Racko, Nuuksio, Finland

Emjay


Posted Mar 13, 2014, 10:27 am
Hi there! I'm a new TV! Emjay updates my travellog and I am sponsored by her mum. I used to be a mascotte for the game Racko. But now I'm off to see the world!
Here I am with my friends in Emjay's garden.
Emjay


Posted Mar 13, 2014, 10:29 am
This is me, a small, cute donkey!  ;)
Emjay


Posted Mar 13, 2014, 10:30 am
I was a bit dirty, so I have a bath first, before I go into the world!
Emjay


Posted Mar 13, 2014, 10:31 am
Emjay srubs me with lavender soap. Nice! But.. I still have some stains. Gives me a rough look  :p
Emjay


Posted Mar 26, 2014, 4:39 pm
Yay! I got my ID! Emjay made a label for me.
Emjay


Posted Mar 26, 2014, 4:40 pm
Still hanging around in Delft. But... that will soon change! Eohippus from Finland has invited me to come over! I'm so excited!
Emjay


Posted Mar 26, 2014, 4:42 pm
My friend Ami and me visit Emjay's new workplace in the center of Delft.
Emjay


Posted Mar 26, 2014, 4:44 pm
This fellow sits in the waiting room. I asked if he wanted to be a TV, but he'd rather stay in Delft and be a playmate for children.
Emjay


Posted Mar 26, 2014, 4:46 pm
After Emjay's work we made a quick visit to the center. This impressive white building is the former Army Museum. The museum has moved recently.
Emjay


Posted Mar 26, 2014, 4:48 pm
This is the oldest canal in Delft, called "Oude Delft", which means "Old Delft". "Delft" is an old Dutch word for "ditch".
Emjay


Posted Mar 26, 2014, 4:50 pm
And here we are near Emjay's house, at the ToyVoyagers' church  :D. Let's say a little prayer for a safe journey.
Emjay


Posted Mar 28, 2014, 8:07 am
Spring is in the air!
Emjay


Posted Mar 28, 2014, 8:10 am
The words mean: "Always glad". Well, that suits me!
Emjay


Posted Mar 28, 2014, 8:12 am
I'm prepairing to go on my first adventure! One last look at the game I used to play with Granny. It's called Racko, just like me  :rolleyes:

Maybe Henna likes to play Racko too, or perhaps another game.
Emjay


Posted Mar 28, 2014, 8:14 am
I'm looking at the pictures of another of Emjay's TV's: Cuty. He was at Henna's house some time ago. I LOVE churches and I hope I will visit this one!

Henna, I'm looking forward to seeing you!
Emjay


Posted Mar 28, 2014, 3:41 pm
It's a nice springday in Emjay's garden.
Emjay


Posted Mar 28, 2014, 3:43 pm
This flower is called Forget-me-not. That's appropriate. I'm leaving today to Finland, but... I won't forget my friends, my granny or Delft!
Emjay


Posted Mar 28, 2014, 3:44 pm
Bye, bye, everyone!

Hello, Henna!!!
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Apr 14, 2014, 11:34 am
Hi, dear mom!  :)

I'm in Finland and Everything is allright,
nyt we Still don't have internet
connection.
I'm writing this trough smartphone,
and that is pretty difficult!

See you soon, I hope!
Your little donkey
Many kisses!


Emjay


Posted Apr 14, 2014, 7:07 pm
Hi dear Racko,

I'm glad you're fine. I'm sure Henna takes good care of you. Give my best wishes to her and enjoy yourself!

Love,

your mum Emjay and granny Bep
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Apr 30, 2014, 11:01 pm
Hooray, mom!
We got the internet connection back yesterday!  :D

How are you?

I've been here already almost a month, and seen the late winter
turn into spring.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Rackos%20coming/P1040462_zpsdeb1cfda.jpg
When I arrived to Finland in the beginning
of April, there was still a bit of snow in the shadier places.  :D

I had to loan a scarf and a shirt from Orkku Orava´s closet,
because it was still rather cool!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Rackos%20coming/P1040474_zps79d3ea5b.jpg
But my new friends were feeling even more
cold, because they had just came from Portugal, where it was
already full summer (from my point of view).
Anyway, we run her and run there, in hurry to see everything (and to keep warm)
and helping the spring to come  by singing couraging songs to
it - songs mentioning sun and green foliage, flowers and
birdsong and other summery things.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Rackos%20coming/P1040471_zps64fe543c.jpg
I have learned to make coffee on a pot over fire, oh, and the fire too!  :D
That´s very usefull skill here, because it seems we are making a lot of trips into the nature, bushes and woods all the time.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Rackos%20coming/P1040461_zpsd5714a1f.jpg
The coffee tastes wonderfull outside
in nature, especially when it is as cold as it was!
(I don´t mean the coffee was cold but the weather!
The coffee was hot!  :rolleyes: )



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Rackos%20coming/P1040459_zpse340f0ce.jpg
We sat in front of the fire, but it was
still cold, and so we decided to go on with our calling of spring.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Rackos%20coming/P1040473_zps6beb2e7b.jpg
The sand was getting a bit warmer under
our paws, and we started to engourage the spring even
more fervently to come.
We sang and shouted and coaxed, until Henna said that if we get on making
that kind of larm, the spring would flee totally somewhere else! 
Maybe to Africa, like the cranes. :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Rackos%20coming/P1040522_zps6f0c7711.jpg
But we showed our tongues to her and climbed
over a hill with a great view over the forest and lakes, and
felt that it was the perfect spot to reach the spring.
There
we did The Big Spring Dance and Sing, you know, like the indians
asking for rain.



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And it worked!  :D
Because soon we found the first spring flowers!
Wonderfull crocuses popped up and opened in front of our eyes!
"Wellcome, beauties!" we shouted to them and danced round them.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Rackos%20coming/P1040492_zps9eb5f1d5.jpg
We were hopefully searching for more
everywhere.



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And soon they walked towards us, radiant blue anemones!  :D
"Ooooo, hello, wellcome, little miracles!" we shouted.
"Hello to your self, you little voyagers!" they answered.



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Also the weather was turning warmer,
the sun itself wanted to greet us, and we were really enjoying
her appearance! Wonderfull, wonderfull spring!  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Rackos%20coming/P1040495_zpsaa566dfa.jpg
See you very soon again, mom and gran!

Thousands of kisses from Racko!  :stare:
Emjay


Posted May 1, 2014, 5:32 am
Hello Racko & friends,

Wow, that is beautiful! Thanks for sharing the arrival of spring with us!
Give our warm regards to Henna.

Stor kram,

Mom & Gran
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted May 11, 2014, 10:00 am
Hello, dear mom and gran!  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Mr%20Shaun%20making%20soup/P1040544_zpsa856d63f.jpg
One morning we woke up the winter had come back!  :thinking:
The fields and forests were totally white, and it was raining fleet and little ice balls whole day, but happily it only lasted one day and the next morning the spring came back and everything started to grow.  :)



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The birches started push out tiny, tender new leafs.  Oooh they are so cute!  :stare:


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Henna told us to go and find wild vextables to make soup with!



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I found soon young nettles.
They have to be picked in a certain way to avoid burning your paws! :mad:



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Then I found deer droppings!
I didn´t pick them!  :rolleyes:



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We found many many different vegetables,and Zoe helped us recognizing them if we weren´t quite sure of the species. Luckily Tuli was teaching her well before plunging into the frog orgies.  :rolleyes:

Here are the soup vegetables we picked:
- Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
- Sheep´s sorrel (Rumex acetosella)
- Common wood sorrel (Oxalis acetosella )
- Ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria )
- Ground-ivy (Glechoma hederacea )
- Velvet Lady´s mantle (Alchemilla monticola )
- Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale )
- Nettle (Urtiga dioica )
- Cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris )



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20makes%20soup/P1040533_zpsadea8c40.jpg
Can this be eaten? Do I pick these too?
- Oh no, let them be! They´re Kingcups (Caltha palustris) and they´re
poisonous!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20makes%20soup/P1040527_zps2241e2ba.jpg
It´s good to have Zoe around, although it is a bit irritating, her snobbing around with the Latin names of the plants..  :rolleyes:

Can you imagine, mom, when we are eating cucumber-cheese sanwiches, Zoe tells us to "enjoy the bread made of Secale cereale and covered with Cucumis sativus and milk given to us by a female Bos taurus!"  :thinking:
Of course we then tell her to go and spend some quality time with a swarm of Culicidae.  :rolleyes:



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We found the remnants of a lost civilization from the forest. It must be a relic of that period when people were black and white and moved around jerkily and in odd clothes. I have seen that in some old films they left behind before they disappeared.  :thinking:


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We sat resting for awhile in the shore of lake Sahajärvi, and then we absconded into a café to have some buns, because we had some doubts about the quality of the soup Henna was going to make with the stuff we had just picked.  :rolleyes:


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Mums mums, we ate approximately six and half buns each.  :p


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After thus strengthening ourselves, we returned to the little cottage with our vegetables.


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We put all the vegetables into a big cattle.


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Henna added there some potatoes, carrots, garlic, water and spices and we put it to boil over the fire on the yard.

In summertime (when it is not raining) we make often food outside over the fire - it is fun and gives the food a bit different taste than when it is done on a electric stove.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20makes%20soup/P1040574ndashkopio_zpsd23fa6e3.jpg
Here is our ready soup!
Believe me or not - it was simply delicious!  :p

I wish you could have tasted it!
Kisses from your little donkey!  :stare:
Emjay


Posted May 11, 2014, 10:23 am
Hi Racko!

Gosh, that looks wonderful! Give Henna and your friends a big hug from me!
I'm off to celebrate Mother's Day with gran and I will tell her all about you!

Bye! Stor kram,

Emjay
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted May 21, 2014, 7:51 pm
Hellurei, dear mom and gran!  :D

I wish you are as well as I´m here!

We have been making many small trips to see some places
near by, and now I´m going to make a series of many little
updates to tell you about them.  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040682_zpsc1b39d17.jpg
One day we drowe in Henna´s friend´s car to see an archaeologically interesting place in Kuusia, Lohja.

Well, it is not this old barn, anyway, I´m talking about.  :rolleyes:
The barn just looked pittoresque to me and I wanted a pic of it.
Besides, it was like it wanted to say something to us. It started to make
odious, ghost-house-door-opening -sounds just as we were passing it.
Otherwise it was silent.  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040678_zps3b9d3fb5.jpg
This is an archaeological thing. Yes, the stone
heap behind me. Actually, it is what is left of an Iron Age
burial mound.
Inside, there was originally a chamber built of timber or stone, and it was then
covered with a heap of stones.
In later times most of the mounds have been destroyed when people have
been dismantling them, searching for treasures - ornaments and weapons
put inside the graves.

There was many of these old grave mounds in the forest area in Kuusia.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040674_zps9bf3e4fa.jpg
In middle of the mounds was this big stone
table, called "jätinpöytä" = the giant´s table.

It is propable that the Iron Age people have come to lay the stone table
with food and mead for the dead people inside the mounds, during some annual feasts,
very possibly during the Marraskuu = November = The month of the death.
Or maybe they were themselves sitting around it, eating and drinking, and memorizing the people passed away.
Who knows.  :)



Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted May 21, 2014, 8:27 pm
This is the update number 2 on my "little things" series.  ;)

On another day we walked trough Nuuksio,
admiring the nature. (Like we weren´t doing that every day!)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040627_zps76eaebac.jpg
By the way, here is our little cottage.

Of course you have already seen it in Cuty´s pics (tell him my greetings!), but anyway, here it is, just woken up from it´s
winter hibernation too.  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040645_zps17f99c44.jpg
Besides forest and more forest, there is field areas in nuuksio.
Between the fields run typical little village roads, in hurry to
get back to the forest, I´m sure!  :rolleyes:



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The narrow stripe of earth between the shy road and the fields was full of bright yellow dandelions, like
little suns.  :)



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We saw the lake Sahajärvi glimmering behind the fields.


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And then we hopped into the forest again
(haha, what else!).
I met a ladybird who was trying to hide inside a small crack in a
branch of a bush. But it was too small (the crack) or she was too
big (the ladybird). Anyway, her bottom was left outside.  :rolleyes:
"Hello, ladybird, that doesn´t look very ladylike!" I said.
"I´m not here!" she answered. How odd.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040661_zps8adf6301.jpg
We climbed a rock to see Siikajärven
kolmiomittaustorni.
It is an old wooden tower built and used by the 19th century surveyors.
They used them in their geometrical measurements, which they
needed to draw maps.  :thinking:

Henna told us that some years ago she still climbed to the tip
of the tower with a friend, and they were having tea and cookies up there.
Now the tower was too badly collapsed.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040667_zps61bccf00.jpg
Just imagine! It has been standing here since the 1880s!
I can see in my minds eye the scientists (certainly with beards and baggy trousers and odd equipments!) climbing the tower with serious faces, and the
village people thinking them total lunatics.  ;)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted May 22, 2014, 7:32 pm
Hip hei again! :D

I´m going on with my little updates, this being the number 3.

Now I´m going to show you pics from Kasvihuoneilmiö, a totally crazy
shop we visited one evening.
It´s name means "Greenhouse Effect", and I guess the name has
been given to it, because it is inside an old greenhouse.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040597_zps533414c1.jpg
Here it is!
The shop is in Nummi-Pusula, about 40 kilometers from where we live, and we went there in Henna´s friend´s car.

He is a very nice friend, taking us to places. Otherwise we would
only see places we can easily reach by buses.



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Inside the old greenhouse there is a café,
in which people sit under the enormous creepers climbing in the roof, and a shop, in which they sell almost anything possible.



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I fancied the sarcophagus a lot.
Actually, if you open it has shelves inside and you can use it as
a wardrobe.
Or you can take the shelves off, and sleep in it, if that happens
to make you happy.  :rolleyes:



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This simpanzee, and the pigs too, are meant to be
serving as decoration in your home or garden or where ever.

I can see many practical jokes been done with them.
Ask your friend to stay overnight, and make sure he or she drinks one
beer too much, and while he/she is sleeping, organize all
the decorative animals around the bed, staring at him/her the
first thing in the morning.  :stare:



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The kangaroo fits into the pic very well too.  :rolleyes:


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Some people come here to spend a whole day
in the shop - just wandering around.
It is not a very big shop, but there certainly is many things to see. 



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040589_zps57a435d4.jpg
I guess it´s charm is based on the fact that
there really is whatsoever, and all mixed up so that very valuable
antique furniture nest next to plastic dinosaurs and old army
clothing.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040579_zpsa1c6194b.jpg
There is also two big rabbits living there.
They are the directors of the shop, and have their own office
with writing desk and writing machine and other nessessary apparatuses.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040591_zps52cf5f9f.jpg
What about refurnishing our home with THIS
stuff?  :D



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After some time the place started to feel a bit suffocating.  :p So we left home before our eyes started to rotate in our heads.  :rolleyes:

Yours, Racko

Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted May 23, 2014, 9:34 pm
Heipä hei taas!  :D

This time I´ll show you some pics we took while walking to the bus stop
from Henna´s work place.



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It is a rather nice area. Lots of greenery and
little parks for people to spend time in.  :)



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This is an old school, which works nowadays
as a school museum.



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This little stream is Espoonjoki = Espoo river.
It is hard to believe, but in earlier times it was an important waterroute. Now you cqn hardly row in it with a boat.  :rolleyes:



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This is Espoo church, a medieval stone church.
It is the oldest existing building in Espoo.
I´m sure the people, living in their woodhouses, were very impressed
by it in the medieval times!



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In medieval times there of course were no benches. The people were standing during the hours it lasted.  :p


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The church was originally designed in the late 15th century by an unknown "Espoo master" and built between 1485 and 1490 under his supervision. 


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The most remarkable thing in the church are, anyway, the medieval murals.

The paintings were covered in the 18th century as they were thought to be "crude and superstitious" but uncovered again and conserved during renovations in 1931



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The murals picture scenes from Bible and from people´s everyday life, and also common beliefs and teachings
about the moral the church wanted the people to learn.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040612_zps3b2f2b54.jpg
I´m imagining the medieval people coming here
on sundays, maybe even 50 kilometers away, and there was no
roads on those times, so they came either by boats (along the river Espoo) or skiing at wintertime.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040608_zpsd2b512ac.jpg
Here in Finland people believed that the dead people were having their own mass going on at midnight.
If you went to the church in midnight and walked three times round the
church and then went backwards trough the door into the church,
you could see the dead people, who had risen from their graves,
filling the church, and a dead priest preaching.  :thinking:

Uh huh, better to concentrate into this beautiful syained glass window!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20here%20and%20there/P1040610_zpsa71dbe1c.jpg
See you soon again! Kisses from Racko!  :stare:


Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jan 4, 2015, 10:36 pm
Hello again after a long long time! :D It is your favorite little donkey writing from Finland again.  :)

It is like the  eight months had just slipped away, and it is great to be here!
I'll put here just few of the latest photos we have been taking, because I don't think my mom and granny have seen me sking before. ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20sking/P1060513_zps05ea724f.jpg
No, not sking yet. :D
Here we are walking in the forest, following animal tracks.
We saw pawprints of hares, foxes, squirrels, ravens, deer, elk and a yeti.

Weeell.. about the yeti I'm not sure sure, although they sure were BIG footprints.
Maybe it just was one of the village lunatics.  :rolleyes:



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We found fantastical icicles.
They looked so delicious I HAD to lick one a bit.  ;)



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And then I was trying the skis!
I was actually rather good at it!  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Mr%20Casanova%20sking/Racko%20sking/P1060548_zps4ee25d75.jpg
Cannot say the same about Mr Shaun, hi hi!  :stare:


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Then we went to the sleighing hill!


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It was wonderful to slide down on a fast speed, the wind making my ears to flap.  :)


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When the sun set, we lit the candle in our ice lantern. Isn't it beautiful!  :)

I send you many kisses! See you soon again!
Racko
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jan 14, 2015, 5:27 pm
Bom dia, dear mom and granny, and all others!  :)


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We flew from Finland to Portugal last friday.  :)

It took us couple of days to adaptate ourselves to the 30 Celsius degrees warmer temperatures here in the Atlantic coast of Portugal.  :p
At first it felt like we had been in a sauna all the time, although the locals are talking about harsh winter temperatures.  :rolleyes:



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Here we are in the "harsh Portuguese winter temperatures" as you can see.  :rolleyes:
The flowers are blooming and the butterflies are flappety flapping around them..



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On our first day here we went for a little nature walk.
It was really amazing to see all the greennes and the summerlike conditions of the midwinter around us!
We didn´t walk much, we were mainly just sitting on different meadows, enjoying the sun and the fresh smells.  :)



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Suddenly I saw some distance away a figure which made my heart to beat faster!  :o


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Could it be?
Yes it was! It was!  :D
It certainly was another donkey!
I called him, and when he saw me he came closer.



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"Hello, cousin! I´m Racko from Netherlands! Who are you?" asked I.
"Uau! Olá, primo!" he answered, "I´m Bento de Burro and I live here!"  :)



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We were then exchanging information about our lives (as well as juicy bits of grass and clover).
I told him about the toyvoyaging, and he told me about his job as an entertainer in a model farm for urban kids.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Lisbon%20I/P1060668_zps4880628e.jpg
It was nice to know he was happy with his life and always treated well. All donkeys are not so lucky.


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Then it was time for us to continue our walk, and we said farewell to each other.
Goodbye, sweet Bento!"  :)



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We went on, and found a very odd carbage heap on the bushes.  :thinking:
Someone had get rid of a big collection of different saints and angels and whatnot, but there was also one Santa Claus figure and some artificial fruit on the heap.
We didn´t quite know what to make out of it.



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On the second day we had gained enough energy to go for our first sightseeing walk in Lisbon.

We started the walk from Praça do Município (Municipal Square).
The building in the middle is the City Hall.  :)



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We then continued to Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square).
On the middle of the square is the Statue of King José I, by Machado de Castro (1775). The King on his horse is symbolically crushing snakes on his path, which I, personally, think a very disgusting habit.  :mad:
Snakes are usually quite nice fellows! 



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This is a triumphal arch, usually called the Arco da Rua Augusta.
It has a clock and statues of the Glory, Ingenuity and Valour, Viriatus, Nuno Álvares Pereira, Vasco da Gama and, of course, the Marquis of Pombal, who built the square and most of the whole town anew after the big earthquake 1755.  :)



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Before the earthquake one of the royal palaces was on the square, and it was also used as a hanging place and for other nasty purposes.  :thinking:

There was also a shipyard next to it, and the Portuguese ships set sail from it towards the new lands to invade.



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This is Cais das Colunas ,Columns Wharf, the actual spot from which the ships set sail, and to which they returned, loaded with treasures.


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We took a little ride in one of the wonderful, old Lisbon trams.  :)



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Here I´m inside the tram.
Although the trams are taken good care of, they´re technically still the same vehicles from the 1930´s - 1950´s, and they make wonderful loud noices when they push trough the streets.  :D



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We saw still one square, called Rossio.
On top of the column stands one of Portuguese kings, Pedro IV.
i don´t know why. One would imagine a king to have better things to do than to stand on the top of a column.  :thinking:



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He could, for example, plunge into this fountain, populated by mermaids.  :rolleyes:


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We were then walking on the shore of river Tejo.
This is the memorial of Amália Rodrigues, the biggest ever fado singer of Portugal.  :)



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Here is river Tejo, which the Romans new as Tagus.
Until 1980´s the river was in really sad condition - many towns used it as a sewage and dumped all their trash straight into it.  :thinking:
But since there has been a huge cleaning program, and the river is again celan enough for the dolphins to visit it every now and then!  :D



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Here you can see the Ponte 25 de Abril bridge, which is named after the 1974 Carnation Revolution, which ended the long period of dictatorship in Portugal.  :)


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The sun was setting, and it was time for all obedient toyvoyagers to go to bed.
The rest of us didn´t.  ;)

See you soon again!
Racko
Emjay


Posted Jan 16, 2015, 9:07 am
Dear Racko,

Great to see you having fun with Henna and the other TV's! And on your way to fulfill a life mission: 4 more sunsets to go!
Well, I guess you could say you visisted a donkey sanctuary. Or maybe we'll wait a bit to tick that of your list. It's great you have seen your cousin! And in good health. It's very important to treat donkey's well!

All the best!

Emjay, granny & TV bunch
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jan 20, 2015, 4:37 pm
Olá de novo, mãe e avó amadas !  :stare:

As you can see I´m continuing my Portuguese studies.
At least it is much easier than Finnish!  :rolleyes:
I cannot understand how even two year old Finns are able to talk it!  :thinking:


I really want to visit a donkey sanctuary one day!  :thinking: Want! Want!  :thinking:
I asked Henna to find out if it would be possible to visit one here in Portugal, but at least at the moment it is too difficult, because we don´t have a car. Maybe some other host can take me to visit one in future!  :)

Now something totally different: photos of our walking trip along the beachline from Cascais to São Pedro do Estoril.  :)



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Well, to be truthfull I can´t really talk about a walking trip, since the only person walking was Henna.
After 20 meters we all realized it was too dangerous for us light voyagers to be walking ourselves, the wind was quite too strong!
So we were travelling nice and warm in Henna´s pockets, while she struggled against the elements.  B)



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We only climbed out from the comfy pockets to pose everytime we saw a spot we thought picturesque enough to pose in front of.  ;)
Ha haa, that´s the right order of things.



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Normally this route along the beaches is a very popular and populated one.
People come here to enjoy the sea air and the views or to walk their dogs, but we didn´t see a soul, except the seagulls, who had all come to land, because the wind was too hard even for them.  :rolleyes:



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The midday news were telling about five fishermen who went missing on the sea next to a nearby shore.  :(
I felt even happier to be inside Henna´s nice pocket.
I was keeping an eye for any albatrosses (They´re the seamen´s souls, you know) but i didn´t see any, although some of the seagulls were suspiciously large!



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The wind was blowing harder and harder, and the waves were growing bigger and bigger, and they all had white foam hairs on their heads!  :)


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Even Henna had troubles to walk against the wind, and every now and then she got sand into her eyes!
I learned some new, interesting curse words again.  :rolleyes:

I´m not sure if I have ever mentioned it to you, mom, but I have an unofficial life mission to learn local, juicy words in every place I visit.  :stare:



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The waves were hitting against the rocks and showering us with cold, refreshing little sprays of water.
We roamed back into the pockets, but Henna had nowhere to roam, and her vocabulary started to turn too juicy even for us wide-travelled toyvoyagers!  :thinking:



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So, soon we all thought it better to turn back towards home before our ears would drop off.  :rolleyes:
There was a real storm rising, and the first rain drops were already falling..



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Até breve, beautiful shore! We will come back when the sun shines!

Kisses from Racko!
P.S. Don´t be worried, mom - I´ll not use all the words I learn.  ;)









Emjay


Posted Jan 21, 2015, 9:22 am
Hi Racko!

I won't tell gran about you learning all those juicy words  ;)
What a beautiful, rough coast! I'm happy you and the other TV didn't blow away!

Love,

Emjay
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jan 27, 2015, 2:49 pm
Hello, mom and granny!  :D

How are you? Is the spring time already there?
Here it is typical early spring - the weather is changing every ten minutes from rainy to sunny and back again.  :)



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Last weekend we took a bus from Lisbon to a small town hundred kilometers towards North called Óbidos.
The trip took about an hour.

I saw many electricity producing windmills along the route.
I think they´re a bit creepy! They always remind me of the horrible Tripods in the War of the Worlds by Wells!  :thinking:



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Luckily though the windmills were behaving, (although I think one of them was staring us!) and we got peacefully to Óbidos.

This is one of the many gate towers into the town.  :)



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Óbidos is a very old town, and it is encircled by a wall.
It's name, Óbidos, comes from the Latin "Oppidum", which means a fortified town.



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We, of course, climbed immediately on the wall. ;)


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From there we saw that the wall really continued round the whole little town -
so we decided to walk a full circle around it.  :)
"Why not five full circles?" asked Henna. "We could also run and shout and wave our hands like wings?"
I think there was some sarcasm there..  :rolleyes:



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There is about 3000 inhabitants in the town.
We were watching into their yards and living rooms from the bird perspective while passing by. It felt a bit funny, but I guess they must be used to it, because there is always many tourists populating the walls, especially during the summer months. 



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There has been some kind of fortified town here on the same spot since the Bronze Age.  :thinking:
A settlement was constructed by early Celt tribes, that was later a centre of trade for the Phoenicians.
After them the Romans, Visigoths and Moors continued the construction on their turn, and so did the early Portuguese kings, starting 1148.

It´s like some kind of mania! Didn´t they have anything better to do?  :thinking:



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It was a nice view from the top of the wall over the surrounding countryside.
The fields formed a very beautiful picture of different shades of greens, yellows and browns.  :)



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We sat down on a tower to rest both our legs and our minds and souls.
We saw an old white windmill on a hill.  :)
(Much friendlier than those modern ones. )



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We then continued our circle.

The wall was rather high on some parts, and narrow for people to walk, but for us toyvoyagers it was wide and comfortable as a boulevard.  :)
We saw a tourist woman creeping along the wall, keeping her both hands pushed tight against the wall, legs wobbling. Poor thing!
I guess she must have been afraid of hights. Rather brave of her to be walking there anyway!  :D



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There were large thickets of blooming aloes growing in the holes of the old wall.
I think they were really wonderful!  :)



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On the other end of the town there is a small castle, which was built in the 14th century, by King Fernando.
Sadly it is now turned into a hotel, so it is not open for visitors, without staying overnight.
I also doubt if there would be much to see in the modernized hotel rooms.  :rolleyes:



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The little town itself looked quite cute.
We wanted to go and investigate it's narrow streets and alleys.
So we climbed down the wall again.



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We landed near the castle wall, and saw many more wonderful aloe bushes.  :)


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Look! They're almost reaching the sky!  :D


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In front of the castle was a telescope with which we could see even more of our surroundings.

There was hole in which we should have put an euro coin for the telescope to work, but Zoe knew a handy trick to do with a safety pin.  :rolleyes:
I can show it to you too some time.  :stare:



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We started to investigate the streets, walking where our noses were pointing.

It was a very typical little Portuguese town.



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It had lots of stairs everywhere, and all the houses where whitewashed, with their corners and windowsills painted either blue, yellow or brown.  :)


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There was lots of plants everywhere, planted to grow next to the white walls or stairs or into flowerpots, to make the stony streets more beautiful.  :)


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We saw very juicy oranges on a tree, and climbing over the fence we were just and just able to reach them..
.. but then the owner of the yard was also able to see us reaching them, so we had to do a tactical retreat into a flowerpot and try to look like chrysanthemums.  :rolleyes:



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We must have been convincing enough, because the owner just darted by, uttering some words I again had to write into my little notebook. [/seze] :stare:


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[size=2]Instead we found some nice grapes somewhere, and went into a little park outside the wall to enjoy them in peace.  :rolleyes:



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And then we played to be invading Visigoths, or whatever.  B)


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Back inside the walls again, we walked past some nice looking little bars.
(Yeah, walked past, because Henna made us to!  :mad: )



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We saw a nice looking old church.
Henna told us the church is famous because some Portuguese king got married in it with his cousin in the 15th century.
The king gave the town of Óbidos as a wedding present for his new queen.
Can you imagine?  :thinking: How is it possible to give a town for a present to somebody? What about the people living there?  :thinking:



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I peeped into the church.
It looked quite a nice spot to get married.
Any cute donkey mares willing to marry me and gift me a town?  :stare:



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After the church we had really seen everything there was to be see in the town, and so we took the bus back to Lisbon again, and escaped the Tripods luckily on our way back too, phew!

Kisses from Racko!  :D










Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Feb 3, 2015, 7:54 pm
Hello again, dear mom and gran!
How are you?  :)

Here the weather continues very variable - it is raining every day and shining every day,but we know that inevitably the Portuguese spring will soon be here, and it will get warm enough very soon!

I guess Henna, the stubborn woman, had too little clothing on last week, because now she has an awful flue!
That is very boring, because we can't go anywhere without her. So we're just trying to entertain her.  ;) I'm sure she values it.
Luckily I have an update to make from last week!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pena/P1070072_zpshwtjmawd.jpg
We heard that the Palácio Nacional da Pena had been opened again after the long renovation works.
We all wanted to see it.
So we took a train to Sintra, which is a small town about 35 kilomters from Lisbon.
This is the Rossio train station where we took the train.  :)



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This is the train we took. (Usch, shut up, Zoe!
I´m sure mom recognices it is a train without the need of me writing it under the picture, and doesn't think that it is, for example, a rhinoceros. I just think it is more polite to write something!
Gee, that bird puts her beak everywhere..  :thinking:



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We walked through the Sintra town.
The whole town has been classified as an UNESCO World Heritage site, because due to it's cooler climate it has always been a popular spot for the Portuguese royal and upper class families to spend summers in, and there is many palaces from different times.
In this pic we can see the two white chimneys, which belong to the Palácio da Vila.  :)



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We walked upwards along many narrow alleys and staircases, since Palácio da Pena is situated on a hill.


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The famous lunatic poet, Lord Byron, lived in Sintra in the beginning of the 19th century.
"Lo! Cintra's glorious Eden intervenes," he frothed after his 1809 sojourn, "in variegated maze of mount and glen."
Writing home, the poet raved about "palaces and gardens rising in the midst of rocks, cataracts and precipices; convents on stupendous heights . . ." "



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Nowadays Sintra is a very popular tourist site, and also very popular place for outlandish people to buy houses and land.



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Which is easy to understand, watching these landscapes.

Sadly the popularity has started to destory the area. More and more forest area has been cut for very well off people to build their huge houses.  :(



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After some more stairs we entered a park, where there was picnic tables here and there, and more stairs leading upwards.  :)


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I peeped into a small greenhouse, in which they grow more plants for the park.


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It was a beautiful park - not too tame, more like a wild little forest.  :)


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There was some black and white photographic art, showing themes which had to do with the forest mythology.


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I also found a cute little house, just suitable for me!
But I didn't have time to paly home, we had to continue climbing upwards!



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We reached the old staircase which leads towards Monte da Lua (Moon Hill).
That was considered a holy place on the prehistoric times, and it had probably to do with the lunar cult.  :)



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It was a VERY long staircase!  :thinking:


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After the long climb we rested a bit over a cliff called Penedo da Amizade, where there is a fantastical viewpoint over the Sintra area.  :)
The climbing had made us so hot, we had to strip off our clothes!  :rolleyes:



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But very soon we had to put them back on.
The wind was blowing hard up there, and there was also clouds starting to gather over the sky again.



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Palácio da Pena was still a bit higher up.
We could now see it. So we continued climbing towards it.

It is also possible to just take a bus near the Sintra railway station and pay some euros to reach the palace in an easy way, but the easy way is often the boring way.
By walking and hiking we see much more!  :)



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We reached the Palace garden, which surrounds the palace, and walked through it.
We saw there some wonderfull things, like a fern garden.
It was planted by a queen, who loved ferns. There was even fern trees!  :thinking:


It looked like we had suddenly entered some tropical part of the world instead of Europe!  :thinking:
But it certainly didn't feel like it!
The weather was so humid and cool here up on the hills, that we had to hop around to keep warm!  :rolleyes:



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This is an "Angel's trumpet" on Brugmansia.
It smelled so good I felt like roaming inside the flower!
Happy bees!  :)



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There were also these quite amazing trees.
I don't know what they are. I tried to find their names from the Pena Palace garden web sites, but they are just showing some pretty boring statues.  :rolleyes:



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We passed a Moorish -style little building too.


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We reached the palace at last.  :)
It is really a very stunning building!  :thinking:



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Originally there was a medieval monastery on the spot, but it was badly ruined first by a lightning, and then totally by the Lisbon Earthquake 1755.



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In 1838, the king Ferdinand II decided to acquire the old monastery, all of the surrounding lands, the nearby Castle of the Moors and a few other estates in the area.
King Ferdinand then set out to transform the remains of the monastery into a palace that would serve as a summer residence for the Portuguese royal family.



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We could see the ruins of the Moorish castle on top of the next hill.
Henna says we are going to climb to see those too some other time! :)



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The construction took place between 1842–1854.
The plans were made by a German amateur architect, mining engineer Baron Ludwig von Eschewege.
He had  traveled a lot and very likely had knowledge of several castles along the Rhine river.  :rolleyes:



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King Ferdinand and Queen Maria II intervened decisively on matters of decoration and symbolism. Among others, the King suggested vault arches, Medieval and Islamic elements be included, and he also designed an ornate window for the main façade.


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This is how the weather looked, seen from the palace yard! Not very tropical!


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After watching the palace from this and that direction, we entered it.
Sadly the lightning inside was so lousy, that it was not possible to take many photos, and those we took are of very bad quality.  :thinking:



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We walked through many amazing rooms.
I don't remember what they all were.
Queen's private salongs and king's smoking rooms and whatnot.  :D



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It all looked very grand, but you can't imagine how cold it was in those rooms!
The royal family of course only lived here during the summer.

I felt very sorry for the poor workers, who were there guarding the rooms and the tourists. They have to stay there, without moving much, eight hours every day!  :thinking:



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This is the small chapel of the palace.


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This must be some kind of reception hall, where the royal family received the important guests.


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This inner yard is what remains of the original monastery.


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I must say I felt most at home in the kitchen!  :D
There was big owens too - if we could lit fires into them, it would soon be warm..


But alas, no fire!
We were feeling so cold we really run away from the palace!  :rolleyes:

I wish Henna gets soon better, so i can show you some more things!Hug from Racko!  :stare:
Emjay


Posted Feb 5, 2015, 10:24 am
Hi Henna,

Please get better soon! Racko is showing me a lot of beautiful places in Portugal.

Big hug from Emjay & TV's
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Feb 19, 2015, 4:09 pm
Greetings again from Portugal, dear mom and gran!  :D

Henna thanks for your greetings! She is now in good health again.  :D
It looked like her influenza wasn't going over at all, but then we organized The EFS - Entertainment For Sick committee and started to practice choir singing etc.  :rolleyes:

After our first show, which we did on Henna's sick bed, she announced she is quite, quite healthy and thus there's no need to practise any more numbers and jumped up!  :rolleyes:



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So, soon we were able to coax her out from the house again to make a little stroll.

This picture is taken near our house here. You can see some of the first poppies of the spring in it!  :)



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We walked from Laranjeiro, where we live, to Cova da Piedade (The Valley of Pity), where we sat for a while in this nice little park. Henna said she had to rest a bit, and she looked so tired we got very worried and asked if she needed more entertainment, since it seems to have a wonderfully curing effect on her, which made her to jump up from the bench and to say that so it certainly has.  :thinking:
And then we continued our walk towards Almada.



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We saw the Almada culture centre, where there is the library nearest to us, and room for art exhibitions etc.  :)


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Here I am in the modern Almada central square.
The houses around the square look very similar than the house in which we live here.
I have not managed to take a photo of our house yet, because we are never anywhere near it during daytime.  :rolleyes:
The modern "overground metro" as it is called was built in beginning of the 21th century.



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This is Cacilhas lighthouse, and behind it is the river Tejo.
Henna told me the Spanish people call it Tajo, and the Romans called it Tagus.
Zoe told me it is full of fat fish.  :rolleyes: Oh, really?
What would it be full then, if not fish, I just ask.



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Almada is at the moment going through a very profound change.
The old houses from 18th and 19th centuries are in danger to disappear totally to make room for modern, tall blocks of flats, or big villas of the wealthy people.
  :(


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Zoe lead us forward, along roads, which followed the rivershore.
There were small kitchen gardens and nice glimpses over the town and river.



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We continued our sightseeing first Casa da Cerca. It was originally a private palace, but the town bought it 1988 and turned it into a public place with art exhibitions and happenings.


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It has a nice garden.
There isn't many interesting plants, though, but it is a nice place to be sitting and reading in peace, in those days when it is too hot to be walking around, says Henna.



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This plant I found interesting!
Do you recognice it?  :stare:

Well, I can tell it is Cyperus papyrus, of which the ancient Egyptians were making paper!  :D



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There was a beautiful view over the river Tejo from the garden.
We were trying to imagine the delicate donzellas of the 18th century with their parasolls and pelisses and silk slippers sitting here, enjoying refresments and watching the same view over the river (although the Lisbon city on the opposite shore was much smaller and surrounded by farms and fields).  :)



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We all agreed that it would be great to have a time machine to be able to see the place back in Jane Austen's times, but that it would not be great to have to behave according to the social rules of those times!  :thinking:

Can you imagine me just trying to find a rich and respectfull girl to marry, to rise my social status?  :rolleyes:



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Watching the great house, I thought it is good it has been saved by the town from decay, but that it is a shame that the towns, wanting to save historical buildings, are usually wanting to save only these big palaces.
Why not small, common houses?
Is it more important for people to see how a privileged upper class lived in former times, than how the rest 98 % of people lived at the same time?  :thinking:



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We continued our walk, and soon we saw the river Tejo again, and the bridge Ponte  25 de Abril, which connects Almada and Lisbon.

This bridge was originally named by the Portuguese dictator Salazar, after the Carnation Revolution 25.4. 1974 it was named again.  :)



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We watched a cruise ship gliding under the bridge, and talked hihihihi, about what if, hehehehe, we would be just on the bridge when a ship was gliding under it, and then we would see, haa haa haa, people on board, and then we would just happen to feel like going to toilet and then.. Henna said it is really great we can't walk on the bridge. It is only for cars and trains.
What a shame!  :thinking:



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We went to meet an old friend of Zoe, Cristo Rei (Christ the king) of Almada.

He has an extrememly good eyesight, and he saw us when we were still far away.
"Oh hullo!" he said. "If I'm not very mistaken, it is my witty friend, Zoe the Kiwi and her friends!"
"Yup! Hello, old mate!" answered Zoe.
"And who are these other little persons coming with you?" he asked.
"Hello, and nice to meet you!" I shouted. "I'm toyvoyager Racko from Netherlands!"
"Ah, thought so!" he said, "it is always easy to recognice the Netherlandish donkeys!" :rolleyes:



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We went up with an elevator, to watch the views, and to see Cristo Rei better.
The landscape from the top of the tower was really fantastic!
We could see the old part of the Lisbon on the other side of Tejo.  :)



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"Hi, Cristo! Is it true what Zoe has been telling about your swimming trunks?" I asked. (Zoe was telling me that on some hot summer nights, when nobody sees, Cristo Rei sometimes jumps to make a little swim in the river, and that he wears a pair of Donald Duck swimming trunks under his robes for that purpose.)
"Oh, the cheek of that bird!" he answered, "she wasn't supposed to tell it to anybody! But yes, it is true, and I'm happy as long as it is only you toyvoyagers who know about it!"  :D

So, please, don't tell anyone!  ;)
And, if you happen to hear a huge SPLASH in middle of the night in Almada, don't get scared!



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This is the view towards Almada.
As you can see, it is actually built on a peninsula on the South bank of the river.



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We said goodbyes to our big friend, and returned to the earth.
Then we climbed to pose for Henna over an old buoy.



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We saw young palm trees.
Don't they look like pineapples?  :stare:



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The sun was descending, and we started to descend too, to the rivershore.


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We saw many empty houses, or just ruins.
They have all been busy factories or warehouses, to do with fish- rope- and boat building industries.
Nothing of that is left, but the decadence is beautiful. 



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There is an old staircase leading twards those houses the tourists usually don't find, because its both ends are well hidden - they start behind thick bushes and end onto a shabby backyard stinking of pee.  :rolleyes:


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The old walls are now full of graffitis.
many of them are really skilled work, some are just smudges.



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There is some bars now on the shore.
This is one of them, called Ponto Final.
I am mentioning it specifically, because the people working there are good people, who feed homeless cats living in a park near to the bar, and so I think the bar earns some advertizing!  ;)



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We walked back home, and when we reached it, it was already dark.  :)


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The Cacilhas lighthouse was lit.  :)


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At home we ate great pizza!  :p

I wish you've had some too!  :D
Kisses from Racko!
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Mar 2, 2015, 5:07 pm
Muito boa tarde, mãe amada, e avó também!  :D

É o seu burrinho pequeno que está a escrever da Portugal de novo! (I´m not sure if this is hundred percent correct, but I´m trying to say: it is your little donkey writing from Portugal again!)

This time I'm going to show you pics on a hiking trip we made onto the westernmost point of the European mainland.  ;)
We went there by a bus from the town of Cascais.



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As the westernmost point of the continental Europe (and Eurasian landmass), Cabo da Roca has always been an important point for the sailors.

This is the Cabo da Roca lighthouse, which was built in 1772.



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This is the stone erected to point the geographically most western point.
It is a very popular object to become photographed with, so I wanted a photo too!  :stare:



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The cliff of the Cabo da Roca is very steep, and it rises about 150 meters from the sea.


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The landscapes were absolutely stunning!  :D


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Most of the tourists stayed near the memorial stone, but we wanted to see a bit more, and soon we found a small path, which we started to follow towards North.  :) (Yes, we always have a compas with us.)


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I saw plants, I had not seen before!
This one originates from the coast of North Africa.
It was brought to Portugal some hundred years ago, and it has since spread along the coastline.  :)



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Henna told us that Cabo da Roca was considered a holy place throughout yearthousands.
The archaeologists have found some limestone and bone idols from the Calcolithic era (~3000 bC) from the area, which probably had to do with a cult of the Moon.  :thinking:

To the Romans Cabo da Roca was known as Promontorium Magnum (The Great Cape) and during the Age of Sail as the Rock of Lisbon.

The 16th-century Portuguese poet Luís de Camões described Cabo da Roca as the place "where the land ends and the sea begins" (Portuguese: Onde a terra se acaba e o mar começa).

It has often been called also as Finisterre (The Land´s end).



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We spotted a stony beach on the root of the cliff, and wanted to go there!
But we didn't know if there was any path leading to it.



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It seemed to be so far below us!  :thinking:

I was peeping over the edge of the cliff downwards, while Henna was holding my feet.
I got a bit odd sensation onto my stomach.  :rolleyes:



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We were following a promising looking path, hoping it would turn down towards the beach, and Henna was preaching us about the dangers of the steep cliffs and sea and harsh wind and the suddenness of the changing of the tides and what not.  :rolleyes: uuh!


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We found some Macrolepiota proceras, or Parasol Mushrooms.  :D
Sadly they were already a bit too old. Otherwise we would have taken them with us and turned them into a delicious dish.



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We were still getting nearer the beach!  :)


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At least the path started to lead us down!  :)
We were all delighted!



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After some time the path turned pretty steep and hard to follow.
I had to use all my four paws, and even my tail to hang on stones or roots or whatnot!



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We had to stop to rest every now and then.
I was already thinking of the hard climbing back up, but I didn't say anything, because, well..  there was also many girls in our team, and no one of them said anything either..  :rolleyes:



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We were already rather near, phew!  B)


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We climbed the last part down with the help of a rope!
Without it it would have been very difficult indeed!



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At last we were on the beach!  :p
It was very beautiful spot, with odd rock formations standing on the sea in front of it.



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The stones under our paws were all round and smooth, and felt almost soft, polished by the sea during the long years..  :)
Do you think the sea knew that one day little tired toyvoyagers would enjoy the smoothness of the stones?



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Here you can see part of the cliff we climbed down!
Can you believe it?
I hardly can myself!  :thinking:



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There was a small stream of water running down the cliff on one spot.
This has been a very dry winter, says Henna. Otherwise there would have been a small waterfall.



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There was all sorts of interesting debris brought by the sea - fishing nets, buoys and planks, also polished by the water.
It was nice to rummage through them, thinkin of the far away places they could have come from.  :)


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[color=green][size=2]We enjoyed the beach, and we were even sunbathing a bit over the smooth rocks, but quite suddenly the sky started to look grey, and the sea didn't look so friendly anymore. It was hissing to us round the stones! :thinking:
Henna said we bettert get up again. Uh huh.



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We climbed back up again.
It took much longer time than coming down!  :rolleyes:
I was trying to hide my panting from the girls, who seemed to be climbing up like gazelles!  :thinking:
Maybe I should start to do some gymnastics, what do you think?



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Back up again we started to walk slowly back towards the lighthouse, where the bus stop is.


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I found a wild narcissus on our way.  :)


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Somehow the size of everything there made my head feel like I had been in a carousel for a too long time.
Henna advised me to concentrate on small things, like these flowers, to make the carousell in my head to stop. It worked!  :D



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Soon we could see the lighthouse again, but we still had to cross two valleys.


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I really liked the green hills of Cabo da Roca!
They made us all feel like we had suddenly stepped inside the story of Little Heidi on the Swiss Alps.
:rolleyes:



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Soon we were back in the bus again, on our way to home.
I wish you have enjoyed my photos!

See you soon again! Tight hug from



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Racko  :stare:



















Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Mar 25, 2015, 7:17 pm
Hello again, mom and gran!  :)

Greetings from warm and sunny Portugal!
It has been around 20 degrees now for many days and it feels just like summer to me.  :)

Today we are staying in, so I've a rare possibility to make an update instead of being running in the forest or on hills somewhere.
I'll be showing you photos from the Lisbon zoo.
I'm sorry the quality of the pics is often rather lousy - the animals where behaving like animals usually are when they spot a camera - they walk behind a bush or a corner or at least turn their asses towards the camera.  :rolleyes:
It is quite amazing, actually: there we have a beautiful tiger in a perfect pose, but asecond after it has seen the camera it is walking away as fast as it can..



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The Lisbon zoo has been built on an old farm, and it is a somewhat big area.
Besides the zoo itself, to which you have to buy a ticket to visit, there is also a free area with nice parks, restaurants, ponds and some amusement rides.  :)



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Many people, especially old people, come to spend time on the free area, to sit on the sun.

Do you see the black swan behind my back?
She was one of those scilled camera-avoiders.  ;)



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See! She darted for the bushes immediately when Henna took the camera out!  :rolleyes:


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We moved on into the zoo to see the animals.
First we went to see a small section of farm animals.
The bunnies were too lazy to hop away - they were in deep sleep!  :D



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It is that time of the year that many of the animals had little babies. Te sheep had too, but they didn't bring them near people (smart, I think). So we took some photos using the zoom.


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Here you can see the little lambs sucking their mom. Oh, how they were cute!  :stare:


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The ducks weren´t too shy.
They tried to eat the camera!  :rolleyes:



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There was a young cow who was very sweet.
I was petting her head.  :)



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The horse liked petting too.
I thought he looked just like the horse of Pippi Longstocking, doesn´t he?  :D



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We went to see the big cats next.
Most of them were sleeping. Well, they are nocturnal animals, what else?
This cheetah wasn't sleepy at all! I think she was actually in heat..  :rolleyes:



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Here you can see her a bit better.  ;)
She came to stare at us, but found soon out we weren't suitable as partners.  :rolleyes:



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The lions were asleep!
But I noticed some movement amongst them anyway, and when I watched with the camera zoom I could see there were some young ones!  :D



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They were behaving just like any kittens - a little playfight going on all the time, even while having a nap!  :D


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The puma was in heat too! Spring and cats!  :rolleyes:
She was meowing to us! A low voice, sounding like "MAU!" it was.



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We took a ride around the zoo area in the small cable cars. It was great!  :D


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The animals were used to the cable cars running above them and didn't mind much.
So we could see some species better than from the ground.  :)



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Then we sauntered along and saw two bears.
One of them was having a sack in his head.
Don't worry - in this pick their area looks very gloomy, but it is just one small corner we saw. The area is actually it was quite nice. There was a big pool and trees and grass and even a waterfall for their joy.  :)
So that's not why one of them had decided to put a sack over his head.  :rolleyes:



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Here they are.  :)


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We saw a yong crocodile. Or is it an alligator? I always mix those.  :)


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The rhinos were keeping their distance.  ;)


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And the elephants had a feeding time, so their heads were turned towards the new hay.  :D


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The giraffees were showing some curiosity towards people.  :)


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The bisonts were not!  :rolleyes:


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I was chatting for a long time with this antilope.She was telling about the life in the zoo.
It seemed to be nowadays about ok, although the spaces could always be bigger and more variable and have more stimulus for the inhabitants.
A zoo can never be equal to nature, but for some of these animals there is no nature left, like for example for the Iberian lynx, who is almost extinct. There is simply too many people on this globe.  :(



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We saw still some big birds.
These are royal pelicans.
Their foreparents moved here from the kings palace in the beginning of the 20th century.
They still remembered their royal origins.  :rolleyes:



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These nice girls are nandus (Rhea americana), some sort of ostrichs.
I remembered the horror story of a toyvoyager eaten by a ostrich and kept my distance, although they looked friendly enough!  :rolleyes:



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The flamingoes were making lots of noise when they saw us. I wonder why. One could imagine that birs living in a zoo would be used seeing a donkey, a cow, a crawfish, a dog, a kiwi bird and a woman walking together, but no, certainly we were a sight.  :rolleyes:


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We ended our visit with a little walk round the gardens.  :)


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It was a nice day, although most of the animals were sleeping and we didn't see them at all. But that is normal in a zoo visit.  :D

I send you kisses and hugs!
Your Racko  :)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Apr 2, 2015, 11:44 pm
Olá, mom and gran and everybody else too!  :D

I just realized I have only made one update showing the sights of Lisbon! And since it is a beautiful town with lots of things to see, I´ll show you some more today.  :)



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I´ll show you first some pics from the central park of Lisbon, called Parque Florestal de Monsanto.
This is not it, in case you have not guessed from the amount of houses in the pic.  :D
This is the aqueduct of Lisbon, which we saw while we walked towards Monsanto through Campolide.
It was built during the 18th century. As you can easily imagine, if you have ever visited Lisbon in summertime, the lack of pure, fresh water was a constant trouble in the city at those times.  :thinking:
The river Tejo was quite too dirty, and the population was growing fast and polluting it even more. So they built the aqueduct to bring water to the town from purer hills on the surrounding countryside.



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After walking enough over the aqueduct (and making a guard furious) we continued to the park of Monsanto.  :rolleyes:
It is somehow big park, and it was created in the 1920´s and 30´s as an oasis for the poorer townsfolk, who could not afford to flee the hotness and dust of the town to the countryside.
It was also thought that it could make the air of the town purer to breath.  :)



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They sure had some good ideas at those times, although I don´t much value the overall values of those times.
Sadly the ideas have later been forgotten. The area of the park has diminished - a highway was built through it in the 1990´s and small pieces have been cut from it for well of people to build their villas after some big bribes have been moving from pocket to pocket.

The biggest threat against the park is planned just now: there is a plan to privatize it!  :thinking: Can you imagine?
They would build a big hotel in middle of it (with big parking lots, less trees..) and it could only be used by people staying in the hotel.
I don´t get it. There still are many poor families living in Lisbon unable to flee the heat and dust of the town to the countryside, but it seems it doesn´t matter anymore as much as it did in the 1930´s.  :mad:



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I wish the plans are stopped! It is a nice park!
Look - I found some wild asparagus growing there!  :D



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During many decades the park had a gloomy fame, though, and most people avoided going there.
It served as a working place and a pick-up point for many Lisbon prostitutes.
People found the park again slowly after the beginning of the new yearthousand, but it is still common for women, walking there alone, to get catcalls and suggestions from men driwing through it.
My host Henna has a collection of juicy answers, which makes their ears turn red, you can believe!  ;)



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We saw many wonderful flowers.
This is some sort of lily, I guess, but what? I´m no flower specialist.  ;)



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We had a small snack..  :p


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And a small nap after it.  :rolleyes:


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After our nap we started to walk back towards the centrum of Lisbon.
We saw some wonderfully blooming almond trees on our way.  :)



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I understand bees so well!
It would be great to a bee and to fly from flower to flower!  :)

Ok! Now Zoe is shouting some bawdy remarks. Well, I was kinda waiting for them.  :rolleyes:



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We took a bus (in which we ate another little snack) to see Feira da Ladra, which is a centuries old fleamarket in Lisbon.  :)


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The name actually means "The market of a female thief", and it takes place every tuesday and saturday, if it doesn´t rain cats nor dogs.


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It is a place where you can find absolutely anything!
The name, they say, comes from the times, when some really poor women tried to keep their kids alive by stealing clothing from the lines and selling them here as a last option.

There is lots of stolen and illegal items nowadays too, and the police is circulating on the market all the time, but even so I´ve spotted for example archaeological finds many times on the market.



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After seeing lots of interesting things we felt a bit peckish again.  :stare:
So we sat in a small café and tried some strawberry truffels.  :p



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We left the fleamarket and walked past Sé, Cathedral of Lisbon.
It´s construction started on the year 1147, and about every century has added something to it, so that nowadays it is a great mix of styles.
Some earthquakes have added their own remodelling work too.  :thinking: 



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Every few minutes a cute old tram was passing us.
They were full of tourists.  :D



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We stopped on a viewpoint called Portas do Sol (The gates of Sun) to watch over the old part of the town and the river.  :)


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We walked to see a very peculiar tree in the garden of Principe Real.
It is a giant cedar tree, and it is so big, it forms a roof, under which people like to sit on hot summer days.  :D



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I saw a wall of very nice azulejos (tiles) showing pictures of life in old times.
One pic was showing a donkey!  :D



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Then we walked to see a big park called Parque Eduardo VII.
In the bottom of it´s huge lawns you can again see the river Tejo.  :)



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We returned home, where we ate a delicious meal of rice and vegetables.  :p

There is still lots of photos to show from Lisbon, I´ll show them soon!
Kisses from Racko!  ;)
Emjay


Posted Apr 3, 2015, 10:18 am
Hi dear Racko!

Thanks for showing us Lisbon. It's a beautiful town. Such a shame, those plans for the park! I hope they put a stop on it. But well... it's all about the money  :(

We're looking forward to seeing more pics! Give Henna a big hug for being such a wonderful host!

Bye! Love from
Emjay, Granny and the TV's
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Apr 13, 2015, 8:00 pm
Hello, hello, mom and gran!  :D

How are you doing? How does gran´s knew knee feel?  :)

I´m swell, and I´m continuing with the Portugal -updates.
Today I´m telling about a walking trip we made from Almada to Trafaria.



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We walked along a small road, which led us through  countryside -looking landscapes.  :)


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We saw couple of small villages. The inhabitants of the houses were peeping behind their curtains while we passed.  :rolleyes:
Although we were quite near the urban area, it is very rare to see any outsiders walking there.



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We saw the small town of Trafaria far away behind the fields.  :)


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On the roadside there was a shrine for a saint, where people bring flowers and candles.  :)

Actually, it was originally a much older goddess, who recided on this spot, a female water spirit, to whom people brought flowers and bread.



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Soon we reached Trafaria.
It is a very small town - its birth was in a small fishing village.
Many of the townsfolk are still fishermen, and the shoreline is full of their boats.  :)



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It was very interesting to walk amongst the boats and some fishing equipment, and the fishermen thought it was very interesting to watch us.  :rolleyes:


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Trafaria is situated just on the mouth of the river, where the river Tejo and the Atlantic ocean meet each other.
So it is a wonderful spot for the fishermen, who can fish either on the river or go to the sea.



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Behind the boats we saw a harbour and some big grain silos.  :)


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We left the village and walked forward on the shore.
This is nowadays a wild area.
In the 1920´s and 1930´s here was a popular swimming and sunbathing beach, but then the bigger beaches in Caparica became more trendy and this beach was forgotten. :)



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That is just great - we have nothing against wild spaces.  :)
A bit forward on the beach there is an illegal village.
It was started in the 1970´s, after the revolution, when people were able to leave their slavery in countryside and move freely.
Thousands of people came to Lisbon to search for work and better life, but there simply wasn´t enough apartments for all of them.
So people started to build little huts and cottages here on the beach, and throughout the years it grew bigger.

The Almada commun has made plans lately to demolish it, and force the people to move elsewhere (the land is valuable), but people don´t want to leave. It is their home.
We didn´t took any photos there. People of the village don´t like to be photographed, understandably.



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We were inspecting all sort of seashells, and laying on the warm sun.  :)


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We also took some photos of each other.
Crawfish took this photo, I did´t notice Zoe was behind me making horns. Hah!  :D
Of course I then chased her round the beach a bit, but we were all giggling and having fun.



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We could see the town of Lisbon on the other shore of Tejo, and on the sky very dark clouds were gathering fast!


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So we returned home and ate some strawberries!  :D

I wish you could have had them with us!  :stare:

Many many kisses from Racko!
See you soon again!
 
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Apr 20, 2015, 5:33 pm
Olá, queridas mãe e avó!  :)

We try to get these Portugal -updates done until the end of April, so we can move forward to Finland, let´s see!  ;)

Today I´ll show you photos from an interesting place called Quinta da Regaleira in Sintra.
I´m sorry about the quality of the photos!  Henna had forgot the camera into some night-time photographing -setting, so most of them are quite horrible.  :D



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Quinta da regaleira is classified as World Heritage by UNESCO.
It is a very impressive collection of imaginative buildings, chapels, caves, underground passages, pools and statues set in a beautiful garden.  :)



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The Regaleira family were rich merchants who purchased the land in the late nineteenth century.
The building of Quinta da Regaleira started 1892. The owner of the land, Carvalho Monteiro,  was eager to build a bewildering place where he could collect symbols that reflected his interests and ideologies - symbols related to  alchemy, Masonry, the Knights Templar, and the Rosicrucians.

With the assistance of the Italian architect Luigi Manini, he recreated the 4-hectare estate.  The architecture Manini designed evoked Roman, Gothic, Renaissance, and Manueline styles. The construction of the current estate was completed by 1910.



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It was a rather bewildering place.  :thinking:
There were tiny paths and wider ways crisscrossing the gardens, and every now and then we saw an odd construction peeping through the thickets.



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The buildings themselves were in very mixed styles, and they were decorated with gods and goddesses and sceneries from different mythologies.  :)


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There were also many pools and fountains, and many interesting things to be found.
We found some underground passages only because we´re a bunch of nosy little creatures who poke their noses everywhere.  ;)



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This is one of the caves most tourists don´t find at all, because they don´t want to see a certain statue from behind too.  ;)
We wanted to see if it was wearing a leaf only in front or in behinf´d too, and so we found the mouth of a small tunnel which led us here.  :D (it didn´t have a leaf behind)



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Carvalho Monteiro and his friends formed a secret sect, which hold its rituals on the Quinta Regaleira.
The magical quinta was actually created as a secret hideway for the sect - so many of the edifices have been constructed to serve in the rituals.  :)



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Nowadays the place is full of tourists and their shrieking, but it is easy to imagine how impressive stage it has been hundred years ago for secret rituals.


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Just imagine yourself here alone in the shades of an evening, without electrical lights, in silence, walking through these passageways and encountering white statues in surprising places looming over you!  :thinking:


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This is one of the underground buildings called Unfinished Well.
We don´t know what it was used for or what it symbolizes.



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The reason why Carvalho Monteiro choose Sintra as the place to create a secret meeting point for the sect was it´s old fame as a mysterious, holy place.
The archaeological finds tell that there really has been popular cult places in the Sintra area since the Neolithic period.



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The cult activity continued through the prehistoric times, and emerged again in historical period - many hermits were living in the Sintra caves, and there was a monastery deep in the forest, surrounded by odd rumours..


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We continued our expedition through the park, peeping into every cave and building we saw.  :)


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There were wonderful atsaleas in bloom.  :D


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The turrets of the main building, rising from the foliage, looked very beautiful! Like some ancient temples rising from a jungle.


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We rested a bit in the little café.  ;)


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Then we headed towards the upper parts of the park which seemed to be more in natural state.


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Soon we were amongst huge trees and lushy green ferns.  :)
For my own behalf I can say, that how ever beautiful a human-made construction can be, it never can be as gorgeous as the creations of nature!



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There were even huge sequoias!  :thinking: People started to plant them here some hundred years ago, and now they are spreading by themselves.  :)


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Oh, what a paradise!  :thinking:


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Do you think that donkeys were originally living in dense forests?  :stare:
I´m just asking, because this forest feels so cosy!



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There were primulas growing under the trees!  :)


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In midst of the trees we found this "Leda´s cave"  :)
Behind the statue we found again a passage, which led us deep underground!



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We followed the passage - there was no kind of light, and we had to search our way by feeling the walls and ceiling with our paws.
At last we came onto the bottom of a bigger well.

This is "Initiation well" in which the new members of the sect spent a night alone.



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There were stairs circling the well, and we started to climb upwards.


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We reached the end of the long stairs and watched down into the well.


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Then we walked back towards the main building, we wanted to peep inside a bit.


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We walked still past some nice buildings.  :)


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Inside the building was very so dark that I took only two photos.
It was a shame, because the rooms were really beautiful too!



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I wish you enjoyed our little trip too!

See you very soon again!
Yours, Racko!  :stare:
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Apr 23, 2015, 7:54 pm
Hello, all my dear friends and family! :)


It was a bit hard to decide what update to make, since I don't honestly even remember the right order in which we have been seeing things.
But I decided to write about our hiking trip to Peninha, because I like the photos a lot.



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So, we took a bus onto the border of the Sintra-Cascais Nature Conservation Area, and after we had got rid of the last urban zone, we were hiking trough a wonderful, green woodland.  :)
The tall trees in the photo are eucalyptuses, and they made the whole forest smell lovely!



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We were climbing upwards, and the forest was making way for smaller flora - bushes of mimosa and laurels.


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The blooming mimosas had invited thousands of busy bees to buzz upon the flowers!
We had to pass very carefully under the branches not to disturb the bees. They would not have liked it!  :rolleyes:



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After passing the buzzing bushes we suddenly popped into more open landscape!  :)

When watching towards east, we saw beautiful green hills.



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When watching towards west, we saw a small village behind the hills, and the Atlantic ocean behind the village.  :)
It was hard to see where the horizon was - where the sea ended and the sky started - they were of such a similar colour.



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Our path took us still upwards.
I started to realize the peace and silence of the hills.  :)
It was wonderful! Just us, the hills and the sky!



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Walking here can be like a meditation.
I was thinking about Balaam´s ass while walking.  :rolleyes:



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Some hills were covered with flowers and looked almost golden under the sun.  :)


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When we watched closer, we saw that the flowers were Picris echioides or Bristly ox-tongue.  B)



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Every now and then we saw another small village in the horizon.
Henna was telling me their names - there were Azoia, Quincho, Almogaçeme, but I don´t remember which was which.
Seen from the hills they all looked just the same - little white houses hunching together, forming a sort of termite hill.



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We climbed still upwards, and here started to feel the wind on our fur/feathers/scales/skin.
The upper we climbed the stronger the wind get, and soon it started to be a hard work to walk against it, but it was fun and made us giggle, and then it and the beauty of the landscape made us to sing too!  :stare:



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Zoe was teaching us a Finnish children's song, often sung while hiking, and as a linguistically talented equus I learned it fast:

"Terve metsä! Terve vuori!
Terve metsän ruhtinas!
Täs on poikas uljas, nuori
esiin käy hän voimaa täys
kuin tuima tunturin tuuli.

Viherjäisel laattialla
jos ei seinät hämmennä
tähtitaivaan korkeen alla
käyskelen ja katselen
ja maailma unholaan jääköön!"


about:
"Hail, forest! Hail, mountain!
Hail, Lord of the Forest!
Here is your child, valiant and young,
stepping forward, ready to serve,
powerful like the stern wind on the fjälls.

Upon the green floor
without any walls mixing my head,
under the high starlit sky
I wander and wonder.
The world can be erased from my memory."

Isn't that something?
As I told you - nowadays it is a children´s song, but originally it was a greeting to the forest.



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The singing was carrying us forward, and soon we got a first glimpse of Santuário da Peninha, towards which we were hiking.


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It was a refuge of some hermite monks in the mediaeval times, but it was considered a holy place long before that, probably because it is one of the highest points of the serra - a place in which the heaven and earth touch each other, and in which you are closer to the moon and the sun.

In this photo you can see the Peninha behind us, but we are sitting around a sacrifice bowl carved on the rock on some prehistoric period.People were putting into it offerings. I don't know exactly to whom. Maybe to the serra itself.



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Here is the holy fountain of Peninha.
Here a shepherd girl, who was unable to talk, met a radiant woman in white clothes, while searching for a lost sheep.
The woman was taking care of the sheep, giving it water from the fountain.
After meeting her the girl suddenly could talk.  :)



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The big boulders, over which the sanctuary is built, were carried here by the selfsame radiant lady.  :rolleyes:

She is called "Virgem da Peninha", but actually she is a much older pagan goddess worshipped here in Iberia.. she has been carrying big stones a bit here and there round the peninsula, building the dolmens, for example.



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The sanctuary itself wasn't very interesting. And it was also closed. It is open only during summertime.

But the hike here was super!  :D



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The wind started to be a bit too refreshing (brrr!), and so we started to hike downwards again, and trough new forests.  :)


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See you soon again!
I hope you enjoyed our hike!  :D
Your Racko
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Apr 26, 2015, 11:51 pm
Hello, hello, mom, gran and all my friends!  :D

Last time in my update we were hiking to see Santuário da Peninha, and this time we´re going to hike a lot more in the Sintra-Cascais Nature conservation area, since that is where we spend most of our time while we are in Portugal.  :)



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This time we started our hike from the small town of Sintra, where we have visited already some times.  :)

Behind my back are the white funnily shaped chimneys of the Palácio da Vila.



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We walked through the town until we reached the edge of the forest.  :)


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We walked along a path towards the Sintra palace area.
It tooks kilometers to go round it, so we are usually just walking through it, although it is forbidden.  :rolleyes:



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Usually we don´t meet anybody on this path.
Only one time, I think, we saw a young couple who had come to kiss there.  :rolleyes:



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We saw the walls of the Moorish Castle on the top of a hill.


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After some more walking we came to an old wall and climbed over it and came to the Pena palace gardens.  :)


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There are some old fortifications scattered on the landscape.
These hills have been fortificated during the yearthousands for many times.



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We walked past artificial lakes.
The tower standing in the lake is a very fancy house for the ducks who live in the lakes.  ;)



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We saw again those fantastical fern trees, we saw last time when we visited the Pena Palace.


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We were discussing the prehistory of the planet earth itself - how it looked when there weren´t yet other trees than fern trees, and not yet any seed producing plants, just spore producing ferns and horsetails and mushrooms.  :)

Zoe of course didn´t miss the possibility to remind us how her foreparents the dinosaurs were already walking on the earth then.  :rolleyes:



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These gardens were forgotten for many decades and let to take care of themselves.
Only about five years ago the gardens started to be tamed again and turned into a tourist atraction.
I wish they don´t destroy their charm with too much taming!



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In this house lived a remarkable woman, Countess d´Edla, the second wife of the last king of Portugal.

She was the one who actually planned the gardens of the Pena palace - ordered the fern trees and sequoias and various other trees to be planted and took actively part into the works.  :)



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While we walked through the gardens Henna told us more about the countess.

Her marriage with the king was a big scandal.  :D She was an actress and a singer, and had a daughter outside marriage when she met the king.
The aristocratic circles were horrified, and many of the numerous children of the king refused from talking to their father and his new wife.

The couple lived, anyway, happily, spending lots of time in the small house around which they planted the gardens.  :)



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We walked past the "rhinoceros trees".  ;)


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We rested for awhile in front of some kind of royal gazebo, before heading towards the Western wall of the park to be able to continue our hike.


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I was really enchanted bu the wonderful magnolias which looked like soft, pink clouds.  :)


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There was a pool, in which the magnolia petals were sailing with the wind like delicious pink and white sailing boats.  :)

Actually I saw an ant sailing in one of the boats!  :thinking:
It seemed to me that her navigation skills were not very good, so I helped her back onto dry earth with a stick.  :rolleyes:



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We left the Pena Palace behind our backs and walked onwards.


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We saw a statue called The Giant.
Actually it is the King Fernando II (countess d´Edla´s husband).
He didn´t look so gigantic up there.
Actually he looked pretty much like the ant I saved.



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We came to the Cruz Alta (High Cross) which stands on the border of the Pena area, and on one of the highest spots of the serra, 529 meters from the sea level.  :)



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We could still see the Pena palace, but it was already somehow far away.

We left the Pena area by climbing another wall.  :rolleyes:



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It is great to be in a real forest!
It is not so easy in Portugal!  :thinking: There is very little forest left, and people have drifted so far from nature that they are actually afraid of it. It is very sad!



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I think it would be a really great idea to organize kind of "back to the nature" camps or courses for too urbanized people.
They could live a month in a tent in the Finnish forests and drink from brooks and pick mushrooms. ;)  They would be much halthier and happier people after the month, I believe!  :)



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We saw a cave in which a hermit was living in the 17th cnetury.
I guess he wanted to get back to nature too.  :)



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We saw an astounding row of tall sequoias - all that is left from a house which was here hundreds of years ago.  :)

Of course the sequoia isn´t a natural species here, but how can we but love them?



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We have learned to use a GPS to find our way in the dense forest.
We don´t watch it actually very often, but it is nice to know it is in Henna´s backbag in case we happen to need it.  :)



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We crossed a small bridge over a little brook.
We were practising to use Zoe´s new camera in turns.



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Zoe took a photo of me, Mr Casanova and Crawfish.


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Here it is!  :D
We were all saying "Queijo!" (cheese).



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We came to the shore of a lake called Lagoa da Mula.  :)


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It was my turn to use the camera and I took a picture of a beautiful yellow flower which grew on the shore.


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Here! What do you think?
Not bad for a beginner.  ;)



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We built a raft from twigs and reeds and put big plumes on the stern for sails, and dis we made a round on the lake.  :D


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Our ship sailed quite well!  :D


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After sailing five times round the lake clockwise we had to sail other five time anticlockwise to stop our heads spinning too much.
Then we continued our hiking through the backwoods.



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We climbed a wonderful giant cork tree.  :)She told us she remembered well people coming to build the town of Sintra.  :thinking:


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Now it was Crawfishes turn to have the camera, and she took a photo of me, Mr Casanova and Zoe walking on the forest.  :D


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We had come high up on a hill again and saw some villages spreading towards the forest.
I hope they don´t cut more forest to make room for houses anymore! There is almost nothing left!



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We came to the shore of another lake, Lagoa Azul (Blue lake).
The shores were full of wonderfull mimosas.



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Zoe wanted to take a photo of me standing in front of the beautiful lake.  :)


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We walked through an old farm, which is nowadays part of the Sintra-Cascais nature conservation area.
I don´t know what these odd looking buildings have been.



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They kept some beautiful horses on the meadow. :)


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And two cousins of mine!  :D


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"Hello, cousins!" I shouted "How are you doing?"
"Oh, hullo to you too!" they answered" we´re doing very well now, because we get to spend our old days here, just eating fresh grass and enjoying our rest!"



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I was very delighted to hear that!  :)
I have now met three happy donkeys in Portugal!



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It makes good to our hearts to see happy animals, who are taken good care off.
We walked the last five kilometers  to Cascais feeling light.  :)



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I´m sending you kisses and hugs, and petting for the dear cats at home!

Your Racko  :)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted May 2, 2015, 4:10 pm
Muito bom dia para voces, minhas amadas!  :D

Como está? É o teu pequeno explorador que tá a escrever de Portugal novamente.
  :stare:



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One day we took a train and went to see a famous convent in Colares.
We took a train to Sintra.
Here I´m standing in front the Rossio railway station.



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When we got to Sintra, we just run trough the town (as usually) until we reached
the edge of the forest, and then we dived in.  :rolleyes:



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We walked again through the forest, this time towards Colares.
We had to walk along some private roads too.

It is good my portuguese is not SO very good yet, so I didn´t understand what was written there. Zoe said she suffered from a
sudden loss of memory, and Henna said she had never even bothered to
learn so stupid words.
So we just walked happily forward.  ;)



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We walked over a hill where there was a cross, erected as a memorial for 23 firefighters, who died fighting against a forest fire.
They are true "war heroes" to me. They saved this forest.  :)


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[color=purple][size=2]We walked some kilometers trough the forest,
climbing some fences every now and then, until we reached these
stairs and a plaque which told us we had come to the Capuchos
Cork Convent.  :)



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The nature as the best expression of divinity - an admirable filosophy, think I!  :)


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We followed the stairs, admiring the cork oaks
along our path.  :)



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There was little cross signalling us that we
were now entering an area dedicated to the worship of god.



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We reached the small front yard of the convent,
where there was couple of stone tables where the monks could
sit near to the nature eating their meals.  :)



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This is the main entrance into the convent.



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This sanctuary was  inspiration of the former fourth Viceroy of India, D. João de Castro (1500 - 1548).
According to a legend, João de Castro was hunting in the mountains of Sintra, and chasing a deer, he found himself lost. Tired from his search, he fell asleep against a rock, and in a dream, he received a divine revelation to erect a Christian temple on the site.  :rolleyes:



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There was originally eight monks living here,
and amongst them was a real celebrity -  Friar Honório, who, according to the book "Mirror of Penitents", lived to be 100 years old, despite which he lived his last three decades in a small cave
next to the convent.  :rolleyes:



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We entered the monks humble recidings,
which consisted of tiny cells in which they lived and a bit bigger
common areas for worshipping and eating and such.



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As you can see, many surfaces - walls, ceilings,
doors and benches are coated with cork to make the space
at least a BIT warmer. That´s why it is called "Cork Convent".
The convent didn´t have any kind of heating system besides the
hearth  in the kitchen.
It must have been freezing cold in the wintertime inside the stone
walls!  :thinking:

Of course the winters here are not so very cold, but at winter nights
the temperature can drop under zero.



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The doors inside the convent were so small that even Henna, who is not a big woman, had to bend almost double to get trough them.
Either the friars were very tiny, or the doors were planned so that they had to almost roam trough them to grow their humility.  :rolleyes:



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The monks were living in very small cells, where they just and just had room to lay down on their hard, narrow beds.
Only the oldest monks or those who were sick, had windows in their rooms to be able to see the nature.
It was too dark to get any photos inside the cells, sadly.

Here I am sitting on the monk´s window.



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And then we climbed to the roof.
I wonder if the monks ever did that.  :rolleyes:

While we were sitting on the roof Henna told us more about friar Honório.
So, this 70 years old monk was once walking on the road, when a naughty young village girl, carrying a basquet of apples, wanted to have some fun and teased
the poor monk, asking "Do you want to taste my appless?", besides
which she was smiling seductively for the old guy, who
undoubtedly almost got a heart attack.  :rolleyes:

The monk then decided to retreat into a cave to rest of his life, to
avoid further encounters with horrible maidens.  :rolleyes:

Anyway, he became a real superstar of his age - even the king
was once visiting his cave.
So, not much peace, after all. ;)



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It was nice on the roof.
The convent really is built on a beautiful spot!  :)



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Then we went to investigate the yards
and side buildings of the convent.



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This is the inner yard of the convent,
round which the buildings are organized.
It had a small fountain and a shrine.  :)



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Well, living in the convent building doesn´t
much appeal to me, but living in these surroundins does!

Add, let´s say, some light and heating and carpets and nice beds
to the cells, and it would be all right!  :D



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I entered a small side building, and guess
what it was!  :rolleyes:



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The monks´s toilet!  :D
There could be three of them at the same time.
How.. ..fraternal.  :rolleyes:



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Then I entered another side building, and
there was the monks´s kitchen!  :)

I wonder what they ate. Probably not much.



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Next to the kitchen was a small chapel.


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We returned to our yard-investigations,
and started to follow a path up to nearby rocks.



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We passed the owen in which the monks
baked their bread.  :)



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The path led us on a small platform on top of
the rocks, where the monks climbed to admire the landscape.  :)
On those times all they saw was forest and sea, but sadly the overpopulation is now too easy to see.



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This is the cave in which our friend Honório
lived 30 years.
In very cold nights, they say, he covered himself with dry leafs.  :rolleyes:
I´m not sure if I would like to meet the guy..



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Near Honorio´s cave was another cave, in which was living Jesus.
Nice they had some company. Maybe they were shouting from cave to cave if they got bored.



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We returned to the convent yard and started
our walk back trough the forest.  :)


It was an interesting visit, don´t you think?

Muitos beijinhos from Racko! See you soon!  :stare:
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted May 8, 2015, 10:35 am
Hip hei again from Lisbon!  ;)

One day we visited Jardim Botanico Botanical Garden and natural scientific museum.
It is situated quite near the center of Lisbon, but it is between the houses so that it is impossible to notice if you don´t know where to search.


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There are actually two other botanical gardens in Lisbon, but this is the best of them, says Henna.

This garden was opened 1878.  :)



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In the upper part of the garden there are plant species which originate from Portugal, and in the lower part are species from the various former Portuguese colonies.

I felt so much like diving into this beautiful big fountain, but then I saw it was full of giant sized carps!
Zoe pulled me back fast! They could have eaten my tail or worse!  :thinking:  Thanks, pal!



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We were going first round in the upper part and admiring the plants.  :)


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There was also an exhibition about the plants of the age of dinosaurs inside a greenhouse.  :D


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Then we moved to the lower part of the garden to watch the more exotic species.  :)


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First we saw many different palm trees and big araucarias.
There is sadly some fungal disease which has attacked the palms in Portugal. We saw many sick palms in the gardens too. They had lost their hair!  :(



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Then we walked inside a beautiful thicket of young bamboos.  :)

No pandas eating them here. ;)



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We saw another beautiful pond.
Henna says it is because besides being interesting this place is also beautiful and usually peaceful that she prefers this to the other botanical gardens.



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Next we went to see the section of cacti and succulents.  :D
First thing we saw there was this big dragon tree, Dracaena draco.



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Here it is seen from another perspective.  :)


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Next to the dragon trees we saw Opuntia Robusta.  :)
It is from Mexico and it is formed with a bit rounder "plates" than the Opuntia ficus indica from India we usually see here.



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I don´t know the names of all of these plants. I should have written them down.  :thinking:

Maybe you know them better than I do!  :D



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This is a Golden barrel cactus, Echinocactus grusonii.
Henna told me in Finnish they say Mother in law´s stool.  :rolleyes:



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We left the cactuses baking in the sun and went to see the other parts of the garden.  ;)


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We saw so many wonderful things!
Here are banana plants. No bananas, though.  Shame.  :rolleyes:



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During winter this is like a forest refuge inside the city, a good place to come and read for an exam, for example.
In summertime there are too many tourists.  ;)



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I´m sure you would love to spend time in here too.  :)


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We walked through a little forest of Monstera deliciosa (fruit salad plant). Did you know their fruit are edible?
I didn´t! Henna says that in Finnish the plant is called Peikonlehti = Troll´s leaf.  :)



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Usually there are water channels running here and there, from pool to pool, but they were now been fixed and dry.


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We spent almost whole day in the gardens, and then we went to see the museum of natural history too.  :)


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There was an exhibition about Allosauruses as probable foreparents of nowadays birds.

Zoe went totally kukkuu. :rolleyes:



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She was foaming like a little steam boat around and babbling about the theories of dino extinction because of a meteorite and how only her foreparents were smart enough to turn into birds and continue living.  :rolleyes:



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Well, I´m sad these animals disappeared!
It would be really something if they were still here.
Maybe they could have slowed down the human overpopulation a bit too.  :rolleyes:



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These are allosauruses, who are those who probably turned into birds.
They had bigger brains compared to the body size than the other dinos.
Zoe told this fact to us about hundred times until we told her that compared to a maggot a slug is a genius.  :rolleyes:



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Actually, it was quite an interesting collection and I was enjoying myself watching those huge sculls and bones, and we all were imagining the dinos trampling in a city, muhahahah!  B)


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Mr Casanova had been drooling for sometime between all those giant bones, and he started to gnaw a rib of a raptor without realizing it was fossilized!  :thinking:

So, we had to get him out from there and feed him (and us) before the guardians would get angry.  :rolleyes:

So we returned home. See you soon again!
Kisses and hugs from Racko!  :D
Emjay


Posted May 8, 2015, 7:29 pm
Oh Racko, what a beautiful things you are showing us again! And what a funny stories you can tell! In Dutch we have the same name for "mother-in-law's stool": schoonmoeder stoel. But you know that, off course.

Have fun and give Henna and your TV friends a hug!

Emjay & gran
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted May 12, 2015, 3:05 pm
Hello again, mom and gran!  :)

I´m happy you have liked my updates. This is going to be my last update from Portugal, which is a bit sad. On the other hand, it is time to move onward to Finland! ;)

The lunatic gang and Henna (oh yes, she is part of the gang) thank from the hug and send you one back.  :D



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We started our last day in Portugal very early.
We were standing in Almada on the shore of Tejo and watching the sun slowly climbing upwards.
The little boats were rocking gently on the waves.



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Then we walked to Cacilhas and took the ferry to Lisbon.


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We walked through many narrow alleys towards a viewpoint we had not visited yet.  :)


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We saw some nice houses. This one has been a hospital, but now it is a hotel.


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Every now and then we saw a glimpse of the river from different angles.


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While we walked we were talking about life in a city opposed to life near nature.
Here in Portugal I have seen kids ten years old who have never in their life stepped into a forest.  It is really sad.

Henna and Zoe certainly are happy to be soon back to the tiny cottage in the forest.  :D I think I am too.



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We reached our viewpoint and watched the view over Lisbon.


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There was a table made of tiles pointing some landmarks on the landscape.  :)
I recognized Cristo Rei.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20last%20day%20in%20Portugal/P1070639_zpsgbup6umw.jpg
Lisbon is an interesting town. It´s roots are somewhere in the gloom of late Neolithic, and some of its walls and streets are from the Roman time.
It really has many layers of human history built over the older layers after every earthquake, which the city has suffered.



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To me Lisbon feels like an old, lazy and slow animal, laying on the sun, compared to the younger and modern towns in Northern Europe, which feel more like yapping little terriers.  ;)


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We walked again downwards, and saw these cute little "elevators" taking people up to some higher parts of the town.


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They look just the same as the trams.
I can just imagine what a relief their existence is for the old people still living in the old houses high up.



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We followed the elevator route and took photos. Some driwers were nice and were grinning to us.  :cyclops:


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The elevator route brought us to Avenida de Liberdade, and we walked along it towards Rossio.


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[color=blue][size=2]We came to the Rossio square, from where we took a bus to Belém, because we wanted to see the famous Jeronimos monastery.



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Here I am in the garden Jardim de Belém, which is in front of the monastery.

Can you see the little rainbow in the fountain?  :D



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The Jerónimos monastery was built on the early 16th century, but the garden in which I´m standing was then river bottom.
In old pictures we can see that the monastery was originally very near the shore.



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We were walking a bit round in the garden, and then we went to see the monastery a bit closer.  :)


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The monastery is such a huge building it is very difficult to photograph - it doesn´t fit into a photo, and on the other hand, it is full of diminutive details, whjich should be photographed individually.  :thinking:


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Before the monastery there was a church of the military sect Order of Christ, who were sent to slaughter pagan people in Northern Europe.  :thinking:

Vasco da Cama and his men spent there the night praying before leaving to Orient.
The church was next to a good harbour, so it was a custom of the mariner to spend there the night before the long trips.



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The construction of the existing monastery and church began on 6 January 1501, and was completed 100 years later.
The building was financed with taxes from the prey the ships brought returning from Africa and Orient.



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Here I´m standing in front of the South Portal, which is not in use.
The ornament around it show scenes from the life of Saint Jerome, coat-of-arms of king Manuel I,  Manueline symbols and elements,  Madonna (Santa Maria de Belém), archangel Michael and the cross of the Order of Christ.



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We hopped inside the monastery church.
Half of it was sadly covered with scaffolding, because it is being restaured.



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We saw the tomb of the navigator Vasco da Gama!  :thinking:
He found the sea route from Europe to India and now people from all corners of the globe come here to stare at his tomb.  :rolleyes: It is somehow amusing.

The Wikipedia tells that his remains were brought here in 1880. Where were they before then?



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The church was really awe-inspiring because of its pure size, but also because of the amazing decorations.


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All the high columns are carved full of odd faces of animals, devils, gods, people and angels. SOme of them certainly didn´t look any way christian to me.

This is one of the cutest angels.



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Over the older stone decorations the later times have added these very popular golden shrines.


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We came out and walked to see the Tower of Belém.
It was built at the same time with the Jerónimos monastery, to defend the mouth of the river Tejo and the entrance to Lisbon.



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It felt warm outside after the cool church, and we sat in front of the tower eating ice creams we bought from a kiosk.  :p


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While we enjoyed our ice creams Henna told us that originally the tower was in middle of the river - nowadays it is just some meters away from the shore.
There were cannons in the tower, so it could exchange fire with enemy ships.

Later in history the tower was serving as a jail for important prisoners  :thinking:.



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After lazy lingering in the sun and eating some more icecreams (I ate 12) we returned home and had a very nice dinner.  :)


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Late in the evening we saw a procession on the street under our balcony.


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They were carrying some saint round the streets. I don´t know why.
Maybe he just was in need of a little outing.  :)



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Next morning we flied to Finland with a TAP plane.  :)


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I love flying!  :D When it is not too cloudy, it is very wonderful to watch the earth down there - to follow the rivers and the shape of the shores and see the mountains emerging!


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We had a very good lunch!  :p


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And then I was watching out from the window again, but still I didn´t see any ufos! Isn´t it odd? Other people are seeing them all the time!  ;)


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In the evening we were again in the little cottage in middle of the Nuuksio forest.
This is the first ever inside photo of the cottage! I took it when Henna didn´t see. She would have just started to talk about cleaning.  ;)

So- here we are again!  :D Next time I´ll show some of our spring activities.

Kisses from Racko!  :)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jun 8, 2015, 6:11 pm
Ttityy, äiti ja mummi!  :D

It´s good I´ve not forgotten all my Finnish, because now we´re here again, hiking and adventuring in the Nuuksio area.  :)



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When we arrived, there was still some snow in the shady spots and ditches, but we were doing some spring magic, and soon all the snow had melted away, and the spring flowers and other plants started to push their heads trough the earth.  :)


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The bluebells were amongst the earliest arrivers. We were running from flower to flower, wellcoming them all.  :)

"Wellcome, beatifull bells! Good spring to you!"



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090797_zpseowzeu0t.jpg
After the bluebells came the coltsfeet.
"Hello, little darlings! You look just like little suns!"  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090833_zps1lgwr03g.jpg
The primulas were in a hurry to get the third price.  ;)  So they were still a bit sleepy when they came.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090939_zps8sm9nbca.jpg
The springtime in Finland is an annual miracle, which always feels like the first one!
During the winter everything green but spruces and pines turn grey and brown, and it is like all the colors were wiped away fom the landscape. It has its own kind of beauty, but in the early spring, when the snow melts away, the earth is grey and barren, and there are yet no leaves in the trees.
So, when the first, shy green things come up from the earth, it really feels like a miracle!  :) And then, in just few days, the world changes into lustrous green and everyone goes crazy with joy!  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090792_zpsfsm9drre.jpg
The rhubarbs emerged too, round the time when all the birds started to have their mating orgies round our cottage.
Later in the summer we´re going to make wonderful rhubarb soup.  :)

Did you know that the name rhubarb comes from the words  "Rha Barbarum"? Rha was the name used about river Volga, and the barbrians living on its shores ate rhubarbs. ;) Suits us!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090837_zpsvqkhscjs.jpg
As the birds, we all got a bit mad, and run and run around, not wanting to miss anything!

These are Marsh Marigolds, which grow here in ditches.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090842_zps0pkrmw6n.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090793_zpsjxxbvost.jpg
Butterburs soon surrounded the cottage. The jungle they form becomes so thick when they grow, that it is hard to get from the cottage door to the sauna door.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090774_zpsijpdgcvn.jpg
One day we went for a trip to the sea shore.

Here we are standing on top of a Bronze Age stone mound tomb.
Originally there was a grave chamber under it, built of wood, but all the wooden parts have disappeared long ago.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090763_zpscxwacioj.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090729_zps7wqdkc7g.jpg
It was a wonderful, sunny spring day, and we had the whole shore just for us! :)
The sand felt warm under our paws, and the air smelled of freshness and new, awakening life.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090734_zpsexpmehbe.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090818_zpsj2cmuqm2.jpg
The water looked so inviting! "Come to swim!" it said. But when we tried it, it was still ice cold, brrrr!  :o


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090755_zps5friwfho.jpg
So we didn´t go to swim, but anyway, we got onto the water, since we had taken two boats with us!  :D


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090760_zpszu5vwhmg.jpg
It was me, Momo, Mr Casanova and Orkku Orava in one boat and Zoe and Crawfish in the other.
Humm.. they´re wonderful friends and I really love them both, but no one would want to be on the same boat with the two of them!  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090761_zpsknzmynvk.jpg
We were rowing around the bay, until we saw smoke rising from the shore, and we know what that meant!
Coffee and karjalanpiirakkas (Carelian pastries) !  :p



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090724_zpsh5yvlsp2.jpg


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It was hard to wait for the pastries to get warm enough!
"That one is yours!" shoutd the others, "you´re drooling over it"  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090811_zpsavrw1bnp.jpg
Aaaah!  :p At last I was able to devour the pastry!  :p
They are so good! They have a thin, crusty rye skin, and inside there can be barley, rice, potato, turnip or carrot. These pastries had rice. They are often eaten with butter and egg over them, but we just put butter.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20first%20update%20in%20Finland%202015/P1090748_zpsdl2nycbl.jpg
Then we were sitting on the shore, enjoying the beautiful landscape and letting out digestion to work, before returning home.  ;)

See you soon again!
Warm hug from your little Racko!  :)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jun 11, 2015, 8:21 pm
Hello, mom and gran and my other friends far and wide!  :D

My adventures here in Finland continue with gardening. ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20gardening/P1090909_zpssebsicfp.jpg
When there wasn´t anymore danger of nightly frost, it was time to start the works in Zoe´s kitchen garden.  :)

First we were raking all the branches and twigs away from the area.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20gardening/P1090922_zps4cmsenfb.jpg
We were mixing fertilizer to the ground. Not any chemicals, but very biological fertilizer.
I´m sure you have heard how good a fertilizer the bird poop is.  :D
It is called "guano" and sold for gardeners.
We, on the other hand, have two birds in our gang and an outhouse where they go.
So, no need to buy anything.  :rolleyes: (Yeh, it was composted before using! Don´t worry!)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20gardening/P1090854_zpsoitf52p4.jpg
More precious guano coming!
"At last you realize my value!" said Zoe. 



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20gardening/P1090858_zpscejzgfwz.jpg
Then we were turning the earth over to make it spongy and nice for plants to grow.  :)

We were all working hard, although the maggots we encountered were leading Zoe and her son Horatio a bit astray every now and then.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20gardening/P1090910_zpsgfktuajz.jpg
It was nice work!  :) We were forming benches for the plants, and debating (what else!) what plants we wanted to grow.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20gardening/P1090857_zpsztnailqw.jpg
"Whatever which lures here lots of snails!" said Crawfish. Jaiks!
"Lettuce!" said Momo the cow.
"I want herbs!" said Zoe.
"Let´s grow beans - they make us fart!" said Horatio, and then he was giggling so that he couldn´t stand.
"Some flowers would be nice.." announced Mr Casanova. I guess he plans to give them to girls.
"But I want to grow a pumpkin! Want to!" said I.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Mr%20Casanova%20back%20in%20Finland/Crawfish%20gardening/P1090864_zpsexdf6wmi.jpg
"A pumpkin!" shouted the others. "A pumpkin doesn´t even fit onto our kitchen garden!"
Well, that was quite true.  :(
But Henna promised I could grow a pumpkin next to her tomatoes! :D Jiihaa!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Mr%20Casanova%20back%20in%20Finland/Crawfish%20gardening/P1090916_zpslk25oglr.jpg
So we continued working in good spirits, and soon it was time to put the seeds to the earth.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Mr%20Casanova%20back%20in%20Finland/Crawfish%20gardening/P1090866_zpsujdd4gy7.jpg


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We put all the other seeds to the earth, but the pumpkin seeds.
Those we had to first grow inside the cottage for some weeks, because it was still quite too cold for them outside to survive.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Mr%20Casanova%20back%20in%20Finland/Crawfish%20gardening/P1090921_zpslhizmo10.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Mr%20Casanova%20back%20in%20Finland/Crawfish%20gardening/P1090927_zpsb4jyuuim.jpg
Our little garden looked so great!  :D
I can hardly wait the seeds sprouting and starting to grow!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Mr%20Casanova%20back%20in%20Finland/Crawfish%20gardening/P1090926_zpsfxjwakzp.jpg
When the work was done, we put the tools away, and admired the outcome of it.
But there was still one task to do!

To clean the old greenhouse for a new season!



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http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20gardening/P1090928_zpsiwyizx9s.jpg
I was brooming the walkway with Momo, and then we were ushering all the spiders out from the pots.


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After the exertion we were all dying for hunger!So we made a fast fire place dish by wrapping all sort of things into metal folio and putting that over the hot embers (Henna had been warming water on the fire to wash dishes).


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20gardening/P1100212_zpsamglftoi.jpg
It didn´t take long!
About 15 minutes and a wonderfull smell started spread around us!  :p



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Mr%20Casanova%20back%20in%20Finland/Crawfish%20gardening/P1100214_zps78vpgw9r.jpg
And then we ate!  :p
The funny looking white lumps are "vegan cheese" Henna is learning to make.
The food was really good, even the lumps!  :D

See you soon again!
Many kisses to you all!
Racko the gardener  B)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jun 16, 2015, 7:32 pm
Hyvää huomenta, rakas äiti ja mummi!  :D
Hip hei! How are you doing?
I´m having a nice time here. 

We don´t have a car here in our use, which is a shame, because it limits the range of places we reach.
Every time some friend of Henna´s is going somewhere by car, we try to push along. :rolleyes:

So, one day we got a lift to the small town of Inkoo.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1090875_zps7irc8bpe.jpg
We drowe to Inkoo in about half an hour, and ended into the harbour of small boats.
Henna´s friend has a boat there, and he had to paint its bottom.



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The paint was too strong for our heads. We all started to feel dizzy and see odd animals, so Henna ushered us to walk on the harbour area.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1090849_zpsitonkjjz.jpg
We saw some interesting boats and smelled the fresh sea air, and pinched some ladders so that people who were doing some spring renovations in their boats were soon shouting angrily, unable to get down.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1090846_zpsizxc8wxs.jpg
It is a rather small harbour, and soon we had seen it all, so we walked to see abit more of the town of Inkoo.
Henna was shourting after us "Don´t go too far, and be aware of the cars and the sea and the river and bif dogs.."
"Uh, ok" we said and run away.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1090882_zpskvzim69v.jpg
Inkoo is one of the oldest towns in Finland, but it must be also one of the smallest.
There is about 5000 inhabitants, but most of them live in the countryside around.
The church is one of the oldest too. Its oldest part is from the 13th century.

Beside the church the "city center" consisted of a supermarket, a bank, a library and two pubs.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Fagervik%20ruukki/P1100073_zps5pwq2nif.jpg
Behind the church we found a local museum.On its yard was a group of hostile aboriginals - local teenagers with their mopeds, drinking beer and trying to look scaring.
We made faces to them and they run away, screaming.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100083_zpshfcm7rx8.jpg
The museum was shut, but we were watching the old farm buildings and empty bottles the youngsters had left lying everywhere.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Fagervik%20ruukki/P1100080_zpsrgenxy6g.jpg
Most inhabitants of Inkoo (Ingå) speak swedish. The name of the town is probably originally a mocking name given by the inhabitants of the nearest town, Siuntio (Sjundeå)
The name of the town Siuntio means "Sjunde å" = the seventh river (counted from Turku), and the name of Inkoo means "Ingen å" = Not even a river, because the river running through the town is so small. :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100093_zpsuoanq1si.jpg
Here it is, Inkoo river, not even a river. ;)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100074_zpsc473b8ec.jpg
We were admiring an old windmill, but then we had really seen everything there was to see in Inkoo.  :thinking:

We loitered back to the harbour, and saw Henna and her friend still painting the bottom of the boat and seeing odd animals, and so we went and stole Henna´s friends car.  :rolleyes:
They didn´t notice anything.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100099_zpschp3yax2.jpg
We drove to Fagervik.  The lunatic sisters, Zoe and Crawfish took command.  :rolleyes: Crawfish was steering and Zoe was shouting commands to me, Mr Casanova, Momo and Horatio, and we  were hopping accordingly on the gas and break pedals. No problemo. )
Anyway, it was about 15 kilometers to Fagervik, and we only bumped once against one light pole.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100139_zpsd8ymdpoq.jpg
Here is the Fagervik Rokoko style mansion house from the year 1773.
It was the home of the family who owned the Fagervik blast furnace and iron works, which were built here on the 17th century.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100157_zpsyyalat2t.jpg
Here is the church, which was used by the workers and owners of the iron smithy.
Many of the workers were originally from France. They were huguenots and persecuted in their own home country because of their Lutheran belief.
As they were skilled smiths, they were called to work and live in Fagervik, were they and their families formed a small and tight society.

With them came the first potatoes into Finland in about 1720.  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100134_zpssq4iojv9.jpg
We walked watching the old industrial buildings, and imagined the sounds and smells three hundred years ago.  :)
The machinery was of course working with the water power and wood.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100129_zpskstfkvgj.jpg
I was trying to find what products they actually were producing here, but I didn´t find much information. They just say "iron products", and that can mean whatever.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100105_zpsxeuzxeh9.jpg
Nowadays Fagervik is a popular place to come and spend beautiful summer days.
The mansion and the church are still owned by descendants of the original family, although the iron works was shut down in 1903.
They are keeping part of the buildings open on some days during the summer, and renting the church for weddings.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100111_zpsu3sglxol.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Inkoo%20and%20Fagervik/P1100120_zpsxzzvezir.jpg
We had soon seen everything, and hurried back to Inkoo, before Henna and her friend would notice the car was missing..

Hah, they had not noticed anything! :D We were just smiling angelically and told them we had been sitting in the Inkoo church.
Can you believe they swalloved it?! I thing the paint was really too strong and their brains had started to melt.

Don´t tell them!  :rolleyes:  :rolleyes:
Many kisses from Racko!
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jul 5, 2015, 8:39 pm
Hello again, dear mom, gran, siblings (and other relations) and friends! :) <3



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1100180_zpsrseozpm4.jpg
I know you want to hear news about our kitchen garden!  ;)
It is growing well, although a bit slowly, because the summer has been very cold and rainy (even more so than it normally is in Finland, Zoe is telling me).
The good side of it is that we don't need to water it so often.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20following%20river/P1090939_zpshp9kua1h.jpg
But now I'm telling you about one day when we were playing behind our cottage, where there runs a small brook.

"Where does this brook run to?" I asked from Zoe.
"Better let's find out!" she answered.
Everybody agreed, and so we started to follow it.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1100001_zps5talltu7.jpg
We run after the brook through a forest area, hopping over stones and fallen trees, and it lead us out from the forest and through a wide field landscape.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1090947_zpss526djlj.jpg
The sky over the fields looked rather promising.  :rolleyes:
So we were happy the brook took us back into the forest again.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1090958_zpsovqlakgn.jpg
We were covering under the trees while a hailstorm passed over us.
Here! Do you see? A hailstorm could be dangerous for a little toyvoyager - the ice balls were the size of my nose!  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20following%20the%20river/P1100004_zpsndqeumpd.jpg
The brook turned into a small lake, and the sun came out a bit.
We sat on the shore, and Henna told us there had been a village next to the lake, but it had disappeared in the 1960's, because there was a plan to build a rail road on it's place.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20following%20river/P1090975_zpsezdg821u.jpg
Soon we found proofs of the existence of habitation - all sort of trash was still laying around where the houses had been.

These are parts of some field machinery.



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There was also a wreck of a car.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1090967_zpsh8xxt4hz.jpg
And the remains of a once fine bike.  :)

I felt a bit sad for the bike, but it told me not to. "In my times I was running thousands of kilometers, and now it feels just good to rest in the forest and to turn into part of it", it said.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1100009_zpsgsq982ly.jpg
Our brook was growing a bit faster now.
There was smaller brooks coming to join it every now and then, and it was growing in size too.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1090950_zpsntjxetyh.jpg
I found some very funny mushrooms in the forest.
They looked like little bowls or cups.
Maybe they are used by the various spirits living in the forests here.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1090985_zpsyxryyzjb.jpg
Our brook decided to turn into a lake again, a bit bigger this time.

Henna told us that thousands of years ago this lake had been part of a long fjord, which run from the sea deep into the area which now is known as Nuuksio.
The little brook we are following had also been part of it.
When the land was rising the fjord slowly turned into lakes and a river. The river (which now is our little brook) had been big enough to sail along still some hundred years ago..  :stare:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1100017_zpsg6ueeeyn.jpg
Our brook dived out from the lake again, and it was running faster than ever!
We could here it giggling with joy, and it was like it was in a hurry to get into some pleasant happening forward.
What could it be?  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1100254_zpsuzxvmdgv.jpg
The brook grew into a small river, and it started to gurgle instead of giggling!


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1100270_zps9oie9qvx.jpg
The river started to rrrrumble and we understood it was turning itself into a rapid!
So, that´s why it was in a hurry!  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1100280_zpsnhltccl2.jpg
"Jiihaaaaaa! I love to become a rapid!" it was shouting. And we were shouting too, for joy. :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1100263_zps3kvdjj7m.jpg
Anyway, decided not to walk 20 more kilometers to the seashore with the river, but to walk back home instead.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20following%20the%20river/P1100289_zpsrry6aiav.jpg
I enjoyed following the little brook which turned into lakes, river and rapid.  :)
I wish you liked it too!

Yours, Racko  B)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jul 7, 2015, 12:05 pm
Iihahaaa!  :D

I'll show you photos from the Raasepori castle ruins we visited one day when we had managed to pinch a car again.
We are getting quite good at it, the car pinching, I mean.

So, we drowe to Raasepori, which is about 40 kilometers towards west from Nuuksio.
The trip went well. Zoe was shouting commands, Crawfish was steering, and Mr Casanova, Horatio, Momo and I were jumping on the gas and break pedals. It cannot be helped - those two crazy girls are the bosses here.  :rolleyes:
Sadly we caused some road accidents. But it wasn't our fault. What can we do if other driwers are so stupid they don't see driwers under 15 centimeters tall and imagine our car is driwing by itself?  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Snappertuna/P1100027_zpsyik1lvyx.jpg
Here is the Raasepori castle, or what is left of it.
It was built by the Swedish invaders on the 14th century onto an island, to guard the main water route along the coast line against competing invaders.

The sea level became lower over time due to postglacial rebound (don't I know fantastical expressions?), and it became increasingly difficult to approach the castle by boat. This is one of the main reasons why the castle lost its importance in the 16th century.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Snappertuna/P1100029_zpshqw6aj8w.jpg
In normal language: the land rised so much the castle nowadays sits deep inland, so it cannot very well guard any coastal routes.  :rolleyes:

We climbed inside the castle walls, and there we found an information board.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Snappertuna/P1100038_zpsbsxqkqv8.jpg
It was showing what kinds of rooms there had been inside the castle.
Now there wasn't much left, but we made a tour inside anyway.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Snappertuna/P1100039_zpsx03eehrg.jpg
Henna told us how Swedish and Danish forces and Estonian and Carelian pirates were fighting over the control of the castle several times during the Middle Ages.

It wasn't of course only the castle they were fighting for - the area of Finland was invaded by Swedes and Danes and by who knows whom - they were fighting over the right to tax the inhabitants, who just wanted to live in piece inside their forests.  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Snappertuna/P1100071_zpsclkpvsgu.jpg
Besides controlling the coast line,  the castle was administrative center of the province of Western Uusimaa.

The mighty castle on the sea shore opposite Revel (Tallinn) city could also control the important trade-route form Lübeck to Novgorod. There was significant custom point and revenues were very big.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Snappertuna/P1100055_zpsbkistypr.jpg
"In the middle of the 15th AD viceroy Karl Knutsson Bonde kept his court in the Castle some time. In 1528 the administrative center of the province was moved to Ekenäs (Tammisaari). After that the period of decline of the castle began. It was abandoned in 1550 and was forgotten for more than 300 years."

Watching the ruins and the walls, which are actually only an empty peel of what once has been a mighty castle, it was very hard for me to imagine any "viceroy" living here with his court.  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Snappertuna/P1100048_zpsstibv03e.jpg
We were doing our best, and added, in our imagination, plank floors and richly decorated rooms between the stone walls, dudes sipping beer in long wooden tables, virtuous damsels playing lyres and less virtuous damsels flirting with the dudes.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Snappertuna/P1100057_zpst0xzgtfu.jpg
Henna was telling us that the castle had wide fields and lots of cows on the surrounding countryside, and of course huge working power to serve the noble bimbos in the castle.
There was bakeries, breweries, fishermen, cooks, cupbearers and butchers just to feed them.
The farmers were forced to work certain amount of days for the castle for free, and they were also made to build the castle.

No wonder there were many farmer revolts and uprisings in those times.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Snappertuna/P1100066_zpsp3fojwcu.jpg
We got back outside again - we had got enough of the castle.
It seemed to us that it didn't represent much else than history of oppression and class society forced over people living in natural democracy. Bah!

]Good bye! It is much better to live in forest!  ;)

See you again soon!
Your rebellion
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jul 8, 2015, 9:17 pm
Hyvää päivää, kaikki ystäväni!  ;)
= Good day, all my friends!

I'm learning Finnish quite fast here in Finland, and I´ve decided it is time rest of the world learns it too, because it is a wonderful language with 15 noun cases.

Anyway, I'm going to use some Finnish phrases in my every update, so my readers can repeat them 10 000 times per day until they have learned them by heart. I can't even imagine how excited you all must be!  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1090901_zpsw5qpcey5.jpg
We stayed some days in Helsinki, taking care of Henna's mothers cats. Kissa = cat
This one in the picture is called Nalli, and she is a very self-secure creature, who loves her infra red pointing toy over everything else.
She also likes a toyvoyager steak, it seems. I had to play dead to get her to drop her interest.  :thinking:

The other cat, Miilu, is a very shy black cat, who was saved from the street in Tallinn, Estonia, as a baby.
She doesn't trust anybody else than Henna's mother, so I don't have a photo of her.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100329_zpsdzrlosxe.jpg
Besides taking care of the cats, it was our task to feed seagulls, who have their nest on the roof opposite to Henna's mothers kitchen window.
They had two little fluffy, grey, spotted, seagull babies in  the nest on the roof, and we were throwing food for the parents every morning and evening, which is, of course, strictly forbidden by the city rules.  :rolleyes:
But who can resist spotted, fluffy little seagull babies?  :thinking: Not us!
Lokki = seagull



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1090892_zpsubf3vdae.jpg
Henna's mother has already some experience of visiting toyvoyagers - so she had loaded the place full of good things to eat!
What a valiant and understanding lady!  :p



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1090895_zpsl4ty9gft.jpg
We wanted to be polite and show our total approval, and ate everything!
What do you mean "that wasn't the only reason"?  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100373_zpsbib58zyw.jpg
Henna's mother collects old dolls. She also makes them herself. There must be some hundreds in her home.  :thinking:

We were mingling with them a bit. Can you spot us?  :D
Nukke = doll



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20in%20Helsinki/P1100407_zpsptojukr3.jpg
We also loaned some of the doll's toys. They didn't mind.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100325_zpsuxgdoxvs.jpg
Soon we had got enough of being inside - we're not used to it - I don't know how those dolls can stand it!
I asked from them, and they said it is "quite pleasant to be sitting here, having tea parties and discussing our new clothes".
Crying out loud.
We went out!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100331_zpsck94yegc.jpg
We walked past Hietalahden Kauppahalli market hall, which is just round the corner.
It was opened in 1903.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/Racko%20in%20Hietalahti_zps93pe46yy.jpg
Next we walked to watch over the Hietalahden Satama harbour area.
Still some years ago this was an important industrial center - here was the famous Wärtsilä shipyard.
It still exists, but the ship building has diminished, and part of the industrial area is going to be turned into very posh living areas.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100372_zps7urtoi6m.jpg
Still some hundred years ago this whole area had a somewhat murky reputation.
Most inhabitants were shipyard workers and other working class people. There were also some factories, like the Sinebrychoff brewery.
In the time of Russian rule there were some brothels and gaming dens and cheep hostels for the sailors.
The members of the upper class didn't enter the area at all, at least the female population. The men sneaked here quite often.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/Racko%20and%20tower_zpsuo37yyop.jpg
This tower stands in middle of a park, which was originally the private park of the wealthy Sinebrychoff family, who owned the breweries.
It was turned into a public park in the 1960's.
It was originally ten times bigger, but the habitation has been slowly eating it away.
It was planned to be totally demolished, but a strong popular movement in the 1980's saved the park.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100337_zpskqdflbsi.jpg
We walked through the neighbouring part of town called Eira.
This was built in the beginning of the 20th century. Before that it was a remote, countryside-like area with some summer villas of the wealthy Helsinki families, and otherwise mainly little cottages of the fishermen families.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100341_zpsptzyghqk.jpg
Nowadays it consists mainly of beautiful Jugend style houses. Many embassies are situated in this area.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/Racko%20in%20Eira_zpsiyk1rgpu.jpg
This is nowadays one of the most expensive areas in whole Finland.
Had the fishermen just knew it two hundred years ago!  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100362_zps8enpjjjy.jpg
We came into a beautiful park between the houses, and walked around admiring it a bit.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Helsinki/P1100356_zpsd2gmn7h9.jpg
The syringas and rhododendrons were in their most glorious bloom.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100352_zpskr9mpbgy.jpg
There was a nice path over which the syringas were making a tunnel, and in the bottom of it there was a quite horrible bird bath.  :D


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100346_zps8htanbrf.jpg
There were some birdies taking a bath, and our friend Zoe spent quite a good time peeping on them through the bushes.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100397_zpsdzb4dqwk.jpg
Our walk took us along Esplanadi, and soon we saw the famous statue of three blacksmiths.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100378_zpsxs4pujcs.jpg
Here it is - Kolmen sepän patsas = statue of three blaksmiths.
It is one of the most popular things in Helsinki for tourists to take photographs with, but for example some muslim women living here cannot even walk past it, because they don't want to see dudes in the nudd.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100383_zpsmafwjp8c.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100386_zpswfbwhlyv.jpg
Next to the naked smiths is the Stockmann department store, which, in its time, was the biggest department store in Europe.
It was opened in the 1920´s, and it was the first building in Finland with escalators.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20in%20Helsinki/P1100307_zpsfgfj8z6z.jpg
We walked slowly along the streets, and watched the windows, and rested a while on the Esplanadi park, where there were small carpets on the grass for people to sit on.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100392_zps8t7jf8ai.jpg
A nasty statue in Aleksanterinkatu street tried to eat me!  :o
Luckily I hadn't taken a bath for a week.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100402_zps8fwkmwjv.jpg
We still walked a bit in the harbour area before heading back to spend the evening with the boring dolls.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki/P1100400_zpsiyshn0gt.jpg
There was a wonderful mist over the water.  :)

See you soon again! = Nähdään pian!
Kisses from Racko!  :)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jul 11, 2015, 9:36 pm
Hellurei, rakas äiti, isoäiti, siskot, veljet, serkut, ystävät ja  kummin kaimat! ;) (= Hi, dear mother, grandmother, sisters, brothers, cousins, friends and godparent's namesakes!)

Today I show you photos from a walking trip we started in Leppävaara, Espoo, and ended in Tarvonsaari island in Helsinki.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100463_zpsluhabnh4.jpg
Here I'm walking past Albergan kartano manor house.

The now existing house was built in 1870's, and it is called as Sokerilinna (sugar castle), because it's builder was the owner of a sugar factory, and it is built mainly of the wood get from the wood boxes the sugar was shipped in to Finland.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100477_zpsfrifwr5b.jpg
We walked from Leppävaara through Perkkaa, along small earthen roads. We saw a sign hanging on a post, saying "children's hut building camp", and followed the sign.

There were no kids around at the moment, but there were various different huts.  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100474_zps26gasmje.jpg
The huts were build from different materials - planks and branches, reeds and moss. No nails were used - all the peaces were put together by using strings, which is great, since some of the huts were up in the trees.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100475_zpsm7lgp0k1.jpg
Nowadays kids have less possibilities to run freely around in the forests, so I think it is very nice they can at least build their huts on this kind of camps.  :D


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20walking%20in%20Espoo/P1100490_zpspsvjs35v.jpg
We left the earthen roads and continued along small paths, which circulate on the shore line.
The shores were full of reeds, and there were many water birds nesting amongst them.
We sat for awhile on a cable drum brought there to serve as a beach chair.  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100494_zpso3m9fb8e.jpg
We crossed two nice bridges.
There were some people fishing from the bridges.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100483_zpsff7w1bum.jpg
We had reached the Tarvonsaari island and went to see the museum of the artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela.

This is Tarvaspää, his atelier home, which he planned and built in 1912, in which was then a long distance away from everything.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100319_zpsg8uifcrw.jpg
Gallen-Kallela is best known for his illustrations of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. His work was considered very important for the Finnish national identity.

I saw some beautiful works. This one is called Ad Astra (Into stars), and it pictures "resurrection - spiritual rising from temporal to eternal    consciousness" said Gallen-Kallela. It is from the year 1907.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/Racko%20ja%20karhunputki_zpshvahpwru.jpg
This is his painting Karhunputki (Angelica Sylvestris) from the year 1889.
I liked them both a lot.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/Racko%20and%20painting_zps3dneu8cg.jpg
This painting symbolizes the shortness and temporality of human life, and the circle of life and death.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100311_zpsycpj26vh.jpg
There was a very nice café in the museum.
We were having blueberry pie with coffee.  :p



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100488_zpsg19hlzio.jpg
On the yard was a statue with a Kalevala theme - The Giant Pike.  :)
We were admiring it and then we loitered again to the sea shore.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20walking%20in%20Espoo/P1100506_zpslwkld6et.jpg
There were some small fish swimming near the shore and they were calling us to join them.
Soon we were in the water too!  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100503_zpsutjby8b7.jpg
Henna was clucking like a worried hen and told us to remember what happened to Tuli and stay near the shore.
(Tuli is a tv of Henna's, a frog who decided to hop into a river in Portugal, where there was a frog orgy going on.)  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20walking%20in%20Espoo/P1100497_zpsyvqp0pdd.jpg
The water was warm and wonderful!
We were enjoying laying in it, and discussing about whether it was anything so horrible that happened to Tuli.. she joined an orgy in a river called "Vine river" and found a charming boyfriend, it seems. So?  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20walking%20in%20Espoo/P1100499_zpshuxai48u.jpg
I rather think I wouldn't mind an orgy myself in a Vine river.. but I would not stay there forever however charming a bull I would find! The others agreed. But frogs are a bit different.. with all that hibernation and all :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20walking%20in%20Espoo/P1100500_zpsbwhbpbyb.jpg
After couple of hours of floating around Henna told us to get back on dry earth before we would grow fins.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20walking%20in%20Espoo/P1100501_zps3l1ywciz.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tarvonsaari%20island/P1100509_zps7brouc4o.jpg
Then we sat in the sun, drying our furs, feathers or scales. Henna said we smelled funny, and that we should soon take a proper bath.

See you soon again!
Love from Racko!  :D
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jul 14, 2015, 5:43 pm
Kukkuu!  :D

Today I'm telling you about Finnish Juhannusaatto (Midsummer Eve).
It is, with Christmas, the most important celebration of the year.
In pagan times it was celebrated as the Wedding of the Sun (Aurinko).  :)

The Finnish towns empty for Juhannus, because about everyone goes somewhere in the countryside - either into their own summer cottage or into somebody else's summer cottage, or to tenting - the main thing is to be somewhere near the nature.  :stare:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20Juhannus/P1100607_zpsvffik6xp.jpg
We started out Juhannus celebration by swinging.
Besides being fun, it was originally part of the rituals.
The swinging symbolizes the travel of the Sun over the seas in her boat.(Yes, the Finnish Sun was female)(naturally - who on earth would think the sun as a masculine? Hah!  :thinking: )



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20Juhannus/P1100613_zpsmsyovqxh.jpg
In the past Juhannus was a communal celebration. The whole village gathered to spend it together.
Most villages had big wooden swing constructions, called kyläkiikku (village swing). In them was room for example six or eight people to swing together.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20Juhannus/P1100603_zpsngd3a6pg.jpg
We don't have a kyläkiikku here, so we hanged these small swings between two trees for Juhannus.  :)

There has been a kyläkiikku in ancient times on a nearby hill here, called Ilomäki (the Joy Hill).  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20Juhannus/P1100611_zps23oafwxp.jpg
Zoe was teaching us a Juhannus Keinulaulu (swinging song), and we were singing it while swinging.

"Heilu keinuni korkealle                    Fly high, my swing
Nythän on Juhannusilta                    It is Midsummer Eve
Mesimarja paistaa                              The arctic brambles are shining
Ja tuomi tuoksuu                        and the  bird cherries smell wonderfull
Ja kuulas on taivahan silta.                The bridge of the sky is clear.

Heilu, keinuni, korkealle                    Fly high, my swing
Linnut ne laulavat häitä                    the birds are singing weddings
Minä olen nuori kuin päivänkukka      I'm young as an oxeye daisy
En muistele suruja näitä.                    I don't reminisce sorrows.

Heilu, keinuni, korkealle                    Fly high, my swing
Rintani riemuja laulan                        I sing my inner joy
Kedon helyt                                      I pick the trinkets of the meadows
kullalle kuiskien poimin                      whispering to my love
ja solmin sen vihreän paulan.            and bind them into a green band." 



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20Juhannus/P1100604_zpsqk5ckwi1.jpg
We also picked trinkets of the meadows (wild flower) and out them on our heads, as is the custom.  :)

After swinging and singing to our hearts's content, it was time to go to Juhannussauna.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20Juhannus/P1100643_zpsl5269ggm.jpg
The sauna was heated up to about 70 Celsius degrees, and we were bathing in cool water, smelling of fresh birch leaves and wild mint, which were sprinkled onto the water.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20Juhannus/P1100645_zpsepsso2pn.jpg
We were leaning back, shutting our eyes and relaxing, enjoying the combination of the hot steam and the cool water enclosing us into a soft womb.  :)

The Finnish sauna is not only a place to wash ourselves. It is also a holy space to clean ourselves spiritually.
In Juhannus we clean ourselves to be ready to take part into the wedding joy of the Sun.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20Juhannus/P1100642_zpsqsoacynr.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20Juhannus/P1100620_zpsssxppdbx.jpg
It was time to sit into the Juhannus table.
There is no any traditional Juhannus food. Mainly it was about drinking..  :rolleyes:
Nowadays it is usally food made on barbecue or more simply, anything you can put on a fire in tip of a stick (sausages, corn ears..)



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We concentrated into drinking, as proper traditionalists.  ;)


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Between drinking we were dancing.

In pagan times Juhannus was one of the times of the year when "Wives were maidens". It meant that on certain times of the year everyone was considered single, not bound to monogamity by marriage.  :rolleyes:



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So, in Juhannusyö (Midsummer Night) everyone could take part of the wedding joy of the Sun by sneaking into the bushes or into a hay barn with some attractive companion.
This was also a ritual, which was contributing to the overall fertility of the fields, animals (and humans, hah).  :rolleyes:

This was also a way to make sure every woman in the society had a possibility to become pregnant, even if the husband happened to be infertile.



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I'm not quite sure if we took part into that ritual or not.
My memory seems to be a bit affected by all the mead an singing.  ;)



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At midnigh it was time to lit the juhannuskokko (Midsummer pyre).
It is often built on a raft anchored in a lake or in the sea, but we had ours just on the yard.  :)



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There was a custom to hop over the fire in Juhannus. It symbolized a bit different things in different times.
It could be the purifying fire of the holy feast, hopping over which people get purified, or it could symbolize the barrier, the boundary line between the worlds, which was possible to cross on special times, of which Juhannus was one, or it could also work as the ritual fire over which a couple hopped hand in hand, after which they were married.  :)

We were just wondering the sparks rising towards the sky and singing.



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When the fire started to die down it was time to go to bed.
We took the wild flowers from our heads and put them under our pillows to see our future husbands or wives in a dream.

I don't tell you what I saw.  ;)

See you soon!
Kisses from Racko!
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jul 15, 2015, 9:34 pm
Hei taas! (Hi again!) :D
Terveisiä Suomesta! (Greetings from Finland!)

I wish you're all having an enjoyable summertime! Well, you who happen to be in Australia of course are having a winter time, but I wish it is good anyway.  :rolleyes:

Our Finnish summer is delightful - full of rain and mosquitoes!
But, every now and then we see the sun, and our insect eating gang members are trying to eat away the mosquitoes!  :rolleyes:



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Here is our little cottage in middle of the summer glory of the nature.
Henna calls this place a small heaven.
The cottage is so old that it doesn't actually feel like anything made by human hands - it is more like something just sprouted up from the earth, like a mushroom or something.  ;)



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There are various flowers growing round the cottage. Some of them are planted by Henna, bur some of them have grown there maybe a century.
These tulips (Queen of night) Henna planted here some years ago.

The animals like the cottage too.
An owl lives in the attick, and so does a family of bats. How do they find each other as neighbours, I dont know.
Under the eaves are two nests of Pied Flycatchers, and guess what! We found out that it is the same male with TWO familes in different nests!  :thinking: We have been trying to hide this fact from little baby kiwi Horatio..



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These roses are very old. They are called Juhannusruusu (Midsummer rose) because they usually bloom on midsummer, not in this year, though, they are a bit late because the summer has been cold.
Henna says they should be cut so they would make more flowers, but Zoe says Henna says that every summer, and the roses are never going to be cut, because they have been growing according to their own will for hundred years, so let them grow..  :)



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The old field grows wild too.
It was in the 1960's when there was a crop growing last time on this field. A neighbour kept here his horse few years ago, that's why it has not turned back into forest.  :D



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On those days when it is not raining we have to water our kitchen garden.
That is ok, but the weeding can be tedious task in middle of the mosquitoes.
We lit little fires round the garden, and put wet leaves onto the fire, so that they form lots of smoke, to keep the blood lusty beasts away, but that is not quite enough.
So last time Zoe, Crawfish and Horatio were eating mosquitoes as fast as they could while I, Mr Casanova and Momo were doing all the weeding.
Well, yeah, it was usefull, I admit, but even so we find it a bit unfair that they were just eating while we were pulling the weeds off.  :thinking:
"This is so hard wor, oh so hard work!" they were saying, and tried to muffle down the "njom njom!".  :rolleyes:



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Our onions have grown well, but the other plants are suffering from the exceptionally cool weather and lack of sun, so they are still very small.
Let's see if we get any kind of crop!  :D



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Our greenhouse plants we have to water every day, of course.
We do it in turns, although Mr Casanova never needs to do his turn unless he really wants to!  :thinking: There are always some eager girls ready to do it on his behalf. Last time it was a young squirrel who lives on a spruce next to our well. :rolleyes:



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I like the work. It is nice to feed the plants and put sticks and strings to support them if needed, and to see them growing from day to day.
Besides, Zoe, Crawfish and Horatio are always ready to help me because there are many worms and plant lice to take care of and they know I don't much care about them.
We never need to use any pesticides..  :rolleyes:



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Henna has her own bigger greenhouse, but it rather an odd looking construction, because she made it herself from wooden bars and transparent tarpaulin.
Sometimes I help her there too, because she lets me grow my pumpkin there.  ;)



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Here we are in Henna's greenhouse helping her to tighten the string supports of the tomatoes.  :D


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And here is my pumpkin! The first flower has just opened!  :D


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I was growing them inside the cottage for some weeks, because it was so cold!
I only brought them here a bit before Midsummer, and still they are late, but maybe there's hope still, let's see!  :)



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Well, this was all I wanted to show you this time, but see yo soon again!

Your Racko!  B)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Aug 6, 2015, 8:47 pm
Terve taas! (Hullo again!)  :D

We spent again some days in Helsinki, taking care of Henna's mother's two cats.
While not cleaning cat potties or feeding the little beasts, we had time to walk around the town and to watch more sights, emblematic to Helsinki.I'm now going to share them with you, if you want or not.  ;)



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While leaving the apartment and walking towards the town center, we walked past this wooden church.
It is called Vanha Kirkko (The Old Church), and it is in middle of a small park, which was originally a graveyard for the victims of the 18th century pestilence.

Doesn't sound a nice place to hang, but it is a very popular spot to spend sunny days.  :)
This summer we don't have any.

We went into the church too, but there was a young couple rehearsing  for their wedding with a priest, so we felt awkward to take any photos.  :rolleyes:



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Near the church we saw the statue of Elias Lönnrot.
He was one of the guys, who trotted round the forests in Eastern Finland and Karelia, collecting the folk poetry, which later was published as "Kalevala".



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Next to Lönnrot sits Väinämöinen, the legendary shaman character in the old poetry.

This is one of the statues in Helsinki most preferred by the pigeons and other birds as a nice platform to rest. So it has to be cleaned once a year.  :rolleyes: (It is good our friend Zoe cannot fly).



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We came to Kamppi area, and saw Hiljaisuuden kappeli (Chapel of Silence), which is also build of wood.


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The chapel was built 2012, and it is meant for anyone who wants to escape the noise and hurry of the town for a moment, to go and to sit in peace.

The shape of the chapel imitates an egg - the egg of the Sotka (common goldeneye - Bucephala clangula) from which the universe was born according to old Finno Ugric religion.  ;)



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Inside it really is very peacefull and comfy, like inside an egg, I imagine.
I asked Zoe, but she says she doesn't remember her egg-time so well.  :D



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We walked past Finlandia talo culture and congress center.
It is very famous building, and thousands of tourists go to see it every year for some reason I don't understand, because, come one, it looks like a swimming hall and is boring as hell. 
Ok ok, it was built by a famous architect Alvar Aalto, and it seems to be a groundbreaking building stylishly, but I must say I'm sorry this kind of ground was ever broken.  :rolleyes:



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This building is nowadays a museum, called Hakasalmen huvila (Villa of Hakasalmi).
It was originally the summer villa of a very wealthy family, outside the town and on the shore of a bay.
The town was growing, and when the railroad was built, part of the bay was dried.



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Then we saw the Musiikkitalo music hall and the sculpture called Hauen Laulu (Song of a pike) on its yard.
The sculpture is made after a poem by Finnish poet Aaro Hellaakoski.
The poem tells about a pike, who rises into the top of a pine to taste a red cone and to sing.  :)



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We walked towards South along the Esplanadi boulevard. The weather had turned suddenly sunnier, and we were so amazed by it we almost forgot to walk, just stand there gaping in the sudden light.  :rolleyes:


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In the Esplanadi park we met the Finnish National Poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg.
He was the chap who wrote for example the poem "Maamme" (Our land), which was later turned into the national anthem.

In February the Finns are eating Runebergin torttu tarts, which were invented by the poet's wife Frederika.
It seems the poet had a sweet tooth. He would fit well into our company!  ;)



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Next we met another, very nice statue, called Aallottaret (feminine water spirits).
It was sculpted by Victor Jansson, Tove Jansson's (the moomin artist, you know) father. He used Tove as model for this Aallotar.



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We came to Kauppatori market square.
Until the end of the 18th century on the place of the market square were the docks of the fishing boats, from which the fishers were selling their catch.
The proper market place was on those times on the square, where the Lutheran Cathedral was later built.
1812 the new Kauppatori was opened.



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Kauppatori is open the whole year round, although it is understandably more popular in summer time.  :rolleyes:
They sell here Fruit and vextables, mushrooms, fish, food, souveniers and handicrafts.



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Behind the square is Presidentin linna Presidential Palace, one of the official residences in Helsinki of the President of the Republic of Finland.
It is there they have the Independence Day Ball, which is a very important happening in Finland, which glues about 3 million Finns in front of their TV:s (televisions, I mean, not toyvoyagers) every year, to criticize the dresses of the people who have got invitation to the ball.  :rolleyes:



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On the Kauppatori square stands Keisarinnankivi memorial. It was erected 1835 to honor tsarina Aleksandra, wife of czar Nikolai I, who visited Helsinki that year.


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We walked along the shore, past many sightseeing boats, to see Vanha Kauppahalli, the old market hall.


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The hall was opened 1888. Main reason to build the hall was the need to control more the sometimes wild life in the market square, where bootleggers, prostitutes and pickpockets were horrifying the decent citizens.  :rolleyes:


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In the beginning there was about 120 sellers in the hall, nowadays there is about 30. Supermarkets have of course eaten the popularity of the market halls everywhere.


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We went in to see what they were selling.
There was a throng of people, mainly tourists.



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There were many fish sellers, which made Zoe and Crawfish to go all crazy.  :p
I was more interested to see the vegetable section.



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We went out again and sat a bit down and watched the old sailing ship and the ferris wheel on the Katajanokka shore.  :)


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Then we walked to see the Havis Amanda statue next to Kauppatori.


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Havis Amanda was sculpted by Ville Vallgren and erected 1908.
Havis Amanda is a mermaid who stands on seaweed as she rises from the water, with four fish spouting water at her feet and surrounded by four sea lions. Vallgren's intention was to symbolize the rebirth of Helsinki.
The model for the statue was a then 19-year-old Parisian lady, Marcelle Delquini, and the respectable people of Helsinki were shocked about a "Parisian prostitute being brought to show her nudity shamelessly to everyone".  The sea lions, with their human tongues hanging out, were said to represent men lusting after the mademoiselle. :rolleyes:



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Every year on Vappu (20.4), Manta serves as a centrepiece for the celebrations. Students of the local universities put a cap on the statue in an elaborate ceremony.

There is also an urban legend that Havis Amanda patronizes men's sexual potency. Some men believe that washing one's face with water from one of Havis Amanda's fountains and shouting thrice "Rakastaa!" (To love!) increases men's sexual ability.  :rolleyes:
We were keeping Mr Casanova away from the water, into which he tried to jump.  :rolleyes:

We visited still some more sights, but I have to show those to you in my next update.  ;)
A big hug from Racko!  :D

Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Aug 10, 2015, 7:28 pm
Titityy, mom and gran!  :D
How are you? I'm loving the green freshnes of Finnish summer.

Now I have some time to show you the rest of the Helsinki sight seeing photos.  :)



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We start in Helsinki päärautatieasema (central railway station).
The railway station was built on a former sea bottom, and the area was mucky and stinking swamp.  :rolleyes:
The whole area had to be ditched and piled with wooden poles, and stone and sand was driwen to turn the earth more solid.
Still many people were sure the whole railway would sink.  :rolleyes:



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The station building was designed by Eliel Saarinen, and inaugurated in 1919, and it was pretty famous in those times.
It has been chosen among the 10 most beautiful station buildings still in 2012, 2013 and 2014.

The lanterns are hold up by Light Bearers, designed by Emil Wikström.



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This is where the trains leave everywhere in Finland, St Petersburg and Moscow.  :)


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We walked away from the station, but I took still a photo of its tower.  :)


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We stopped for a while to watch the Helsinki trams run past. They weren't as interesting than those in Lisbon.  :rolleyes:


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We saw the statue of marshal Mannerheim, although I could as well call it the statue of Käthy, who is the horse. :rolleyes:

The guy Mannerheim was the sixth president of Finland, and the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army during the wars.

Kathy was his last horse, or Mannerheim was her last rider.  :rolleyes:
Behind the statue is the Helsinki modern art museum Kiasma.



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We went to see the Lutheran Cathedral.
There was an international gymnastics happening going on, and the stairs of the cathedral were full of people watching the show.  :)



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We climbed the stairs too, and saw too fine performances by the groups of Italy and Israel.  :)

The Israel's group did a very acrobatic show - it looked more like circus than traditional gymnastics.

The Italian show was very pompous with flying flags and scenes from the high points of Italian history.  :rolleyes:



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We turned to watch the cathedral itself.
It was so radiantly white in the sun, that it almost hurt our eyes!



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We walked through the Hietaniemi cemetery.
It is a huge area!
There are sections for Lutheran and Orthodox christians, Jews, muslims and atheists to be buried or cremated.



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A graveyard is usually not one of my favorite places to spend time, but Henna told us it is actually also a rather popular touristic place to experience, because it is a beautiful place, and there are many very impressive and artistic monuments of artists, writers, poets, political leaders etc.  :)


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So, we walked a bit around, watching the place.
To me it looked like a perfect place to spend the Halloween in.  :rolleyes:



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It is very easy to imagine someone rising from under this stone under a full moon..


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It was actually quite a beautiful place - there were lots of blooming flowers, and many big trees, interesting stones to climb on with funny names, and chains to swing with.  :D


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We chatted a bit with an old gardener, and he told there have been troubles with some young stupidos pulling stones down at night time.
We suggested him we could help - we could go there at night time too, to walk around in white bedsheets to scare the stupidos away.

Guess waht - the old boy said he has already been doing that!  :D



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We came out through another gate near the Sibelius park, and headed there.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki%202/P1110136_zpsmmlxhdak.jpg
There was a beautiful little pond.
We tried to see if there would be any fish, but they all swam away when they saw sisters Zoe and Crawfish drooling on the shore.  :p



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki%202/P1110137_zpsm8bza3pm.jpg
On the shore was growing a really beautiful willow.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki%202/P1110114_zps9vhyhqtu.jpg
We saw the famous Sibelius monument, which dedicated to the Finnish composer, Sibelius.

It was inaugurated 1967, and it is made of over 600 metal pipes, which resemble both organ pipes and icicles hanging from a cliff.
The monument is said to represent the symphonic music of Sibelius.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki%202/P1110120_zpsiyytb31l.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki%202/P1110119_zps8yqtu7z4.jpg
Next to the pipes over the rock is a face reliefi of the composer.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Helsinki%202/P1110124_zps0ojhbv8n.jpg
We sat to chat a bit with the head of Sibelius.
"Hello, why is only your head here? Where is rest of you?" asked I.
"Ha ha, you little smartass creature, my body went to swim, but I don't want to get water inside my ears, so the head stays here", said Sibelius's head.  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki%202/P1110129_zpsv32x6cgj.jpg
Then we went to shout through the pipes - they have a nice echo.
Our shouting was scaring the tourists away very fast.  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki%202/P1110128_zpsrpbvnju2.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Helsinki%202/P1110142_zpsjwkjbxw8.jpg
Then we went to see the newest statue of Helsinki. Here it is.  :D

I hope you liked my pics!
Many kisses from Racko!  B)
Emjay


Posted Aug 11, 2015, 7:19 am
Dear Racko,

I love your stories so much, that I sometimes forget to look at the pictures! But now I've looked at them closely and love them as well!

Give my regards & hugs to Henna and your friends, also from gran.

Liefs, (you haven't forgotten Dutch, have you?)

Emjay
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Aug 20, 2015, 8:22 pm
Hei taas! Terveisiä Suomesta! (Hi again! Greetings from Finland!)  :D

Don't worry, mom, I'm sure my Dutch will be perfect again soon when I'm back home, although my head now is slightly muffled with a mix of Finnish-English-Portuguese.  ;)

It is the best berry time now here in Finland, and we spend lots of time in forest, just eating and eating, and also collecting some (not very much) to put into the freezer.  :)

One day we had enough pluck to break away from the spell of the blueberries, and go for a trip in Suomenlinna, which is an inhabited sea fortress in front of Helsinki.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100917_zpsm83kyjja.jpg
We took a ferry to Suomenlinna from Kauppatori square. There is a ferry about every half an hour, and the trip to Suomenlinna takes about 15 minutes.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100912_zps39gn3dxd.jpg
The ferry was really full of tourists, and there was no room to sit, so we stayed standing on the car deck, where there was no window glasses between us and the view over the sea.

Here we are passing Ryssänsaari island.
The little red cottages belonged originally for a fisherfamily, nowadays some society owns them.

I wouldn't mind living there! :) In total peace, just the seagulls and herrings for company, rowing to Helsinki if I happened to feel the call of city life. I don't it would happen very often. :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/lautta_zpsihbycasr.jpg
We arrived to Suomenlinna and said good bye to the ferry, which left back to Kauppatori.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100923_zpso4qbw91s.jpg
This is the gate building, through which we enter the islands.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100926_zpsbehrrazr.jpg
We started to follow the main road, which leads from the ferry quay towards Susisaari island.

There were very cute wooden houses along the road. Most of them serve as cafés or restaurants, but there are also people living in them.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100932_zpsueca95wr.jpg
This is Suomenlinna church, which also serves as a beacon, since its central dome doubles as a lighthouse.  :)

The church was originally built as an  Eastern Orthodox garrison church for the Russian troops, and it andit had five onion domes. The Orthodox church was converted into an Evangelical Lutheran church during the 1920s, and the onion domes were taken off.  :rolleyes: I don't think the god could care less if there are onion domes or not, but that's just my opinion.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100940_zpsw1akhwap.jpg
The Suomenlinna fortress comprises six islands  (Kustaanmiekka, Susisaari, Iso-Mustasaari, Pikku-Mustasaari, Länsi-Mustasaari and Långören) joined together by bridges.
This is the bridge between Iso-Mustasaari and Susisaari islands.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100937_zpsaygp234q.jpg
We made a round on the old Susisaari industrial area.
There was a busy drydock, still partially in use, and a State Aircraft Factory, which built aeroplanes and powered ice sleighs in the 1920´s and 1930´s.  :) 



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100960_zpsyyfbl0mv.jpg
The big red tile building is the old aeroplane factory.
Gee, wouldn't I love to have a time machine, with which I could visit the factory in its glorious days in the 1920´s!  :thinking:

In the beginning they built here, with a license, different German and English planes, but later they built planes after Finnish blueprints - aeroplanes called Haukka (Falcon) and Sääski (Mosquito).  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100966_zpsjuc27jde.jpg
Suomenlinnan telakka is the oldest drydock in Finland, and one of the oldest shipyards in Europe.
Building of the dockyard started in 1750. Under the Swedish rule there were built many ships for the Swedish navy.
During the Russian rule and the Independence the ship building continued until 1974.

Nowadays the shipyard is rented by a society, which is repairing there old wooden sailing ships.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110085_zpsaycqnqts.jpg
The drydock works so, that when the water pool is dry, they put up rests for the ships. Then the gate (which is the black thing behind my back) is opened so that the water flows in, and the ships can sail into the pool. The water level is then lowered gradually, so that the ships land over their rests, and the pool is emptied again.

Originally this was done with a windmill, which pumped water out.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100973_zpsvnhgr2vf.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100959_zpsq17zrtsl.jpg
We left the old industrial area and walked towards Kustaanmiekka island, where most of the fortifications are.
Henna was telling us about the history of Suomenlinna.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100999_zpsj2kqjlk5.jpg
We saw the tomb of Augustin Ehrenswärd, who was a military architect, artist, and creator of the Suomenlinna.
He was chosen by king Frederick I of Sweden to design and construct the fortress, and building the fortress became his life's work. 



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100992_zpsar3uji6i.jpg
The construction of Suomenlinna fortress started in 1748. Its main purpose was to guard the Swedish coast against Russia, which was trying to expand its borders in many directions.

Ehrensvärd's design was a low-profile bastion-type fortress that would follow the natural contours of the islands and thus remain inconspicuous to enemy fleets. That's why there are no imposing buildings to be seen.  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110003_zpspxddzezr.jpg
At the time Suomenlinna was built, Helsinki was still a very small town - there were only about 3000 inhabitants. Of course the real amount was much bigger, because the official count involved only the people whom the official could reach.  ;)

The construction works of the fortress brought suddenly 6000 inhabitants more to the area. Besides the soldiers, officers and their families and servants, lots of people from countryside and other towns came to Helsinki, lured there by the possibilities to find work around the fortress, or to sell something.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110007_zpsmfavwgh2.jpg
Part of the soldiers lived on the islands. Originally they lived on tent camps or on the vaults of the fortress they were building. Later barracks were built for their use.

Officers lived mainly in Helsinki town - Ehrenswärd himself and some other high officers lived in Susisaari island in their own housing.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110045_zpsdhpualq5.jpg
We walked still along the main road, which took us through a gateway towards the sea shore.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110011_zpsc100xnxb.jpg
We walked along the beautiful shore, admiring both the nature and the fortification buildings.
Most of the shore was somehow deep rock, and the fortifications were lurking in between them, many of them still with hidden cannons.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110021_zpsj3vyyzxm.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110027_zpsosk8xdup.jpg
There were little pools between the rocks, and I went to see if there would be any interesting life forms.
Yeah, there were some little polyps waving their tentacles to me.  ;)  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110033_zpswdwtxbnd.jpg
The weather was cloudy, and there was a thin rain pouring down every now and then.
The moss was blooming, and the stonecrops (sedium) looked wonderfully red on many rocksides.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110019_zpsjlj0cmgi.jpg
I climbed a thistle and let the wind lull me so that I almost fell asleep.   :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110067_zps5bxgkmpt.jpg
Here is one of the many cannons we saw.

The interesting thing is, that Suomenlinna was, on its time, the strongest maritime fortification in Europe, but the only time it get into real action, in the Siege of Sveaborg  in early 1808, during the Finnish War, it surrendered only after two months to the Russian fleet.
Sweden lost Finland to Russia, and the destiny of Finland took a new turn (to the better direction, to be honest, but people didn't know it at those times).  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110079_zps4hwjthkd.jpg
The plausible reason for this were that the fortress had earlier received very poor funding. Since its completion in 1791, Suomelinna received no extra financial support from the government (the reason for that is still a mystery, but naturally related to the weak Swedish economic situation). The military equipment was in an unsatisfactory condition. Most of the supplies were of bad quality and the fortress was lacking most supplies.
The cannons too, were old and partially obsolete. This meant that their range was shorter than that of the Russian artillery (which is a problem if cannons are stationed on a fortress). The fortress was unable to return fire on the Russian troops that were bombarding the fortress heavily.  The fortress was also in shortage of gunpowder.  :rolleyes:

Hah - so it was like if kids built a great snow castle, but didn't make any snow balls to whirl towards the brats of the next block.  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110061_zpsw4ohhs0w.jpg
This looks like the Shire - the hobbit village, but actually the turf covered buildings are gunpowder storages.
The turf was both hiding them from the enemy, and it was thought to somehow also soften a possible accidental explosion.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110071_zpszkojus1e.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110075_zpssinaryfn.jpg
The old stone constructions are under constant repair works.
The repair works are done by the prisoners of the Suomenlinna open prison, where the prisoners are learning the skills they need in the society after getting to freedom. They can also graduate to the construction work.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100976_zpschtojqbf.jpg
We peeped inside some of the old stone constructions, which is always a bit risky, because according to many tales they are so full of ghosts it is hard to turn.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100981_zpsj9yo5wim.jpg
During the Finnish civil war they kept prisoners in these dark, cold buildings, and many of them died here because of dysentery and Spanish flu, which both raged amongst the prisoners.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100989_zpsh8uczk6z.jpg
It is their ghosts supposedly wandering in here.  :thinking:
And possibly also the ghost of Carl Olof Cronstedt, who was the commander of Suomenlinna, who decided that the fortress would surrender.  :rolleyes:

We didn't see any ghosts (sadly), but it was very damp in there, and the ceilings were covered with some yellow, slimy looking substance, and that was horrifying enough!  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100985_zpslgwoy3r9.jpg
We got out again through a tunnel, and Zoe was being a pain in the ass, and talking about a light on the other end of a dark tunnel after the death, and made us all feel a bit uneasy, and very glad to get out!  :thinking:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110049_zpsbm9m65v9.jpg
We rested a bit on the shore, and were happy to be alive and free to walk around, and able to hear the waves and see the seagulls on the sky.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110052_zps7bmy1oxf.jpg
Then we started our walk back towards the ferry to take us to Helsinki.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110038_zpsv4qmdqpk.jpg
We passed some old garrison buildings.
Some of them are turned into apartments, and some of them serve as restaurants, art halls, workshops and for example spaces in which bands can rehearse.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110040_zpsw80kwxcl.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1110057_zps5spx16q7.jpg
We took the main road again. Or maybe it was the road who took us, who knows.  :thinking:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100955_zps7akblrx7.jpg
We saw the ferry approaching, and started run towards the quay!
It was this time a blue ferry.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100944_zpsbtggw9hc.jpg
We reached the Susisaari bridge about the same time as the ferry! ( What do you mean - "how come you're taking photos if you're running in a hurry?" - come on, have you not yet learned we toyvoyagers are able to do many tasks at the same time! Like eating herring and whipped cream simultaneously!)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Suomenlinna/P1100950_zpso75s5bfa.jpg
The ferry was honking for us to move our asses, and so we moved them to Helsinki and home.  ;)

See you soon again! Toodle-oo! Racko  :)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Oct 7, 2015, 12:43 am
Hello, dear mom and gran! :D

I´m sorry I´ve not had time to make my updates - we have been helping an old neighbour of Henna's to repair his roof. The guy is so old he shouldn't be up there at all, and his roof was leaking, so our help was very wellcome.  :rolleyes:

But I´m not going to tell you about the roof repairing works this time, but about something totally different.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110144_zpskylqy6ln.jpg
Mr Casanova had been buried in books and papers for couple of days, and we were sure he was writing a love letter in some difficult language, but he surprised us all by telling us that according to his careful analysis of the water level changes after the ice age, he was pretty sure there was a prehistorical site on our yard here!  :thinking:

One wouldn't think Mr Casanova has anything else in his mind besides girls, but that just shows how wrong one can be!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110148_zpsfccpsdlq.jpg
Anyway, we decided to organize an archaeological excavation on the spot!
Henna promised to help us with the procedure, hah, like we needed her help!  :p
Mr Casanova naturally acted as some sort of excavation leader, and was very pompous about it all.  :rolleyes:

We started by determining the exact place and extent of the excavation plot and clearing away the vegetation.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110159_zpsdeq0omsq.jpg
There were lots of branches and twigs, growing hay and a whatnot.
We piled all of it onto a heap.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20excavations/P1110155_zpsbu5fyr3w.jpg
After clearing away all the vegetation, it was time to dig up a rather thick layer of turf - the layer of decomposing plant material.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110151_zpssv3bqp0a.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110153_zpsdqn1w3fn.jpg
It was hard work! There were lots of thick and stubborn roots we had to saw away, and after some time the buckets filled with turf also started to feel a bit heavy!


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110157_zpskdvndpwj.jpg
The excavation leader Casanova (who was also feeling a bit hot, because of work, not because of ladies) let us to have a small pause.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110318_zpsvph8pfqq.jpg
I spent the pause in a raspberry bush!  :p


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110227_zpssevg5ixj.jpg

We continued our work, and at last we reached the end of the turf layer and reached first the earth and then the fine sand under it!

It was time to bring out our high tech equipment - a camera to photograph all our findings and the cultural layers, and a tachymeter to determine the exact geographic position of everything on the site.  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110225_zpsm0nfnxcb.jpg
We took turns in using the tachymeter and holding the measuring rod and writing down all the figures, until we had created proper coordinates for the site.  B)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110276_zpsqxidgjjo.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110229_zps5s0nm6pl.jpg
We photographed the first under-turf layer.
Boss Casanova informed us that what we were watching was the landform as it had been somewhere in Middle Ages.  :thinking:

Makes one to think a bit.




http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110233_zpskqv3ehah.jpg
Then we continued digging - but now we were not using spades anymore, but little trowels.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110242_zpsc9eidq9b.jpg
We were digging very carefully, taking away earth about a centimeters level on the whole area and then moving to the next layer.
Even so we were sieving all the earth, in case there could be some so small artifacts we would not be able to see them while digging.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110237_zpslng2a10p.jpg
Thus we excavated away the middle ages and reached the layer of Iron Age.  :D
Suddenly we found something! Our first find!
We were so excited!
We had no idea what it was - but it was big and looked like something carved out of stone.  B)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110243_zps06pmqh2t.jpg
There were more finds! This one was clearly part of a runestone!  :thinking:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110244_zpsxw9o9gnk.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110254_zpsnrqn8p10.jpg
We marked all the finds with marker sticks and measured their position with the tachymeter, and made careful markings of everything to our findings list, like "E29: A blue glass bead (not a beetle, ask Zoe, she tried to eat it)"  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110252_zpswco6hdjs.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110246_zpsweinrrvy.jpg
We photographed the finds "in situ".
The others let me to do it, because although eating all those berries I still weighed much less than anybody else.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110249_zps5xz2cuys.jpg
It was time for a small pause again.
It felt great to lay on the grass, watch the clouds to sail past above, and let the muscles to relax.

But soon the boss ushered us back to work again.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110268_zpsom1dfwru.jpg
One task we had to do, was to draw maps of all our excavation layers, where we had to situate all the findings, bigger stones, charcoal and color differences in the soil, because they can mark different activity areas. 


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110271_zpsfqbqkxbo.jpg
It was an interesting task. I had troubles because a ladybird I was drawing on the map, was moving all the time!  :thinking:I asked her politely if she could sit on one place, but she just showed me her tongue!  :thinking:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110274_zpsftufupp0.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110289_zpsdlix6gd0.jpg
We excavated through the Iron Age and reached the Bronze Age layers, and found more exiting things.

Now we were able to see that the carved stone was some kind of idol or statue, and that there had been a fireplace in front of it!  B)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110290_zps0alfhawc.jpg
There seemed to be a fish inside the fireplace!

But it wasn't a real fish at all! It was made of clay!
  :thinking:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110279_zpsrgtewdtr.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20excavations/P1110297_zpsiqc6guv2.jpg
And then - I just couldn't believe it!
I noticed there was something roundish emerging next to the fireplace, and removed carefully the sand from it´s surface, and, crying out loud!  :thinking:

I don't know if you have heard of the famous Himmelsscheibe or not, but you should!
The Himmelsscheibe or Sky Disk of Nebra, was found in  a site near Nebra, Saxony-Anhalt, in Germany.
It has been dated to the Bronze Age, and it features the oldest concrete depiction of the cosmos worldwide. In June 2013 it was included in the UNESCO's Memory of the World Register and termed "one of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century.

And here we had something that looked very similar!  :thinking:
So you can understand why I was so exited!
This place we are excavating, must have been a rather remarkable place one time!  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110305_zps9wbq1muj.jpg
The excavation continued, and on each step we found more evidence which hinted that what were now excavating, had been an important cult central for long period of time.

When we reached the Stone Age level, there were remains of big cheramic vessels, and also something which looked like bones.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110323_zpsmefqizk1.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110241_zpsh8ekeqzq.jpg
Every ow and then we found some small things also from the sieve - mainly tiny fragments of quarz arrowheads or flakes.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110261_zpsvf4clhst.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110265_zpsyf18emti.jpg
I think I could become an archaeologist, like auntie Henna, when I grow up. What do you think?
Or maybe it is a better plan never to grow up. Then I can do whatever I will!  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110307_zpsfw8ntfoh.jpg
There was an odd round object surfacing in one corner of our site. I couldn't make my mind of what to think of it, and neither could our leader Mr Casanova.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/kaivaus%20racko_zps65n05cjo.jpg

We asked Zoe's opinion on the matter (just shows the level of our desperation) and she took one glimpse on the object, and said:
"You imbecills! It is an EGG!"

Damn it, she was right! It was an egg! A huge egg!  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110324_zpsvbnsrww1.jpg
We started then to clean the bones.
There were lots of items - glass beads, ceramics etc, which seemed to be positioned round the heap of bones!  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110331_zpssnkqw237.jpg
It was a rather big sceleton we were cleaning.
First we thought it might have been the remains of a prey animal the folks here had been eating, but no - it was a whole skeleton - no parts were cut or missing.

Suddenly Zoe the kiwi started to yell like a  foghorn, and to run around like a hen.
"My ancestors!" she yelled, "It is my ancestors!"
And she was right again. It was clearly an allosaurus skeleton!  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110335_zps9xaiwzsw.jpg
What I cannot understand is how come it had spectacles on its nose.  :o

Our excavation had reached it's end. There was only hard podsol under the skeletons, and there wasn't any reason to excavate deeper.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110329_zps49lwkfij.jpg
Excavation leader Casanova now gave us a lecture.

"Dear excavators! I have now made my scientific analysis on this site, and it is this:
Approximately 145 million years ago there were a family of allosauruses living here, on this site. When the big meteorite hit the earth, forming the Gulf of Mexico and killing the dinosaurs, the unhappy family met its untimely end here (snif).

In the Mesolithic Stone Age a family of cave kiwis wobbled on the site, saw the bones and realized it was a burial ground of their ancestors, and declared the place holy.  :thinking:

Generation after generation, the local kiwi population came here to bring offerings, burn fires and erect statues and rune stones - each generation according to its own style, bringing the best valuables they had.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20excavations/P1110283_zpsagugggpd.jpg
Who would have guessed!  :thinking:
A holy place of the ancient kiwi birds!
Our friend Zoe was mute with ave after Mr Casanova's lecture.

It was time to organize our findings.

"An artist, who is specialized in recreating pictures of archaeological sites as they were in a certain time in past, is going to give us some paintings of the site tomorrow, promised leader Casanova.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20excavations/P1110343_zpsroaufbld.jpg
Here you can see some of our most interesting finds!
They´re going to shake the science world a bit!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20excavations/P1110288_zpsxcnik2jb.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110358_painting_zpsf8xm38dc.jpg
I put here the recreations of the site the artist had made for us.

They are made to capture the site as it was in Early Iron Age.
As you can see, the place was on a sea shore at that time.

The allosaurus remains are surrounded by valuabe items from different times, and there is a small altar in front of the stone stone statue.
The Star Disk is situated in front of the rune stone.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110347_painting_zpsyyiingxe.jpg
Here the artist has imagined a family of kiwis bowing in front of the statue.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110362%20painting_zpsjcrjvrsn.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20excavations/P1110361%20painting_zpspj3zj2ee.jpg
The language in the rune stone is ancient Finnish, and it says about: "This is a holy place created in honor of our ancestors."

That was really all now.
I must say it was an interesting experience. Auntie Henna is rather surprised too! A remarkable cult center in her yard! And she thinks she's an archaeologist! Hah!

Many kisses from Racko!  :D
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Oct 18, 2015, 10:53 pm
Hyvää päivää, rakkaat äiti ja isoäiti! = Good day, dear mother and grandmother!  :)

The autumn here is turning darker and colder, the earth is already often white in the mornings before the sun rises up and melts the rime away.

But we will get there later - now I'm telling you about our late summer here in Nuuksio  :).



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1110398_zpsiddihpxw.jpg
I think I mentioned last time that we were helping Henna's nearest neighbor to repair his roof.

The roof had been leaking already for couple of years, and the neighbour is too old to do much himself.
So, when Henna found out about the leaking roof she decided she has to do something about it and asked us to help her.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110393_zpslrydzybb.jpg
Of course none of us is a roof-fixing expert, but Henna said she hopes common sense would be enough to guide us.

"Common sense? Is that something to eat?" asked our friend Zoe.
So, as you can see, our "guide" was barely reliable.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1110385_zpsmgnbxawf.jpg
It took us about two months to fix the roof, using almost all the free time we had, and there is still something to do next summer.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1110397_zpstfo15z1f.jpg
But, we managed to stop the leaking!  :D
While Henna was planning the next steps and using very many interesting Finnish words, which almost burned our ears, we used the roof as our sliding hill.  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110377_zpsbyeslo9g.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20late%20summer/P1100841_zpsuy9y9nlb.jpg
There was time anyway also for walking in the nature.  :)

Sometimes when we had been especially helpfull, Henna told us to go for a little walk to use our energy to something else. :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1100842_zpsnzjnmqjh.jpg
We found this interesting little hollow under big rocks in the forest.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1100844_zpsyl08tqhl.jpg
It was a good place to play stone age toyvoyagers.  :D


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1110372_zpswhlnuvjs.jpg
Quite near by we found a toyvoyager sized dolmen! How extraordinary!   :thinking:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1110368_zpsgp6re0ei.jpg
It seems almost like archaeology was our destiny!
Henna told us how the dolmens were tombs into which all the members of communities were buried democratically. But they were not only tombs - they were gateways to the other worlds. The people buried into them, were actually seeds, which were put there to sprout again, so that they could be reborn.
Interesting, huh?



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1110370_zpsern2nl4v.jpg
We roamed inside the dolmen to see if there happened to be still any bones loitering about. There weren't.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1100835_zpsl8o2bb49.jpg
The blueberries were ripe and juicy, and we both ate and picked them to take home, well, mainly ate..  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1100832_zpsvapxqdns.jpg
What we took home we ate in the mornings with honey and cream.
If you have not tried that, you should! You don't know what you're missing!  :p



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110181_zpsri9xouvi.jpg
The small, wonderful, wild forest strawberries were ready too and waiting to be eaten!
We fulfilled their will eagerly and as often as possible.  :D

Cannot stand disappointed strawberries!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110175_zpswemiyvsk.jpg
I don't know how many of you have been eating wild forest strawberries. They are the original strawberries, from which the tame ones have been bred, and they taste quite different.
The difference is.. a bit like between a wolf and a lapdog. Both are wonderful, but the wild forms are just more, well, wild and energetic and individual.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110183_zpsurbcyzei.jpg
On our yard the currants were ripe too.
We found red, white and black currants and ate them all.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110190_zpsg5f2ivqj.jpg
In the forest the chanterelles were hiding behind the first fallen yellow leafs and giggling when we walked past without noticing them.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110189_zps4qo3bzbd.jpg
We found many, though.  ;)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110363_zpsu1wck0kp.jpg
The birch boletes were also popping up from the earth here and there and making us smile, because for us they meant a wonderful dinner.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1110198_zpsitoiottt.jpg
The chanterelles are sometimes called here "metsän kulta" = the gold of the forest. Not because they are extremely valuable, they are not, economically, I mean, but because they are so exceptionally good.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1110197_zpshch5jibm.jpg
Have you read J.R.R. Tolkien's book Lord of the rings? If you have, you know that hobbits were crazy about mushrooms. In a way which "outshadowed all the cravings and desires of big people."
Do you think I might be a hobbit, anyway?  :stare:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1100860_zpsckxwoupk.jpg
These photos are from a small forest lake called Vuohijärvi.
It was full of waterlilies, and over the lily leafs we spotted some frogs having drunken orgies.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1100854_zpsi1p6sy2l.jpg
Over the ethereal looking white flowers the air was full of their lustful croaking and drunken singing.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1100853_zpssgyrfuve.jpg
"Hi you, frogs!" I shouted, "do you do anything else than to have drunken orgies?"
There was a three second's silence, and then they answered "not much!" and continued.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110431_zps5k4h1tv2.jpg
We made also couple of trips to the seaside, to walk on the rocks and to enjoy the wind and beautiful landscapes.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1110441_zpsjv0amvxf.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110436_zpsstopd7l7.jpg
We walked against the brisk wind or leaned onto it and teased the waves by letting them almost get us, but not quite - keeping all the time just and just over the line they were able to reach. They hissed to us angrily.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20last%20summer%20pics/P1110437_zpsrmbev9oh.jpg
"Don't you brats tease them too much!" warned Henna, when a pissed off, white capped wave stretched towards us.
"Let's go and make a fire instead!"



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110426_zpsuw40eis2.jpg
There was a nice place for an open fire, and benches to sit around it.
We had soon the fire burning.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20late%20summer/P1110428_zpsz8cjprbe.jpg
It felt wonderfully warm after the brisk wind and the salty water sprinkles on the shore, and the coffee smelled sweetly.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110458_zpsx08hbxaq.jpg
There was a bird watching tower on a hill, and we of course climbed it.

"What, to watch birds? If you want to watch birds, here I am - no need to climb towers!" said Zoe, but she was just trying to be fun. She likes to watch birdies too.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110452_zpssy973obq.jpg
It was quite a high tower and took some climbing to get there.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110446_zpswzfdu4eg.jpg
The views from the tower were very beautiful! A mix of green forest and blue sea.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110454_zpskksyaciu.jpg
I was trying to spot birds flying past, but the only bird I saw was a kiwi.
Don't believe she is flying! She is just trying to fool you!  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110448_zps85rewybw.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20late%20summer/P1110165_zpsgbqsgpsk.jpg
In many evenings we admired the moon over the old field behind our cottage.  :)

Hyvää yötä teille kaikille! = Good night to all of you!
Yours, Racko  B)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Oct 20, 2015, 12:29 am
Hello, dear mom and gran, all siblings and friends!
I wish you're happy and in good health!  :)

Do you still remember our kitchen garden?
Well, it was a very cold and rainy summer, so we didn't need to do much watering. As a matter of fact - we left the plants pretty much to take care of themselves.  :rolleyes:

But one day Henna remarked that it would maybe be time to go and harvest our kitchen garden crops - they had looked rather ripe when she walked past.

So - next day we harvested our garden, and now I'm showing you photos of it.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20harvest/P1110461_zpswm3egkfn.jpg
Look at our cabbages!  :cyclops:
They were simply a marvel!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20harvest/P1110460_zpsfcfc70ab.jpg
So round and green and glossy and plump!
They had clearly benefited from the rain.  :)
We were all so happy to see them!

Then we walked to the next patch to see how our radishes were doing.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20harvest/P1110481_zpsgqfewqkx.jpg
They had grown so well too!
They were so beautiful! And of so splendid color!  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20harvest/P1110487_zpsaykzi93c.jpg
I bet you have never seen such a healthy growth of french fries either!  :D

It is actually quite a miracle! We put some little seeds to earth and voilá! After couple of months we have lots of wonderful foodstuff!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20harvest/P1110488_zpswzqhwktj.jpg
There was a burst of colorado beetles this summer, but luckily they had not attacked our fries! They had grown so bright yellow and beautifully crinkled!  B)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20harvest/P1110464_zps3noymrk6.jpg
We started harvesting the wonderful vegetables. It was very enjoyable work!


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20harvest/P1110472_zpszlviw5xg.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20harvest/P1110490_zpsdcq5mh1m.jpg
Henna came to see our crops too, and she was a bit puzzled. "What did you actually plant there?" she asked, and looked rather stupid, standing there  mouth open.
Donno what she meant.  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20harvest/P1110493_zpsgjz9dhkr.jpg
The radishes were so big they hardly fit into the buckets!
Have you ever heard about such radishes?  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20harvest/P1110473_zpsaczh9tv4.jpg
"What about the greenhouse?" asked Henna "What about your crops there?"

Let's go and see!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20harvest/P1110592_zpsudtcm1df.jpg
Our pot bananas looked just glorious!  B)
I gave one to Henna, whose eyes were rolling a bit in her head.
"Is this all?" she asked.

"Not quite" said I, "come and see our orchyard!"  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20harvest/P1110588_zps8giqtbko.jpg
The bush bananas looked even more delicious than the pot brand!  :D


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20harvest/P1110584_zpsclckarz8.jpg
The popcorn tree's branches were heavy with wonderful, white, greasy popcorns!  :p

We finished the harvest and carried or crop home, and Henna too. She was feeling a bit faint.  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20harvest/P1110474_zpsu7rs0hlo.jpg
As you can see, it was a very happy harvest day!  :D

Love from Racko!  :stare:
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Nov 18, 2015, 10:45 am
Kukkuu again, dear mom and gran!  :D
It's update time once again.

One rainy day in September we made a day trip into the small town of Porvoo about an hour's driwe in a bus from Helsinki.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Porvoo/P1110625_zpsoxrhebuf.jpg
It was still dark outside when we took the bus in Helsinki bus station.
We had lots of provisions with us, and we started to eat right away.
It is one of the best things in travelling - eating provisions!  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Porvoo/P1110628_zps529qv9s7.jpg
In Porvoo we were just walking around and around the narrow, cobbled streets, watching views and the quaint little wooden houses.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Porvoo/P1110640_zpsytqgsqqk.jpg
Porvoo is one of the oldest towns in Finland. It has its beginning somewhere in the 13th century. Before that there was already an important Iron Age castle and village.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Porvoo/P1110660_zpsi8ym9rsw.jpg
Porvoo has got its name from Swedish words borg+å = castle+river. Here you can see the river. Logically its name is Porvoon joki (Porvoo's river). It has provided a good passage from the sea to the town, and forward towards the faraway inland regions.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Porvoo/P1110636_zpsv4wt46vo.jpg
This is the old townhouse of Porvoo. Nowadays there is the historical museum.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Porvoo/P1110676_zpszijcz05f.jpg
It was nice to peep into the yards of the small houses. Of course the town has grown lately, and there is a modern town around the old Porvoo, but I think a town of this size, as it was some hundred years ago, would be optimal. You would know all the faces around you, but still would not know them too well to feel suffocated.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Porvoo/P1110680_zpsulviryve.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Porvoo/P1110644_zpser5rvgid.jpg
This is the mediaeval church of Porvoo. It is an important spot in Finnish history, because in here the Russian Czar promised Finland would maintain its autonomy after it had been become part of Russia 1809.

Some young imbesills, who thought it would be a cool thing to play to be Satan worshippers, burned the church 2006, and its roof was totally destroyed. The whole old town and its wooden houses were too in great danger. The roof was built anew and the church opened again 2008.  :)



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We took a peep inside. It was quite a peacefull place, although there were some tourists..  :rolleyes:


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We continued our walking around, but soon it started to feel like we had walked past the same café too many times, and knew already what we would see behind the next corner.  :rolleyes:


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There was a Moomin house in a shop window, and I spent some time talking with the moomins behind the glass. They told me that they had quite a satisfacting life, taking into account that it was a sweet shop inside which their house was situated. How handy.  :rolleyes:


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The evening was already getting a bit darker, and we were watching the people who live in these cute houses getting home from work.  :)


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The wind was rising and the colourful autumn leaves were flying around us.
The wind also brought the rain back, and so, on our next round past the café, we hopped in, and spent the last our inside until our bus back to Helsinki was ready to leave.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20in%20Porvoo/P1110705_zps1zywdc1y.jpg
It was quite a nice, little visit.  :)

Kisses from Racko!  :stare:
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Nov 30, 2015, 6:51 pm
Hallo, dear mom and gran!  :)

My adventures with the lunatics continue. Today I'll show you pics from Turku, where we went with Henna.
She went to take part into some demonstration, and meanwhile we were loitering around. There are not very many pics, though, because we were in  a hurry!



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Let me introduce you to Aurajoki river.
The river was an important route towards the inland, and that's why there was a big centre on it's shore already in the Iron Age.
Turku town was grounded on 13th century, and it was also the first capitol of Finland.



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There are eleven bridges over Aurajoki in Turku. The people in Turku think it is somehow meaningful on which shore of the river you have been born, but I have not yet find out why and what. "You must be from the other side of the river" they say if people behave in somehow unwanted way. We heard it a lot.  :rolleyes:


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The Turun Tuomiokirkko cathedral is also on the river front, next to the old market place.
The oldest parts of the church are from the late 13th century.
It was for years the most important place to be buried - the high ranking people were queuing to get buried under its floor.  :rolleyes:
In the archaeological excavations, says Henna, was found also for example a cat in it own little cascet. Someone in medieval times had loved her/his cat so much that they had smuggled the dead cat under the church floor to make sure it's soul gets into heaven too.  :)



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I met a chap called Mikael Agricola.  He was a bishop in 16th century, and the first one to translate the Bible into Finnish language. He was maybe also the first person who was writing Finnish with Latin alphabeth. Before that Finnish had been written in runes.  B)


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We met also this other guy. He belongs into a species called "vaivaisukko". They are sculpted in wood and painted, and fixed into church walls to collect money for poor people.  They have a hole in their stomach or back to put coins in.
They were made from 17th century to the 20th century.



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Next we went to see the Turun linna castle.
Castle is the largest surviving medieval building in Finland. It was founded in the late 13th century. The Swedish conquerors of Finland intended it originally as a military fortress. During the next two centuries its defences were strengthened and living quarters were added. The castle served as a bastion and administrative centre.



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Later the castle served for example as a jail, and it was turned into a museum in 1880.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Turku/P1110544_zps9vsl661z.jpg
It sometimes seems to me that all the written history is just of invading, fighting, power struggle and other stupid, mainly masculine activities.  :rolleyes:
What I would like to learn about history is how common people lived and how they did see the world in the context of all those idiotical happenings in the back ground.



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There were some renovation work of the walls going on again, while we passed.


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Inside the castle it was a too dark to take many photos. I tried to took one every time there seemed to be enough light.


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We saw the castle's church, which was very beautiful. It is a very popular place to get married.
If ever I'll get married, I think I would rather do it just under the full moon on some crawfish populated shore.  :rolleyes:



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There was an exhibition to show the clothing and other items of all sorts the royal people living here would have used in the 17th century.


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This is the hall in which the court was eating its meals in long tables.


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In this photo you can see how thick the castle walls are.
I can imagine the brats living in the castle spending lots of time on the window sills.  :)



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That was all we saw of Turku, sadly. Henna came from her demo and collected us and we get back to Nuuksio again.

See you soon! Kisses from Racko!  :stare:
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Dec 2, 2015, 4:21 pm
Hello again, dear mom, gran, siblings and all the rest!  :D

The autumn had arrived and brought the colourfull leaves and mushrooms with it. We made an autumn trip to the forest, and I´m now putting here photos we took then.  :)



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The nights had turned cold, and when we went onto the yard in the morning, we noticed that there was ice in the water buckets.

It looks like a piece of art, doesn't it? There was a beautiful print of a dry leaf on it's surface.



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The weather was wonderful, and there were inviting heaps of dry leaves everywhere.
We decided to make a mushroom trip into the forest.

So we packed our bags and took a tent with us too.  :)



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We walked trough the wonderful forest, and started to sing wandering songs.

♪♫♫♪
Lähtekäämme maailmalle,
reppu selkään, keppi kouraan, matkaan vain!
Soikoon laulu koko pitkän tien,
matkaan mukanani laulun vien.
Pellon poikki, kuusten alle,
sieltä alkaa polku kauas matkaajain.
Polveillen käy virran juoksu,
mutkikas on polkummekin maailmaan!
Soikoon laulu koko pitkän tien,
matkaan mukanani laulun vien.
Pellon poikki, kuusten alle,
sieltä alkaa polku kauas matkaajain.
♪♫♫♪


Let's go to the world
take your bagback, take your wand, let's just go!
Let the song echo troughout the whole trip,
I the the song with me into the world.
Trough the fields, under the spruces,
there begins the path for travellers who want ot get far!
The brook is meandering in it's run,
and so is our path to the world.
Let the song echo troughout the whole trip,
I the the song with me into the world.
Trough the fields, under the spruces,
there begins the path for travellers who want to get far!



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The glorious trees looked like flames against the blue skies, and we stopped to admire them every now and then.  :)


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We couldn't resist the call of the leaf heaps, and why should we?  :stare:


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We dived  under the leaves, made somersaults, hopped  and roamed around.  :D


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20and%20last%20pics%20in%20Finland/P1110608_zpssukcutki.jpg


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And then we rested panting on the soft, nice smelling leaves and watched the clouds sailing across the sky, like sheep grazing in a blue meadow.


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We continued our hike through the forest, in search for a perfect spot to put our tent up.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20last%20update%20in%20Finland/P1110615_zpsiv8mftiu.jpg


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When we saw the first birch boletos, we knew we had found our place to stay.  ;)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20and%20last%20update%20in%20Finland/P1110611_zpsre99pvij.jpg
So we put the tent up. Isn't it a splendid one? Just the right size to home a bunch of voyagers! :D


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20and%20last%20pics%20in%20Finland/P1110525_zpsylc16td4.jpg
Then we went to pick mushrooms! To fill the larder for winter!  :)


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I wouldn't mind living like they did in stone age - just by collecting stuff from the nature! Berries, mushrooms, hay, herbs, roots.. only thing missing from the list is chocolate! That's not so easy to collect! Unless you collect it from a super market, but then they send the security after you..  :rolleyes:


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Many people don't know these mushrooms are also very good to eat. Lycoperdon perlatum, common buffball. When they get old and dry, their spore spreads up to the air like smoke, if you step over them.
He he, Henna told us that in Portugal they are called Bufas da Velha = old woman's fart.  :D
In Finnish they're called käsnätuhkelo. A nice a useful Finnish word of the day into your vocabulary.  ;)



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Soon we had got more mushrooms than we could very easily carry home. So we called Henna and told her to drag her lazy ass intothe forest next morning to carry the mushrooms!  :rolleyes:


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Then we went back to our tent and slept very well, although Zoe was snoring, as usually.  :thinking:


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Good night! See you soon again!
Kisses from Racko!  :stare:
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Dec 14, 2015, 5:34 pm
Titityy, my belowed ones! A hug for you!  :D

The autumn was turning muddy and cold, and Henna said she was tired of pulling us toyvoyagers from each others throats, since clearly the lousy weather was effecting our mental atmosphere too.  I admit it.  :rolleyes:

Anyway, Henna decided it was time to get into warmer climate, which would put the smile back on our faces.



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It was time to say goodbye to the little cottage. It felt a bit melancholic. The poor cottage looked a bit melancholic too, standing there in middle of late autumn and dying nature and all.
Good bye!



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In our last evening in Finland we had a candle light dance on the yard - we lit candles behind the differently formed ice blocks we got from buckets.  ;)


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Then we, umm, danced around the flaming ice blocks, sang and drank a bit of something called Salmiakkikossu (which we found hidden under Henna´s bed) I don´t know exactly what it is, but it made our dancing faster and singing wilder.  :rolleyes:

It also made us to fall asleep and forgot rest of the evening. I doubt this was a devious plan by our host Henna, since I heard her earlier muttering something about a "bunch of restles enfant terribles to handle on a night flight, what would I pay to make them to sleep!"and also by the fact that she had hidden the bottle in a place from which she certainly knew we would find it!  :thinking:

Anyway, there is no photos of our flight to Portugal, because we were all slumbering like little angels.  :thinking:



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We were waken up next day by a rather pungent smell, and by Henna who told us to get out from her backbag and greet the sun.

I roamed out into a totally different world! There was sun, light, warmth, a blue glistening sea, a sand beach, and the source of the piercing smell - fish drying in the sun!  :rolleyes:


What else could a toyvoyager ask for?
It certainly put a smile onto our faces, like our cunning host had forecasted.  :D



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We walked towards the blue Atlantic ocean.
Henna told us that traditionally this was a town of fishermen - about everyone made their living by fishing or by turning the fish into conserves or other products.



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There are still some active fishermen, and some traditional, colourful fishing boats on the shore.  :)

The fishing could be a dangerous occupation, though - specially in former times when the fishermen didn´t have motors to fight the Atlantic wawes - just oars or small sails.



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The fishermen´s wives had their own way to deal with the risks. When their husbands were on the sea, and it turned stormy, they took a statue of Saint Peter, the patron saint of fishermen, and put him into a bowl of water up to his neck, and told him that he would only get out of the water when the husband was safe back at home. If the storm get worse, or the husband was late of returning, the wives rised the water level in the bowl slowly.  :rolleyes:


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Up upon the cliff behind the beach is the other part of the town.
There was an important center of pilgrimage, which was built around a wooden image of Madonna and child, which appeared mysteriously into a cave in the cliff in the 8th century. It was believed to be carved by Josef, the step daddy of Jesus, who was a carpenter. 



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We climbed up to see the church and the famous madonna, Nossa Senhora de Nazaré.
(The whole town got its name after the image, who was believed to have wandered here from Nazareth. Yeah, wandered. The holy images here have a long tradition of wandering around according to their own mind.) 



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Here is the church in which the precious image is reciding.
Some hundred years ago the pilgrimages brought lots of wealth to the town - they of course payed for their accommodation and food, and if they were wealthy people they were ready to pay a lot, and also leave valuable gifts for the church, and maybe purchase pieces of some relics with good price.  :rolleyes:



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Here is the famous wandering Madonna. We couldn´t get very near, so I had to use a zoom, and couldn´t be in the same photo with her.
There are many theories about why she is black, since people from Nazareth at those times usually weren´t.



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We came out from the church and walked following the edge of the cliff, admiring the view over the town.  :)


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Nossa Senhora da Nazaré -image made here an miracle in 1182 I´m sure you all want to read about:
"On the early morning of September 14, 1182, Dom Fuas Roupinho alcalde of Porto de Mós, Portugal (quite a name!), was out hunting near the coast, when he saw a deer which he immediately began chasing. All of a sudden a heavy fog rose up from the sea. The deer ran towards the edge of the cliff (on purpose, I´m sure) and Dom Fuas  realised he was next to the small cave where the image of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré had appeared.  Thus he prayed out loud "Our Lady, Help Me!" All of a sudden the horse miraculously stopped just on the edge, one hoof already outside the cliff. "  ;)

Ok. Miracle it was - the deer was saved!  B)



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We saw the lighthouse of Nazaré. It is the building in the end of the cliff. We didn´t go near, because there was a modern pilgrimage of tourism thronging towards it from every direction.  :rolleyes:


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We hopped into a small museum, in which we saw miniature versions of the traditional fishingboats.
They were just the right size for us, but the auntie in the museum didn´t want to loan them to us.



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The evening started to settle in, and so we finished by eating a bowl of Caldo verde soup in a small café.


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It was a good first day under the sun.  :)

Sunny kisses from Racko!




Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Dec 23, 2015, 5:19 pm
Hellurei, rakas äiti ja mummi!  :D

Greetings from Portugal again!
We slipped fastly again into the Portuguese style and rhythm of life.
The sun, warmth and colours or summer (in our eyes) lulled us to believe into everlasting summer indeed. Sometimes a longing for snow and ice tried to invide our brains, though. :rolleyes:
Well, no snow this year even in Finland, it seems. Just mud. Good riddance.

Anyway, I´m going to share with you some pictures from a trip we made into a small town called Castelo Branco.



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We took a train from Lisbon to Entroncamento, where we had to take another train to Castelo Branco.


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We had half an hour time to spend in Entroncamento, and we marched to the other side of the railyards where we could see a row of old steam engines.
Oo I love steam engines!  :stare:



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In Castelo Branco, we saw the Sé, the main cathedral Igreja de São Miguel.


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And Cruzeiro de São João stone cross, which was erected in the early 16th century.


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Then we went to see the Jardim do Paço Episcopal garden.  :) It is a barock style garden, originally the private garden of bishop  D. Joăo de Mendonça, turned a public space in the 19th century.


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The garden in best known because of its statues. These stairs are occupied by the Portuguese kings, but there are also statues representing the virtues, the seasons, the zodiacal signs, the continents and what not elsewhere in the garden.  :)


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I think this king wasn´t very popular, because he was nicknamed "o gordo" = the fatty, while the other kings are named "victorious" or "magnificent" etc.  :rolleyes:


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Here you can see the area of the geometrical garden. Looks rather unnatural, but I guess that´s what people wanted at those times.


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There were also various pools and fountains, in which I could see some beautiful, big swimming in. :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Castelo%20Branco/P1120076_zpshuajq9kp.jpg
It was a nice little garden. I could have one like that myself in the backyard.  :stare:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Castelo%20Branco/P1120111_zpsdoewzq1z.jpg
Here I´m chatting with the arch angel Michael.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Castelo%20Branco/P1120011_zps2l61jik0.jpg
After the garden we climbed the hill to see the ruins of the castle after which the whole town has got its name.
There wasn´t much left, though, just some walls. But the view was worth of seeing!  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Castelo%20Branco/P1120016_zpsvmaemef3.jpg
We walked forwards and backwards on the piece of wall standing, and then we climbed down to the city and went into a small local bar to have a bowlful of soup.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Castelo%20Branco/P1120030_zpsvaytdcfr.jpg
That´s what we saw of Castelo Branco. We don´t know what Henna saw - she shut herself into some museums for the whole day!  :thinking: Or that´s what she said! I have my doubts!


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Castelo%20Branco/P1120025_zpsuptp6keo.jpg
Later in the night we saw a beautiful, lighted fountain. It looked a bit like fireworks.

See you soon again!
Hugs from Racko!  :)
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jan 8, 2016, 12:54 pm
Hello hello hello! It is your favorite odd-toed ungulate Racko online again! How´re you all thriving?

Today it is a short day trip into a small town called Leiria in turn to be unravelled here, so let´s begin, oh ye fellow voyagers.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Leiria/P1120316_zps0lly4b8v.jpg
Leiria is a small town about 150 kilometers from Lisbon. We travelled there by a bus. (Autocarro in Portuguese.)

The trip took over two hours, and everyone in the bus looked rather sleepy and bored. So we thought it a good idea to cheer them up a bit with some vigorous singing.  :rolleyes:

I don´t know if they were cheered up, but certainly they weren´t looking half so sleepy after some energetic Finnish songs, especially the hundred verses of song called Sillivati seilaa (Herring bowl is sailing.)A very interesting song! If you ever want to learn it, be free to contact me!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Leiria%20and%20Batalha/P1120328_zpsxvkebsjx.jpg
"The name "Leiria" in Portuguese derives from 'leira' (from the medieval Galician-Portuguese form 'laria', from proto-Celtic *ɸlār-yo-, akin to Old Irish 'làr' 'ground, floor', Breton 'leur' 'ground', Welsh 'llawr' 'floor') meaning an area with small farming plots."
I have nothing to do with this information!  :rolleyes: Mr Casanova told me to write it here (to boast about his university education, undoubtedly.)
To say all of this in a simple language = Leiria was originally a small farming community.  It started to grow in size and importance in the medieval times.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Leiria%20and%20Batalha/racko%20and%20Leiria%20castle_zpsh8vaqhxi.jpg
We climbed to see the Castle of Leiria (in ruins) which is the most interesting thing to see in Leiria.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Leiria%20and%20Batalha/P1120352_zps3ln6j6fb.jpg
The castle ruins were quite entertaining. I was amazed to read that during the early mediaeval times all the town population was living inside its walls.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Leiria%20and%20Batalha/P1120365_zpsa6krel1x.jpg
We climbed about 500 stairs up onto the castle´s watch tower, and spent there a good time watching the landscapes around us.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Leiria%20and%20Batalha/P1120357_zpsamgsmitt.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Leiria%20and%20Batalha/P1120343_zps4yjummav.jpg
We left the castle and went to have lunch in a local café with auntie Maria.  ;)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Leiria/P1120393_zpszfzs4pqp.jpg
It was really njammy!  :p

After eating we took a bus into an even smaller town near by,  called Batalha. There we had only 45 minutes time and the only thing we saw was the famous Monastery of Batalha.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Leiria%20and%20Batalha/P1120420_zpsk2qc0fjd.jpg
Here it is. It was really an overwhelmingly magnificent building!
The monastery was built to thank the Virgin Mary for the Portuguese victory over the Castilians in the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Leiria%20and%20Batalha/P1120430_zpsv3l17fox.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Leiria%20and%20Batalha/P1120410_zpscitumtff.jpg
We peeked inside too, and were very impressed with all the gigantic pillars and what not.

Such a huge space brought into our minds the idea to try out its acoustics..  :rolleyes:  ..so we tuned our song Sillivati seilaa again, and soon we were kicked out from the monastery, which was good, because otherwise we could have been so lured by the music as to miss our bus back to Lisbon.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Leiria%20and%20Batalha/P1120311_zpsjst3lens.jpg
So,we got in time to our bus and safely back home.  :D

Many tender kisses from Racko! Toodleoo!  :D
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jan 14, 2016, 2:03 pm
Terve taas!/Olá de novo!/Hello again! dear fellow voyagerists, mom and granny!

I wish all of you are feeling well and exuberant! Or at least well enough to suffer through a new update with your favorite donkey.  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120484_zpscli2sjx6.jpg
We made again a day trip, this time to a small town called Pias, towards south from Lisbon.
Henna and auntie Maria had to meet some people in the town, and meanwhile we had free hands (or paws, hooves or whatever) to amuse ourselves in the house of auntie Maria´s parents.  :)

It is an old house and whitewashed, like all houses here, and standing wall to wall with the neighbouring houses, like is the custom here. The houses form long, white rows on both sides of the roads. It can be a bit claustrophobic experience to walk in between,  without escape right nor left.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120531_zpsybsmurpp.jpg

Anyway, we stayed mainly in the yard, instead of lingering on the roads, because there were so many things to see there!

December or not, many plants were in bloom and some others were heavy with ripe fruit, while some were just otherwise interesting.  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120542_zpswhvh6cot.jpg
Behind me and the wonderful rose you can see part of the yard, an old well and some sheds.
This has originally been a self sufficient farm with enough land and fields to produce livelihood for an extended family with servants, but now there is just the yard with some fruit trees and room for a kitchen garden.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Pias/P1120569_zpsgembovdp.jpg
We went to explore everything.  ;)
Some of the trees drop their leaves for the winter here too. The dry leaves made delicious, raspy sound under our paws.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20in%20Pias/P1120492_zps7xezy4lh.jpg
The lemons were ripe! Wonderful, plump yellow balls bursting with juice and smelling wonderfully!
There were already many lemons dropped on the ground too.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120511_zpssyuvgzkd.jpg
We were pushing them into piles and carried them into the house and into Henna´s bag to take with us back to Lisbon.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120487_zpsqtl7llde.jpg
The oranges were also ripe and wonderful!
Did you know that it were Portugueses who brought them to Europe in 15th century? What smart people!  :stare:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120461_zpsg2ncgfkr.jpg
There were many oranges on the ground too. We started to roll them into piles too, and then I got an idea!  ;)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Pias/P1120463_zpsy5udch3a.jpg
We made and orange man, to feel more like winter, since there wasn´t much hope of snow.  :rolleyes:
But it didn´t feel quite the same.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120496_zpse92ferx5.jpg
We climbed the trees to pull down those oranges which were still hanging on the branches.
"Ahoy! Orange coming!"



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120515_zpscmsuvtlj.jpg
Some of them were stubborn and demande lots of swinging before they surrendered! What a great excuse!  :p
Nay. Heaven forbid the day when I need an excuse to have fun;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120505_zpsaznpe2k7.jpg
The olive trees also needed our attention and care, and we gave it to them gladly!


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120568_zpshs7xaga3.jpg
I had soon my basket full of glossy blue-black azeitonasB)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120554_zpscy7qwkmi.jpg
After hard harvest collecting we were just resting under the blooming trees and enjoying the mild afternoon sun, buzzing insects and other blessings.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120560_zpsg9kkrwvz.jpg
Like wine..  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120540_zps4yx6hbkq.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120524_zpsit2i6r95.jpg
There was a pile of old roof tiles in one corner of the yard, and in some way or other that gave us an idea to celebrate the approaching christmas time by arranging a living nativity scene.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Pias/P1120444_zpsmrfndyzc.jpg
Here is our impromptu crib!  :)

Well, yeah, I don´t know how christlike that brat of Zoe´s is, but he was the only baby available! Besides, he is quite cute!  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Pias/P1120551_zpsgzgyoc3x.jpg
When the sun got low, we went inside the house, and amused ourselves by climbing the beautiful old furniture.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120475_zps7rvy5sgu.jpg
We built a fire into the kitchen´s fire place. In olde times this was the only place to make food. Usually a cheramic vessel was put onto the hearth near the fire with the food ingredients.We were just enjoying the warmth and beauty of the fire.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20in%20Pias/P1120473_zpsimoxhjku.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Pias/P1120478_zpsg1fjez2z.jpg
In the morning we had to say goodbye for the old house, and took our load of fruit back to Lisbon.

Goodbye! And see you soon again!
Your Racko!  :stare:
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Feb 10, 2016, 4:37 pm
Hello again, dear toyvoyagers and hosts, mom and gran!  :)

Our Christmas and New Year here in Portugal went past so fast we didn´t have time to hop in.  :rolleyes:
It was raining all the time, and everything looked like a very rainy April in Finland, and Henna had a flue, so we were mainly staying in our nice and warm and cosy tv -nest, reading and eating gingerbread cookies.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120752_zps9adkdzay.jpg
We went to see the big christmas tree in Rossio, though, but otherwise the whole yule tide just slipped somewhere..  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120830_zpswtqivpgw.jpg
And then it was January an year 2016, the sun roamed slowly out from the clouds, and we forced Henna to roam out too from her bed and to take us out again.  ;)

We went for a hiking trip onto an protected area called Arriba Fóssil da Costa de Caparica.
We started our hike from a village called Fonte da Telha, which you can see in this photo.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120834_zps0zgu3nhg.jpg
Inhabitants of the village are mainly either fishermen (or women) or keep a little bar for surfers and others who like to have their lunch on the sea shore.

The aloes on the edge of the village were just opening their first flowers when we marched by.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120856_zpsual3lee5.jpg
The coastal cliffs of Costa de Caparica are called fossil cliffs, because they are fossil-bearing layers of Miocene age,and because they´re not in direct contact with the ocean, not suffering from sea erosion.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120657_zpsztupsosu.jpg
The fossil sea bed formed many interesting and fantastical formations, and we spotted many seashell and conch fossils in them.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Arrabida%20fossil/P1120852_zpsdj5tdkaz.jpg
We were mainly walking over soft sand, which made the walking a bit heavy. I could feel my leg muscles growing!

We saw more beautiful flowers.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120861_zpsthwublja.jpg
In this photo you can see the town of Lisbon far away in the horizon. A perspective to the town most Lisboners have never seen.  :D


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Arrabida%20fossil/P1120687_zpsrwrzqsf1.jpg
We were walking along the ancient coast line towards a lake called Lagoa de Albufeira about eight kilometers away. Eight kilometers there and eight back would be just suitable length for a hiking trip.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120846_zpscphnjezl.jpg
I don´t know what these flowers are but they were huge!  Henna said they might be globeflowers (Trollius europaeus) but she is not sure. What do you think?


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Arrabida%20fossil/P1120638_zpsiyw9pfrf.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120863_zpsaft0mbrc.jpg
The last kilometers we walked under pines and blooming mimosas.  :D


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Arrabida%20fossil/P1120868_zpshp2if7iv.jpg


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120673_zpslylrlujn.jpg
At last we reached the Albufeira lake.
On it´s other shore was a new ugly living area and it didn´t look very interesting. The other shore is a protected area for water birds´s nesting, which is great.  B)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Arrabida%20fossil/P1120665_zpsh3ilcdqk.jpg
On the third shore we had a foam party.  ;)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120680_zpsypuryetf.jpg
After enough partying we returned to the sea shore, and walked a while along the nowaday´s beach before returning to the ancient cliffs.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120685_zpswnqqgg8a.jpg
Here you can see both.  ;)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Arriba%20fossil/P1120644_zpscxjso8qq.jpg
Then we walked our eight kilometers back to Fonte da Telha.

See you soon! Kisses!! I hope you have been walking a bit too!
Your Racko  :stare:
Emjay


Posted Feb 21, 2016, 2:14 pm
Hi dear Racko!

I enjoy your updates, but I was falling behind a bit! Now I'm up to date again.
I see you're in Portugal now. Have a nice stay and give Henna a big hug for taking you and the other TV's to so many wonderful places.

Bye for now!

Love,

your mom & gran
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted May 24, 2016, 8:40 pm
Hello again, dear folks, mom and gran!  :D

It has been some months since I last made an update, and I´m sorry about that, but believe me, folks, it wasn´t my fault! :thinking:
I would have been making updates every single day, but my host Henna went kukkuu or lost her rocker or maybe lost some Moomins from the Valley, because how else would it be explained that she told me she needed a holiday from toyvoyaging, I just ask!?  :mad:
Unless it is a case rather for an exorcist than for a psychiatrist, like our friend Zoe was suggesting.  :thinking:

Just in case we drew some pentagrams onto the floor, and clearly they worked because as soon as Henna saw them she suddenly became very energetic indeed and run after us some kilometers shouting horrible curses, and we run like there had been some demons after us!  :rolleyes:
So, we got her on the move again, and she is ready to take us to see things again, hooray!  B)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130442_zps7mofxo6u.jpg
After some more months in Portugal we came back to Finland, where the little old cottage was waiting for us, messy and chaotic as ever!  :D

Outside the nature was waking up after the long winter, and the crocuses were the first plants which hustled themselves from the black earth towards the sun.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130585_zpsqlx6wqnn.jpg
Soon on the heels of the crocuses came the white anemones and covered the yard with with a white, cloudy -looking bedspread.  :)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130579_zpsk0ym97rj.jpg
After the anemones it was like the nature´s big bag had broken, and all the spring plants had fallen down - everything was suddenly growing with such a hurry we hardly had time to greet everyone! 


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130589_zps9p0jcxta.jpg
The rhubarbs we were greeting with a double joy, because we know that they can be turned into a wonderful soup, which is specially delicious when it is served over vanilla ice cream!  :p


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130587_zpsrqiogtbi.jpg
Yep! They certainly look ripe enough! I´ll coax Henna to make us soup! She is actually pretty easy to coax, and if it doesn´t work there always is the blackmailing.  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130666_zpsjvs7hwzu.jpg
When we had settled properly down again and had started to feel like home, we were ready to go a bit farther away from the yard and its wonders.
We have been following Henna on some interesting geocaching trips!  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130690_zps1mijyeot.jpg
I don´t know how many of you are geocachers - I know some are - but anyway, I´m sure you understand the excitement of searching for the caches according to hints, and solving riddles!
But even more exciting is that we never know beforehand in what kind of place we will get into in search for the cache!  :D

They can be hidden for example on the premises of an old manor house, like in this case.
It is the Munkkiniemen kartano manorhouse behind my back.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130695_zpsjgvmnfem.jpg
It is also nice to see how creative people can be when making the caches!
This one was camouflaged like a log!  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130682_zpshuduo7dh.jpg
Running after the caches we often see very beautiful or interesting places. Here we are in a park called Härkähaka, which means "bull pasture". It has been a grazing area for the bulls of the Munkkiniemen kartano manor house some hundred years ago.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130677_zpsm7dgarhl.jpg
We found there a cache and a geobug, a little budgie!
Geobugs are a bit similar than us toyvoyagers - they travel from cache to cache round the world while we travel from host to host!  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130610_zpsvom6yjfb.jpg
We passed a glorious field with glowing dandelions!


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Ooh, such little suns on a field!  :stare: We just had to pet them!


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130620_zpst9opab4p.jpg
Here we are searching for a cache in the forest, in trenches which are part of an old defense system.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130606_zpszidfcdfx.jpg
This is a bunker in the defence constructions, quite a creepy place - dark and humid and full of mosquitoes!
It is quite horrible to think anyone staying here, specially during the winter, brrrrr!  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130635_zpsczz5tkra.jpg
But we found the cache! We are much better in finding caches than our host Henna is! She is such a sissy she doesn´t want to put her hands into dark holes in case there are hairy spiders or centipedes, hah! 


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130629_zps1pafyxjp.jpg
These are marsh marigolds (rentukka in Finnish) and every ditch and brook and pond is full of them at the moment! Aren´t they wonderful!?


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20back%20in%20Finland/P1130595_zpssw5i5qnw.jpg
I finish this first update now, but I promise I´ll soon be here again!  B)

Many kisses and hugs to you all! And hairy spiders if you like them!  ;)
Your Racko!

Emjay


Posted May 27, 2016, 11:38 am
Hi dear Racko!

Great to hear from you again! Geo caching is a suitable hobby for ToyVoyagers, I think! You can crawl in all sort of tiny holes. And I bet you aren't scared of spiders!

Give a big hug to Henna and all your TV-friends.

Love,

your mum Emjay
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jun 8, 2016, 1:35 pm
Hello again, dear fellow toyvoyagers, siblings, mom and gran and patient hosts!  ;) And thanks for greetings, mom!

Today it rains "kuin Esterin perseestä" like the Finnish saying goes, and it is a good day to write updates!
What? You want to know what the Finnish saying means? Are you quite sure?  :thinking: Just asking, because sometimes it is better not to know..  :rolleyes:
All right, all right, but remember, it was you who demanded me to tell!  :stare:

Litterally it means: "It rains like from Esther´s arse." Yep. Simple and logical, isn´t it? And yes, it is a genuine and wide spread Finnish saying.  :rolleyes: If you want to hear the historical explanation too, you better ask our friend Mr Casanova, I´m sure he knows everything about it! (He usually knows everything that has to do with ars.. Hi, don´t hit me with that pillow! Ok, ok, I don´t write it!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20in%20Tallinn/P1130789_zpsdyw9l2kw.jpg
But now to the update. Do you think I talk too much?  :thinking: Some folks say I talk too much, which, I think, is an absurd idea, cannot understand where it comes from! I can tell that compared with some other toyvoyagers around here (no names mentioned) I talk very little indeed!
Ach, the update, where was I?  :stare:

Here you can observe our valiant gang, and if you are very observant, you can maybe realize we´re sitting on a boat! Yes!

It was a boat named Viking Express, and we were on our way to Tallinn, Estonia!  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130793_zpsjja19zwj.jpg
I bet you cannot guess why we were travelling to Tallinn!  :stare:
We were going there because our host Henna wanted to buy a book, an Estonian book, which she was not able to buy in Finland.  :rolleyes: Quite an interesting reason to travel to the neighbouring country, but like I´ve said before, there are probably some Moomins lost from her Valley.  :rolleyes:
Anyway, it was a very fast trip - the going over the Finnish Gulf took about 2 hours, and then we had about four hours time to spend in Tallinn, before our ship left back to Helsinki again.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130810_zpsbh9x0lbj.jpg
We enjoyed the trip! We went to promenade on the deck, and it was fun, because it was so windy there we were able to lean against the wind!
The seagulls were using the wind to float over our ship, and one of them was in a nasty mood, and tried to hrm.. bombard us. It maybe had something to do with the fact that Zoe the Kiwi shouted "Hi, mate, bring us some herring, since you don´t seem to have anything better to do!" to it.  :rolleyes: 



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130796_zpspemwhasa.jpg
We watched small islands to slide by Yes, thank you, dear Mr Casanova, I know quite well the islands were not sliding, it were us who were sliding, or the boat, to be exact. It was just a figure of speech! (What an smart ass..)


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130805_zpsofbl3wty.jpg
In the stern there was a deck bar, which looked quite nice, but when we tried to enter, there was a  guy who told us to show our papers.
Well, we all rummaged through our pockets and bags, and presented all our papers to the guy - I had a bus ticket, Momo had some caramel wrappings, Mr Casanova had about 800 love letters, Zoe had some toilet paper (unused) and Crawfish had a paper which had been round a kilo of herrings some days before, but even so the guy didn´t let us in, although he showed some interest towards Mr Casanova´s letter collection.  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20in%20Tallinn/P1130812_zps9lfayvuy.jpg
So we went back in and had our own party on a window sill! Usually our own parties are the best parties, anyway!  :D

Pretty soon we arrived to Tallinn!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130816_zpsi8d4jahl.jpg
Tallinn´s name comes from the Estonian words "Taani linn", which means "The Danish town".
Denmark controlled the town after they had beaten the Estonians in the Lindanise battle 1219.
The town existed though long before, and its original name was Revala, a name which had to do with the dense population of foxes (rebane in Estonian) which lived on the caves and holes  and burrows on the hills over which the town had been built.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130821_zpsfgo829x7.jpg
After running with Henna to her precious bookshop and dragging her out again screaming and kicking "So many interesting books! Just half an hour more!" we still had some time to walk in the old part of the town.
We saw narrow medieval alleys paved with cobble stones, and lots of churches and very inviting bakeries and sweetshops..  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130824_zpsbdbniuwi.jpg
The old town consisted in the medieval style of upper town and downtown.  The elite lived in the upper town, and there was also its administrative center, department of justice etc.
The common people, craftsmen and labourers lived in the downtown, and the two parts of the town were rather hostile towards each other, and no wonder too - the elite consisted of invaders - first Danes and then Germans, and the common people didn´t trust them and wise versa. There was a big, guarded gate between the two parts of town..  :rolleyes:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130831_zpskhoxqjco.jpg
We climbed on the upper town hill slope to see the walls and towers the elite built around it to guard themselves against the people. There were many bloody rebellions and uprisings throughout the medieval period - so there was a good reason.  :thinking:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130834_zpskqms8acl.jpg
But now it was a peaceful place. The sun shone upon us, and the hillside grew many wild flowers, the butterflies were flying around us, and a bunch of local drunkards were singing in a very entertaining way some distance away. A beautiful summer day!  :)

In middle of all this peace and beauty, we talked about weird things - why is the history of people so full of  fighting and invading?  :thinking:
Well, of course we toyvoyagers fight all the time with each other, and invade the beds and swings and sandwiches and whatnot of each other - but to be serious with it and really hurt each other?  :thinking: That would never do! Our fights always end in five minutes and we settle it all and be best friends again - after all - we are all toyvoagers! maybe humans will learn this some day too!



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130840_zpshagymtud.jpg
The sympatethic red bridge runs over what once was a moat. I don´t think they ever had crocodiles in it! They would not thrive in Estonian climate.  :D
Nowadays the area is a popular park. The moats have been turned into pools in which ducks swim around and people are feeding them.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130844_zpsn0n1pliq.jpg
Sadly we had to start to walk back towards the harbour and our ship which was waiting for us.
But on the way there we saw still many beautiful old buildings.
The yellow building on the left is an old school.  :)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130848_zpscy3qepyc.jpg
I liked Tallinn, or the little part we had time to see, at least!  :rolleyes:
Maybe we come here still another time, never know, if Henna wants to buy another book!  :p



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Momo%20in%20Tallinn/P1130855_zpssrm9qjhk.jpg
We returned onto the Viking Express and climbed onto the deck to wave our goodbyes to Tallinn.


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20in%20Tallinn/P1130853_zpsdcih3gwk.jpg
So long, Tallinn! Maybe we meet again!  ;)

And we, my dear readers, will meet again pretty soon!
Your Racko  :stare:
Eohippus
pikkuaasi@gmail.com

Posted Jul 11, 2016, 11:54 am
Hello again, dear and ardent followers, mom and gran!
It is your favorite equine here again!  :stare:

We have arrived to the wonderful midsummer, although it seems the Finnish nature imagines it is autumn already. Everything is oddly ahead of time.  :thinking:



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20picking%20berries/P1130899_zpsmrkvbkre.jpg
Look the glorious lupines on the old pasture next to our cottage!

But what comes to the nature having lost its marbles.. well, usually for example the blueberries ripen here in Southern Finland in the end on July, but this year that happened in the end of June. The leaves on the trees start normally to turn yellow in August, and it´s happening already!  :thinking: Some species of birds, who normally start to get ready for their annual migration in August, are behaving like that now over the fields, and even the spiders, who on normal years start to tuck into our little cottage in September to hibernate there, have started to roam in!  :thinking:
(If you have very good eyesight you can see the spiders roaming towards the cottage here. )  ;)



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20picking%20berries/P1000039_zpsefxaa984.jpg
We all wonder if it does mean something. An old man in the neighbour said it means that the coming winter  is going to be very cold and harsh, but on the other hand he has also told us that if there is lots of berries in the rowans and if the frogs jump high in July the next winter is going to be cold and harsh.  :rolleyes:
So we don´t know what to think.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20picking%20berries/P1000059_zpsaoaenqsu.jpg
Of course it has its bright side too - we have already started feasting with forest berries - blueberries and the small, wild forest strawberries!  :p


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20picking%20berries/P1000045_zpsegmdsbz9.jpg
Here we are heading into the forest (I mean, deeper into the forest - we live on the brink of it!) to pick and eat berries.
We don´t eat much anything else these days- and it is a bit so and so with the picking too - but we eat a lot!  :p



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20picking%20berries/P1000055_zpscopjf6p8.jpg
Nam nam nom nom mums mums slurp!  :p
Aren´t you starting to drool just watching this photo?



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20picking%20berries/P1000047_zpsuprjeyxh.jpg
Our host Henna is picking berries into a big bucket and putting them into freezer in small plastic bags, to be eaten throughout the winter, and that is of course very smart, since she´ll have hungry toyvoyagers round her throughout the year, but we toyvoyagers pick a small bucketful each per day, and on the next morning there is nothing left - we got hungry during the night too!  :stare:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Crawfish%20picking%20berries/P1000057_zps5lfhconh.jpg
Here we are ready to head back home with our full buckets and full stomachs!  :rolleyes:


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20picking%20berries/P1130876_zpsmigx5kmk.jpg
In the long, luminous summer evenings we´ve gone for long walks onto the beautiful forests or meadows near by.  :)

Try to guess what is the time in this photo! Huh?  :stare:
It was taken at 23. 51! The sun  doesn´t set very low on these latitudes.



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20picking%20berries/P1130884_zpsahhyobbt.jpg
This time we were walking on a seashore meadow, where there are young bulls eating fresh hey.
Sometimes they go crazy and run like hell after each other.  :D



http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20picking%20berries/P1130888_zpsx7ssragn.jpg
These boardwalks continue some kilometers on the wetlands, and our host Henna told us that when she went to high school, this was her route to school.  :D


http://i1291.photobucket.com/albums/b551/eohippus1/Racko%20picking%20berries/P1130892_zpsztbdic4y.jpg
Now we must hurry to pick more berries!
I wish you were here with us!
Kiss from Racko!  :stare:

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