Outlandish

After a very slow summer things have gotten quite hectic at work, on top of which my colleague is working from another country until the end of October. Most of our communication is done through Watsapp, and since text messages don't have expressions or a tone of voice, sarcasm doesn't always work in text form when you are rushed off your feet anyway. Communication difficulties on top of multiple projects and huge recruiting campaigns (in a language I am not fluent enough in) have caused a lot of stress which has come out as a lot of bickering and arguing. And I don't want to argue with my colleague, we're supposed to get on, which has added another level of stress. I must say, I am rather good at stressing out, so I was in serious need of a break. And as if Tallink was thinking along the same lines they had put boat tickets into a very nice sale last week and I got a Tallinn-Helsinki-Tallinn cruise for 30€. Unheard of! So weekend at home it was. I d...

Pirita is one of the biggest suburban areas in Tallinn and it spreads along the city’s Eastern coastline. It continues East-wards from the Kadriorg district, which means that it is a very wealthy area with amazingly beautiful and colourful private houses from huge manor-like houses to wooden “replicas” of small castles with turrets and towers. There also lies the Kadriorg Palace  and the gorgeous parks surrounding it. The area is well worth a visit, but because it is on the opposite side of the city from the Old Town 90% of the tourists never visit the area. I am not complaining though. It is much nicer to go for walks there when you don’t have to dodge photographing tourists every other step. The weird part is how between two of the richest districts there is the poorest and the most horrendous district in Tallinn: Lasnamäki. It is the “Russian district” where you do not want to venture. I had to get my ID card from a police station there and that was quite enough of Lasn...

Finally my trainee period of 4 months has ended and I am officially a Project Manager. A title I’ve been aiming for ever since I entered University. Why I aimed for that particularly? Because a project is a completely open concept, it can be anything and there are usually many of them at the same time, which means it’s a perfect job for me, because I don’t want every day to be the same and, most importantly, I want to be in charge :D And since I am now officially an employee I am entitled to use the holidays that have gathered up so far. And what would be a better way to waste my one week’s worth of holidays than fly to Central Europe to see some of my favourite people and places! But before that I am traveling first to Turku to see friends and family, since there’s no need for me to be in the office when I can work from wherever. Ok, I might have organized things so that I wouldn’t have to be in the office in June and scheduled all new trainees to arrive in J...

It's here! It's finally here! Life, also known as Spring and everything that comes with it! Ooh my god, a month I endured the winter up here and it almost broke me... again. But now my life can properly start here! The thick winter jacket has been hid away and replaced by leather jacket, a definite sign that there's no going back. Even if temperature goes below zero again I can't take back the winter jacket now!  The horrid awful black, flat  winter boots have been thrown to the very back of my shoe closet where I can't even accidentally clap my eyes on them. Instead I am able, finally, to wear a different pair of high heels  every day! A right that snow and ice stripped me of.  I don't have to wear trousers every day any more, I can cope with skirts and shorts (paired up with tights obviously), which means that I have a wider range of clothes also that I can wear. Winter really takes all the fun and creativity out of d...

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...

Me moving to Tallinn in the time-frame I did and with all the new furniture would not have been possible without my parents' help! They drove, much to a lot of people's astonishment, to Bratislava and back to Finland with me and aaaall my things onboard. I got a lot of comments from friends and random people suggesting that I'm a spoilt prat because no normal kid would get their parents driving through Europe like that. But that just shows how little they know; in our family it has always been very clear that one looks after one's self. That doesn't mean, though, that help wouldn't be needed and offered. In addition almost every Finn I have met in Bratislava have had their family members drive from Finland to Bratislava and back. Also, this was the easiest and the most adventurous option, which suits me fine :) I didn't have any furniture, only clothes, shoes and bed linen. But it was pretty damn close that not everything would have fit in ...