Outlandish

Estonia has actually two Independence Days. The first one was on 24th February, when they celebrate the Independence Declaration made in 1918. After the Second World War, though, they were occupied by the Soviet Union and the country was forced into communism. In 1991 when the Soviet Union was crumbling, Estonia declared itself independent again while the Soviet tanks roamed the countryside trying to stifle all hope of becoming independent again and soldiers were trying to take over the TV tower to shut down all communication channels (which obviously was much easier back then). But despite all Soviet soldiers' efforts Estonians stood their ground and on Saturday 20th August they celebrated their 25th year of Independence.  Estonians are quite patriotic, especially when I compare them to their brother nation, Finland. They take their independence seriously and Tallinn was filled with all sorts of concerts and markets and Estonian flags. In Finland people just...

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...