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.
South Africa and Finland are in the same time zone (+/- an hour). It’s 20h+ travel, but it is basically one badly slept night…
Telling this to myself was much easier, when I did not have to keep peace between two 7-year olds who have both slept less than 4 hours the night before.
Worth it, tho.
Cape Town faces the Atlantic, so the water is pretty chilly even in summer. Muizenberg Beach is a popular surfing destination because of the good waves it gets, but any sane surfer wears a wetsuit.
Despite the cold, Kiara and Alanna squeezed every bit of fun out of the waves, sand, and sun in the last hours before heading to the airport. Since they were soaked to the skin and covered in wet sand, we had luckily scheduled time for a shower before starting our trip.
There is just something so picturesque about the wine farms, even when the weather is not perfect. My fingers itch whenever I get near one.
Stuart and the girls are generally pretty patient with my photography, but even they had enough for this trip. Stuart packed me in a car and sent me to Constancia Wine route as we were living in the neighbourhood. He and the girls stayed at the house swimming and relaxing.
As I was driving myself, I ended up drinking more coke than wine – but I got my photos.
When I was a kid, I remember visiting the Helsinki Natural History Museum. The exhibit that impressed me most was a calf with two heads (still there today). Otherwise, I remember it being quite ‘dusty’ and stiff. It was very different from today’s museums.
Entering the Iziko South African Museum felt like a return to the late 80s, with glass cases filled with rather poor examples of taxidermy… until we wandered into the new side with the dinosaur and shark exhibits. They were cool! Very cool!
The main picture today is a giant fig tree in the Company’s Garden just outside the museum. It is approx 150–175 years old, so you can quite fairly classify it as well within Natural History.
I love proper breakfast. Whenever I find the time, I cook different dishes even just for myself. I adore eggs in all forms, sauces, mushrooms, avo, bacon, salmon, yogurt, jams… you name it. Funnily enough, breakfast is the only meal Stuart does not cook. And rarely eats.
But there was no need to twist his arm to get him to enjoy a great breakfast in Franschhoek. The market was even on, so we spent a good few hours around town before taking a scenic drive to Vredenheim Wine Estate to meet the whole wider family for lunch.
A day of beauty and decadence.
And yes, despite visiting Franschhoek at least 15 times over the years, I still need to check the spelling every time…
Vredenheim has a park for big cats. These white tigers were not getting along…
It is tricky to explain to the girls how privileged they are. For a 7-year olds, their own problems are always the biggest in the world. And, to be fair, that is often true for us adults too.
However, after visiting one of Cape Town’s big townships – Langa – today, the differences were starkly visible even to Alanna and Kiara. As the girls said “There were a lot of kids, but not many toys”.
The explanation of the history and the social commentary of the guide (a Langa resident himself) were a bit too complicated for the girls, but they now recognize the words for Apartheid and Nelson Mandela.
The lunch at the Waterfront – a luxury area indeed – drove home the the comparison.
I love bright colors. It’s one of the reasons traditional Afrikan fabrics appeal to me. Why would you ever wear beige if you could wear orange, turquoise and purple? Simultaneously. But I am also pretty self-concious, so I (too) often settle for safer choices.
This contradiction is what started my love affair with large earrings. You can be bold, but in a sort-of-safe way – like jumping off a cliff only halfway.
In photography, there is no need for safe choices. That’s why there are few better places to wonder around that the vibrant, bold Malay neighborhood of Bo-Kaap.
Blue Moment 