Travelog for: Orkku Orava

Hi!!!

I arrived in Norway on a VERY, very cold day, i was lying in the mail, really cold and wondering what took them so long!
When they finally got me inside, i was really happy, cause i have been told, it was -33C outside!!! 
My hostess has been sick all week, and still is a little weak, but has promised me to take me outside soon tho!

Love, Orkku

Today we have been outside, Ragnhild showed us the different skiis they have!





In the really old ones, you just used your own normal shoes, the bindings went around the shoes, very practical, cause you didnt need special shoes for skiing!



In the 80's they had something called the "Rat Trap", you used special shoes, with 3 holes under the front of the shoe, and those you put onto the binding where it was 3 pointy things, and then you locked the binding, and it was stuck.



Later on they got more modern, and now you just click your shoe onto the lock of the binding, the shoe has a little metal bar on the front, and that one you click onto the binding of the skii.
Very easy!



Here i am on a little trip we had with the car, its a lake behind me, and its been so cold, the ice has "grown" out of the lake, around the rocks there, hope you can see it, it was really a funny sight!



All of us together

Orkku

Dear mom!

Today we have been to OSLO!
I have been to the capital of Norway!
My hostess were meeting up with a friend who were visiting from The Netherlands, and we spend the whole day in Oslo, it was lots to see!
And here are some pictures!




All of us in Ragnhilds bag, in the car, on our way to the bus!
It was 45 minutes driving to Kongsvinger, where the bus would drive us further to Oslo.



Here we are on the bus, it was a 1 1/2 hour drive by bus...



But we were looking outside, and played some games, and time went fast!
Here we are at the bus stop Rød, thats where you could change busses to go to Gardermoen airport!



We arrived Oslo at 10:30, it was raining a little all day, but not too much.
Oslo is called the tiger city, and this statue was a gift to the city, for its 1000 year cekebrating being a city!
Its right outside the train station, at the beginning of the Karl Johan street, THE shopping street in Oslo, and the street u to the royal castle.



This is us, outside the national theater!
We even found a Geocache here!



We were inside the church in Oslo, but didnt take any pictures, cause it was not allowed to use flash.
They were repeating for a concert aswell, so we didnt want to disturp.
On the walls they have a little exebition, pictures from the tragedy in Oslo 22 July 2011
Hostes started to cry, so we left again...



Inside a shopping mall, we saw this little statue, do you know it?
Its the little mermaid that they also have in Denmark, in København!
So i feel i almost been there aswell hehe



At the end of the day, we went to the Opera house in Oslo...



Its really big, and a little weird, and it costed a lot of money aswell!

Had a great day, and hope you like the pictures!!!

Orkku

Dear mom



Today we took a walk to the local shop, its not far, and it was beautiful weather!
We had a look to see if anything new was happening, only a course in dancing (swing), a house for sale, carnaval for kids and that kind of things, nothing for us...



Had a little rest on a bench infront of the shop, they call it the "lying bench" here, because the older people always sit here in the summer and talk to eacother, its like a hangout for the local people.
And you know how it goes when men meet, the fishes they caught get bigger... the women they had get more...
Therefor...the lying bench



We even saw a TROLL! 
But it was luckily not a real one, Ragnhild sais that the real ones only come out at night, they cant be in daylight, cause then they turn into stone!



And this is the local shop, just big enough for when you need to do some shopping.
Its a very old shop, it was started in the late 1800s, and everyone who wants to, can be "owners".
You then buy in on it, and through the whole year, you save all the reciets from when you bought something, and at the end of the year you count it all together, and you get a % of that back.



Walking back home, we walked past the local church, i think its really pretty one!



And this is where i live while im here.
Its an old school, build in 1920.
Hostess father and a friend of his bought it many, many years ago, and her father lives on the 3rd floor.
In the first and 2nd floor, there is a museum, its the Norsk-Skogfinnsk Museum, its about when the Finnish people had to move away from their home country, and were put here by the swedish king in the 1600s.
The swedish king thought he could get rid of the finnish people, who were in his way, but they made it very good here in the forrest, made farms, grew their special wheat, and build a new life here.
Lots of people in Svullrya and areas around here has Finnish blood, and thats why this area is called Finnskogen!



Hostess is not only doing ToyVoyagers, she is an addicted GEOCACHER aswell!
Geocaching is a game, where people who play it, hide boxes (or treasures) all over the pleace, in all countries and everywhere worth a visit.
You then download that place its hidden into your GPS (handheld GPS for walking, not car) and then go treasure hunting!
It is soooo cool! 
This is one of HER own geocaches, its right outside the house she lives in, and the museum.



They come in different shapes and sizes, this one is just an old film roll holder, perfect, cause it keeps dry, witch is important, cause on the inside, it has to be a piece of paper, a log roll.
If you find this cache, you must sign it with your nick name, thats the proff you have been there and has found the cache!



And after you have signed it (always be careful that no mugglers sees you,cause its secret, only for the ones doing geocaching, or else the caches can be found and maybe destroyed or thrown away) you put it back as you found it, always being careful with the nature around it ofcourse!
When you come home, you log on to www.geocaching.com and log your finds there, and after a while, you have quite a list of treasures found!

Love and greetings from Norway!

Orkku

Oh...and i almost forgot...

We didnt have to walk all the way, we were hiking on hostess shoulder
Me with Harold Giraffe!

Today we went to Finnetunet, an outdoor museum that hostess promised she would take me, as i am from Finland, and this is old finnish houses



They have different houses here, taken from different parts of Finnskogen, around Svullrya, and restored them, and put them here, together.
This way, you can se how an old farm may have looked like, and what kind of houses they had and made.
These are old storage houses, probably for food and such, thats why they are high above the ground.



This is the main house.



Im not sure what these two are tho, but its most probably storage hpuses for tools or food for the animals.



Every 2nd weekend of July, Svullrya becomes its own republic, Republikken Finnskogen, and for that whole weekend, they have different things going on here.
This museum comes to live, and you can see how they made yarn and coloured it in the old days, also how they cut wood, made different things, old foods and all.
And every year they have the famous "Spillet om innvandrerne", a show, where they tell the story about how it was like as the Finnish people came to Finnskogen.
What they went through, not getting accepted, how they lived...
Thats acted out right here



Hostess has a Geocache here aswell, ofcourse :P
And it is here, somewhere, can you find it?



It is a small one, and hard to spot, but i found it, look!



It is just big enough for a little squirrel!



And here is the log, lots of people has been here, and now, me too!

Love, Orkku

We had fun today, planting some carrot seeds!



It wasnt that difficult, and we all helped hostess, im looking forward to see it grow!

Orkku

10,9C outside, and sun bright and shining, we could not just sit inside and do nothing!
So we decided to have a little picknic outside, with thee and cakes and fruits!



It was warm, sitting there, and we were enjoying the thee and eacothers company



Hanna and I shared a mandarin, it was very juicy, and ofcourse healthy!

Orkku!

A geocaching trip was planned today, going by car from Svullrya, towards the Swedish boarder in Åsnes Finnskog, then follow the 45 road up, untill we met the 62 road, follow that one into Norway again, head for Trysil, Jordet, Osen, Elverum and back home again.
This is our trip, in pictures!



We started early in the morning, it was 08:00 when we started the car, and headed for Sweden!
This picture is a little bit later, at about 10:00 in the morning, its along the 62 road in Sweden, we stopped here to find a geocache, and we found it, and a beautiful vieuw aswell!!!



This is Klaraelven, it was Trysilelva, before it enters Sweden, and becomes Klaraelven!



Just a little warning, if you want to use the river here...we didnt, and drove on...



We passed a giant with an acordion, a big sculpture made in 1987, and its now a tourist information here, places to have a rest, buy souvenirs...and ofcourse...find a geocache!



Next stop, still in Sweden, but closer to the Norwegian border, this used to be a protection against the germans in the 2nd WW, i dont think they ever got used, as Sweden was neutral, and Germany didnt enter Sweden then.



They have made a little resting place here, so if you want to have a bite to eat, or need to use the toilet, you are welcome...



Us, at one of the several well hidden shooting places, they went into these holes, and then into that "hat" and they were well protected against other shoters, but had good vieuw themselves!



The number and info about this shooting place.



It was a nice vieuw from the cache place, a little scary to look down,but everything went well, we found the cache on this historical place, and went back to the car.



Lunch time in the car, it was a little cold, so we sat inside, instead of on the picknick place...



This is the old border marker between Sweden and Norway.



And another geocache was found here!



In the background you can see the tree boarder, they keep a few meters clean, so you easy can see the boarder between Norway and Sweden



And soon, we are back in Norway again!



Plassen Church, while we were searching for this geocache, we could hear the organist playing inside the church...



We were pretty sure they were practising for that evening, it said they had a concert!



Its a very pretty church!



Kongeparken, The Park of the King, was made here in 1949, as a reminder of the King of Norway, who fled from the Germans in the beginning of the war, and took cover under theese trees, while the Germans bmoben the bus he had been in.
Every one was safe, luckily!



A little info



Left: King Olav, the father of our king Harald.
Right: King Haakon, the king who then fled from the Germans.





You can see the Trysil mountain in the background



At the end of the day, we visited Osen, and a geocache lying by TWO churches!
This church was built in 1777!!!



Old stuff
But impressive to look at, thinking about how old it is, and how many people have walked in and out these doors...



They decided to keep the old church as a memory, they saw the value of this old building, while building the new church in 1923.
They still have some celebrations in the old church, like Olsok.

We had a GREAT trip, hope you liked the pictures!

Orkku

Today we went Geocaching, we saw lots of pretty places, and the weather was GREAT!
1st of May is a day off in Norway, and the weather was nice, so why not take a day trip to search for treasures?
This is some of what we saw on our trip:







A geocache was found! On a very nice spot!



This was at another spot, we climbed a tree, to see further, because it was so nice here!



Hi mom! *waves*



At a huge beach in sweden, it was PRETTY!
We walked for about 500m to the cache, found it, and walked back.
Suddenly hostes misses her GPS! Gone!
We all went back again, and there it was, lying in the sand!
Must have fallen out of her pocket, lucky we found it!
We walked about 2km on this beach tho haha



We had a very nice day, as always while geocaching

Love, Orkku!

Hi Mummy,
just a short message: I arrived at my new host's home today. Tomorrow we will show you where I will spend some time now, today everyone was too busy.

Bye
Orkku Orvava

Hi Mummy,
let me introduce my new friends to you:

There are Pelly from Wales, Rishu from Czech Republic, Alberto from Spain and Leopoldi from Germany. And of course there is my new host Katja.



In the afternoon I took a walk with Katja. We picked up a friend in another district who went with us. Our walk took us through a rural landscape in the outskirts of Remscheid.





It's hard to believe that Remscheid is an industrial town. In the background you can see the outskirts of the  neighbour city Wuppertal.





In a valley we saw fish ponds.



This house is decorated with historic items.



A lot of traditional houses are looking like these - they are covered with slate and they have green shutters.



Tomorrow I will accompany Katja to her work place in a law firm.

Bye
Orkku Orava

Hi Mummy,

after having ugly rainy weather the whole week we took an excursion today. We visited Germany's highest railway bridge, Muengsten Bridge, connecting Remscheid and the neighbour city Solingen. This bridge is overspanning the valley of river Wupper.

A smaller creek is running into river Wupper here.



From an outlook pavilion we took a first look at the bridge. Muengsten Bridge is about 107 m high and about 490 m long. It was built in late 19th century, finished in 1897.




Following our walking path, we reached a place exactly under the bridge. It was made of steel with two tracks.



We reached river Wupper than, running through the lovely landscape.



Our path led us through the forest, always close to river Wupper.



We came across some information boards, this one is showing a map of this area.





We walked uphill and downhill along the steep slope of the valley.



Alberto also likes it here, in his home country Spain it is hard to find a forest



A little creek is flowing down the slope, also crossing the walking path.



We reached Muengsten bridge than, on the Solingen side this time.





This is river Wupper under the bridge.



A leisure park was built under the bridge some years ago. They have a crazy golf course, lawns for relaxing, playgrounds for the kids, restaurants and you can also play in the usually shallow river.



This restaurant was opened about two years ago.



To get back to the car we had to walk under a road bridge.



Bye
Orkku Orava

Hi Mummy,

a new guest arrived today - Lorca, a shottish highland cattle.



My host will change house next month, she already has the keys of the new apartment. In the afternoon we went there to measure the rooms. It is only a five-minutes-walk apart from my current home.

We started in the kitchen.







It is a very large kitchen, nearly 20 square metres!

This will be the living room.



There is a lawn with trees in the backyard.



From the kitchen you can look at those pretty houses and also to a park.



Bye
Orkku Orava

Hi Mummy,
today we a trip to the neighbour city Wuppetal.

One of the city’s greatest attractions is the suspended monorail (Schwebebahn), which was established in 1901. The tracks are 8 m above the streets and 12 m above the Wupper River. Here you can see one of 20 stations along the 13,3 km long route.



Can you see the train coming?







This is one of the stations.







Here you can see the historic city hall of Wuppertal. There is a daily farmers market in front of it.



We were really hungry than and went looking for pizza to eat, although I would have preferred some nuts.

Bye
Orkku Orava