So, by now the blizzard that I landed in on Friday seems like a tiny gust of breeze compared to what has been going on out there for the whole day. I'm pretty sure that this is the biggest snowstorm I have ever lived through. The whole town is basically like Wild West only perfectly white, there is zero visibility and all the roads are like a swamp of snow. The boats, planes and, I am pretty sure, most other forms of public transport, have stopped operating. I had to go to work today, interpreting two lectures in a theater in the Old Town and I seriously contemplated whether calling in to tell them that I couldn't find my way out of my front yard would be a legitimate reason not to go.
In the end I did make it to work, though the railroad crossing right next to my home has gone berserk, keeping the barrier down, the red lights flashing and the bell ringing all day long and we almost off-roaded on a regular 90 degree turn (though we were driving an SUV in the city center). Coming back was even more fun, though, as this was 5 hours later which meant 5 hours more snow. The railroad crossing was still broken, cars were abandoned willy-nilly all across the roadside and at some point, when the car died again, we met two guys who seemed to be trying to set the Guinness record for "Most cars pushed out of waist-high piles of snow" -- they had just got one going right next to us and were making their way towards ours, whether we wanted it or not.
My own 50 meter drivein and whole front yard is covered in knee-high snow so there's even no place to shovel it. Good luck to anyone in this house who wants to get to work tomorrow morning.
The whole country is a wonderful apocalyptic mess --
see pictures.