catching up!

I am a terrible blogger. It has definitely been awhile since I've blogged. In that time, I've been to Estonia and Finland. And I took 4 glorious days of a long weekend to spend it in the countryside. Indeed, I think I'll stay mostly in France for the moment since I'm short on funds. In other news, I have signed up for the 10k Run in Lyon race. The goal is to run it in less than an hour!

In the meantime, to keep me busy, I've been following the NPT 2014 Prepcom like mad, through live stream webtv or twitter. Occasionally, it's quite amusing to poke fun at some of the statements. This week is the Group of Experts meeting on Lethal Autonomous Robots, so I'll be following that as well.

So, Estonia. For the first time, I actually had to use Russian, not counting the times in Geneva. But in Tallinn, most of the young people speak English. Most of the older ones didn't, so the Russian was quite useful. I was pleased that I actually had to speak Russian. The old town in Tallinn was beautiful. Outside the old city, I can definitely see the architecture of the Soviet Union. If you go to Tallinn, I highly recommend the KGB museum. It's inside a hotel, called Hotel Viru. The reason why this hotel was built was to accommodate all the tourists that wanted to visit Tallinn. However, the Soviet Union government didn't want those outsiders to talk to the folks in town so this hotel was designed to be a closed hotel, where everything you ever need is inside the hotel. You would never have to leave the hotel. In this way, the Soviet Union kept all the foreigners in one place. The spying was done inside the hotel. Cameras and recording devices were everywhere. In fact, this sign on a door cracked me up.

It says: "There is nothing here." Some logic the KGB had. This is an original office on the 23rd floor where they held the KGB. The room was left as it is after the KGB fled, right after the fall of the Soviet Union. If you want to go, be sure to reserve online. You'd pay at the museum, 9 euros. 

City gates

It was gorgeously sunny for the entire 4 days during Easter. This Russian Orthodox Cathedral was magnificent. One of my friends was baptized here. Beautiful on the inside and definitely worth visiting. Old town takes awhile to get through if you're planning to explore every nook and cranny. Of course, in any old town, there are hills to climb and cobblestones to conquer. But honestly, that's the charms of old towns! It's amazing that it is so intact and ancient. The remaining ancient city walls have remained mostly connected, though I can't imagine people running up and down the stairs since they're unimaginably steep. How do you run up and down those things if there's actually a battle going on?

Town hall

View of the harbor from St. Olaf's Cathedral 

View of Old town from St. Olaf's Cathedral

Easter day was reserved for a quick day trip to Helsinki, Finland. The boat ride took 2h40 each way, but roundtrip ticket was only 28 euros. Honestly, if it weren't a Sunday and Easter, things would have been opened. However, because it was a Sunday and Easter, all the museums were closed, except restaurants and churches. Oh, not to mention, it is an expensive city. One hour on the public transportation will cost you three euros. Luckily, despite most things being closed, it was sunny day. A boat ride to Finland (on right)

Helsinki Cathedral

Cute church where most of my French family were baptized

The four days that I spent in the countryside was, like I said, the most relaxing four days I ever had. I hopped on the train Wednesday after work, got picked up at the train station, and give into my brain's need to rest. Besides sleeping and eating, we watched films, went on walks, and went to Troyes. I slept in for the first time in my life! I was also able to put in two days of running, did lots of reading and feeling generally free from the lack of wifi. The place was great to train for the race. I definitely need to go there more often.

By Lac d'Orient

Here, the flowers are yellow. In the south, they're purple (morning run)

We took Friday afternoon off to go to Troyes, a city not far from Paris.

Troyes Cathedral

Inside the Cathedral

Looking forward to more adventures on the way. A trip to Paris has been scheduled at the end of the month! I may head south in June and after that, we'll see where the wind blows me. Life in Lyon is absolutely wonderful. I still plan on loving this city for many years to come. The goal this month is to find a church that'll suit me and continue to read those English and French books.

À la prochaine!