Build me a place without people

Vanhalinna, Turku, Finland

You get to build your perfect space for reading and writing. What’s it like?

Daily Writing Prompt

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas. I was on a cruise to Tallinn. They say travelling broadens the mind, but it also makes you tired. My Christmas holiday was two nights on a cruise ship and a long walk in Tallinn for a day. There were many people and noise around, so no wonder I was tired. I took a long nap after I got back to the ship. Even if I slept enough during the cruise, it still exhausted me. I got home yesterday and went to bed at 8 pm. I woke up again after 1 am but went back to sleep. The Junior championship in ice hockey began in Canada, and Finland played at 2.35 am, but I woke up after 3 am even if I had the alarm on. I watched the game, and when the TV broadcasting ended at 5.30 am, I went back to sleep again. I woke closer to 1 pm or maybe after. I didn’t look at the time. I don’t know how many hours I have slept in total, but I still have the rocking feeling I get after a cruise. Sleep did help, though, because I’m not tired now. Getting that contentment feeling when you’ve been around people, and you finally get home to sleep off your tiredness. That’s the best feeling for anyone whose social interactions make them exhausted.

Build me a place without people. A place where I can be in peace with only writing instruments and a listening device that plays only music and no talking. It would be somewhere close to nature. Probably in a cabin in the woods, but there would be electricity and an internet connection. I could move around walking or by bike. If I wanted to go further, the roads should be good enough for driving by car. The place would be close enough to the city where I live. It wouldn’t be a summer cottage like Finns have in the summertime. It would be a place where I could spend time in the winter, too. The sea would be close to where I could go when it’s too hot in the summer. That would be a perfect space for me. In a place like that, I could feel contentment the most. Since I don’t have that, I can still get away from the city to feel solitude, at least for a while.

Advent Calendar 2024 – Day 22

Christmas balls, stars and light part 22
Made with Canva

Day 22

Some trash talk about the snow disappearing. Yesterday, there was snow, but now it’s gone. Sometimes, the weather forecast is correct, but sometimes it’s not. In Finland, the weather is unpredictable, regardless of season. There would have been at least some snow, so it would have been white. If you want to see snow, you must go up north. But that’s not a reason to spend money on travelling. It’s dull when there is no snow, especially at Christmas. I won’t be home at Christmas but there is no snow in Tallinn either.

You don’t know what shoes to wear when the weather changes. If you wear winter boots and it rains, you ruin them. You can slip and hurt yourself if you wear sneakers and it snows. If the snow would stay, it would be easier to choose footwear. No one knows when there will be snow here again. The forecast says it’s going to be plus Celsius in some days. You would think it’s Autumn and not Winter. It does dampen the Christmas cheer a little bit when there is no snow, but you live with it.

Is this Christmas or an ordinary day? You tell me. It was taken today, and that’s no trash talk.

no snow
©Mia Salminen 2024