Tallinn

I have wanted to visit Tallinn for years. When I first lived in Russia 13 or so years ago, I was told by numerous people that Tallinn (and Estonia) was the most beautiful of the three Baltic capitals, and I'd have to say now that I agree.

Old Town in Riga is basically just a section of the city with older buildings and cobblestoned streets, but in Tallinn, there's actually a wall around a large chunk of it (kind of like a kremlin, I suppose). And it felt more ancient, as well. The apartment we stayed in almost felt like it was a medieval building converted for modern use. We also had fresh snow there, and again it was freezing (-15C before including the windchill factor). We only ventured from Old Town once, to eat at Estonian Lido (not as good as the original in Latvia, but we were much wiser this time round), so I can't speak for the rest of the city, but Old Town is very tourist-oriented along with housing the government building and numerous embassies. It seems that Estonians have wool, felt, linen, amber and wood products. Vlada and I went a little crazy after discovering the knitted Moomin scarves and mittens, but didn't end up getting any. It was a very pretty town, but it was so cold out (and Vlada's knee was really painful by this stage as soon as it hit the cold) so we stayed in a lot more in restaurants (blinchiki!!!) and museums.

Idyot Sneg! (Russian for "It's snowing!" - one of my favourite sentences in this language)
Also, I had an absolute blast travelling with these two.
I realised that I don't think I've spent this much time with Pete in one place since he finished school. 

Also, my favourite part was that our apartment had a sauna. It meant that I've been able to finish the holiday on a very relaxed note, and am as ready as I can be to head back into the chaos that is work at the moment.

Moomin knitwear for kids! 

(I've written the bulk of all these posts during a 10-hour layover at the airport in Moscow, with the plan to add photos as I download them from my camera. I mentioned in an earlier post that I was really happy to escape Kazakhstan for a while, and to be honest, there were a few moments in the first half of the trip when the thought of going back in 2-3 weeks' time was putting a dampener on the actual holiday. I'm definitely more at peace about returning now, but I'm still not thrilled about the prospect. There were some actions and decisions made by certain people/departments that a number of us were unhappy about, including one of my favourite colleagues being fired two days before the end of term. In addition to that, I found out from another friend on staff that I had offended most of my department after one person read and shared a joke/comment on Instagram about my being excited about returning to "civilisation, aka a place where non-dairy milks are an option". And it's not the first time my Aussie humour/sarcasm has been taken literally. So basically, there have been a ton of small things that on their own would have been fine, but when they add up together, it becomes a bit overwhelming, depressing and frustrating when living and working there.)