My favourite yoga teacher needs some help getting to Thailand for her dream job this winter: GoFundMe. It would be a shame for a silly thing like the cost of transit from Bosnia to Thailand to be all that gets in the way.

Aida taught me yoga in Sarajevo last year, and took me on some nice retreats as well. She's a fantastic teacher, and I find the pace of her classes - whether vinyasa or yin - perfect. I've also learnt a lot from her about other topics, from Ayurveda to trauma release. Aida has the opportunity to teach in Thailand this winter (and getting out of Sarajevo in the winter is always a good idea) and she's taking her mischievous little daughter with her too. I hope they make it, they deserve every minute of sunshine :)

🏷 donation travel yoga prana yoga

Status update

My default state is absolutely sleeping late, not going outside, not interacting with people, staying in my pyjamas all day, not showering and eating only toast. I work every day to operate outside of this.

Staying in hostels and shared accommodation can actually be really good for me, because I usually have to get dressed and interact with people on some level. Staying in places with shitty internet mean I have to go find a library or a cafe to work from. Staying in places for a short length of time means I have to go out every day if I want to see 'everything' or at least get a good sense of the place.

Of course constantly moving around brings its own set of exhaustion and other problems, which is why I inject solo accommodation for longer periods into my travel schedule.

I love living on my own, but I have to ramp up effort to not spiral into a sad smelly hole. Some days are easier than others. And it's such a vicious circle. Some days I'm on the sofa absolutely unable to function and wondering what's even the point and I am getting better at realising OH I probably just need to fucking go outside for an hour and I'll feel better. And then actually making myself do it.

Last couple of days I've been working on brain-melting server-y stuff and ending the day in a total haze, but managed to go out around 7pm, picked a direction to walk, and discovered new beautiful areas of Tallinn and felt infinitely better, which is much better than curling up with Netflix for the whole night.

Relatedly, now I have a job with regular video calls I tend to get mostly dressed for those. Though recenty I bought a nice loose jumper which I can put over my pyjamas and it makes me look semi respectable from a distance. So uh, work in progress. Sorry colleagues. Doesn't help with the showering thing. When I started this job I was quite terrified of how much facetime I would be having because from experience there are days when I just can't but actually I'm getting used to it and it's quite nice to have 15-30 minutes each morning of seeing friendly faces. Even if I wake up in a nope mood and don't think I want to dial in, I tend to feel better afterwards.

This is vastly better than in-person office job which involve being around people all day and render me unable to even go out to buy groceries at the weekend. As ever, it's a balance I suppose. And trying to be in tune with my moods; to figure out the difference between what my brain and body are telling me they want on the surface, versus what would actually help me to feel better.

🏷 travel life

15 Aug 2018, 16:40 (+03:00)

Week in review: 6 - 12 August

Took a slightly arduous bus journey from Lviv to Tartu.
Hung out in Tartu for a few days, got a cold.
Took the train from Tartu to Tallinn. Yay, apartment to myself!
Learned stuff about SaltStack and Postgres.
Caught up on blog posts about Ukraine (not food and food).

🏷 writing travel hacking week in review

12 Aug 2018, 23:59 (+03:00)

Today it rained in unpredictable and torrential bursts in between blue skies, and I bought loads of really cheap kale. Estonia is basically Scotland.

🏷 travel Tallinn, Estonia

12 Aug 2018, 20:04 (+03:00)

Day 2 in Tallinn

I went to Tallinn City library this afternoon. It's small, but a nice place, good fancy ceilings, some nice rooms with nice chairs and old books, the wifi is good, lots of power sockets, very quiet. I hung out with my laptop for about an hour and a half. Just before 5.30pm I realised I had thought the library closes at 5, but hey I guess not. A short while later I packed up my stuff and went downstairs.

The front door was locked. All the lights were off. Not a soul was in sight.

I went back upstairs to ask the other person sitting on her laptop there if she this was normal and she knew another way out. She did not. We wandered around and tried a few doors.

Haha. We were locked in the library. It didn't open again until Monday.

We proceeded to call and email every contact number on the library webpage we could find. She also called the 24h Tallinn city general helpline, and they promised to call back. She called her mother, who called someone she knew who worked at a different library, who also promised to call back.

Meanwhile we found a window that was big enough to climb through and not too far off the ground to jump out if necessary. We decided this or calling the police would be an absolute last resort.

We made an effort to get through to the pub next door, in case they either happened to have a spare key or the library employees had gone there after work.. but no answer.

M and I introduced ourselves, and bonded over veganism (<3!) and travel and chocolate and the small art display in the library we would not have bothered to look at if we weren't trapped there.

M's family members turned up outside the window, and went to see if anyone was in the pub who could help.

The city helpline called back and said the director had been contacted and was on her way, but lived 30 minutes away.

She eventually showed up, and turned out to be a distant relative of M, and the daughter of the person M's mother had called earlier! It's a small country. She was accompanied by a surly security guard who took photos of our IDs. Apparently we'd set of a silent alarm when we opened the window earlier and security were already quietly surrounding the building.

Then they let us out and I had dinner with M and her family at a nearby veg*n buffet.

Just another day..

(Also this morning I went on a walking tour and found a SPECTACULAR vegan chocolate shop, really enjoying Tallinn so far.)

🏷 library life travel Tallinn, Estonia

11 Aug 2018, 20:34 (+03:00)