Hello!
It's time to sit down and tell you about the trip to my homeland's southern cousin. You know how I love to travel, don't you? It might not show on every post or every month, but outside the keyboard-tapping and picture-snapping I actually spend almost all my time after school catching the bus, and I can go for hours travelling to a place and back again without it bothering me one bit. Every time my parents are off to somewhere by car, I have this grown habit to ask if I can join them. I love my time on planes and trains alike, yet I rarely have the chance to stop for a moment and think, why is it this way? Why do I like travelling so much, it's almost becoming a part of me?
Every place I go to is always different from the other places, and always a changed place when I visit it again. Remember my trips to England (2015 & 2016)? They were both made with six months between, yet they were both like being to the country for the first time, two whole unique trips. Which they, in fact, were. I experience every trip, be it by bus or car, plane or boat, as an adventure, a way to feed my curious mind. My eyes see the sunlight and my soul is filled with joy: truly, travelling is the best way for me to learn and relax at the same time. And often I am accompanied with a phone with Spotify or downloaded music alike, which amplifies the feelings even more. Let me say this: music + travelling = what keeps me alive.
Sometimes the music is not available. Sometimes just travelling does that, connecting myself with my true self. Just like the majority of my time in Estonia! How I love that small country, and how delighted I am in being able to share the story with you! ☺
Every tale of travel begins with how it all began, and that's exactly what I'm about to do. We were travelling from Wednesday morning to late Thursday evening, with 4 hours on board a boat in total - 2 hours each direction. My oldest younger brother stayed home to take care of the animals and the house (or maybe just so he could play computer games with our gamer cousin) and that's where the accident regarding an energy drink and my laptop happened. But I digress, he was not with us but we didn't let that bother us. The whole family were awoken early on Wednesday morning and the part of us that were travelling went on a taxi to Helsinki port where our boat would depart.
While the boys (my Dad and my two youngest brothers) decided to go for a Burger King round for lunch on the boat, Mum insisted we would try something more sophisticated and healthy. There were a lot to choose from, and we went for the nearest from our seats in the lobby. Before you ask, yes, I had my camera with me: it was just that I didn't realise to take a picture of my food like so many others do! I guess I'm still a newbie when it comes to common social media skills...
The boat itself was one of the newborn in the world. It was a boat of new design, with a super large shopping area that ranged from sweets to makeup, alcohol to clothes, and everything in between. I was highly interested in the beauty part of the area, because there they had makeup and cosmetics not found on land, and for the wallet-hugging part, it was less expensive! And from there I found this beauty: the perfect summertime perfume I could only dream of, Elizabeth Arden's scent in Green Tea Nectarine Blossom - and oh yes, it smells heavenly! ☺
I realised to dig into my bag for my camera when we all returned to our seats, and my brothers had bought us all our own Mini-Oreo jars, kind souls they are! The trip went by super fast, as I said it only took only 2 hours to get to Tallinn.
When we arrived we decided not to take a taxi but to walk to where we would stay at. The wind was blowing in our faces, cold from the ocean, but after about fifteen minutes or so, we got to the hotel. And it was no ordinary hotel, it was a spa and conference hotel, and the exact one where we had been before, in 2014! The wind by the sea was chilling, so we came to the conclusion that we all needed to bathe in the swimming pools after making ourselves at home in our rooms. The rooms were divided between boys and girls, so Mum and I had a whole room to ourselves, with a view to a pool we hadn't been able to try out when we had stayed at the same hotel earlier. The pool started inside with unbelievably warm water and continued outside, which was a nice twist considering it was mid-winter! I tried out the pool many times, climbing on the platform where it snowed and could feel the crisp, cold weather on my steaming skin. Another incredible experience!
Here are some pictures of our room, before I made a mess while unpacking my clutter!
(I have two things to say about this one: look at the artistic edit on Lightroom that I finally got, and also I want to make a public apology for the people in the picture, that make me feel like a tiny creepy paparazzi...)
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| The most precious cargo - my Lynn Flewelling baby along with a mini drawing kit with my current sketchbook ☺ |
We spent several hours splashing in the pool and trying out the oh-so-many saunas, my favourite being one where you could lie down and enjoy the heat. One thing I remember clearly of that sauna was that it was relaxing my muscles and melting the stress away, and the ceiling was filled with tiny lights as stars in a night's sky, and it was just so wonderful I had a hard time staying awake! The pools that I fancied the most were the hot tubs (there were not one, but two of those!) and the pool that was divided into a super warm interior and refreshingly and healthily cool pool, in other words the one that was partially outside and partially inside.
And the time in the pools went by even better: Mum bought me a non-alcoholic drink that made me feel most sophisticated and adult-y. Which sounds slightly on the crazier side, I mean, what pool is directly connected to a bar, with drinks, smoothies and milkshakes you can enjoy directly from the tub, in the tub? And you guessed right, it sure was a pleasant experience!
Our dinner plans were as simple an idea and as difficult to carry out as going to eat outside. It took a longer while to find a restaurant, and on top of it, there was a blizzard greeting us right when we stepped through the door. No matter, because I had my camera, and until we found a warm, cosy place to eat, I snapped pictures all the way there. And so the country showed me its warm, welcoming side: the feelings were as comfortable as every feeling associated with soul prosperity. To be honest, I was the one that minded the snowstorm the least, just for this reason. I've picked my favourite shots below, and if you wonder what I ate, it was hot smoked salmon with chips, a very delicious meal. Yum!
Oh, and hey look, I was for once properly dressed for the weather!
And when we came back, I got another non-alcoholic drink, this time from a bar on the ground floor of the hotel. I have a hard time remembering what it contained, but I'd say ginger ale and strawberries were part of the mix. It tasted as good as it appears on the pictures!
The next day we ate at a breakfast buffet at the hotel, before running to swimming in the pools again. After splashing for yet another several hours we decided to take a look around Tallinn, when it was not 10 p.m. and dark! Dad stayed somewhere to have a conference through Skype, so Mum and us kids went to have a look at Neitsitorn, a place we visited the last time we were in Tallinn. Name meaning "the maiden's tower", it was filled with a whole lot of medieval things and scary stairs.
We also ate there, us three, and this time I took a picture of my meal, which was duck pasta with red wine sauce. I would never have guessed how well red wine (and duck!?) goes with pasta, but I have to say, it was not the least disappointing a meal!
Dad found us outside the tower and took my brothers to have a look at sights elsewhere, while Mum insisted on going to Viru with me, a shopping centre we weren't able to even look at the last time we were there.
First we went to River Island, a store not found back in Finland, where I got two chokers (!!!) and a camouflage patterned jacket. The weather has been suitable now that the sun warms the land, and my jacket has been my go-to thing for the past days. It's quite edgy and masculine, but still has that hint of a feminine softness, and so it will fit anywhere with anything, in my non-professional wannabe-fashionable way:
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| I certainly need to improve my skills at body selfies... |
And the chokers are something I wear almost every day!
I was completely blown away by the amount of cosmetics and makeup in just one place - one large, large place! Here are the things I got from that part of the shopping centre:
A palette not found even in the busiest makeup stores in Finland...
...and my first beauty sponge/blender!
Oh, and we also stopped by several souvenir shops earlier, where I bought the small, medieval and elegant mirror below. Truth be told, every shop had its own "specialisation" so there was something for every one of us, and this one was crying to me to be picked up!
Before we went back to the boat we all wanted to go somewhere to sit down. It was too early to go to the boat anyway, so we could enjoy our coffee (hot chocolate for my brothers) in all peace. You can tell from the soft look of the pictures it was a cosy, comfy little coffee shop we ended up at!
And on the boat we went to the same dinner location - after shopping some more cosmetics! At the same market where I had found my perfume I decided to buy the Kiehl's cleansing gel I had looked at before...
...a cleansing Konjak sponge I had never even heard of before but wanted to try out, and because it was suggested to me...
...and this box filled with hair conditioner. To spoil my hair!
It's been a few weeks since the trip, and I still value every moment of it. Estonia is much like Finland, yet so different. It feels like a trip and it feels like home, all at the same time. The print of the snowflakes didn't stay on my coat from across the Gulf of Finland, but the sensations, stories, laughter and memories are in my heart to stay - just like they are here, in my blog, for you!
April's just a few days away, and so is the exam week. I have a day off tomorrow, and I can't wait to do something fun that day! For April in general I feel there is a sense of spring and sunshine in the air, a renewing feeling of a fresh start. I'm going to absorb all that energy into writing as often as I can, sharing with you the life of Elsa, Bimbo and Emi, and keeping you updated with my own life as well.
After all, it's cats and lifestyle!
I'm so happy I could share this trip with you, I hope you enjoyed! And hopefully, the next post will be coming soon! (Swoon!)
I'll see you next time!
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