Travelog for: Ninni

I am home 

I was rescued in the USA by BunTraveler (Thank You!) and adopted in Finland by Delenna (Love You already Mom!). My Mom says it was Destiny:  a) she thought I was super cute b) it was Easter at that time and c) she had a free tv tag I've been at home most of the time to rest and to get to know my way round here - and to play with the girls! Mom said she'll show me around the area soon. Here I am at the nearby seaside (Baltic Sea). It's so pretty don't you think! This is a famous area as the creator of Moomin spent her summers in one of the islands in this area. That explains why Moominpappa is so into the sea... I have learnt about the Moomin as they're very famous here and abroad.

Today I visited the local sightseeing tower to get an overall picture of my new hometown. This is Porvoo, a small town with about 47 000 inhabitants. Only 50km away from the capitol, Helsinki. Porvoo is the second oldest city in Finland!

In the first pic you can see the church roof (brownish). They have been rebuilding the roof as it was burnt by arson in May 2006. It has taken this long to re-open the church although the inside of the church wasn't really harmed.

As you can see the Porvoo River runs thru the city all the way to the Baltic Sea. In the summer the riverside is full of boats and tourists & locals in the cafes/bars/restaurants. There are 4 bridges crossing the river.

The last pic shows the sightseeing tower from the bottom. 

These are the most famous sight in Porvoo: the old warehouses. This is what the brochure says about them:

"The shore houses are now red, but they got their colour only in the late 18th century. Red ochre paint was used to paint the shore houses in honour of King Gustav III's arrival from Sweden. All of the houses along his route were painted, in order to make them more beautiful. The red ochre also helped protect the logs from wind and sun damage. Exotic fruits, wines and spices were brought to Porvoo, and the shore houses also served as intermediate storehouses for coffee an tobacco. Today the shore houses are used as private living quarters and storage space."

May 1st aka Mayday aka Labour Day is vappu in Finnish. People go on marches and/or picnicks and/or barbeque and/or wear their graduation hats (esp. those who have gone thru lukio, upper secondary school) and/or get balloons and streamers etc. We made our own vappu hats, got balloons and streamer and had fun! People drink sima (mead) and eat doughnuts or maybe \"tippaleipä\". It's an official day off.

I spent my vappu with my fellow toyvoyagers Alfie Langer (the bear), Roo (the kangaroo) and Chokito (the cat). 

Today they celebrated Mother's Day in Finland - and so did we! We had ice cream cake, saw the flag of Finland (as it's a national day, everyone puts the flag up) and picked these white flowers (traditional trademark of the day, called "valkovuokko" in Finnish). The girls had made cards and bracelets for their mom. The mom enjoyed the day too 


(eating the cake: Chokito, Alfie, me Ninni, Roo and Majed - and we did leave some for the family too!)

Today I went for my first visit in the capital of Finland: Helsinki! We got some pics on the other side of the city center. There's a view from a lake and the Opera House!

Here we're celebrating Roo's (the kangaroo) 4th birthday. We're 2 months late but my mom likes the saying "better late than never"  It was a total suprise for Roo! You should've seen her face when we took the blindfold off her eyes! We all sang and then we ate cake & candies and drank juice. In the picture I'm giving her our present (a necklace with her name on it, made by my mom) and card. She did love it all which of course made us happy. It was a day to remember!

Today was Alfie's 1st birthday - and here we're singing Happy Birthday to him 

Today we went to Helsinki again! There was a Postcrossing meeting in the Main Post Office (or more specific: the Wayne's Coffee cafe there). It was the first my mom attended and she was both nervous and excited. I was a bit nervous too... But we did have a great time! We were all welcomed warmly. We got some chocolate tea - and we "stole" some Dutch Waffels (a Dutch postcrosser wanted to join with this contribution), see me watching the others' backs while Chokito is stuffing his head in... We made new friends: the Official Meeting Pens and the Official Meeting Ducks  We helped the humans write "some" (101 as in one hundred and one) postcards and watched the Official Meeting Book being filled (we got our names there too!). The meeting took 3 hours after which my mom went shopping for some more postcards 

This has been a historical day; I visited a Unesco World Heritage Site for the first time of my life! It was Suomenlinna Fortress in Helsinki. There I am, getting closer photo by photo - in the third one is the ferry we took to get here. It was a nice & sunny day, perfect for an interesting glimpse of history  Did you know that people actually live in Suomenlinna? There are regular houses for regular people. They also have a kindergarden, a library, a grocery store - even a prison! I spent the day with my mom and my tv pals; Majed, Elle, Chokito, Alfie Langer, (me), Roo nad Stuart the Lion (see the last photo). It was most enjoyable! 

After the trip to Suomenlinna my mom showed me The Cathedral. It's probably the most wellknown sight in Helsinki. She meant to show me the Presidential Castle and the Orthodox Church - and she did, but forgot to take photos! Maybe she had too much sun... 

My mom introduced me to one Finnish phenomenon: the sauna! It's small (there are bigger ones too)  heated room where you throw water on hot stones to get it more heated (and humid). I was told that 60-80 degrees Celcius is good. It relaxes your muscles and opens your skin pores. People also take a shower before going there - and after it - and in the middle... You can't get any cleaner than that! 

My human sister turned 4! We held her a party naturally. This is the cake she wished for - a dog face (she's really into doggies). My mom made it up (the design) all by herself! It's simple, but it also tasted delicious. It was a very nice weather, we had good comapny nad the girl got many nice presents 

This weekend I got to visit reletives in Tampere which is a city about 2h drive away from Porvoo. During the weekend we made a trip to Särkänniemi Adventure Park. Here I'm in Näsinneula Tower, as high as 124m (the tower is altogether 168 metres high) looking at the city of Tampere. Awesome view don't you think!

Yet another festival: Juhannus. It's Midsummer Eve here. Usually people have a barbeque, go to their summerhouses, watch a bonfire, drink heavily, go swimming... The downside is that every year at least one (usually several) person drowns or is killed in a road accident during these days off - due to the heavy drinking mentioned earlier. Luckily it rained heavily - and "heavily" is underestimated! This means less accidents will happen. Unlucky we didn't get to see any traditional Midsummer events  We could only see a bonfire on the calendar...