sandwich | Tales from the Hutt

Sunday, 14-July-2024

I was sad and lonely after dropping my Mom and Steve off at the airport. So I went for a walk.

We’d had a great week together – Exploring Aix en Provence, appreciating the quiet of Cassis, eating an absolute ton of amazing food… and just relaxing and enjoying a vacation (in contrast to the Adventure that I’d been on). Finding myself alone again was interesting, melancholy, and a little bit challenging… so I did what I try to always do when I’m feeling blue, and I went out into nature.

One of the nice parts of Cassis is just how close to the Calanques it is. I didn’t have to drive, I didn’t have to get a bike or a scooter (not that Cassis has either of them), all I had to do was walk.

In contrast to the first day I was in Cassis, I prepared a bit better for this excursion: I picked up a sandwich, of course, but I also tossed in a cold drink, some water, and slathered on a metric ton of sunscreen before venturing out into the slightly oppressive heat of the day.

Part of the lessons that I’d learned was when I departed, alongside what I brought. I didn’t try going out into the heat immediately after getting home – first, I relaxed, napped, and had a bit of espresso to power myself up… and to let the heat of the day dissipate a bit. Siestas aren’t only for Spaniards, don’t’cha’know.

With that done, I headed in.

The hike didn’t eliminate all of my feelings of melancholy, of course. But between the sun, the drink, the Sandwich, my book, and the laughter of all the people cliff-diving and swimming…

Well, life isn’t all the bad.

Friday, 07-June-2024

After escaping the Kadriorg gardens, I finished my quest to find the Kumu art museum… and was immediately struck with just how beautiful of a building it was.

It’s so neat, seeing the architecture of various museums. Whether they’re an older building, purpose-built or refurbished decades (or centuries, sometimes) before, or if they’re a newly constructed modern building… it’s always so cool to see the setting that a gallery is in.

It’s almost part of the curation of the art itself, right? Whether you’re presenting is as a modern building or a historic construction? I’m sure art historians and curators have written papers and discussed this exact thought in far more detail than a non-academic like me could… but I’ll still appreciate it and enjoy the thought experiment that comes with it.

For the Kumu Museum, it reminded me a lot of the Guggenheim – Not that it particularly looked like it, but the feel of the building. It was a modern building, with big glass windows and sweeping curves, with the inside built around a curved central hallway that was open to all three levels of the building.

One of my favorite parts was actually at the entrance to the exhibits, though – a timeline, giving context to the collections inside. I took quite a bit of time to sit and read, acclimatizing myself to when the art was from and what sort of events would be influencing the artists… I can’t remember having seen an overview like this before, and it was really appreciated!

The art itself was, as one would expect, beautiful.

There were amazing landscapes, not quite as stunning as those in Norway but still beautiful, and some hauntingly beautiful portraits alongside. There was a huge gallery room of portraits that was mainly just creepy (though I adored the inclusion of one random bird-headed dude), along with a lot of mythological paintings of Kalevipoeg (the hero of the Estonian national epic)… another thing I really enjoyed seeing.

There was also a whole selection of Soviet-inspired work which was really enlightening to see, and gave me a bit more insight into what life must have been like on this side of the Cold War.

After perusing, I was about to head out… when I realized that it was absolutely pouring rain outside.

I… hadn’t brought a rain jacket.

So I hung out. I stepped into the museum cafe, had a cup of coffee alongside a sandwich… and drooled over the chocolates on display. Then bought some of the chocolates that had been on display, and ate them. They were delicious.