A long weekend

Good afternoon!

It's being a weird time for me, a time of changes. In a week i will start to work after three years without working and i'm a bit scared of it. Not because of the job itself, which i think it won't be a challenge at all for me, but because of the new routines i will have to learn again.

Three years is a lot of time, specially when every single day is the same like in that Bill Murray's movie "The groundhog day" For so long i just used to wake up at lunchtime, to have a couple of coffees, to have some lunch, to watch tv, to be sitting in front of the computer and like that until i could see the sunlight, that was the indicator to go to sleep again.

My new routines will have to be so different to that life that i've been living for such a long time and even when since i came to Estonia i worked a lot on them i still don't really know how well i will stand a 9 to 5 job, to wake up at 7 or earlier to arrive on time to the workplace and to have only two or three hours for myself everyday.

Maybe because of that, maybe because of the spring or because it was the time for it the fact is that i'm going out more than ever in so so many time. That is so good because it means at last i'm kind of fixed, but also means that i'm going back to the nightlife, just the opposite of what i will need from next week.

Social life here in Estonia for me is priceless. I don't have the chance to meet many people if it's not in this way, going to parties or going out with my friends here. I speak everyday with people, but you know, it's not the same the way you can speak while you are having lunch than when you are in front of a beer in a pub. And those conversations are really important too, even when for so long i was too inside myself to be able to enjoy them.

This weekend again luckily i can say that i had fun. A lot of fun. And that i went out more than once. On friday i went to explore the old town nightlife. My dear friend and me took our pith helmets, our binoculars and went in the seek for wild animals like tigers, leopards and zebras. We found seven in the end after a pleasant but short night together. Some drinks, some really needed chats and the feeling of the friendship growing and growing, thing that for me at least is a big need. Great friday that ended later at home having another really needed conversation, a conversation that had to happen in the nineties and had to wait until the second decade of the XXI century. I am so messy, but this was just too much.


And then the saturday arrived. In the morning the only plan already made was to go to a concert of my friend's choir. They sing in a folk choir, those ones that are so popular and important in every single way here. The concert was a night one, at 23h -really late here for any activity- and in a beautiful place, a castle placed in the middle of a nice and charming park, even when it was completely full of mosquitoes. The thing is that in the end i went to a birthday party before and after the concert. The concert itself was so good, as it was the place where it happened. Some new songs that i've never heard before and were quite moving. It was so cool. But the party was cooler i have to say. They rented a place to do it, there was catering, a waiter, all sorts of drinks and even a wonderful coffee machine. We brought there the same sound equipment that we had in the Otepää party of last week and well, that was a good party. Good music with friends being the DJ's, good and tasty food, variety in drinks... the ideal for any party but for real. Even all the girls were beautiful. We were there having fun until 4 AM and then we went to eat pizza. This city has wonderful things.

I just hope to not be late my first day of work.

Now some pictures of this weekend. The blurry ones are like that on purpose.

PS: Sorry about the style today, as far as i didn't sleep more than few hours my writing style can't be so good today.

PS2: It's always cool to see the dawn of the day at 3 and something AM, don't you think?

The party (Chpt. 2)

Tere hommikust.

Now i guess i can go on with my stories about this long and intense weekend. After a night without sleeping and seven chapters of Sons Of Anarchy in a row i really needed some rest.

We were on friday, when the real party started. After a common morning, or maybe not so common because we had an unbelievable spring day and we could have a nice lunch at the yard, i started to pack my stuff for the weekend, luckily i was clever enough to pick up some pills for my stomach, thing that was really useful on saturday morning. About mid afternoon our friends arrived to pick me up and we started a really beautiful trip across Estonia, from Tallinn to a place quite close from Tartu called Otepää. In there, about 10 or 15 km away was the house where we were going, Kunstimäe. The whole trip was so beautiful, going in the car as it were a magic carpet, flying over the endless estonian green fields and the birch trees forests. After several pit stops where we refuelled our souls and took incredible pictures, we arrived to our destiny.

An amazing place next to a river, which we crossed through a charming little wooden bridge, with soft hills and the estonian spring in all its splendour. Just a dream place with endless gardens, a fairy tale pond and billions of birds singing. I almost couldn't believe that.

Our incredible hosts, always with a big smile in their faces, received us with a cold beer and we emptied the car to set the Hi-Fi equipment that we were carrying. Music it's always an important thing in a party, and when i could see the whole set working i knew that it wouldn't be a problem here. In a huge dining room, actually a whole house made with that purpose, like if it were a gigantic loft, we had al sorts of gadgets, from keyboards, synthesizers and microphones, to a couple of DJ turntables and a mixer. The dream of any amateur DJ -or not so amateur- would be the spinal bone for our party.

After a while the other guests started to arrive and the party itself started. Most of them were new people for me so i was jumping from one group to another, meeting new people, being introduced to each one of those friends that are going to this party for more than ten years already, and soon i could realized why it was so good and successful.

As any estonian party i've been into until now there was a lot to drink and eat. We made an informal dinner next to a bar and started to drink meanwhile the music was starting to warm up the party as we were doing with our bodies with the beers, mojitos and vodka.

The vodka should deserve a whole chapter, but i'll try to put everything here. This party was about the birthday of one of our hosts, and he was quite interested in showing me the vodka tradition. So after several tries that i refused to drink it, i agreed to try one. They drink it in a specific way. There must be prickles or tomato slices to eat after drink it and every glass of it deserves a toast. In this case a birthday was reason enough to make so many toasts, so even when i skipped quite many of them in the end i had like 15 and well... Last time i was so drunk like that probably i still hadn't a proper beard. Was a nightmare. Feeling that dizziness that only alcohol can give. Having to keep my eyes closed to not feel like if i were in a carousel or a Ferris wheel. Felling asleep in the garden, in the toilet... a complete mess. I was green like a lime and i was feeling like someone were wanting to rip my stomach trough the mouth with bare hands. About 2 AM i just couldn't go on. Somehow i could reach my bed and fell dead until next day. The Spanish dude had an incredible society presentation. Could it be worse? I still feel ashamed of myself, even when everybody else was quite drunk too.

Saturday morning i had to take those pills i brought for my stomach. It was pure fire. But surprisingly the hangover wasn't so bad as i expected, only my stomach was so bad.

I woke up, went outside and had a breakfast lying in the grass under the sun while the kids were playing and the other friends were turning red slowly while i only could be even more tanned.


After the breakfast, some rest and so so many mosquito bites we started to work. Kunstimäe it's not only the house that my friend's parents have, it's also a Rural Hotel and there is always a lot of work to do, so the party is about that also, we go there and have fun but also we help a bit with the hard work. Being so many people even the hardest task it's easy to do. And it's what we did. We worked until lunchtime, had a lunch and some rest, then a bit more of work and then party again. This time at the sauna. Most part of the girls and me too were too bad to party, so i just went to see how it was, but i couldn't start again with the vodka or whatever else. Again i gave up early, but the party was so good as i could see in my room mates when they arrived. Wasted was not enough to describe them.

Sunday again was the same thing, wonderful breakfast, some sunbaths, some work, wonderful lunch and some rest until we came back to Tallinn. The weekend was exhausting but just too good. Even with my issues with the vodka one of the best parties i've been into in last years.

Thank you all -you know who i mean- for your hospitality and your patience with the brown Spaniard who came to the land of snow. I hope to be back in there soon.

Una de fotos bonitas (menos en la que salgo yo)

Un dia de furia

Este fin de semana ha sido bastante largo, intenso y sobre todo agotador, tanto en lo físico como en lo emocional.

Como mis anfitrionas trabajan de lunes a jueves supongo que es fácil suponer que día empiezan realmente los fines de semana para mi. Mi dependencia todavía es demasiado grande como para hacer demasiadas cosas por mi mismo que no sean explorar la ciudad, sacar fotos como un turista mas o ir a centros comerciales que poco tienen del pasado comunista de esta tierra.

He descubierto que ser espaniol aquí es tan exótico como ser un dominicano o un ciudadano de cualquier otro país tropical. Hay muchísimos tópicos respecto a nosotros, en general erróneos. Lo primero y si cabe peor de asumir es que nos confunden con italianos, con lo que eso supone. Me entendéis verdad? Que si perseguimos a todas las mujeres del planeta tierra, que si solo nos importa la ropa... En fin, tópico tras tópico. Ademas están los que si que son reales, pero también y como no, exagerados hasta lo absurdo. Supongo que los tópicos es lo que tienen, pero claro, cada vez que conozco a alguien nuevo tengo que desmentir, corregir o matizar unas cuantas cosas respecto a nosotros.

El caso es que el jueves salí a descubrir la noche tallinesa y lo que descubrí mas que ninguna otra cosa fue la resaca posterior, que fue considerable. Claro esta que ciertos factores externos hicieron que tuviera un nivel de ansiedad particularmente alto y que perdiera por momentos mi ya conocido aplomo. En fin, la vida es así, normalmente las cosas no salen como te gustaría que saliesen, pero como hay que vivirla igual te guste o no, toca apandar con lo que salga.

Casi 35 anios son muchos ya para aprender según que cosas, pero aun así hay facetas de la vida en que descubro a diario que no se nada.

Pese a todo ha sido un gran fin de semana, al menos en cuanto a actividades. Mi actitud no ha sido la mejor para disfrutarlas al 100%, pero aun asi no debo quejarme, no seria justo.

He conocido el zoo de Tallinn, he ido a una feria en un pueblecito del centro de Estonia, me he hecho un "road trip" de lo mas interesante... Como he dicho no me puedo quejar en absoluto.

Eso si, si no quiero volverme loco o morirme de pena creo que debo encontrar una novia pronto. El dolor de corazón es algo muy duro para soportar durante demasiado tiempo.

Perdonad la baja frecuencia de mis posts últimamente, pero ademas de no tener un portátil propio todavía, mi estado emocional tampoco ha sido el mejor para escribir. O si, pero seria otro tipo de blog.

Tere päevast.

PD: Solo para que conste y para hacer el post algo mas ameno -lo siento por la poca calidad- va una fotico del zoo.

Especial fotos II

Unas poquitas mas, ahora que me pillais despierto.

El palacio de la opera de Tallinn

Una de las calles de bares del Old Town

Un sitio al que solo por el nombre me quede con ganas de entrar. Os imagináis un cachelo planet?

Retrospectiva de Antonioni como muestra de la oferta cultural.

Lo que seria a Tallinn la Praza Maior lucense.

Otra vista de lo mismo.

Típica calle del Old Town con un par de lugareñas caracterizadas para la ocasión.

Uno de tantos edificios que esta exactamente igual que en el siglo XVI.

Famoso restaurante y tienda de souvenirs. Se pueden ver duelos medievales a espada dentro.

Las puertas del Old Town.

Y por hoy basta, que para mi ya no son horas... Head ööd.

Especial fotos.

Desde hace un tiempo varios me han pedido que suba fotos de lo que he ido viviendo. Hasta ahora no me había sido posible, ya que aun no tengo mi propio portátil, pero echándole un pelin de cara he conseguido descargar algunas aquí para compartirlas. Espero que os gusten.

 Estas tres como podréis suponer son del inicio de mi viaje. Amanecer en castilla, la puerta de embarque para el segundo vuelo del día y esa información tan útil que siempre necesitas saber en un avión.

Ahora una sobrevolando los famosos mil lagos finlandeses completamente congelados aun.

 

Y mi llegada a Estonia por fin, tras algo mas de 14 horas de viaje y unas 24 mas sin dormir antes de empezarlo.

Ahora una de fotos de Tallinn

 Este es un parque encantador que tengo al lado de casa. Se llama Lillepi park

El old town visto desde al lado de donde vivo.

  El puesto deportivo de Pirita, que como veis acogió las pruebas de regatas de los JJOO de Moscu ´80 y que todavía tiene nieve.

 

 La catedral y el mejor sitio para leer que haya visto jamas en ninguna parte del mundo.

Entrada al Kadriorg park.

Un mar en el que no te puedes banhar...

Y ya por ultimo un árbol 100% Estonio. Aguanta los elementos como mejor puede, pero también le pasan factura.