Travelog for: Gary Boldie

This is where it all begins. At least my new life on Earth. After all those years in outer space, space stations and shuttles - it really is great to breathe cool fresh air. But this amount of snow... I think I need a bit time to adjust to this 

I have travelling friends here. Other teddy called Alfie Langer from Australia and a fine young kangaroo gal from the UK. That's us trying "liukuri", a slider in the back yard.

Here I am, around 07 am in Helsinki, looking at the christmas lights. I was running around the city with my mentor in search of an open currency converting place. We didn't find any. Our buss to Sortavala (Russian Carelia) leaves at 08 am. I'm attending a 3-day trip with my mentor and "her" charity organization called Vaaka!

Here we (me, Roo and Alfie Langer) are, having a stop-over in Lappeenranta. There was a shop that sold stuff made of wood! They were way cool! They did have smaller things too, like toys and jewellry - my mentor seemed to have a hard time not to buy anything...

We made a final stop in Tohmajärvi which is next to the Russian border. We used the Värtsilä-Niirala crossing point which is said to be the third busiest crossing point to Russia in Finland.

We made it! This is us in Hotel Seurahuone is Sortavala. We're pretty tired from the busdrive so we'll go to bed andzzzzzzzzzz

I slept very well thank you 

Now I'm having a nourishing breakfast before we start running around again  I'm having porridge, bread, egg and tea. This is really different to the food in space stations! In a good way!

First we drove to the local orphanage for bigger children. We dropped off some stuff we had agreed to bring for the kids that are leaving the orphanage (to study). Things they will need when they get a place of their own. The kids have made some amazing handicrafts that are for sale. We got to see the products although the "shop" wasn't open. My mentor bought a wooden dolphin painting because she loves dolphins. She did see many many other things she would've wanted as well but they hadn't put a pricetag on them yet. Well, next time my mentor will be prepared...

The buildings in the photos are around the orphanage. In the second picture you can see the "lyseo" (college/highschool) which was designed by architect Ahrenberg in 1901. In the third pic is the town hall, designed by architect F.A. Sjöström in 1885.

The last picture is from the inside of the orphanage. They have this room with all these churchly images. I guess they'll prey in there, or just sit silently and think. This is a place to find serenity but as I'm not much into religion I didn't find it here.

This is the yard of a kindergarden where we dropped off some stuff too. It's very colorfull as you can see. The safety regulations might not be as strickt as they are in Finland but my mentor said she would love to see this much cheerfull colors in Finnish kindergarden too.

After dropping off things we had time to go shopping and sightseeing on our own! In the first picture is actually a sort of a "mall". In those buildings were several different shops - although entering a shop looked like you would be entering a home. My mentor likes bookstores and here they sell toys too so my host "got 2 flies with one hit"  She has not yet found any books to buy though. But that's not a problem as she doesn't speak russian! 

In the second picutre is a bookstore across the street. We wanted to take a pic because the sign was also in Finnish! Well, this used to be Finland before 2nd World War. There are still many buildings that date back to the Finnish times of the town. Here you can read about the history of Sortavala.

In the last photo is the Nicholas Church which was designed by architect Nikolay Grebenka in 1873 from revenues of the Yeliseyevs brothers - merchants from Saint-Petersburg. We took a look inside the church too as we vere curious. It looked much smaller from the inside - and it was under maintenance too.

The shopping tour continues... In the first photo is part of the local buss station. On the other side was a market place (indoors and outdoors). The next to pics are taken on opposite directions and show more malls (this time they looked like it from the inside too).

The building with the huge painting on one side is an administrative-dwelling house which was built by architect Erkki Huttunen in the 1930s.

In the last photo you can see what my mentor bought with her roubles. As you can see, much of it is for her girls 

Here is the Hotel Seurahuone where we stayed. And it's surroundings. The street is the mainstreet of Sortavala, called Karjalankatu.

The bridge (220 m lenght, 11 m width) over Vakkolahti Bay was the longest bridge of Finland in its time. It was opened in 1932 on holidays when was celebrated three-hundredth anniversary of the town.

The taller building on the other side of the bridge is called The Popular School and it was build by Yrjö Vaskinen in 1929. Now why is it called popular, I don't know and neither does my mentor.

In the evening we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. As you can see we had soup, (cold) fries, meat and a sweet looking & tasting bun!  We also witnessed a local birthday celebration. They had hired this bunch of people in traditional dresses to sing & dance - and make the party group sing & dance too! It was loud and it was fun! Oh, and the wife (?) of the birthday hero did some belly dancing!   

We were so tired we could only watch some dubbed russian tv when we got back to the hotel - and fall asleep.

Wakey wakey rise & shine! Early in the morning we packed to head back home. These pics are also taken by the hotel but in a different light. Plus there's a photo of the monument of a folk-tale narrator Petri Shemeikka (1825 - 1915) which was set up in 1935 to commemorate a centenary of Kalevala first issue. The author is Alpo Sailo sculptor, the lay-out of public gardenis made by Uno Verner Ullberg. This monument is raised from Berg judge's bequeathed means and from the revenue of the Singing Festival in 1926.

And yep, that's our buss!

My mentor took the first blurry photo in the bus when we drove to see if there was a church (there was a small argue whether the church already existed or was it still "under construction"). Crazy people turn the buss around and go check  Well, it wasn't that big a leap actually. But there it was, church called Herrankukkaro (a place where you're in clover). My mentor told me that 2 years ago when she was here the last time, they slept in the hotel that is in the first floor and then there was yet no church.

The second pictures show the local small shop that we visited on our way. It's a small shop full of basically everything. My mentor bought a few souvenirs - "to support the local business" she said 

There was a christmas tree on the yard. I was told that russians don't celebrate christmas the way we do, to them New Year is the bigger celebration with gifts etc. Having seen the local birthday I bet their New Year is even more full of noise and fun!

This was our last drop-off. A kindergarden in a small village near the border. The village is called Värtsilä. It was divided in two in the 2nd world war, half of the village is still Finland and this other half is in Russia. We had to wait a while so we had a chance to take some pics. It looks so peacefull and quiet, maybe because it was the russian Mother's Day. The first photo shows the kindergarden and everything else is around it. My mentor wanted to photograph the playground again because of the colors and statues.