Except this year. It's been raining every. Single. Day! But as much as my mental well-being is dependent on the weather, the cloudy, rainy days haven't really bothered me.  I wished that if I could choose just one weekend this July that would be sunny and warm it would be the first weekend, the festival weekend. And it was sunny and warm! And because I got my wish I can't be upset about the fact that after that weekend the temperature hasn't been over 20 degrees. Can't have it all. I've spent a lot of time at our summer house doing nothing. This week I worked, but that's been ok because I've had the evenings free, which have been quite en...

Busy busy and lovin' it! This weekend we directed our noses towards Czech Republic and the Lednice-Valtice cultural landscape just few kilometres away from the Slovak border. Lednice-Valtice is a castle complex and 283 square kilometres of parks, human-made lakes and forest tracks. Everything there is there because of and used to belong to the Liechtenstein aristocrat family. These days the area belongs to the Czech state and is  protected by UNESCO. But this family, I tell you, had way too much time and money in their hands!  Nonetheless we took a 20-kilometre-hike to see most of the extraordinary buildings and areas that the family had built there. Apollo Temple Our first stop was at the Apollo temple. It used to be a fancy pancy hunting lodge with living areas behind it and a nice view over the artificial pond. The family had a habit a planting trees and bushes around these monuments so that you don't really know what you're approaching. And then ...