I Won't Quote

Okay, maybe not literally entire year but for sure 95% of the past year's breakfasts can be labelled as porridge. (I will be using the word "porridge" here so much that it won't even sound like a real word in the end. Porridge. Porridge. Porridge.)

Firstly - what is considered porridge here in Estonia (mostly) and what I mean by it personally?

Sweet porridge. Either oatmeal (the most popular one), mixed seeds porridge (different kind of grains, I like 8 or 7 different types, but there are ones that mix 5 different or 4 different etc; Veski Mati and Tartu Mill are definitely my favourite brand and I love that... it will sound so lame... that I got a box of it after finishing a marathon. Here. I said it.), rice porridge. I am not a fan of sweet buckwheat as here I have always had buckwheat with salty stuff. Maybe I will get into that in the future though.

Obviously on most of the days I don't set it up so nicely but just mix everything together while it is still on the stove. But here is my fav combo: 4 types of mixed grains, half of a banana mashed in there, peanutbutter mixed in there and topped with rest of the banana, coconut shreds, almonds and cashews, dried crandberries and rainsins and dark chocolate pieces. Pair with: coffee.

Take aways from this experience:

Another day, another combo: rice flakes with half of a banana and handful of blackberries (yes, blackberries. Not blueberries.), topped with rest of the banana and coconut shreds. Pair with: coffee.

It has been a journey. When I was a kid, my mum would make porridge with just oatmeal, milk, sugar and a lot of jam. Usually fresh strawberry jam we would make during summer and freeze. And I always considered it just as an addition to normal breakfast, I would for sure have a sandwitch or fried egg or something in addition. I always felt super hungry after having just porridge, and super soon. Now I know it was probably the amount of just plain sugar and not really any nutritional stuff in the meal.

That is still how I started.

Another really good one: rice flakes and half of a banana, topped with rest of the banana, some raisins and a handful of frozen blackberries + some cinnamon. Pair with, as always: coffee.

At one point I switched regular milk to soymilk and at the moment I only use water. WATER? Soggy and meh you say? Well.

At first my porridge was kinda blergh indeed. (I am such a good writer I amaze myself...) I tried not to use sugar and used honey, but after quitting sweetners in my tea and coffee I did not want to use any of that in the porridge as well. I started adding more jam, but this was not too good as well, as most of it still is made with sugar.

During summertime - porridge with banana, topped with frozen mango, coconut and fresh strawberries. You can see what it is paired with.

At one point I decided to use a banana. I had several overly ripe ones at home and I had already made banana-oat pancakes - why not use it in porridge then? It was mindblowing, honestly. This is also when I realised it gives enough creamy texture so that you really don't need milk. Just water is fine - make sure you cook your oats enough.

I promise there is some porridge under it. I just really needed to finish the strawberries...

Also thanks to a friend I started using different topings - not just fruits or jam. At the moment I think for the past... 4 months for sure I have had different porridge but the toppings are always the same: fruit and nut mix, shredded coconut, peanut butter! And one whole banana. And half a cup of dry oats. I just mix it all together and enjoy the warm and filling and sweet and amazing thing. Every morning. Even during the weekends when I could actually have something else. If I do (here is the 5 percent) I feel that something is wrong and I get hungry much sooner. The 5% I have had other kind of foods has been when I have been travelling or have visited a friend, parents etc. Even then I mostly try to stick to my regular breakfast.

Porridge with banana and peanutbutter, topped with fruit and nut mix, frest blackberries and coconut shreds.

Another thing in my recent porridge-discovery is rice porridge. Something my family hated and I never tried during my childhood. My favourite way to have this is definitely cooking rice flakes with mashed banana (optional here, but I do love my bananas!), some raisins and CINNAMON. I do have some frozen blackberries as well that I sometimes add as a topping and to create this nice a little sour and fresh taste.

Also I love different textures together.

What is your favourite breakfast? Would you be able to stick with if the whole year?

For me - I am going to continue for sure and I am thinking of taking a picture of my breakfast every morning from the 1st of November 2017.

So the day three rolled around. 

The most beautiful days. Breathtaking. Never enough of the nature. I want to have another trip so bad and only for hiking. I loved it,

We decided to go to the aquarium, because I have only once been to that kind of place, in Kiel, but no more. Also my friend got me as soon as she mentioned penguins, I was sold. In addition to this, there were also sea lions and we saw their show...

Again we decided to walk to town, and on the way found this legendary spot as well.

If you know anything about Bergen hip hop scene you know this place.

Apparently even with google maps it is more than possible to get lost, but who would mind that, if the weather is absolutelt gorgeous and the views breathtaking.

I think it was great time to see the aquarium, as there were not too many people around. It was Monday, if I remember correctly. (Also a tip - aquarium entrance fee is less on weekdays and more on weekends).

I had also never seen any penguins. They are adorable.

Bryggen from across the water. One thing I am really impressed with is that some of the houses were under construction. And instead of covering them with some pastic and whatever staging they use for aid, it was covered in some material that had the house printed on it so it would not ruin the view?! HOW AMAZING IS THIS. And it was not only at Bryggen, it was also the case with other tourist places that were currently being renovated??? Norway, heck yes, you have gotten this so right! THANK YOU.

Hello from the other side.

After that we walked around some more and finally headed to town center because we were doing the smart think of deciding to have some lunch instead of running on too little energy and getting grumpy. There was a fish market nect to Bryggen and we got some fantastic salmon burgers. I do not eat meat but I do sometimes like fish, that's also why I don't usually say I am vegetarian; only when someone starts ranting about meat. I eat what I eat and I don't want to label this stuff. I normally just say I don't eat meat at the moment because of health reasons,

After that it was given that we should hike up Fløyen, I had been wanting to go there forever. We dropped by the tourist center to get the map and check/ask the best way to do this and off we were.

It had not been that warm in the morning but by the time we were half way up I was really dying. Probably the 7/11 coffee I had gotten did not help as well. It was honestly quite fun though, climing up. Well, climbing part comes on my second to last day, this was just walking up the mountain.

Half-way-up enjoying the sun, Who wouldn't want to live in one of those white houses there???

Nevertheless, it was the highest place I had been to that point, or walked to. As Estonia is such a flat country, all the hills and ups and downs took a toll on my body (but helped me to grow my stamina sooo much I still feel, after a month of being back, that I am fitter than ever before).

Told someone I am meeting my ancestors.

Also - remark to Dilan: I finally looked it up, Fløyen is 340 meters high. A huge difference between this and Estonia's highest "mountain".

We were just sitting there, me having my ultimate favourite baked good and Dilan a cinnamon roll. Hung out with some trolls, took pics, saw some goats, helped other tourists to take pictures and that's about it. I fell in love with this place so much that there were actually 2 more times I went up.

My emotions can be described as !!!!!!!!!!!!! and !!!!!!!!??!??!?!!!1.

Here you see the Estonia's highest mountain. Not the land covered with the trees. Oh no. The tower. Man-built tower.

THE ULTIMATE PASTRY, SKOLEBRØD. I dream about those.

After that we were pretty tired and decided tooo drop by Kafe Spesial our airbnb host recommended us for pizza. We were still quite full from the lunch so we just had a beer. I went wild and decided to try Norwegian extra dark one - it was absolutely delicious. Still surprised about myself.

We took the electric train down from the mountain because it was a must. A beautiful view. And also, they removed the floral decorations the next day, so please enjoy my good photo.

The hike really wore us out and soon enough we headed back home, having walked literally 29 kilometers by the time we got there (this was a lot. But all of my days after that were probably around 40 so... a marathon a day keeps... something... away).

We watched Charlie and the Chocolate factory and some more Lilyhammer. It was a good day. 10/10 would repeat 10 x 10 times again.

I have to say that up until 2 days before leaving Bergen, the title rainiest town would have sounded a complete lie to me. The time I got to spend with Dilan, we were presented with the most amazing summer weather. I honestly think it was even warmer than it had been all summer in Estonia.

Really summery feel. Blue sky, water, mountains... I may be in love.

Our first day was kind of really chill but kind of really busy. Bergen hosted the World Cycling Championships so the town was crowded. It was actually quite amazing to see how many people and supporters there were - I imagine 17th of May may (haha see what I did there) look like this: everyone had Norwegian flags, patterned clothes or just had coloured their faces.

Our awesome walk to town.

I really wanted to see Bryggen, so we took quite a long detour to make it there as some roads were closed. They did let people cross when it was safe, though. There were so many cameras and radio and TV people and also even helicopters. I feel like literally every single cafe/restaurant/bar had live footage playing on TV. We did stop to cheer several times, it was just kind of addicting. And made sense.

Final race of the day.

Bryggen was awesome. As one of world heritage towns, Bergen does have such a strong culture and some unique and fantastic places. We took pictures and stopped by Gunvorr store (support local!) and just hung out there for a bit.

Our next stop was KODE museums. There are 4 of them (3 open right now) and if you get a ticket to one, you can actually visit all of them. Also, the ticket is valid for 2 days actually, so you don't even need to hurry.

Very much of a classic.

I am a museum/art gallery person. I really like these kind of culture trips and it was really nice. I wish I still had my ability to make puns out of everything but somehow I have lost my touch. I should really re-read the book "The Pun Also Rises" my friend gave me... Anyway.

Dilan really liked the park in the town center so we had several stops there in order just to sit, rest, have a snack and talk. It was sunny and warm (I could not get over it). We even answered to some people's inquiry regarding our trip, which was pretty fun (not the part where they asked us "how much is your estimated spending on food gonna be").

As we finished in the last KODE museum building, we were desperately hungry and could not focus on anything. I had been craving for pizza since the marathon and hadn't had it yet, so we looked up pizza places. We would have liked to have gone to Kafe Spesial but as the town was too crowded and this was on the street where part of the race happened as well, we decided to pick other one for the day.

We went to Mollaren, which was really adorable, too. It did not look anything special, but it was sweet. The server was really nice and accommodating, and they also showed the race on TV. It was the last 40 km or so. There were a lot of Norwegians around, having a couple of beers and cheering for Norwegian racer. Honestly it was so fun to see them actually bang on the tables and yell. Kind of like in American movies they do with football.

Right outside the pizza place, which I honestly recommend!

We had awesome pizza, then got ice cream from the store and headed back to the flat. It was a long (yet amazingly nice) walk and we were still quite tired.

Airbnb host had told us to feel free and use Netflix so we started watching Hotel Transilvania and Lilyhammer, I think it fit perfectly.

The first night in Norway was wild. For everyone else besides me and Dilan, my companion for this trip.

Had to, of course, on the first morning hurry to my favourite place, also known as Oslo opera house.

Printing out tickets last minute and scoffing down a burning hot soup, I chatted a bit with few friends and dashed (or more like... took a tram) to airport. I had some waiting during which I ate unreasonable amounts of chocolate granola bars and had way too much coffee.

Planeride was okay, I took SAS this time and the plane was sooo small. It was evening flight so it was dark outside but honestly I was still kinda glad I had the window seat. Oh, yeah, my suitcase almost did not fit the locker overhead. The measurements are correct, but one of the wheels was just so awkward. I was glad the staff did not make a huge deal out of it and just slammed it close. I was so worried.

Look at us, sharing my 7/11 coffee with the tiger. Classic number 25454.

I arrived around 10 in the evening and took the train to central station, meeting up with Dilan. We got some food and... wanted to buy tickets for next day's Bergen train. NSB ticket machine ate Dilan's 1000 kroner bill and we couldn't get it back, there was no one there as it was late at night. We found a security guard, explained the situation, got handwritten note in Norwegian and really hoped we could solve it the next day. Ugh please Norway I had such trust in you. But also I think it is good that sth terrible happened in the beginning of this trip as we were sure that everything would run smoothly later (oh boy, was I wrong...?).

I really really really love this opera house.

Then we finally headed to Anker hostel; I had booked a shared room for 4 people so there were 2 others, that ended up being actually 3 others, one just sleeping on the floor and several moments of drunken Nowegians throwing up in the bathroom. So not fun. I am sorry, drunk Norwegians, but I had to tell the reception that you violated the room and had an extra person there. But honestly having no sleep by 7 am I was too pissed.

Dilan takes such good pictures I'm sorry for all the instagram spam too.

We did manage to solve the situation with the 1000 kroner thankfully (okay Norway, you have gained my trust again), and chilled around before heading to the train.

We were actually really tired from no sleep.

AND what a train ride it was!! I mean, I did expect it to be amazing, but nothing prepared me for this. Literally 7 hours of staring out of the window with food break and trying to send videos and pics to family and friends. 10/10 would do again.

I constantly kept thinking that this ride cannot get any better but then it did?

I must have asked my friend "did you see this waterfall" at least 554814 times. Sorry about all the math in this post... not sorry actually. Sorry.

I honestly could not believe that there were mountains and even more, SNOW on these mountains. Also it was really quite fun to recognize places mentioned in Nesbo books.

Just loooook.

Our airbnb for Bergen was a bit out of town, in Fyllingsdalen(?) but it was a really nice area and the flat truly a dream flat. If anyone wants to make a friend in the most stylish airbnb I have ever been, I seriously recommend.

We were exhausted and I was so glad having made it to Bergen.

Over the next few days/weeks I will try to write down all about my fourth Norway trip. But before that, I briefly wanted to touch on this main thing - I went to Bergen and attended Vill Vill Vest as a delegate.

Basically I was in touch with many different people and finally thanks to Nordik Simit, Turtle Tempo and nordicmusicreview.com I would say, I got the chance to go and attend the music festival.

I was given a delegate pass and over the course of a few days I managed to drop by some pretty awesome panels and conferences, gigs and also some other events. On top of this I was in my favourite country and in a city where most of my favourite artists seem to be from.

I am not a good blogger. I am not a good photograp. I am not a good reviewer or promotor. Despite this, I will try and do all of those things.

Also I start with a huge hurrah and motivation but in the end never finish. This time it has to be different as I really want to see results of my meetings and everything I learned.

So anyway, if you happen to see this - welcome. Buckle up, because you will walk with me in Bergen's streets, listen with me some Norwegian music and eat with me in some Norwegian pages. If you want to, that is. And I hope that you do. Because I want to share these things and if for nothing - hey, future me! I'm so glad you are reading this. Take a walk down the momory lane right... now.

The hotel was very classy and clean, named Urbihop and right next to some fitness center. You could even rent sports stuff etc. Really enjoyable. Also we even had the breakfast there. I grew to love their potato pancakes. Eating vegetarian was really easy there, btw.

The breakfast place. Of course we heard some Estonian as well. Anyway, would stay again.

We left quite early the next day and headed to see Trakai lake castle. It was really nice. There were tons of tourists, which was not really annoying, but it tired us more than usually. I really like exploring and discovering things by myself/with friends and family.

Vilnius old town was definitely nice, but not as nice as Kaunas, I have to say. It did not have the charming feel, it felt a bit... I don't know, just strange. Not as welcoming? 

Of course we had to check the Gediminas tower. The main walkway there was closed, but we made it. However we didn't climb to the top, being too exhausted by that time. Also it cost unneccessarily much. The view was good. I lvoe high places.

This picture, or also known "what view I am the view".

Important stuff to take from my experience:

• You should probably try running the distance before. I didn't and almost died. But you can do it. Probably.
• There is so much to do during the marathon: I made some friends, ate bread, got muddy, proved myself to me and others.
• Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Before the marathon - eat. After the marathon - eat. Several days after the marathon - eat even more.
• You won't get a sudden boost of energy when you are about to finish. You will, however, want to lay down right there and then.
• You will have a case of maranoia, pre-marathon nerves, thrill, pain, exhaustion, shut down and happiness.
• You will have the title Marathon Runner imprinted on your forehead and it is all you wanna talk about for the next week. Or until your muscles still hurt. Not to mention your toes. And lungs. You will suddenly be 90 years old.
• You will get addicted and want to immediately plan for the next one. (Anyway, looking for sponsors and support to go to Bergen marathon, anyone?)

The first time I had this wonderful idea of running a marathon, it was 2016, I had just gotten into running, and the most I had ever done was 7 and a half kilometers.

The second time I got this crazy idea, it was 2017 April, I had had a break of half a year and I just started again with 5 km rounds. But I told myself I had a plan. A wonderful plan. That pretty much ended up me signing up about 2 weeks before the marathon, having ran 20 km the most a week before in one go.

Still, I was determined I had to do it as I had been constantly talking about it. It also was kind of about pride and "I'm going to show you" at this point. There were many people, for example my dad, who was like "na, you crazy, you should not run at all". My dad also brought out that I will probably die as I had just started eating vegetarian... (Later, as I was having after-marathon VEGAN burger, he did state: "Okay, okay. I eat meat and I still wouldn't be able to do this.)

My starting number was 1662 and I will remember it forever.

One of the most difficult parts about participating Tallinn marathon for me was getting my stuff. I felt a bit belittled by the people working the main tent, as they were obviously expecting me to know everything, getting frustrated when I dared to ask where I can get the shirt etc. I think the lady even muttered "are you sure you are up for the whole thing" when I told her my number and asked if I needed to show the ID. Anyway, it was discouraging, annoying and frankly rude.

The marathon itself was on Suday and on the previous day my friend came to my place. We went to see other friend's baby and chilled together; later having a feast of homemade tacos/tortillas and cake. Because carbing up and all this! (For the future reference: even if you are 120% sure you are going to explode from food, you need all the energy you can get.) 

We (well, I) tried to go to sleep earlier, but I failed. The marathon started at 9am, but we had to go to town around 8 as the transport was stopped. Starting corridors were opened half an hour before the actual start. 

My friend and sister came to send me off, I felt ridiculous. Town was full of people jogging, waming up, changing clothes. It was also freezing and wet, but at least it was not raining. My cheerleading squad stayed with me until th very beginning. Only about 10 minutes before the start I entered my group and they rushed forward to, hopefully, catch me on the road.

The last minutes to the start were so weird. It was surreal to stand there with about 2500 other people. There were a lot of foreigners, especially Finns, but I think I counted about 10 nationalities.

The marathon also had "tempo makers", aka there were 3 people from 3 hours to 5:30 (estimated finish time) who ran with certain pace. They had balloons and numbers with the estimated time on them so that was really convenient, as my goal was to finish in 5 hours.



This was me about 12 minutes before the start.

My sports bag on my waist was too loose. That was the most annoying thing. I couldn't even enjoy the first kilometer because I was trying to adjust it. I had taken my mp3 player with Potter audio book (which I ended up not using, because honestly there is so much other stuff to do while you are running - sounds surprising? Try it yourself. I sound like hardcore salesman right now.). I didn't see my friend and sister but it was okay, as the start was very hectic and I just tried to fit on the road.

First two kilometers passed so easy. Honestly I was concerned like "is the whole thing gonna be so slow? We won't ever finish... what is up?". Boy, was I wrong.

I would say the first... ten kilometers were easy-peasy. I kept typing the kilometer marks to my friends, sister and mum while running. I did not want to run too fast, but I wanted to keep the same pace.

On around 13th I made a friend. There was the "ice break point" where they would spray your preferred body part with cold magnesium thingy. (OH WOW, WHAT WORDING; GO ME!) He was in front of me and stopped, said "knees" and I followed. Then we started running again and looked at each other, said hi, and politely started the conversation.

It was his seventh marathon, he had just ran 47 kilometers in Alps and aimed for 4:10:00. I said it was my first marathon, aimed for 5:00:00 and had never ran the distance. He was impressed.

We were discussing running with some silent breaks (honestly, the run was mostly silent. Some people sometimes talked, but overall it was just steady breathing of the masses, sort of hypnotizing even, really). He complimented my pace and we had some good laughs.

On around 17th he had a break and I kept going as he promised to catch up later. Most of the marathon was ran in the city, on paved road (which is my preferred road!!), but then we arrived to national museum area, which is basically a lot of farm buildings together and OH LORDY was it muddy. The mud was sticky, slippery and awful. Then I also noticed first people starting to walk. Fun fact: I didn't see any girls walking?

I pushed through and made it to 20 km mark with the 4:15:00 pace makers who were 2 minutes ahead. Had some bread with salt (honestly, the best thing. You could get water/sports drink quite often, and also energy gels, which I did not use as I had no experience with them and did not want my body to freak out, as well as bananas, raisins, oranges, bread with salt/sugar), water, and kept going.

It took me a while to get through this point because I actually HAD TO QUEUE FOR A FRIGGING TOILET (high five other runners, we know this part sucks). I had promised my new friend I will catch up so I tried to do this from around 22nd km.

It was tough. I was past my longest run kilometer then and did not know how long I can still keep going.


This was right past the 25th km mark. I would really like to thank the photographers who managed to picture every single runner.

I think the hard part started on 25th km. My friend messaged me, saying to go by her workplace before the run, and I sent her a voice message that was pretty much some heavy breathing and "I'm already running". My tempo was still pretty high and as I was trying to get to my new friend I used up too much of the stored energy.

Finally met him again on around 28th km, where he told me he is too tired and tries to finish at least. I had the same plan. Soon he stopped and I lost a sight of him, I hope he did finish in the end, but I did not see him again on the track.

I was determined not to walk and I was really quite successful until 32nd km. I met a girl then who ran her 25th marathon and who told me a little of her first one. Then I saw my sister and best friend with the baby on the side (with the most amazing, gorgeous, shining, fantastic bottle of water) and took a half a minute break to drink properly, tell them that I absolutely cannot finish, and kept going. I caught them again (or well, they caught me again) on 34th km.

Until about 37th I had not walked. Then I tried it. Do not. Do not try walking in the middle of the marathon. It hurt to run, it HURT EVEN MORE to walk. It was awful. I tried to run slowly but the agony was real, so I ended up kind of half walking-half running by 20 meters. I thought it was never going to finish and it did not make me feel better when a photographer actually laid down on the street to get a picture of my desperate face... HMU if you wanna see it.

Last two kilometers were probably the worst. There was energy gel point and I was just telling them that no I don't wany ANYTHING I just want to finish already, but they gave me like 4-5 of the gel packs and told me to go on.

A lot of people would read my name from my number and cheer me on. Small kids wanted to high five me. Even security and police were like "YOU CAN DO IT OKAY?". I didn't even run on the last kilometer at first until one lady with a baby carriage just screamed at me something on the lines of "Signe there is literally only 500 meters to go you better start running right now". That reminded me that my parents and friends were waiting and that I probably - dammit - had to finish.

The saying that you will get some boost of energy on the finish corridor is a lie. IT IS A FLAT OUT LIE I TELL YOU. I saw people I knew and instead of going faster I thought of crying and flopping myself on the road (dramatically, of course). And there were two kinds of finishing gates, the first one that stopped your timer and  the second one that was an ad for the company holding the evend, they were literally like one meter apart and my only thought was that no way I can pass the first one but I will fucking not make it to the second. I repeat, the distance was one meter.

I then started walking, experiencing ALL kinds of emotions which I don't really remember. I was given a medal and also some drinks, water, yoghurt etc, also the metallic silver blanket to protect me from wind and cold. I found the first free spot on the side of the road and sat down, sending my family messages to come and get me as I was done with life (marathon).

4:21:09