bussing-baltics
type: Article
content: Originally I'd planned to take the direct bus from Odesa to Tallinn. The flaw in this plan was that it goes through Belarus and getting a fully visa for a stretch on the bus is not practical or financially sensible. Hence the detour to Lviv. I ended up with a change in Riga and an end destination of Tartu. The Polish border is one hour out of Lviv. I was quite looking forward to a border crossing at a sensible time followed by an uninterrupted night of sleep. Hahaha no such luck. The bus was stuck at the border for a full six hours. Four in between Ukraine and Poland, pausing in lines of stopping altogether in carparks. We stopped at Duty Free for a while. When border control came aboard and collected all the passports, half an hour or more later they were all returned except for mine. The bus driver looked worried and tracked it down for me pretty quick. Eventually we progressed to entry to Poland, and the bus was fully unloaded. We hauled our luggage through customs and then.. the bus disappeared. A further two hours were spent perching on suitcases in the carpark outside Polish customs. Nobody had any idea what was going on. I wondered if this duration of delay was factored into the schedule, but figured I'd probably be missing my connection. At least it was still warm. At 0230 the bus finally materialised and I got to sleep. Around mid-morning the next day, it broke down. We waited for a couple of hours by a highway in Lithuania. Other buses stopped and picked up the passengers they could fit. I ended up on an Ecolines from Vilnius to Riga, sitting next to someone who was planning to make the same Tartu connection as me. This bus was scheduled to arrive shortly before the Tartu bus departs, and the latter often waited for it. Hope! And indeed I did make the connection with one minute to spare, and successfully got to Tartu. The funny part is that if the original bus hadn't broken down I probably wouldn't have made it. I am struck by the attitudes of people in au…
name: Bussing to the Baltics
published: 2018-08-07T10:50:00+03:00
tag: bus
tag: travel
tag: transit
tag: ukraine

day2-tallinn
type: Article
content: 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 sur…
name: Day 2 in Tallinn
published: 2018-08-11T20:34:00+03:00
tag: library
tag: life
tag: travel
tag: tallinn

flyingless
type: Article
content: ... testimonials about flying less..." I'm a perpetual digital nomad, but committed to not flying at the beginning of 2018. I'm not a climate scientist, but as a recent academic I took major advantage of the international conference circuit to travel as much as possible during my PhD. I never liked flying, but I wanted to see the world and that just seemed like what you had to do. In retrospect the sheer volume of academic travel is quite obscene - especially given the number of people I meet who complain about having to do it so much! In 2014 I found myself four events in continental Europe a week apart each, and persuaded my institute to pay for a three week Interrail pass instead of a bunch of flights. I took a bus from Edinburgh to Paris (W3C Working Group meeting), hitchhiked from Paris to Dusseldorf (IndieWebCamp hackathon), then a train to Innsbruck (tourism), train to Florence (World Wide Web Conf), trains to the coast and a ferry to Croatia (tourism, chillin'), buses and trains through Croatia to Slovenia (Extended Semantic Web Conf). Then one flight back to Edinburgh. Since then I dreamed of slow-moving ongoing travel with no date I had to be back by. Now I find myself with all the time in the world, no ties or dependents, and a remote job, and can finally live it. It's a great way to discover new places, get a better grip on international geography, and have diverse experiences. In short if you can swing it, finding alternative ways to travel without flying is the bomb. Learn how to sleep and/or work on buses, make some time, and give it a shot. Academics with flexible schedules and hours (by which I mean, you tend to work all the time and mostly it doesn't matter where from) are in a superb position. If you're in a position to fund (time-rich, schedule- and location-flexible) students to travel, persuade them to look at alternatives before jumping on a plane. I always start investigating a new route with Rome2Rio. Sometimes finding connections can be dau…
in reply to: https://mobile.twitter.com/ClimateHuman/status/1027240444936089601
name: Re: #FlyingLess
published: 2018-08-10T15:52:00+03:00
tag: flyingless
tag: travel

status-update
type: Article
content: 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 qui…
name: Status update
published: 2018-08-15T16:40:00+03:00
tag: travel
tag: life

vegan-in-ukraine
type: Article
content: One evening I spent with a table full of locals, including a variety of dietary preferences, trying to think of a Ukrainian dish that was ordinarily vegan. The criteria being that you could walk into any Ukrainian restaurant and order it without modification. Nobody could come up with anything. The closest we got was borsch without meat - nobody was sure how common it would be, but seemed fairly confident you can request it without. And you need to make sure they leave it to you to add sour cream, and don't dollop it on for you. Someone said they were sure in some places varenyky (dumplings) must be vegan, but I understood the traditional recipe for the dough to involve both eggs and sour cream. Nonetheless, there were a handful of lovely vegan cafes in Odes and Lviv, so I did not starve to death. Vegano Hooligano (Odesa) There are two branches, though I only visited the one closest to the train station. The food is healthy Asian-inspired-fusion. A variety of soups, wraps, burgers, salad bowls and cakes, featuring lots of tofu. Also an extensive drinks and breakfast menu. I ate in a couple of times and took food to go on the train. There's an English menu, and one of the waiters was very friendly and happy to speak English. There's power and wifi, and plenty of seating, and they take card. Zelen (Odesa) A vegetarian cafe near the train station... which was not open during the hours on happycow. True (Odesa) A fancy feeling place, pescatarian, with everything well labelled and an emphasis on health. Lots of raw dishes, and many of those containing honey can be veganised. I took the waitress's recommendation and ate a very delicious mushroom steak with lentils. It was a pretty big portion. Also latte with hazelnut milk. Agrus (Lviv) A vegan (except for occasional honey) bakery 30 seconds from my hostel. I had breakfast here several times and afternoon snacks too. There is a lot of space, power and wifi, and they also sell various eco products like bags. On one occasio…
name: Vegan in Ukraine
published: 2018-08-07T09:30:00+03:00
tag: ukraine
tag: vegan
tag: food
tag: travel

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: 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. Got locked in Tallinn City Library for a couple of hours. Caught up on blog posts about Ukraine (not food and food).
name: Week in review: 6 - 12 August
published: 2018-08-12T23:59:59+03:00
tag: week+in+review
tag: hacking
tag: travel
tag: writing

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Explored Tallinn. Went for evening walks around Russalka beach, Paekalda and Kadriorg, Linnahall, Patarei prison, the culture kilometer and Kalamaja and through old town. Went for a run. Worked 3 days, more or less.. (more) Spent a day at Stroomi beach and Paljassaare conservation area; swam in the sea and walked many miles. Wander around some parks near the Estonian National Library. Hung out with vegans at potluck in Toompark.
name: Week in review: 13 - 19 August
published: 2018-08-19T23:59:59+03:00
tag: travel
tag: estonia
tag: exercise

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Wrote some code or whatever. Worked from the National Library of Estonia (didn't get locked in). Went Night wandering around Tallinn. Spent a day wandering around old town and proofreading Someone's thesis chapter in a nice tea shop. A day out in Pirita; woods, Botanical Gardens, TV Tower, cemetaries, beach. Fleamarket and end of summer festival in Telliskivi. Went up the tower of St Olaf's church, the tallest building in Tallinn. Watched the sun set from Sea Plane Harbour then stuck around for bonfires and music on the Night of Prehistoric Lights (and made some dreads for M from Spain). Applied for Estonian e-residency, did my taxes, and applied for some more Euro/travel-friendly banking options.
name: Week in review: 20 - 26 August
published: 2018-08-26T21:27:00+03:00
tag: tourism
tag: food
tag: life
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: estonia

curonian-spit
type: Article
content: Remember that time I walked to the (Kaliningrad) Russian border from Poland? I wanted to do that again, from the Lithuanian side. This is a slightly longer ordeal, requiring better transportation than feet. Long story short, I didn't actually make it to the border, but I did see it from the top of a sand dune. I got pretty close though. Anyway, I'm sure that border is less exciting than the Polish one, because you can actually cross it (in a car, not on foot). The Curonian Spit is not connected to Klaipeda, but the ferry takes 5 minutes. They run every hour, from 0700 out, up to 2215 returning. It costs 1 EUR return for foot passengers, or passengers with a bike, and you can buy tickets from the machines at the port in Klaipeda old town. I rented a bike from my hostel for 24 hours for 5 EUR (we managed to lower the seat all the way so I could just about use it). Most bike rental places in town are 10-12 EUR. The spit is well furnished with cycle paths, in various states of decay, but mostly well-maintained. This route is pretty popular. The northern most coast is an enormous long sandy beach. Very glorious. It's backed by epic dunes, and you can only access it at designated points from cycle paths running down the middle, because tramping around on the dunes is a no-no. Large portions of the spit are also do-not-enter nature reserves. After I got off the ferry in Smiltyne, first I went right/east (not the direction of Kaliningrad) to check out the other end of the spit for completeness. There's a sea museum, a dolphinarium (ugh) and the start of the beautiful beach. I pushed my bike along the beach for a while, which wasn't so bad on the wet sand, until I could join one of the main cycle paths, peeking out between the dunes. It was easy sailing for a while; the path was in good repair, and either flat or any ups were well compensated with excellent downs. It weaves through the forest, with views of dunes on the right and pine trees on the left, or sometimes trees on…
name: Cycling the Curonian Spit
published: 2018-09-11T14:17:00+03:00
tag: vegan
tag: curonian+spit
tag: travel
tag: lithuania
tag: cycling

vegan-in-estonia
type: Article
content: Tallinn There are a small number of veg*n places in Tallinn, and many places are vegan friendly. Loads of regular coffee shops and cafes clearly mark vegan options on their menu; varying quality though, if the reviews on happycow are anything to go by. Also many homemade ice cream shops have vegan flavours. Despite staying there for a few weeks I didn't actually try them all (I was having a budgetarily-challenged month, for a start). Food in Tallinn is fairly cheap overall, but the vegan places are a bit pricier, and cafes and coffeeshops in the old town certainly are. I mostly cooked for myself. Groceries Biomarket seemed like a good candidate for vegan supplies, but actually there was very little specialist stuff there, and it was pretty expensive. They have bulk grains and organic food. But many of the same things can be found for much cheaper in regular supermarkets. Plant milks are common in all supermarkets, but not particularly cheap. Rimi is the cheapest for everything. You'd be hard pressed to find a litre for less than €2, but you might if you shop around for special offers. The food shop in the basement of Solaris has a good selection of not-meats and not-cheeses, and other vegan goodies. They're in their own dedicated display near the front of the store. Everything else here is more expensive than Rimi though. Vegan mayo in a squashy packet can be found in Solaris for 79c and Rimi for 65c. This is the cheapest vegan mayo I've ever seen. The sachet is not as big as a jar but one lasted me for 3 weeks. Tofu seems to be expensive everywhere. I never found it, but apparently if you look hard enough it's cheap in Rimi. Veg Machine Behind Balti Jaam train station, through the market and into the main hall on the left. It's a small stand with a few seats and healthy all-vegan junk food. The pulled sweet potato burger looks fantastic. But for €4 I had a cheesy tofu melt sandwich. Toormoor Also in Balti Jaam, right behind the fruit market in the entrance, this is…
name: Vegan in Estonia
published: 2018-09-05T22:00:00+03:00
tag: tartu
tag: helsinki
tag: travel
tag: food
tag: vegan
tag: estonia
tag: tallinn

week-in-review
type: Article
content: New hair. i18n workflow stuff. Ferry to Helsinki; touristed in Helsinki; spent far too much money and didn't sleep enough. Those Fins sure know how to party. Hung out with bengo and the MyData2018 crowd. Return ferry to Tallinn, and another night there. Bus to Parnu; beach, mosquitoes, nice food.
name: Week in review: 27 August - 2 September
published: 2018-09-02T23:59:59+03:00
tag: bengo.is
tag: helsinki
tag: estonia
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: mydata2018

week-in-review-2
type: Article
content: Bussed from Parnu (Estonia) to Riga (Latvia) and then straight on to Cape Kolka. Spent a night on the beach in a barrel house. Hitchhiked around the coast to Liepaja with a stop in Ventspils. A day chilling in Liepaja before a bus to Klaipeda (Lithuania). A few days in Klaipeda, wandering and cafe- and hostel-working on i18n stuff. Cycled 40 miles along the Curonian Spit. Estonian e-residency was granted, pending pickup of ID card in a couple of weeks.
name: Week in review: 3 - 9 September
published: 2018-09-09T23:59:59+03:00
tag: lithuania
tag: week+in+review
tag: travel
tag: i18n
tag: klaipeda

week-in-review-3
type: Article
content: Bussed to Kaunas. Settled in to a hostel and co-working space. Did a bunch of i18n related stuff involving babel extractors and the transifex API for OCDS extensions. Generally explored Kaunas city center, ate lots of good food. Went to Kaunas botanical gardens and for a long walk along the river.
name: Week in review: 10 - 16 September
published: 2018-09-16T23:59:59+03:00
tag: hacking
tag: lithuania
tag: travel
tag: i18n
tag: kaunas

week-in-review-4
type: Article
content: Continued work on i18n stuff for OCDS extensions. Went into tourist mode; visited the Ninth Fort, memorial and museum, the City Hall Museum, the Kaunas Castle Museum and Church of the Ressurection (and some random other churches), the Vytautas the Great War Museum and the National Art Museum, aaaand saw the Pope and the crowds of 100k people who came to Kaunas to see the Pope. Finished Bojack Horseman (again (by which I mean I just finished it all when the new season came out)) and the Expanse book 6. Did a ton of character sketches for my imminent month-early Nanowrimo novel Birds.
name: Week in review: 17 - 23 September
published: 2018-09-23T20:38:00+03:00
tag: tourism
tag: kaunas
tag: week+in+review
tag: i18n
tag: travel
tag: nanowrimo

week-in-review-5
type: Article
content: Went for a long walk to the reservoir at Kaunas Lagoon Regional Park. Took the train from Kaunas to Vilnius. Toured the Vilnius vegan food scene. Researched and spec'd i18n stuff for BODS. Went to a rave in my hostel.. for like 10 minutes. Went to Vilnius TV tower and nearby green spaces. Day trip to Trakai, castle, lake, etc.
name: Week in review: 24 - 30 September
published: 2018-09-30T23:59:59+03:00
tag: vilnius
tag: kaunas
tag: tourism
tag: travel
tag: week+in+review
tag: i18n

wrong
type: Article
content: Holy Donut has this thing called a 'freak shake', one of which is vegan. It looks fantastic in the picture and description so finally I managed to give it a try. The only thing 'freak' about it though is how many things are wrong with it. Get it together people. Issue 1: They were out of coconut cream. No dairy cream is not okay. So okay, I go without. I resent that it's still more expensive than the non-vegan ones though. Issue 2: The chocolate crumbs were glued to the inside of the glass, with chocolate. How am I supposed to eat this? I object to such delicious chocolatey goodness being used solely for decoration. I chipped them off with my spoon and made a mess everywhere. Issue 3: Chocolate may look good swirled around the outside of the glass, but it set rock solid in the cold soy milk. I made a lot of noise and not much progress chipping away at it with my spoon. I. Want. To. Eat. The. Chocolate. Issue 4: The menu advertises 'lots of bananas'. There was only half a banana involved in the whole affair. How can I count this as a portion of fruit now? I spent a long time eating this milkshake and eventually got most of the chocolate out. It was a loud and messy process, and people definitely looked at me funny. In conclusion: I do not recommend the Holy Donut 'freak shake'. Also it was €7 which is EXCESSIVE. I had such high hopes.
name: Everything wrong with this Holy Donut milkshake
published: 2018-09-24T20:20:00+03:00
tag: holy+donut
tag: vegan
tag: food

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