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...

Days are getting shorter (according to Facebook statuses in Finland the situation has already got critical: only couple hours of daylight a day) but the raging colour schemes everywhere are bringing some solace. It's already November so I'm starting to feel like I'm on the "winning side" time-wise: December (= home) is only a month away!   You know that saying "Ignorance is bliss". I've come to realize how true it is. I notice a teeny tiny difference in my well-being when I don't watch the news for a while. A complete ignorance of how bad a place this world is feels nicer. Also at work I have thought how lucky I am to have such amazing team mates, but turns out that is only due to the fact that I don't understand a word of their conversations in the office. Turns out there's just as much bullying going on as there would be anywhere else, and like usually it's women who are the cruelest. Also, I've known since the beginnin...

Sunday morning, slow and lazy as it should be. The Sun was out as it always is on Sunday mornings and there were people already in the kitchen eating breakfast. Exactly what I like Sundays to be like. I like going for trips with a big group, the bigger the better, and somehow I love mornings then. Drowsy people sitting around table, one staring at the table cloth with blank eyes, couple people talking about which is the best sandwich cheese, one sipping coffee from a mug that's bigger than her head and someone going around asking who wants more of this or that. Life <3 Of course after breakfast comes the time to start cleaning up and packing. In Finland, when at the summer house, Sunday mornings were very efficient and fast for some reason. No matter if the weather was awesome we were in the car driving to the ferry before it was 12 o'clock. Since moving to Slovakia and traveling with my colleagues I've learned that Sundays can also be full of things to do before go...

I don't think I'm quite right in the head because I keep putting myself  voluntarily into situation that are far from my comfort zone. This time especially I found myself close to the limit. Last time I made the big mistake of drinking too much on Friday. This time I knew better... But I apparently still had one shot too many. I blame the altitude, it fucked up my body because normally I wouldn't have been so hungover on Saturday morning! (Comparison: Turku approx. 10m above sea level, Bratislava 140m above sea level, Zuberec (where our cottage was) much higher.) Not so bad though that a proper portion of scrambled eggs, bacon and a bucket of coffee wouldn't fix! The weather for Saturday was forecasted to be bad. Rain and a lot of clouds. So I comforted myself by thinking that we would take it easy. And we did find a route that was supposed to take approximately three hours and which would take us to some mountain lakes. So, we got our gear together a...

How many times do you have to fail to learn? Everybody knows that Googleing is the best way to lie to yourself. So of course I Googled altitude effects on human body to prepare for this week's trip to High Tatras. Last time  I had an issue with the lack of oxygen and Google encouraged me with these words: - swollen brain - thickening of blood - lungs collapsing - balance problems etc. Not what I would call good preparation this Google, but if I can make the climb even a little bit easier for me, or Orsi, I would love to do that! Despite the fact that breathing up there is an unbearable challenge I am SO full of anticipation and excitement! We're going to higher and more challenging places this time and even though there is the risk that you actually fall down a hill I want to go already! I guess I'm some sort of an adrenaline addict, what with my history of skydiving, choosing the most challenging and dangerous slope when downhill skiing, and moving abroa...

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...