Apologies for the lack of posting for a while, but I was in California. This was largely made possible by the extraordinary service of Estravel in Suur-Karja. The trip was arranged at the very last minute (booked on Friday for Monday departure), and Liis patiently sat for well over an hour trying to find me flights that wouldn’t cost an absolute fortune. Eventually she found me business class flights to JFK via Prague for less than the price that most airlines wanted for Economy.
I’d never even heard of Czech Air before so wasn’t sure what to expect. They’re no BA or Virgin, but I usually hate any flight over about 6 hours, and they managed to make a 9½ hour flight quite passable, so I would certainly fly with them again. (They’re probably equivalent to someone like Iceland Air.) Plus they provided the best airline food I’ve encountered in quite some time. (And with real metal cutlery!)
The main disadvantage became apparent on the return trip – the seats don’t recline enough to sleep well. Even though I was ludicrously tired, having had to leave my hotel shortly after 3am to get the first flight to JFK, I got almost no sleep on the way home. Coupled with the 10 hour difference my sleep patterns are now even more messed up then before…
When people warned me about the weather in Estonia I thought they were mainly referring to the temperature. I’m generally quite warm, so this doesn’t bother me too much, although the couple of times it’s reached sub zero not just in °C but also in °F then I’ve been willing to admit that it is might actually indeed be a little chilly.
However, I wasn’t really expecting the snow to bring quite so much physical danger. I’m getting better at judging whether the maniac drivers are actually going to try to stop when I’m crossing the road, although there seems to be at least one every day who decides just a little too late that driving straight into me might not be a good idea, and ends up skidding at me quite aggressively instead. But the real danger seems to be from huge sheets of snow suddenly falling from the tops of buildings into the street. I had foolishly assumed that people were choosing to walking down the middle of the streets in the Old Town because the footpaths were too slippy or had much more snow to wade through. This afternoon, after a near miss just in front of me, immediately followed by a direct hit on a couple just behind me, I decided that it would be much safer avoiding the footpaths entirely and jostling with the cars instead.
