I’ve been thinking about holidays and resting recently, most likely because I was on a holiday and tried to rest. I have become so much better at it than I used to be: I switch off almost instantly and will not think of work unless something extraordinary forces me to. This is a wonderful skill to have: I’ve always worked hard and not being able to relax used to make everything much more difficult than necessary. The one thing I have not quite figured out yet is how to take time off from the blog, but as it’s still relatively new, I expect this will sort itself out shortly.

The thing with holidays is, however, that most people have them once or twice a year, thrice if they’re very lucky. And if your work is intense, this does not seem like much. Of course, if you love/like what you do and make sure your days include other things you enjoy, it will not be 48 weeks of horror and 4 weeks of rushed bliss, but still. I feel that checking out occasionally, even for a day or two is absolutely wonderful and facilitates staying sane.

This is where the ability to switch off immediately really makes a difference. With a longer holiday, you can afford a couple of days of winding down, not so with an bonus free day or a long weekend. If disengagement is difficult for you, I don’t have a magic solution to offer, but two things that help me are: 1) asking colleagues to text or call you when there’s an emergency, so yo don’t feel compelled to check your e-mails and b) if I know I need to do a few things before being back in the office, I make a pact with myself and agree a time for doing it – if it’s a long weekend, I usually schedule work-stuff for Sunday afternoon. This allowes me to enjoy my time off without any guilt or anxiety.

The other key thing about short breaks for me is being somewhere I feel good even when I don’t do anything. Overplanning is the biggest enemy of a nice city break or weekend in the country. Pick a place where you are happy just to wander the streets aimlessly or lounge in the garden and you are guaranteed some lovely time: you can always add activities to your agenda, if you feel like it. If you drop something you initially planned, it can easily feel like a failure.

Which brings me to my recent overnight stay at Kau manor* that consisted entirely of eating, reading, looking at things and one VERY short walk (because wasps and horse flies). It was perfect. Kau is exactly my kind of place: a manor that used to belong to the Baltic German explorer and navigator Otto von Kotzebue, it has been recently restored. I love how the entire hotel complex is inspired by the life and travels of Kotzebue: there is a Captain suit and a Cape Horn room, artworks from the trips, items owned by Kotzebue, a thematic library and so on. The style is very eclectic – imagine a country estate of an eccentric English gentlemen who has circumnavigated the globe, with Baltic-German-Russian touches -, but the overarching theme gives it coherence and impact.

Kotzebue’s travels to the Arctic and Pacific oceans took place in the beginning of the 19th century (you can read more about it here) and that fit perfectly with my recent reading on Humboldt, Joseph Banks and other european explorers. You can of course enjoy the manor without having the faintest idea of who Captain Cook was – but it is a good example of how finding a place that matches your interests (obsessions?) will make everything even more fun.

I snapped a few pictures during our stay, so in case you’re curious/also obsessed with the pioneers of global travel, take a look.

*I realised only later that I never mentioned where the manor is: it’s in Estonia, about 40 kilometers from Tallinn. Apologies to my non-Estonian readers!