Sledding at the Song Festival Grounds

With my friend Bryan today, I went to the Song festival grounds to do a bit of sledding. There is a small hill, which is a bit of a standout feature in a country as flat as Estonia, which attracts a crowd whenever it snows. We joined a small crowd, consisting of mainly small children and their mothers slowly gliding across the snow. I think they thought we were very odd, two grown men fooling about on sleds that were clearly made for children, riding down the steepest section of the hill! Here is a poorly made home video which shows a little bit of the action.

Weather

I've been reading on the internet the last few days about some wild weather in Australia, and now it seems that I'm getting to experience Mother Nature's anger first hand here in Tallinn. We had our first snow of the season last week, a lovely, gentle sprinkling which seemed to lift everyone's mood, as the first snow always does. However today a howling wind appeared and caused a snow storm, and I think I can safely say this is the worst weather I have ever seen.

Obviously the weather has caused chaos on the roads. Bus Timetables are all over the place, and as I type this Sirli's parents are stuck on a train that has stopped somewhere in between Tartu and Tallinn. The wind even caused a large section of rendering on our apartment building to come loose, causing a bit of a mess when it fell to the ground. It managed to smash the window of the cafe downstairs.

Words probably cant sum up weather like this, so I was looking on the newspaper sites to try and find some pictures which tell their thousand. I think the following picture of an unfortunate Estonian sheep is the best.


Here's a picture that is taken just down the road from where we live.