Wishing everyone peaceful and white holidays! We got some surprise snow at the last minute here in Estonia, so we finally got what we wished for, a White Christmas. Can't remember the last time, seems like it was aeons ago.
We were visiting some relatives of @raili across the country and the drive took us near one of the coolest lakes in Estonia, Äntu Sinijärv, which rock super clear water very uncharacteristic for these lands here, so it was obvious I packed my swimming trunks. And even if I had forgotten to pack, I always had the chance to go in bucknaked as people were all sitting at their tables already and the place would have been deserted.
When we took off from Tallinn, the weather was quite nasty, with wet snow and cold breeze, so we didn't hope to see much snow on our trip, but as we got further and further away from the coast, the nature and weather started to change. The weather got a few degrees colder and the moistness was replaced with a nice white coat of snow on trees and nature all around us.
There hadn't been any sun for days as thick clouds have been covering the skies for the better part of the month now, thus making the darkness descend earlier in the day. It was barely half past 2 PM, but it felt like early evening already.
There were no other people at the lakes, but the fire pit at the barbeque ground was still smoking and a few cars were parking. Guess these are the hikers, I hear there are great hiking trails around here, but this time we didn't have too much time to spare, so these would have to wait to be explored.
There it was! The lake, in it's glory. The bleak weather made it feel extra cold and lonely.
Some of the further part of the lake wasn't covered by ice, so there would have been a perfect spot for a swim.
But as it seems lately, ice swimming is a national sport here, so people have carved a hole in the ice here as well, at the end of the footbridge. Perfect.
The usual moment of hesitation, and moments later I found myself getting into my swimming trunks and my striped winter hat. The bridge was slippery with trampled snow, so I almost lost my footing and threw all my clothes into the icy lake, doing a move Michael Jackson would have been proud of.
Trampled snow is best, you can just throw your clothes on the ground, they won't get dirty or wet.
See me peeking in the water there. "Come on in, it's not cold at all!"
There was even some room for a few strokes if one wanted to do some laps around himself. Well, I just lazied around in the water some, just enough to feel warmth over my whole body when I got out. A minute is enough, so you can stand around naked on the bridge in freezing cold and still feel warm. Just a word of caution - don't dilly-dally around naked too much after the swim or you will catch some kind of cold.
Afterwards, I took the path that leads around the lake in the other direction, to grab some photos of the scenery. Would love to hike around here for a bit longer in the wintertime if given the chance.
But that's it for now, enjoy the scenery and have a peaceful Christmas!
