Travelog for: Leonard

Hello!

My name is Leonard and I'm a little chick, along with my brother Sheldon we plan on traveling the world... mom says I'm going to be visiting Queensland, which is where Sheldon is actually now as well... how cool is that? Well, I heard all about this toyvoyagers thing and I just had to join...


...now it's time for me to leave - I'm going to be traveling with Fllama I hope we get to see some fun thing on the Sunshine Coast. Mom says if I make it in time I'll also get to see Australia Zoo, which is well known for Steve Irwin's zoo. How cool is that?


Well I'm off! Write again soon mom! :-)

Also if your hosting me, could you do me a HUGE favor and put in my coordinates every time I go somewhere new? Use this to help you find the coordinates if you need it. Thank you! :-)

Hi Mum,
              I finally arrived in Queensland, but sadly, just a little too late to visit Australia Zoo. But that's okay, because Bec says that if the rain stops, this weekend she's going to take Fllama, Monica and I to the mountains to visit Mary Cairncross park, Montville, Maleny and Kondalilla falls. Next Tuesday, Bec and her client Angie are taking us to visit Redcliffe. We will take a look at the ruins, have a barbeque and go swimming at Settlement Cove lagoon. Bec and her boyfriend Blake have decided that we're going to take a trip to Brisbane too - we'll visit the botanical gardens, the museum, do some shopping in the Queen Street Mall and Blake has promised to take us rockclimbing at Kangaroo Point Cliffs too. And last but not least, next weekend we're going to Springbrook Mountain on the Gold Coast for the weekend and we will get to see the Gold Coast hinterland and Bec says that she's going to try to get us to Surfer's Paradise for a dip in the ocean, some shopping and of course, the BEST gelati ever! I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Anyway, must fly. Write again soon,
                                                                        Love Leonard.

Hi Mum,
              Sorry I haven't written for awhile but I've been pretty busy. So far, Monica, Fllama and I have visited Bec's uni for orientation (lots of fun and she's taking us again next week for classes!), then we went to Centenery Lakes for a wonderful picnic lunch. Last week Bec and her friend Angie took us to Redcliffe Beach for a lovely swim at Settlement Cove lagoon and then we visited a fantastic museum which taught us the history of Redcliffe. This weekend Bec and Blake took us to the Mouse's House - an amazing eco-friendly resort that has tiny chalets nestled in the rainforest in the Gold Coast hinterland. We stayed in a chalet called Grumpy (after the dawarf) and it overlooked it's own waterfall. It was pretty exciting, particularly when the bush turkeys, possums and sugar gliders came to visit at night for us to feed. Next weekend Bec is going to take us to the city so we can ride a city cat and visit the museum and parliment house. Bec says she is sorry for lack of photos, but her camera is incompatible with the TV site, so she is in the process of setting up a Flickr site and will post the photos soon. I am happy, safe and well and love you all,
                                                                                            Leonard.

Hi,
    sorry I haven't written for awhile but it's been a bit of a whirlwind of activity for us here. Bec unexpectedly got the oppourtunity to do her clinical placement for uni at Cairns base hospital so we just jumped on a plane and headed North. So far we have visited Paronella park which is a huge spanish castle with a beautiful story, Hartley's creek crocodile farm and today we're heading to Kuranda on the skyrail. It's been so much fun!
                                                                                    Love Leonard.

Tweet!

I have arrived in Finland! I spent almost 2 weeks in a small box so I'm very happy to breathe fresh air by the Baltic Sea  I will spent a year here - I'm so excited! Can't wait to start my adventure here 

These are my tv-friends here. Savannah is my host's new tv who will travel somewhere soon'ish Alfie has been here a year and he had some really good hints for me  Gary is also my host's tv who has been around quite a while. They gave me a warm welcome, I'm glad they're my friends 

Aah! Here I am, by the Baltic Sea, with cool sea breeze blowing. There's so much archipelago that there's not an open sea view. But the Baltic Sea this is  Many people have boats here, this pier is also full when everyone brings their boat from the winter storage. In the last picture you can see a small building on the water - it's a mark for swimmers and sailors. It'll be moved in the middle of the water, close to a beach where swimmers go. Usually it's only a flat "raft" but as here are so many boats they have to use something more visible. So, people can swim back and forth between the "house" and the beach.

Somewhere around here, on one of the islands, the creator of Moomin (Tove Jansson) spent her summers. The Moomins are very popular here in Finland - and also in other countires, especially Japan. Moomin was originally an black&white comic series but it has grown into a huge industry with all sorts of stuff: books, cartoons, toys, theme park, museum, art, postcards, stamps, stationery, clothes, kitchenware, mugs... etc. etc.

I'm sure I'll get to know them and many other Finnish specialties during my visit 

Today was a sunny day so we drove to do some sightseeing. This is Castle Hill next to the Old Town of Porvoo. As you can guess, there used to be a castle/fortres hundreds of years ago. The castle is also the beginning of the settlement in this area. And that all is discovered by looking at the flora of the hill! Now there's only the hill and castle moats. But it does give an awesome view to the city and all the bridges, don't you think. My host says this is a good place to play Robin Hood 

Porvoo got its name from "Borgå" in Swedish, which refers to the fortress and the river that flows beneath it. Because the word for a fortress is "borg" in Swedish and that for a river is "å", the city was named Borgå, the Finnish version of which was "Porvoo". So I'm standing on the place that gave the name to this area!

After Castle Hill we walked down by the river to see the Old Porvoo. The small bridge is the first built in Porvoo. The red shorehouses serve as storage and living quarters nowadays. They are the most well-known attraction of this city.

The cannon is from the World War II and naturally not operative anymore. The "peek-a-boo" couple is new, they have put such things all over the old town because it has been 200 years since the Porvoo Diet in which Finland was promoted as a nation among nations. They have had festives due to this event too.

This is what the homepage says about the Diet: "In 1809, the War of Finland was still being fought between Sweden and Russia when the Russian emperor Alexander I convened the estates of Finland for a diet in Porvoo. The representatives gathered in the town for four months, from March to July. In the closing ceremony, Alexander I gave his famous speech promoting Finland to ‘a nation among nations’. This was a turning point on Finland’s way toward independence. The ties with Sweden, that had held tight for nearly 700 years, were severed, and Finland became a part of the Russian Empire. Granting of the status of autonomous grand duchy guaranteed Finland internal self-government. The Finns got to keep their own laws and religion, and the estates their special rights."

After all the sightseeing we celebrated Alfie Langer's 2nd birthday with nacho cheese balls and KungFu Panda! Alfie had had a bigger party earlier so this was small scale. It was also good for bonding as all the tv's in the house were invited: Savannah, Gary Boldie, Alfie, TobiHH and me 

Today my host took me to a Handicrafts & Heritage Event held in the Art Factory. It was right next to Porvoo river and the newest bridge. The Art Factory itself is an ugly brick building - there is an ongoing debate whether it should be protected or bulldozed down...

There (at the event) were many skillfull people showing their work which included jewelry, clothes, kitchenware, toys, food, ornaments... You can see also Marimekko items there. Marimekko is a famous Finnish brand - even Hillary Clinton has been shopping Marimekko! My host got that cross necklace for her goddaughter who will throw a confirmation party later this summer.

That sailboat is just across the river where we continued our walk. It's galley m/aux Marita which was built in 1947 as cargo ship. Nowadays you can rent it for cruises (a 6h cruise costs 2250euros altogether) or accommodation.

After the event we walked down the riverbank to another handicrafts event. This one was all about selling, outdoors and no entrance fee.  It was sightseeing at the same time as we walked either on or under the bridges. In the last photo you'll see the Art Factory from further away.

And there was more...

After the events we went to the local "sightseeing tower". I got a relly good view over the city of Porvoo! Porvoo is the 2nd oldest city in Finland. It has almost 50 000 inhabitants of which 33% is native Swedish speakers (finnishswedish). Porvoo is only 50km east from Helsinki, the capitol of Finland. It takes less than an hour to drive there.

In the 5th photo you can see the roof of Art Factory (on the right)...  We also walked further away on the hill to see Old Porvoo from "above". You can see the church and the old bridge and Castle Hill - all that I visited a few days ago 

My host wanted to show me the view from the tallest bridge in town. We went on both sides of it to take pics. I saw firedepartment's boats! And the huge oil industry area. That industry made Porvoo grow, people came from different parts of the country to work there. It's said that half of the inhabitants work there - I think they're exaggerating a bit...

This bridge hasn't always been here. My host remebers when they had to take the ferry boat to cross the water. About 8 cars fit onto the ferry and it kept sailing back and forths the whole day. Now it takes less than a minute to drive over the bridge - so easy!

I'm going to attend a real Finnish birthday party! My host's daughter is the birthday girl. I wanted to help with the decoration and baking - and so did Alfie and TobiHH. First we made the dough for "mocca bites" which basically are chocolate pastries. I kept an eye on the dough when we put it in the oven (we didn't want it to get burnt). When it was ready we cut it with cookie cutters (that's me doing a butterfly one). The we decorated them - don't they look yummy! We got to eat the leftovers 

Later we filled a puljata - which is a pinjata that you pull to open! We put popcorn, candies and stickers in it  We still had energy so we filled balloons (with air, ha ha), lots of balloons 

Finally we got the real quest: cake. Well, not actually a cake cake but a snowball pile! It was really cool - literally too  We made it of ice cream - ever seen anything like that? We put on it marzipan figures made by my host's talented and skilfull sister.

Ok, I think everything is ready - ready to party? Let's get started!