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Ahhhh... I'm doing some research for a fic, and in doing so have ended up looking through a lot of the photos I took when I was in Tallinn. It really makes me want to visit again. The time we spent there was so short, just two days, and there are so many things that we didn't end up seeing. I was very overwhelmed, and there is a lot that I didn't absorb properly.

It's... possible? That I might visit again some day. I'm not going to rule it out, at any rate. But it's one of those "If I had an unlimited amount of time and money" things - even just getting over there to begin with is a time-consuming and expensive pain in the ass.

I keep finding myself thinking "Oh, we didn't go to this museum, or that other museum, why not? And I wish I had managed to get better pictures of such-and-such." ...(Mainly because better reference photos would have been helpful for this fic I'm working on, but also, you know. In general. Would have been nice.)

I remember there was street art everywhere. Very nice street art; I'd never seen anything like it. Everywhere you look there was some other small, clever thing. I'm not sure if it's still like that.

...Anyway. I should get back to things. This fic won't write itself (and I have to submit a summary for it by the end of the month, aughhhh)

On another note (related to Estonia and story research, but not to travel):

Folklore.ee is so very retro. Bless nerds and website design that hasn't changed much since the 90s. I keep running into this site when looking for stuff and then forgetting about it; there was one night when I spent way too much time poking through their Journal of Folklore. Note to self, this exists.

Damn, I wish we had a train that goes to Edmonton.

It'd be nice to get out of the city for a few days, go down there and maybe do some shopping or something, just to look at something that ain't Fort Mac. But flights are such a pain in the ass, and I'm not desperate enough to take a bus or drive myself down there.

The few times I took a train when I was on Europe trips, it was so nice - like okay, yes, I was also looking through everything through tourist goggles, because it was a vacation, but there is also the undeniable fact that trains are just so much more physically comfortable than stuffing yourself into a plane seat. Not to mention it doesn't have all the fuss of getting through the airport and whatnot.

Unfortunately, this is one of those "when hell freezes over" things, so I guess I'll just be staying home for the near future. ;V

Man, is the Promare soundtrack ever good for exercise music. I went for a nice, long, relaxing walk this morning, and that kept me going better than the audiobooks I've been listening to lately.

I headed down to an area that's on an incline - most of where I live is flat, but there's one part about 40 minutes away that's on a hill. The slope starts off gentle, so you don't really notice that you're going downward until you're at the bottom of it and looking up and thinking, "Well, fuck, I'm going to have to go up there if I want to get back, aren't I".

For a while now I've been using a treadmill on the incline, but doing it outside is a lot better, because it's much gentler on my body - I can only go as hard and as fast as the geography and my own body will allow. With the machine, I sometimes get carried away and push myself too far, and if I'm not careful, my joints really pay for it. Plus... y'know. Sunshine and fresh air is nice.

Today was kind of cold, which worked in my favour. Not many people around. I'm going to continue to try getting out before 10AM - the earlier the better. Especially as it starts to get warmer.

Originally, I started all this "working out on an incline" business because of my Norway trip. I did inform my friend that I live in a mostly-flat place - she asked if I wanted to hike up to Preikestolen, and unfortunately I had to give a flat-out NO because I know that I am not physically capable of a hike like that. She did come up with a more newbie-friendly alternative, but I'm still so worried that I'll end up being one of those dumbass tourists who takes on more than they can handle. So. Exercise. Yes.

I've been trying not to think about my Norway trip too much. I haven't cancelled it yet. But things are pretty uncertain right now. Too early to decide on anything. And... I haven't been keeping up with the status of things in Norway right now, because I know that if I do go looking, then I'll get obsessive about it, and it'll stress/distress me. For the same reason, I've been taking in only minimal information about Canada.

But... if I do have to postpone, and push it to 2021, it won't be the end of the world. It'll be a whole additional year that I can spend on exercising to get in shape for hiking with my friend, and a whole extra year to practice Norwegian too!

☆ Managed to book the final thing that I needed to book for the Norway trip. The site for booking the boat from Bergen to Stavanger kept giving me errors, but the friend I'll be visiting was not having the same problem, so she was able to handle that for me. Hooray!

Now all the important things are taken care of, and I don't have to worry about it any more. :D Bless my mate for saving me from having to make a very inconvenient phone call. <3

☆ ...Speaking of which, I'm very pleased with myself for realizing that there was a problem that I couldn't fix myself, and promptly asking for help with it. That's such a small thing, but I have a huge amount of difficulty asking for help with literally anything, so. Yes. Score one for me.

☆ Started using Clozemaster for Norwegian. It's... interesting! It was suggested as somewhere to try after Duolingo, because its methods are different and it's suggested for someone who already knows a little bit of whatever language they're studying.

Still not sure what I think of this site yet; going to have to fiddle around with it some more. One upside is that it offers NO -> FR as a course, so if I do want to try some laddering, there is an option (even if I'd prefer NO -> NL).

Do any of you use Clozemaster? My username is yuuago on there if anybody wants to friend me.

☆ Signups for offers for fandomforoz are closed now. Apparently over 200 people signed up. This makes me really happy. :) I was worried it wouldn't get much attention, but that's a good amount. And I managed to convince several people from SSSS fandom to sign up, which is great. :D
Looking forward to browsing week to see what everyone's willing to do. I'm so antsy... I can hardly wait for it! Ditto FTH, too.

☆ Book rec: The Marriage Clock by Zara Raheem. Contemporary romance about a young Muslim American woman who is given three months to find the right husband, or else her traditional Indian parents will find one for her. Picked it up because the cover was cute, and found the novel a light, quick, fun read, with a happy ending. (Though I will note that this is not Romance Genre, since it doesn't fit some of the Romance Genre requirements. Maybe it falls under the category of "women's fiction"? Not sure.)

The relationships between the main character and her family, and the main character and her friends, are more important than all of the dates that MC is going on. It would make a good romcom film, I think - I'd definitely watch an adaptation of it.

☆ I'm 80% finished drafting a fic with my OTP. It's absolute soppy self-indulgent nonsense. I'm so pleased. :D

I've been working on researching for my Norway trip - taking a huge load of notes on all of the things I want to do, the places to stay, and how to get there. After that, I'll know exactly how much time I need in each location, and I'll be able to book everything all at once. It's starting to look as if transport won't be as difficult as I thought, so I guess I've managed to get over that anxiety hurdle - for the time being, anyway.

Of course, when it comes time to actually do everything, I'm sure I'll be a bundle of nerves, but... hopefully I'll be able to chill out a little and just enjoy it, too. Trains and ferries are scary because they're unfamiliar, but since the trips are pretty long, I'll hopefully be able to relax a bit and enjoy the pretty scenery.

For the Oslo -> Bergen bit, I'm going to be doing one of those Norway in a Nutshell tours, where instead of taking the direct route, you switch trains in Myrdal and go up to Flåm, and then take a boat through the fjords for a bit before reconnecting to the Oslo-Bergen train route.

Ordinarily I'd avoid something with so many detours and connections (anxiety city!), but it seems like a really good way to appreciate the beautiful landscape. With luck, I'll be able to get some amazing photos. And since it's so organized, I think it will be fine - the connections are well-marked, apparently. Plus there is also an option for the tour company to handle your luggage through to Bergen for you (if you're staying at certain places), so I won't have to haul my suitcase around the train and boat. One less thing to worry about.

For the Bergen -> Stavanger part of it, I'm definitely taking a boat, and I've figured out how to book it (and the bus to get to Stavanger city centre), so I think I'll be fine on that end, too.

I'm looking up things to do in Bergen now, and starting to have a bit of fun with it. There are so many things I'd love to do! (Have any of you been there? Any suggestions?) Definitely going to have to bring along my waterproof jacket in case of the notorious rain... I get the impression that Bergen is a bit like Vancouver in that regard.

Definitely going to have to get in some practice with my camera in preparation for all this, oh boy. :D

☆ Looking forward to Chocolate Box Exchange! Noms open from now until the 28th, signups start on the 1st, more details over at chocolateboxcomm. I've already started on my letter. :D

☆ Went out for coffee with C again today. It was nice! I am glad that I'm continuing to make an attempt at acting like a normal human being. She mentioned that she might be hosting a board game party sometime in the next couple of weeks, and I'm welcome to come - so hopefully she'll call me once she nails a date down. It sounds nice.

☆ All of the crazy reviews for the Cats film are kind of making me morbidly curious about it, haaa. It almost makes me want to watch it. But I'll probably wait until it comes out on disc - I'm not that curious. ;) (And I can only afford to go to the movies so many times in one month, anyway.)

☆ Speaking of movies, I'm probably going to go see Little Women with my mom some time during the break. She saw the trailer and liked it, and since she hasn't been to our new cinema yet, it seems like a good time. I've never read the novel, so I don't know all the details, but the trailer does look nice.

☆ I took the Good Omens tv series out from the library. :D I'm looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about! Now I just need to... find time to sit down and watch it... Not sure how that will happen, but we'll see. ;)

☆ Going to start planning my Norway trip in earnest in January. I was briefly considering delaying until 2021, because a museum that I wanted to visit won't be open until then; the National Museum of Art was supposed to reopen in autumn of 2020, but it's going to be delayed until Spring 2021. That's disappointing, but... no, autumn 2020 for this trip sounds good. It isn't as if that was the only thing I wanted to see in Oslo, anyway. ;) So! Time to research Oslo, Bergen, and Stavanger. And transport in between cities - which is my biggest concern. I have no difficulty figuring out things to do in any particular place, but inter-city transport always makes me very nervous.

☆ It's going to start getting a bit brighter soon! ...But not soon enough. Ugh, I'm so sick of winter already. Wake me up in May, please?

Spent the last four days doing Real Life Things! Had to go down south for a wedding. It's a pretty damn long trip from Fort Mac to Calgary, so we overnighted at my parents' cabin in Athabasca part of the way.

( Cabin stuff )
( Wedding stuff )

+ I have arrived back home in one piece. :V All in all, it was a nice trip, and I'm glad I went. I'm unsure if I prefer Victoria in spring or late autumn... either way, it's nice to get away from Fort McMurray weather for a while.

+ Currently working on a scarf in linen stitch with stockingette bands*. A little different from some patterns I've tried previously - I've never done a stitch that reqires two separate colours; most of the colourwork I've done is just stranded fair isle type stuff. It was a little frustrating until I figured out exactly how it works. Anyway, I'm using Urth Harvest Worsted for it, in grey and black - I'm really liking this yarn a lot; it feels nice on the hands. Though I must say that knitting with size 11 needles feels so awkward to me. They're so... FAT.

+ Provincial election coming up next week... I think I will see about advance voting on Saturday. Hadn't given it much thought, but I'm remembering that last time was an absolute pain in the ass when I tried to do things on the actual day-of. Will be nice if I can get it out of the way and over with beforehand. I'm really concerned about how things are going to go - I'm worried the province will flip conservative again. It seems very likely. (And then it'll stay that way for a few decades... again....) My area is probably going to go UCP no matter what, unfortunately. But I'm going to try not to worry too much, because that won't help anything.

So far on this vacation, I've somehow managed to go to three concerts in two days. ;)

The first was a free outdoor concert by Knacker's Yard. They're a traditional Celtic band from Victoria. It was a bit chilly out, but still a good time. They played a whole load of fun trad stuff, like "The Greenland Whale Fisheries" and so on. I might need to pick up one of two of their albums later. (They're on Bandcamp here.)

The second concert was the "Gate to the East" performance by the Constantinople Ensemble, with vocals by Marco Beasley. The concert was arranged by the Early Music Society of the Islands* - I think I have been to a EMSI concert before, though I can't remember which one it was. Anyway. This performance is based on works that were found in a manuscript from the 17th century, the Majmua. It was compiled by the Polish musician Albert Bobowski, and contains Italian, Ottoman, and Persian works. It was an absolutely gorgeous performance, and a really good time. If any of you ever get the chance to see the Constantinople Ensemble perform - I definitely encourage it. :D

The third and last was an orchestral Queen tribute performed by the Victoria Symphony Orchestra. Let me tell you, "Bohemian Rhapsody" sounds pretty good in symphonic form. ;) I'm not sure all of Queen's songs lend themselves well to this - there was electric guitar incorporated, and it overwhelmed the sound of the orchestra, I think. But it was still a very good time.

I've sure been enjoying this visit so far. :D No large plans until Tuesday night - when I'll be seeing a performance of the ballet Giselle, which is what brought me here in the first place.

I don't remember mentioning this before, but I'll be going on a short trip to Victoria in April. Yay! Normally, I don't take time off from work in spring, because it's one of the busiest times of year at my office, but there's a ballet production of Giselle that I would love to see, so... I just didn't want to pass that up!

It's too bad that things like that don't come to my city, but it'll be nice to get out of this place for a few days. I've never been to Victoria in spring, but I'm sure it'll be lovely, because Victoria is always lovely. Over here, there's typically still a lot of snow and ice around that time, and it's just awful.

I've also started considering what to do next year.

It's been a while since I've gone on a really big trip, and I've wanted to go to Norway for quite a while now. Considering all that, well... Norway in 2020? Why not.

I do know for sure that I want to go to Oslo and Bergen. Also, I have a friend in Stavanger, and it'd be nice to visit her, though she's so busy and I'm not sure how we'd coordinate that. Unsure if I want to go to other cities (mmmaybe Trondheim?). And there's also the question of do I want to see things like stave churches (yes) and if so how to get there (uhh...).

Travelling to unfamiliar places, even when I'm in my own country, is always a bit of a challenge because anxiety makes things difficult for me. Major cities where I can just walk wherever I want to go are not a problem, but anything that requires any kind of additional transport can be very stressful (I am the idiot who walked from downtown Ottawa to Gatineau, spent hours walking around the history museum, and then walked back to Ottawa, because the idea of taking the bus stressed me out too much). And things like trains and ferries are extra-stressful - I'm not used to them because we don't have them here.

But I'm not going to let anxiety kick my ass. :V I took a train from Amsterdam to Brussels when I was doing that trip a few years back, and I did not die or get lost or miss my stop, so clearly I can manage inter-city travel in some capacity. xD

Doing this next year rather than this year seems best, because that way I have a ton of time to decide exactly where I want to go, and what I want to do there, and precisely how to get to those places, and when. Detailed planning at my own pace will help a lot, I think. And it's also good that unlike the Netherlands-Belgium trip, which I took with an acquaintance, in this case I won't need to coordinate with anyone else in any way, except possibly if I go to Stavanger. Travelling with other people can be fun, but compromise can be frustrating, and asking friends to accommodate my needs or even just my tastes/preferences is embarrassing.

And planning for next year means it'll give me a whole year to cram Norwegian, which is fine since I've been meaning to work on that more anyway. I keep saying "I'll do it later, when I feel like it" but really, there's no reason not to work on it now, especially considering I have a set of audiolessons that are actually pretty good, and I can knit while I listen to them.

Anyway! Yes. Looks like I have a lot of things to think about. ;)