Travelog for: Dusel

Today something strange happens: my owner put me on this fence and left me there.
Then a young woman and two toys appeared and took a photo of me before they left me again. I can't come with them because maybe my owner will come back to pick me up again.

Here I am, still sitting on this fence and freeting like hell. I spent the whole night here alone and wondered what might happen the next day.


The woman came back and told me, that she will take care of me now. She introduced me to dotdog and Muumipeikko, who are Toyvoyagers. They dried my fur from the dew...


...and put me into warm sheets. I fell asleep at once. The last words I heard were "...become a travelling toy"

When I finally woke up after a long time asleep, the little Muumin from Finland had some news for me:
1. While I was asleep I was given the name Dusel. It's a "Plattdeutsch", a dialect which is spoken in northern Germany, and means luck.
2. Muumipeikko told me that I'm a toyvoyager now. That means that I will travel around the world a visit many different countries.
3. I'll leave tomorrow! At first I was really sad because I hadn't explored my new home very much, but Muumipeikko says that I have the great chance to travel through different European countries and will even meet his mum in Finland.
I'm really excited now and needed to look up all my destinations on a map. My first stop will be Moscow in Russia. I can't wait to go there!

Hi guys!
I`m at my first host place in a three-week journey! TVs here told me I was lucky because some of them was on the way more than one month. Wow!
Here are many TVs and they are glad to see me and my postcards. They surrounded me and began to ask who I was and from where I came.
After this I went to the main post office with Maria. It is a big building! We were only in two halls but there are many of them - even Maria was not in all.
After post we had a deal in book-store. Maria wanted to bought the album for her postcards which are hanging on the wall, but now she decided to put all of them in albums.
The book-store is really crowded!

And finally we were at our way home, but stopped to make a photo with KGB building:

Quote:

The Lubyanka is the popular name for the headquarters of the KGB and affiliated prison on Lubyanka Square in Moscow. It is a large building with a facade of yellow brick, designed by Alexander V. Ivanov in 1897 and augmented by Aleksey Shchusev in 1940-1947. The Lubyanka was originally built in 1898 as the Neo-Baroque headquarters of the All-Russia Insurance Company, noted for its beautiful parquet floors and pale green walls. Belying its massiveness, the edifice avoids an impression of heroic scale: isolated Palladian and Baroque details, such as the minute pediments over the corner bays and the central loggia, are lost in an endlessly-repeating classicizing palace facade, where three bands of cornices emphasize the horizontal lines. A clock is centered in the uppermost band of the facade. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the structure was seized by the government for the headquarters of the secret police, then called the Cheka. In Soviet Russian jokes it was referred to as the tallest building in Moscow, since Siberia could be seen from its basement. Another joke referred to the building as "Adult's World" as compared to "Children's World," the name of the popular toy store across the street.

See you soon!
Hurray to ETVT!

Hello!
On Saturday I was in the country-side! The weather was sunny and great.
I met there very frightful mask and was so scared that I ran to the Maria`s room where all my TV friends were waiting for me.

Hi mom!
On sunday I was in Tsaritsino park (Tsar in Russian is "King" and "Tsaritsa" - is queen.)

Quote:

Tsaritsino museum and reserve in Moscow was founded in 1984 in the park of the same name. The estate is known from the late 16th century, when it belonged to Tsarica Irina, sister of Tsar Boris Godunov. At that time it was called Bogorodskoye. In the 17th century it belonged to the Streshnevs and then to the Galitzines. In 1775, when the estate was bought by empress Catherine the Great, it received its present name, which means “Tsarina’s”. In 1776-85 architect Vasili Bazhenov built a new palace for the Empress here, but in 1786 Catherine ordered it to be partly pulled down. Until 1797 architect Matvey Kazakov was working on the construction, but the palace remained unfinished. Currently, in Tsaritsino there are a history and architecture museum, a landscape park with an adjacent forest, an art museum, the Biryulyovo dendropark, and a cascade of the Tsaritsino ponds. Bazhenov's "Opera House", 1776-1778.The 18th-century architecture ensemble was built (though not finished) following the order of Catherine II in pseudo-Gothic style, after projects of the Bazhenov and Kazakov, and it is the only 18th-century architectural ensemble of such dimensions in Russia. Around the palace, in the park there are a number of pavilions, pergolas, arbours, artificial grottos, decorative bridges (early 19th century, architect I. Yegotov), and a Russian Orthodox temple “Source of Life”, as well as a modern recreation center with an upscale restaurant. For a long time most buildings were ruined (and alpinists used them for training). Recently most buildings have been "completed": rooftops, interiors and decorations have been added and their historical appearance has been altered. A number of buildings house the Russian museum of folk and applied art. The atrium of the “Bread House” is used for concerts of Moscow musicians.

The park was overcrowded! And the most part of visitors were near fountain
I like large green field where it is so pleasant to spend time and having rest!

I`ll stay in touch mommy
Dusel.

Hello mummy!
On Sunday I had a bicycle trip through Moscow - just to move faster.
First we saw the exhibition of Russian architect Zurab Tsereteli:

Quote:

Zurab Konstantines dze Tsereteli (born January 4, 1934 in Tbilisi) is a controversial Georgian-Russian painter, sculptor and architect who holds the office of President of the Russian Academy of Arts.

He has museum of his arts, but we were only in the yard where there are enough sculptures. Some of them are really funny
Near this museum very nice church is situated and I took my chance to take picture with it as well. 

After long riding my TV-friends and I decided to have dinner in Vietnamese restaurant. It was really delicious!

And at the end of great day we had a short look to the Kremlin and I made a picture with one of the Towers!
Hugs,
Dusel.

Dear mummy!
I`m on my way to Finland! Maria took the picture of me by her phone when we were at the post-office waiting in a long queue (it seems that all TVs from Russia are leaving it today).

Yay! Wohoo! I'm in Finland! My host picked me up from the post office on her way to the town - and I got to do sightseeing right away when I got out of my package  I told my host Muumipeikko sent his greetings - my mentor hots my host's tv 

This is Porvoo, a city established in 1346 and now with about 48000 inhabitants. It's only 50km (less than 1h drive) east from the capitol, Helsinki.

I'm standing on the river (quite exactly on the spot where the Lat. & Long. take you), looking around. The riverside is a popular place for bar&restaurant visits in the summer. On the other side of the river they're building a campus area with a movie theatre and art exhibitions. The houses on the shore are modern versions of the old shore warehouses (seen later in the next update). People have paid good money to get to live in those

As you can see the river is full of boats! All newer but there are some old ones - mmostly for cruising purposes. one of them is the old wooden schooner is called Marita, built in 1947.

We continued our walk by the river to the Old Town side of Porvoo. In the first photo are the new shorehouses and in the next you can see the old ones, the ones that are the most wellknown sight in this town.

This is what the website tells about the old shore houses:
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.

I saw some paddlers on the river and one of the sighseeing "cruisers", bargass Borgå. That small wooden bridge is the first one ever built across the river in Porvoo. On the other side you can see a hill where used to be a castle hundreds of years ago - but more about that when I visit the hill itself.

On certain spots you can see framed paintings by Albert Edelfelt. He has painted those certain spots a hundred or two years ago. It was quite fascinating to see the painting and the same view in person!

This is the Baltic Sea. It's just that the archipelago is blocking the view... But somewhere over there, quite nearby is the small island where Tove Jansson, the creator of Moomin spent her summers. Did you know that the Moominhouse was drawn after a lighthouse that really exists? No wonder Moominpappa loves the sea 

This is me in the Finnish Sauna  In Finland every household has a sauna - or in case of a block of flats, then there usually is one sauna for the whole highhouse. Anyway. This is my host's sauna.

Sauna is a room that you heat up (there are saunas that are heated with wood and saunas that are heated with electricity), preferably 60-80 degrees Celsius (that varies, some people like it even hotter). Then you take a shower (just to get wet, it's not pleasant to be dry in a sauna) before you enter the sauna (naked!). In sauna you just sit and relax and maybe throw some water on the hot stones (to get more heat and steam). Sauna relaxes your muscles and opens your skin pores, which makes you clean from the inside 

After a while (when you feel like it) you go to the shower again to get wet and re-enter the sauna. You can repeat it as many times as you want. In the end you shower to wash yourself.

In summerhouses people also have saunas. There it's tradition to make (or buy) a birch whisk with which you beat yourself gently in the sauna. The whisk has the leaves on so it won't hurt.

There are saunas in gyms and swimming halls but there men & women are divided in separate saunas. Otherwise, with friends and family, it's normal to go to sauna together.

Finns even have a Sauna Society!

We went to the city to play in a park that is bigger than the ones near my host. The park personnel had organized a small festival. We got to put flowers on a "pole" (this has something to do with the swedish speaking Finns, they call it a "maypole"). There were different games to play - oh, and the fire trucks came and an ambulance and we got to see inside them! Then there was a chance to barbecue and all sorts of food! It was really fun 


Wikipedia says this about the Finnish Midsummer:
Before 1316, the summer solstice was called Ukon juhla, after the Finnish god Ukko. In Karelian  tradition, many bonfires were burned side by side, the biggest of which was called Ukko-kokko (the "bonfire of Ukko"). After the celebrations were Christianized, the holiday is known as juhannus  after John the Baptist (Finnish: Johannes Kastaja).

Since 1955, the holiday is always on a Saturday (between June 20 and June 26). Earlier it was always on June 24. A lot of the celebration of midsummer takes place on midsummer eve, when many workplaces are closed and shops have to close their doors at noon.

In the Finnish midsummer celebration, bonfires (Finnish kokko) are very common and are burnt at lakesides and by the sea. Often two young birch trees (koivu) are placed on either side of the front door to welcome visitors. Swedish-speaking Finns often celebrate by erecting a midsummer or maypole (Swedish midsommarstång, majstång).

In folk magic, midsummer was a very potent night and the time for many small rituals, mostly for young maidens seeking suitors and fertility. Will o wisps were believed to be seen at midsummer night, particularly to finders of the mythical "fern in bloom" and possessors of the "fern seed", marking a treasure. An important feature of the midsummer in Finland is the white night and the midnight sun. Because of Finland's location spanning around the Arctic Circle the nights near the midsummer day are short or non-existent. This gives a great contrast to the darkness of the winter time.

Many Finns leave the cities for Midsummer and spend their holiday in the countryside. Rituals include bonfires, sauna and spending time together. Heavy drinking is also associated with the Finnish midsummer.

Many music festivals of all sizes are organized on the Midsummer weekend. It's also common to start summer holidays on Midsummer day. For many families the Midsummer is the time when they move to the countryside to their summer cottage by the lake. Midsummerday is also the Day of the Finnish Flag. The flag is hoisted at 6 pm on Midsummer eve and flown all night till 9 pm the following evening.

I went to the local sightseeing tower with my host. In the tower I got a relly good view over the city of Porvoo!

The story tells that the sightseeing tower was made by a giant: he heard that they were building a church in Porvoo and got angry (apparently giants don't like churches) and threw a stone all the way from Sipoo (where he lived, a place not too far from Porvoo). He didn't either aim it too well or his arm wasn't in good enough condition as he missed the church.

The stone has been a place to gather for festives a hundred years ago. Kids were told that babies were picked up from under the stone. Around 1880 they made the stairs and it became a sightseeing tower. Nowadays kids are told that a stork brings the babies - which is weird because you very rarely see storks in Finland...

It's hot in here! 

It's +28'C! After taking the photo it rose above +30'C  - in the shadow!  It's summer allright 

Then it finally started to rain - for about 20 minutes... The raindrops were huge! Kids ran outside with their clothes on  And like that wouldn't have been enough, they filled buckets with water and threw at each other  When the rain stopped they danced hand in hand in a circle signing "more rain, more rain, more rain"