When the sun is setting, between dusk and darkness, there is a moment when the light turns blue. And the world stops for a heartbeat.
With my siblings, good food, good drinks, and escape rooms tend to go hand in hand. That didn’t leave much time for any other sightseeing. With stormy, rainy weather, it hardly felt like a loss.
In between showers, I managed a few quick pictures around town and a short visit to Fotografiska – still my favourite photo museum in the city.
As said before, escape rooms are a thing in my family. The idea of going to Tallinn for an “escape trip” started off as a joke. But turning jokes into reality is also a thing in my family (e.g., annual the-most-useless-useful-Christmas-present competition).
One weekend, four rooms. Three of the rooms were actually hard, one was… an experience… We escaped three of the rooms, but are now trapped to a haunted orphanage for all eternity.
Luckily there was drinks after.
Tallinn is just a 2 hour ferry ride from Helsinki, which makes it a perfect weekend get-away with Stuart, my brother, sister, and brother-in-law.
Tallinn is an old Hansa city and the old town is just beautiful. As a tourist, one rarely wonders outside of the old town. However, one purpose for the trip was to solve a number of escape rooms – none of which are in the old town.
One down, three to go. And we got to see some of the modern Tallinn too.
You could assume, that after the long and dark winter, the spring inspires me to post a lot of images of flowers. You would be wrong, though. I posted a lot of images of flowers even in South Africa. The truth is that they are picturesque and they are there.
The do still inspire me.
When you are a twin, you share everything: attention, toys, clothes, most experiences – and birthdays.
In Finland, tho, there is an age-old tradition of celebrating name days. A few years ago, we picked up the idea and started small-scale celebrations to make sure Alanna and Kiara both have their own day.
Alanna’s name day was today. Alanna, as a name, is very rare in Finland (fewer than 60 in the whole country), so it doesn’t appear in the name calendar. Alina and Aida were the closest matches I could find.
As a treat, Alanna got a few small presents in the morning and chose a restaurant for the evening: Korean BBQ (smart kid!)
Daffodils have always been my favorite flowers. The close second (depending on the mood) are sunflowers. Both are just so unashamedly happy.
‘Ruuhkavuodet’ in Finnish refers to those years when your kids are still small and you juggle family, a full-time job, chores, hobbies and everything else everyday life.
Although the term is quite neutral, the direct translation, “traffic jam years” carries a nuance of being overwhelmed and too busy for your own good… It is one of those concepts, that once mentioned, makes everyone nod in quiet understanding.
However, in almost every piece of research on the topic, that is also the time of life people miss the most as they grow older. It may be tough at times, but is it full of small magical moment.
I love being a tourist and, when travelling, I tend to cram my days full to avoid missing anything (the term FOMO was coined gor me). But as so many others, I pass the local sights with a vague decision to “see it one day”.
Bicycles have helped a lot. Stuart and I have explored most of the nearby sights in search of the next cycling destination. However, it has left a circle of approx 10km around the house, as that is really too short a distance even on a lazy day.
This watertower nearby is one such negletted destination. There is a restaurant on top and we keep postponing a visit. For the photo I got closer to the tower than I have ever been, which only strengthened my resolve: we will definitely come to eat here… Soon.
We have a balcony upstairs that we didn’t use much at first. Our large covered terasse downstairs acts as our living room every summer, so this space was largely ignored.
Two years ago we added a comfortable chair and a small table, and that was all it needed to become a reading nook. Being a little higher up, the balcony catches the last rays of sunlight in the evening and on a rainy day it is quite pleasant to listen to the tapping on the window.
And if you close the door properly, you are not visible from the inside.
The Day was finally here. Harry Potter birthday!
The house was packed – at first with wands, owls, floating candles, Gryffindor colors and golden snitches. And later the chaos was completed by 127 excited little wizards and witches (or that is what it felt like).
The Herbology lesson (plant your owl pot) was popular, as was the Potions lesson (mix different color juices) and Levitation class (on the trampoline). But nothing was as eargerly anticipated as the opening of the Honeydukes candy shop after the other food was finished.
Our little witches loved the day – but I am happy it is a whole year to the next kids birthday!
Blue Moment 