On our way back from the birthday party in Otepää.

Yesterday when we drove from Tallinn to Otepää, I ignored Google’s #1 suggestion of taking the obvious route via Tartu and chose a shorter and more scenic route. We had some time to kill and nothing better to do with it. In the end I don’t think that road even took any longer than the primary one – the roads were slightly smaller but much emptier.

Today for various reasons we took the Otepää-Tartu-Tallinn route after all. This drive was no longer but I enjoyed it much less. An empty road is so much more pleasant.

I don’t normally enjoy driving. It’s a chore. But I now realized that the thing I don’t enjoy is in fact not driving itself but traffic. When there is none, I can relax and actually enjoy driving. Just like with skiing: when we were in Idre, I noticed that I instantly became a much better skier when there were no other skiers sharing the slope with me.

At the end of our drive we had an hour of slack time in Tallinn and spent it in Kadriorg park. The spot in the photo is one that I remember from my childhood visits to the same park. At least I believe it is the same spot: the park has changed over the years. It’s a small brook, trickling along a picturesque arrangement of mossy stones, shaded by large trees. As a child I always thought there was a fairy tale kind of feeling to it.