Outlandish

Summer has arrived which means that not only nature but the city also becomes alive again! The cold and dark and very unfriendly winter has made space for dry pavements and smiley faces. Tallinn is a proper summer city. It used to be a hansa town because of its brilliant location by the sea on the way to and from St. Petersburg, which is why Tallinn's summer is filled with medieval festivals, markets and events. The Old Town has already been littered with terraces that are filled with tourists every day of the week ready to part with their cash in some of the worst but most expensive restaurants in the city. Now it reeally reminds me of Prague and oh I love it! Last weekend the museums of Tallinn opened their doors to visitors for free from 6pm onwards. There are hundreads of museums in Tallinn so there was surely something for everyone! I was a little sceptical whether the museums really were free because the last time in Bratislava the "free museums" ...

You know how all blogs these days seem to be full of healthy breakfasts with smoothies that include cow piss and coffee made of squirrel poo and suggestions how your life is not full without a doze of something that tastes just as disgusting as it looks. While I'm very happy that people take care of their bodies' needs, I'm also extremely happy that I don't need to eat that crap. I stay healthy and, if not fit, at least relatively skinny with a normal breakfast that my very Finnish family has always enjoyed. On a normal morning at home before work I need to have my cup of coffee and I usually make a quick bread with cheese and cucumber. Nothing special but enough for me. Sometimes if I wake up a bit earlier I make porridge topped with sugar and cinnamon. That's usually for slow weekend mornings, though. But at home I get to enjoy a proper breakkie that I don't even have to cook myself. Sometimes it's scrambled eggs and bacon British ...

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...

I've spent a lot of time lately thinking about this summer and my first ever paid summer vacation. People who have never lived in Northern European countries cannot understand the importance of summer for us. So, of course I started thinking about what I want to do on my month-long-visit to Finland in July! I will fly home on 1st July and on the first weekend we will attend one of the biggest summer festivals in Northern Europe: Ruisrock! It's been too many years since we last time went there and I'm so excited! I've ordered some proper summer weather for the whole July but if I had to choose only one weekend when it should be sunny and warm it would be this one.  I am also very much looking forwards to the best place in Turku, the riverside of Aurajoki with its riverboats. These are not like ANY other riverboats on this planet, they are quite unique. Ridiculously expensive but absolutely the best place to spend each and every day of your summer holidays. ...

Time to get on the road again. Three weeks in Finland has been very nice, very lazy, full of wonderful food and people, and just plain simple relaxing. Most of the time I've occupied my parents' couch.  I wouldn't mind spending another lazy week here, but on the other hand I miss my friends in Bratislava and I miss the office full of people. I also miss the weather, no matter if it rains and is cloudy, as long as the temperature is above 0. My poor high heels have been completely useless here. Even though it really is too dark here and going outside is a challenge, because I don't have anything to wear in my feet and every step is a risk, I'm going to miss the snow-covered landscapes. So beautiful and peaceful! I'm also happy that we had time to go check out our summer house in the archipelago. I've missed the sea so much! But it was so cold that day that I couldn't smell the salty sea air. I was not built for the cold.  So, I...

Before moving to Slovakia I had never heard of the Tatras. Maybe they had been mentioned in primary school but I had forgotten all about them long ago. Turns out they are a pretty huge mountain range forming the border between Poland and Slovakia. They are also known as High Tatras since in central Slovakia there is another range of mountains called Low Tatras. A colleague of mine has a cottage there, at which we spent the previous weekend.  We woke up in the morning in to a thick fog. But since we were anyway going to climb above the fog it didn't bother us much. The first plan was to leave for the hike at 7 o'clock. We didn't quite manage it. Eventually it was already 9 when we got out of the house. And the only way was UP! We drove a little bit up the serpentine road to a chalet from which the path upwards started. And the view from the parking lot for a city girl who was born and raised in a country with no trace of mountains was breath-taking: ...