A Giant Block Party

My second weekend in Tallinn happened to coincide with Kalamaja Päevad or Kalamaja Days.  Kalamaja is a neighborhood in northern Tallinn. Everyone at work calls it a hipster neighborhood. It's a cute area with these old wooden buildings, some painted in bright, candy colors. Anyway, there was a festival-flea market feel on Saturday.  I got some lunch there and listen to Marten Kuningas. It was warm and sunny and a great way to spend some of the afternoon (before I had to go into work). Marten Kuningas (I'm not sure if I should refer to it as band, since I think that's the lead singer's name) lost power during the last song. It was kind of funny, but it was enjoyable to see them try and power (or is it acoustic) on. There was a guy standing by the stage, I don't know if he was just random old guy or their manager, but he was air guitar-ing and air drumming through the entire set. It was funny.

On Sunday, people opened up their homes, really their backyards and sold food. It was like a giant scanvenger hunt, complete with a map.

There was BBQ, burgers, quail, quiches, cakes and cookies galore. It was a lot of fun and a nice opportunity to see some cute backyards.

It was fun to see all the people that were out and about for this event.  I even got to break out my Estonian to ask for food. Although, if there was something I was unsure of, most people understood English.  My favorite was one of the houses that was selling baked good. Instead of opening up the backyard, they opened up a window. It was a walk-up window (there were two wooden slats you had to step up to to give the money and get the goods) selling brownies, lemon bars and chocolate cake, among other things!

It's Been Awhile I Know

You wouldn't guess it by this blog, but I have continued to bake, run and travel over the last year. The try-something-new-that-gets-me-abroad bug hit and now I find myself in Tallinn, Estonia.

I have been told by many people that I am lucky and will love it here. I guess we shall see. But as ou can tell from the photo, it is quite charming looking. I've spent most of my time in the Old Town wandering its cobblestone streets. It is quaint. I'm looking forward to exploring a bit more in the coming days. Stay tuned.

Misadventures in Baking

You'd think I'd learn. Read the directions. Well, I actually did. What I failed to do was check to see if I had all the ingredients. For example, I thought I had cinnamon. Nope.  I thought I had rolled oats. Nope. Only steel cut oats. (They are not a good substitute.) What I did have were two overripe bananas. Hence my desire to make banana chocolate chip cookies.

I'll make them again over the weekend. They're really good. Will be better with rolled oats, and maybe some cinnamon!

My Contrary Ways

I've been home sick for two days. I slept most of yesterday (sleep, for me, has always led to fast recovery), venturing out of my apartment to go buy soup (garden vegetable) and tissues. I forgot to buy more orange juice.  I don't think I can sleep anymore.

So, after emailing work, I've spent the morning tweeting (or retweeting) and going through my instagram photos. It got me to thinking, for someone dead set against facebook, I do have a social media footprint larger than I realize. I mean I signed up for Google+, I'm on linked in. I have not one, but two blogs. Why am I so reluctant to sign up for facebook?

I wish I could say it was because of its privacy rules or unease with how it would use my data. But it's not.

Part of the reason is I like being contrary. Everyone uses facebook, so I shouldn't. It's like being the person who has never seen "Star Wars" or read a Harry Potter book. But I think the other thing is I view facebook as a lazy/easy way to maintain friendships. You can find out what people are doing without actually talking to them. I update all my different social media mediums on a pretty irregular basis (although I tweet from my work related acct on a pretty regular basis), but you really have to know me to know I have all these things (or use my iPhone to show me how to do certain things).

But it does put me at a disadvantage. I'm usually the last to know anything. During the holidays, when people realized I was unaware of something, the phrase "I posted it on facebook" was used a lot. 

Should I sign up? Probably. Will I? No. If people really want me know something, they can email me.