Back to: Crib sheet: Accelerando | Forward to: Interview (and pub crawl) in Tallinn, Sunday

Checking In

Just dropping in to explain that blogging is sparse this week due to my being in Tallinn, Estonia, without a laptop, for the HeadRead literary festival. Tallinn is in the grip of an extraordinary heat wave, with daily temperatures reaching a savage 22 Celsius -- quite extraordinary for this Baltic state -- so I'm spending my time exploring when I'm not busy doing conference-related things.


normal service will be resumed next week, with a crib sheet post about "The Jennifer Morgue" -- good timing, for on Wednesday I'm sure in a studio to record something related ...

13 Comments

1:

Tallinn is nice. Was there last year in late summer, with good and warm weather as well.

The whole upper-lower city is a delight. Almost as nice as, say, Edinburgh :)

2:

Tallinn is lovely, if you've time then please do try the cycling tour. I learnt ever-so-much. There was lots about how the Estonians suffered under the USSR.

3:

That would involve cycling. I've never been a very proficient cyclist, and haven't ridden a bike in over a decade. The additional headache of doing so on the wrong side of the road, with one foot that feels "wrong" post breakage, and in a heat wave, doesn't really appeal.

4:

Yes. I have to be careful in my annual German trip, to "rechts fahren" & to try to avoid a bike with a back-pedalling brake (!) The "Baltics" are lovey, I'm told - a friend goes to Lithuania a lot - he even plays the Kantele.

5:

22°C is a savage heat wave? I think that's 71.6°F, which here in San Diego I'd call a pleasant mild spring day before the summer heat descends. I wondered for a second if perhaps you were being ironic about the chill Baltic climate—but it sounds as if you're completely serious about the "heat wave," which I guess says something about the power of acclimitation.

6:

I'm a bit sad this week has been quite busy. It isn't a long trip from Helsinki to Tallinn, but I have no free days or even evenings.

Have fun! It's even hotter here on the North side of the Gulf of Finland.

7:

It's been up to 26, maybe 27 degrees. Which is a savage heat wave by Estonian standards -- remember, the average daily temperature during midsummer is only around 17 degrees, and we're 200 miles north of Moscow.

8:

I grant that 80.6°F is starting to get a bit warm by southern California standards, but we wouldn't call it even a mild heat wave. Somewhere upward of 30°C (86°F) we'd hit the lower threshold, I think. On the other hand, at 10°C (50°F) we'd be complaining of the cold, and I'm told that people in many places consider that shirtsleeve weather.

Is Estonian a humid place climatically, rather than dry like southern California? That would make a difference.

What I was really wondering at, I suppose, is not what the Estonians think of such temperatures but which the Scots think of them, since you seem to be agreeing with the Estonian judgment and not just mentioning it as an ethnographic fact. Do temperatures in the twenties feel stiflingly or painfully hot to you?

Anyway, I hope you bear up under it and have a good time.

9:

I wish I had had some of that "Estonian heat" the last few days as I worked on installing a foundation drain around my house. 89/35 is a sweat inducing misery for us old farts.

10:

Well, certainly Charlie would find 26 or 27C "uncomfortably hot"; most of us would find it hot, but not uncomfortably so unless the humidity was higher than we usually get with those temperature.

11:

I quite enjoyed my brief day foray to Tallinn from Helsinki, although I wish I'd had time to wander down the coast a bit, rather than having to stay in the old town.

12:

Estonia was close to 100% humidity during my stay.

As for my heat tolerance, I can cope ... if I have air conditioning. Alas, aircon is alien in the Baltics -- nobody generally needs it! (Fierce central heating and triple glazing are another matter.)

I have a small mobile aircon unit at home. When it goes over 24 degrees for any length of time I slot it into my office window. It's deafeningly loud and underpowered but it takes the edge off the temperature while I work -- otherwise my brain melts. I suppose I should take the laptop for a walk and hit a coffee shop with aircon, but there aren't many of those in Edinburgh.

13:

...a coffee shop with aircon, but there aren't many of those in Edinburgh.

Yes; I hear heavy insulation and central heating are rare in Miami, too. grin

Specials

Merchandise

About this Entry

This page contains a single entry by Charlie Stross published on June 1, 2013 10:01 AM.

Crib sheet: Accelerando was the previous entry in this blog.

Interview (and pub crawl) in Tallinn, Sunday is the next entry in this blog.

Find recent content on the main index or look in the archives to find all content.

Search this blog

Propaganda