A Question - one of those eternal questions

I pose a question: if travelling is a seemingly never-ending quest for the perfect cafe, what happens when you find it? And I´m not just talking about a pretty nice cafe with decent - or even very good - coffee, and friendly, physically appealing staff ... but The perfect cafe. Why, then, travel?

So somehow, unexpectedly, I ended up in Estonia, in the lovely medieval capital Tallinn (double L, double N). Me and Marnie caught an overnight night from Oulu to Helsinki - ah, the Finnish trains: so so nice. And clean. Relaxing even. Safe. ... Ok, enough of me whistful about a train! I catch a flying glimpse of Helsinki before we jump on the Ferry of Joy - full of drunken Finns (even though it was 9am) and the best of all bands ever - three moustachioed Finnish chaps and a keyboard (a keyboard to rival even your keyboard Julia!). They did a nice selection of western, English-language hits: 'Save the Last Dance For Me' (I did, but they never asked me), 'Imagine', what else? I can´t remember; but all you need to know is that it was quali-tar (with a capital QUOLL). Especially the verses in Finnish and the choruses in English (a method I think the Northcote Military TATU of Death should consider, especially if they want to break into the cross-cultural ferry band scene). So, some hours of musical joy later, we arrive in sunny Tallinn - which was indeed sunny. That day. And beautiful.

So beautiful, in fact (sorry, was that a random paragraph break or what?), that instead of just spending one short afternoon, one short night, one short morning there and then leaving the next day; we decided to spend another day there and another night. Like a lots of old towns here in Europe, Tallinn was a maze of little cobbled streets constructed in the days when town planning was nothing more than a puff of smoke in the future and much more important was finding the nearest cat to chuck down a well in order to keep the water supply plentiful - not to mention, ah, hygienic (something they apparently used to do in Tallinn - and there was only one well!). Great place to get lost, which is what we did a fair bit of. Also great place for little cafes, bars, restuarants and other cosy nooks ideal for drinking coffee or mulled wine and eating yummy sorts of things like pancakes. "Absurdly cosy" was the phrase I think the guide book used. Or "ridiculously cosy". Or "obscenely cosy"-??! One such place is the one I refer to in my opening question. And I won`t tell you where it is or what it´s called, because then what will you have to travel for, or even live for?

Day 2 in Estonia we awoke to white white everywhere. And it was cold! So not talcum powder or crack cocaine all over the streets and houses (not even very cold talcum powder and crack cocaine!), but SNOW! More snow! Great! Still so novel to me at this point. And still so cold. Hence the cosiness of all the cosy cafes became even more important to us and we spent even more hours in The Perfect Cafe, doing little more than drink coffee, write postcards, and covertly drink Estonian-Scottish whiskey to keep our insides warm. Ah! Delightful. Why am I still travelling again?

So we cosy-hop through Tallinn for the day, I buy my new favourite hat, thus bringing my travelling hat collection up to an inappropriate but still manageable five. And covered in white stuff, Tallinn really is more obscenely beautiful than before. And made me want to explore Eastern Europe even more. So y'all, listen to me: go to Tallinn!

Then shall I fast forward through time, give you a brief rundown on the Finland, non-Tallinn part of the week... We jumped back on another ferry, this time not the Ferry of Joy, but the Ferry of Rough Seas, Sleeping Esther, Knitting Marnie, Subliminal Messages Telling you to Eat Finnish Lollies and Duets between Mick Jagger and Jude Law. I kid you not. On the TV that is - not like those two are now in the "cross-cultural ferry band scene" as well! Wow, that really would be something!... "Laaaaaaaaaaadiees and gentlm'n, Tallink and Viking Line Baltic Seas Entertainment are pleeeeeased to present to you, straight from the set of Alfie, just for you, just for tonight, well, just for this morning and for the rest of the week and for however long we can keep them, singing ALL the words in English, maybe even pashing, let me hear it for, will you give it up for JUDE LAW AND THE ROLLING STONES!"

So, anyway, where was I? We arrive back in Finland, which is icey white and covered in cold cold icing sugar. Mm, tasty. We then jump on another delightful Finnish train, following a small tour of Finnish railway doors (very interesting if you like that sort of thing. Doors, that is), and find our snowy way to Tampere, a Finnish city which appallingly lacks in cute cosy cafes and in not being Tallinn. Though we did find what is possibly the only cute cosy cafe there and frequented it for a bit. And it did amazing Pulla (Finnish wheat bun) so I should cut it some slack. Also in Tampere was our buddy Karien - over from London to avoid the English heatwave and get some of that icing sugar action. Also H&M therapy. Good fun times for everyone but our wallets.

Then I caught yet another divine, clean Finnish train and headed south to Helsinki, while Marnie headed north to Oulu and Karien caught a large flying bird back to England. By this stage the white stuff had gone where white stuff goes to die (should I try a pun about Kate Moss at this point?!) and the weather heated up to acceptable 8 or 9 degrees. And I found I still had all my toes - bonus!

This time I checked out Helsinki for a bit longer and found it nice, but it´s no Stockholm. This post is already rather long so I´ll tell you just the highlight. Which, for me, was a chap working at the Helsinki Library who looked so much like Gary Oldman that if I hadn´t talked to him and found that he spoke English with a Finnish accent and thus probably was Finnish, then I would have thought he was Gary Oldman! Working in Helsinki Library! Crazy shit! ... Though now I think about it, Gary Oldman is an actor, right? ... So, maybe, he can do accents?! ... Do you think I talked to Gary Oldman without even realising it!?! ... So, like he was a man in tartan troosers, I stalked this may-or-may-not-be-Gary-Oldman-chap for a bit. Joy to be had by all, namely me.

Now I am in Berlin with Michelle and Charlie and young Genna. Flew here today, back in time, and am somewhat tired, so hence the possible craziness of this post! Shoulda warned you at the start, right?! Hope life is sweet for y'all and you know what y'all should do? Apart from joining a ferry band or visiting Tallinn or stalking some random member of the public. You should leave me comments and tell me what you're up to!

xxxx