Estonia - Another Love

At the risk of being painfully redundant, I have fallen in love. I know that my heart is so easily won when it encounters culture, antiquity and beauty. My soul and heart need feeding, and the quickest way, at least to my heart, is the smell of the sea, bookstores, antique shops and lots of people watching. I never realize how accustomed I become to the lack of stimulation until I get to a place which is simply refreshing and startling – like that initial flash of the sun in your eyes when you open the curtains on a sunny day.

I can’t help but feel childish as my mind moves almost immediately from wondering what it would be like to live here to I can live here to I want to live here all in the space of a millisecond.

It would be an illicit love affair because we really aren’t made for each other – I crave the warmth of long sunny days. Neither of those exists for nearly 6 months of the year. This place is drenched in almost complete darkness on the 21st of December and only comes out of its slumber on May Day. But then to live those 6 months here when it is warm and the sun never truly sets on the 21st of June. My minds voice says that if only my body could grow accustom to the cold this new love could thrive. I can hear the negotiation going on inside me as one voice attempts to convince the other that I can change. Oh if only I could change. For this place I can change.

I wonder whether I am getting too old to fall in love with a place. I have just so many days ahead of me and perhaps they are better spent getting to know one place but my vagabond spirit always wins the day. There is always another country to visit and I do so love falling in love.

I love exploration and discovery. I love the new slate each place offers. I am uncertain as to the origins of my fascination with travel, but at this point in life it doesn’t seem to be abating. Some would have tired long ago while I appear to be just getting my second breathe.

My new love awaits me. Beckons me from outside my hotel window saying leave your computer and the confines of your starkly adorned modernistic hotel room and walk the cobbled streets of Tallinn past 13th century cathedrals and centuries old stain glass windows. Listen to the trolley cars pass you and look up to the deep azure blue cloudless sky and experience the cold on your cheeks. It is odd that this new love can woo me away from my keyboard when others often cannot. For now I am off to explore.