Tag: cruise

Build me a place without people

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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 20

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Christmas balls, stars and light part 20
Made with Canva

Day 20

It’s four days until Christmas Eve; tomorrow, it’s the Winter Solstice. This means the days will become longer, and the darkness will slowly disappear. This Christmas, there won’t be snow in Southern Finland. It’s a shame because snow makes it lighter. Now it’s boring, and it doesn’t feel like a holiday at all. There won’t be snow in the place where I’m spending my Christmas time, so it doesn’t matter. Most of the time, I’m on a ship; what matters most is that there is no storm on the open sea. Eating and a rocking cruise ship are not a good combination. Screen name; Been there, done that.

Christmas Eve in Finland is when you eat Christmas dishes and open presents (if you have any). I don’t really care about the dishes, so I don’t bother doing them myself. I’m going on a cruise, so I don’t need to. I only eat one or two slices of baked ham, rutabaga casserole (but only if I made it myself), salted herring and salmon. Those are the most common Finnish dishes on Christmas. I’m more into sweet things like gingerbread cookies, pinecone-shaped cake, chocolates and Christmas pastries. Even as a kid, I couldn’t wait for dinner to be over so we could move to the desserts. I usually bake Christmas pastries with plum jam from ready-made dough, but I think it wastes time since I’m alone. They get mouldy before I have time to eat them. Even when Dad was around, they still didn’t last. Store-bought pastries don’t taste the same.

It’s good that the days will be longer and the darkness will come later. In Finland, it gets darker at 3:30 p.m. and lighter at about 9:30 a.m. And that’s in the South of Finland. Imagine how it is up north at this time. But when the Winter Solstice arrives, things will become nicer again. Christmas doesn’t only mean the end of 2024 is near but also that the spirit will rise, and it’s time to relax (for those who can).

The Advent Christmas Calendar is here again

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Christmas balls, stars and light
Made with Canva

Day 1

Wow, this year has gone fast, and that’s what makes it so surreal. Today it’s December 1st. I had an advent calendar on this blog in 2016 and 2017, and I’ve decided to have one this year, too. It’s 23 days to Christmas Eve. It’s my first Christmas alone. I never thought last Christmas was the last with Dad around. Christmas won’t be the same, but one thing hasn’t changed. I’m taking a cruise to Tallinn this year, too. I don’t need to think about anything other than relaxing. In a way, I’m not alone since there will be other people. Christmas isn’t that important for me anymore. If I had a family, I would feel differently. My parents and I haven’t spent Christmas at home since 2010. In 2011 and 2012, we went on a cruise to Riga, Latvia. On a cruise, everything is done for you, including the food and the entertainment. A big bonus is a day on land. In 2013, we didn’t go anywhere since my mother died on December 15 that year. Me and my dad stayed at home. That was a sad Christmas. In 2020, we stayed home too. It was COVID-19 then, so no cruises were organised because of it.

The shipping company made cruises to Riga until 2017 and then to Tallinn the following year. I went with Dad on the Christmas cruises, the last time being last year. Because of the cruises, I have been abroad the most in Latvia and Estonia—unless you count Stockholm, but that’s summer trips and one advantage of living in Finland. Once, we went on a Christmas cruise to Stockholm. It’s two nights on the ship and a day on land. I’ve been to those places so many times that I almost know it by heart, at least in the town centres. So Riga, at least 6 times and Tallinn 5 times, so quite a lot.

So, this is the first post of the 2024 Advent Calendar. It won’t be all about Christmas. Here we go.