Another fine Saturday morning! The sun has nicely heated up the room, even through the dark curtains and when I wonder where I am, my alarm goes off. Why would my alarm go off on Saturday? After a moment it comes to me- it's Friday, but it's Easter holiday, so no work thoughts today.
I turn my alarm off and roll out of bed like a sack of potatoes, which I am. Quick breakfast and some exercise, coffee and The Simpsons season 28 episode 5, we're finished here at home.
Lets fast forward a bit and skip the part where we weigh our options of what we want to do and where we want to go, how far we want to drive and what to bring with us. We settle on one of our favourite places, Laulasmaa woods, where you can walk between the pines and, depending on your preference, end up at the beach or perhaps at some deserted structures. We choose both.
As we park our car by the road, the smell of nature smacks us right in the face with a cool breeze of the scent of pinecones and distant sounds of the sea. Onwards!
There's this tower that I used to climb. They have now locked the top level up, probably because they don't want people messing around between the thousand antennas on the top there. But even from the level below the top, you can get a nice view of the Laulasmaa peninsula. I skip the tower this time, as there are no stairs or ladders on the lower level and I'm today with my family - I wouldn't want to keep them waiting on me this time. Maybe next time.
Skeletons! Nothing too scary, some animal has found it's gruesome end. A spine and... is that a jaw? Zoologists comment please. Or maybe someone did some spine soup and the family dog stole the bones?
Nah, I bet it's an ancient species of dinosaur. Bone-a-saurus.
Paths dwindle into multiple directions. Overwhelmed by the beautiful nature around us, we take our sweet time. Everybody is already used to me stopping and grabbing a photosnap now and then, so no-one is really surprised when I try some macro photography. Who doesn't love a good moss, right?
What's this metal pole sticking out of the ground? Is that.. a nade? Grenade! Looks like an old grenade handle, but a bit too tall. So probably it's just some kind of post or landmark. You know, Estonia being occupied by foreign forces and heavily militarised for decades in history, has left many weird landmarks in our beautiful country.
These landmarks have begun to decay in some places and sink into nature, creating surreal and beautiful places to spot and explore. Like a random concrete post just in the middle of a field or ruins in the forest.
Suddenly, civilisation! Or remains of one. Looks like some kind of old water reservoir, perhaps for the firebrigade? And of course the building is painted with graffiti. That hole is actually fenced up but I'm tall, so I grab a photo over the fence. Even when I could push the fence over with my pinky.
Hmm, this log would be perfect... I'd make various stuff out of it in my garage. I'm already imagining weird structures and stuff. Or perhaps I just like to imagine.
We make it to a small settlement, which is announced by a chimney, towering over some old buildings like a cannon, preparing to shoot clouds of smoke into cosmos.
The chimney looks done though. The top rungs of the ladder are missing and the steel hoops that hold the chimney from collapsing, are starting to give. Some of the top ones are missing and one seems to come collapsing down any day now, precariously swinging in the wind. This is one chimney I probably won't climb.
Behind the small patch of trees, the sea can be seen. We're at our destination. It's a bit cold, 7 degrees Celsius with a cold breeze, so we're not spending much time here. I have my swimming gear (towel) back in the car anyway, so no swimming either. It's not to deep at the shore here, so I don't want to catch a cold, trying to walk into deeper water.
Right next to the beach is a deserted conference center, where I grabbed some snaps as well. Coming in part two.
