Outlandish

One evening the weather was just so nice I couldn’t stay indoors so I put my jacket on and went for a walk on the beach. There I found myself smiling without a reason, which tells me that I am happy here. But I must confess a disappointment about Tallinn; people. They are not the least bit interested in making new friends. They are helpful, for example, I got exceptionally wonderful help in finding a flat, which I appreciate enormously, but when the time came for me to take the person out for a drink or some food to say thank you, I was thanked kindly and never heard from them again. Even the Brit I know here is more interested in hanging out with his own friends than helping me find new friends by maybe introducing me to his friends. He has Estonialized in a very short time, and comparing to Brits I can’t say it’s for the better. It’s not just Estonians, this is a very Nordic problem, extremely common with Finns as well. I've seen it even with my own friends in Finlan...

Having finally managed to move to an apartment that I can truly call a home and that has all the things I have always wanted my apartment to have (except the bay window) I also want to keep it clean and in good condition. I’ve never been the kind of person who has to have things in order and who can’t stand a centimeter layer of dust on their table tops. I have been quite content living in a dorm room with a floor-covering carpet and a steady layer of dust on it, so ample that my daily route between the bed, desk and door was quite visible after few months. Only when my parents were coming over for a visit I borrowed a hand vacuum cleaner to get the most visible layer of dust off the floor. I have also always been very content with the huge stacks of used or tried-on clothes covering a chair or a bed. But now I have experienced a change. I like my flat clean, I like it with things in their right place and I like it without bread crumbles all over the table top and floor. A...

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...

In Nordic countries organic food has been in hype for about 10 years now. But to find a quality and not over-priced organic restaurant there is not so easily done. Tallinn, the small capital of Estonia, has one of the very few really good organic restaurants: Nop. It is not just a restaurant but a café and a store as well. There you can find all sorts of treats (unhealthy as well as healthy) made from local ingredients by local producers. It isn’t located in the proximity of the Old Town, which means that most tourists never end up there. But it is not difficult to find, since it is in the very popular park area called Kadriorg, where the president also lives. It is a small, blue wooden house just off the main road Narva Maantee, which crosses right through the whole city, about 10 minute walk from the Old Town. The menu consists of loads of options: they have wonderful breakfast menu with fresh juices and smoothies and bigger portions for lunch that have ...

Spring, what a wonderful excuse for shopping! The days in Estonia have already grown long and the Sun shines all the way to 7pm. Sun. Exactly, it has been seen multiple times in the past month and snow is only a bad memory (may it stay that way!). The bare trees still look a bit miserable but from the way my eyes are starting to itch I can tell there is pollen in the air, which means there is hope, even though the next few months will be challenging for us pollen allergics.  Spring makes me so happy every time. And the least you can do to celebrate such happiness is to look good. I never get out of the door if I'm not happy with what I see in the mirror but winter with the coldness and wetness made my choices clothing-wise very limited. I never wear the same shoes two days in a row but in winter I don't have a choice. So when spring comes and the streets are dry I take all joy out of my neglected shoe closet (yes, I have a closet full of shoes). With the shoes I...