Travelog for: Leila

Hello mommy!

As celebrating to meet another TV sheep, we together (me and Lina ) went outside to see surrounding. It was so nice to get familiar with the Finnish nature, and it was even more nicer to explore it with my new friend Lina.

Look mommy! There's already an autumn in Finland. It was a raining day, so we didn't go very far. But I saw many things, what is typical in Finland at this time of the year. Look all those different colours! I think the autumn is quite beautiful time of the year, at least here.

Enjoy watching these pictures, mom!

Love,
Leila

Hi mommy!

Today I said goodbye to 3 ToyVoyagers.
They all are going to the next places to visit:
Ronja will go to Denmark,
Sausi Karl to Switzerland,
and Wayne goes back home to Germany.

I gave them all goodbye-hugs, and wish them good luck.

Love,
Leila

Hi mommy!

I have got nice time here. I have made new friends with other toys here, and we have got fun!

Today I was outside, and I saw some great things of the autumn.
Look the photos, mom, and you can see the colours of nature, too.
Yes, it's the most colourful time of this season, very soon all trees will be "naked", and then it's time wait some snow coming. I'm so exited, I want to see some snow... but I have to wait little more first...

I'm fine here, mom.

Love,
Leila

Hi mommy!

Today I visited to see the oldest building of Jyväskylä.
The building called as Taavettilan riihi, which is in English the drying barn of Taavettila.
The building has buildt somewhere in 1700's, the exact year is unknown.
First, building used as a drying barn, but somewhere in 1800's it became usual barn/cabin and it got windows then. In 1900's the building started to be a cabin museum.

Jyväskylän vanhin rakennus = the oldest building of Jyväskylä
Riihi muutettu tuvaksi 1800-luvun alussa = a drying barn has turn to be a cabin in the beginning of 1800's
Jyväskylän yliopisto = University of Jyväskylä
Rakennus 3 = Building 3





Because we didn't have a chance to go in (the door was closed), we decided to look through the window...







Love,
Leila

Hello mommy!

Guess what? Something white thing has came here. It's all over outside.
It's cold, white, and it's covering everything!!!     

YES!!! It's the first snow!!! 

Winter is just around the corner... Temperature has been about -3 degrees Celcius the hole day.



Brrrrr... snow is so cold!



All others came to sit on the snow, too. Brrrrrrr...





Ooooops! What just happened?!?    Some snow fall on us!



Hih... it was only fun! 

Love,
Leila

Hello mommy!

Today I was so lucky to go to the restaurant! 
Hostmom has a postcrossing meeting, and she took me with her.
We were in the restaurant named Huviretki. It was nice place.
We wrote many postcards, ate yummy food, and talked to each other.
It was very nice to meet new people, they all were so nice.

I tried to decide what to eat. It was difficult to choose, because it was Finnish...



Some other toys were there, too: Nyankororin cat, Kurnau cat and Tilla Mook horse, who was there with another human.





Look, I ate this delicious dish! 



Offcourse others want to taste it, too.



It was really nice day! 

Love,
Leila

Hei! Hello mom!

Kurnau told me, that we all toys can travel with hostmom, when she will visit her parents in other side of Finland in this weekend. I was totally exited about it. It's so cool to see other placed in Finland, too.

Kurnau showed me the map. Can you see the spots A and B in the map? Yes, that's our travel plan, it's about 320 kilometres.
We are going to little village called Ilomantsi. It's in the Northern Karelia in Finland.



After sitting 4 hours in the car, I was tired and I wanted to relax.
So, I experienced one Finnish thing, how to relax and take a bath at the same time: I went to sauna!!!





And guess what? 
I met saunatonttu (=the elf of sauna) there!!!



This room, sauna, is a hot place. Saunas are very common in Finland (maybe because the cold and long winter seasons?!?). Finns go to sauna to wash themselves, but also to relax. They throw some water to the kiuas (it's like the "oven", and there are some stones on it), and this hot kiuas makes the hole room so warm place to be.





AAAaaaaahh, I'm sooooo relaxed now!!!

Love,
Leila

Hi mommy!

Unfortunately, the weather is awful here... it's raining a lot... 
So, there's no sightseeing here today...

But, the bad weather is not the problem for us!  We can do many fun things inside, too. 

At first, I want to show you the coat of arms of Ilomantsi. It looks like this:


And because there's three kanteles (kantele = it's one kind of instrument) in the picture of the coat of arms, I wanted to play this instrument.

And happily I can say, that I did it. I played kantele.   
Kantele is the national instrument of Finland, and especially in Karelia.



Others played it, too.



And then, we found this marvellous little building! Wow! 



Hi hiiiiii!!!!! Here I am! 





And then, I saw something, what I first couldn't believe... 

Look yourself! Is it cool? So many medals and pokals etc!!!   

...Hih, and I'm there somewhere, too. Can you find me?



Well, can you see me now?



Great! You found me!!! Well done! 


Oh, one more photo for today...

I'm dreaming: "...and the winner is....... LEILA!!!"
Hurray!!! 



It was fun day!

Love,
Leila

Hello mommy!

It's last day of our visit in Ilomantsi, and the weather is still bad...

Well, because outside is terrible, we decided to make nice inside this house.
Yes, we are going to bake some cookies!



First need to use kaulin (= a rolling pin).





Then it's time to make cookies. I made bunny shaped cookies.



Kurnau helped. He put the cookies to the cookie sheet.



Mmmmmm... it smells so good already! 



Cookies are ready! Yummy!!! 



Now it's time to enjoy! 



Love,
Leila

Hello mommy!

I noticed that I haven't introduced hostmom's cat yet. He is kind one. His name is Jeppe, and he is 2 years old. He is so typical cat, he likes to sleep a lot. Silly cat! 

Mom, look how funny his face look like, when he is yawning!!! Ha haa! 



Oooooo! Heeeeeeelp! He is tickeling me with his mustaches! Please stop!



Look, he listens me!  So, mommy, you don't have to be worry at me!



Jeppe is very nice cat.



Love,
Leila

Hei! Hello!

I said goodbye to everyone here. I'm leaving here,
and I'm going to Italy to visit my next host.
I feel little bit sad, because everyone have been so nice to me,
and we became good friends to each other.
Well, the life goes on, and new places and new adventures are waiting for me.



I said goodbye to Kurnau, too. He was great host.



Just before going into my envelope, hostmom's cat Jeppe came to say goodbye, too.



And then I growled into the envelope.



Finland was nice place to visit. I have now many happy memories about visiting Finland.

Italy, I'm coming! 

Love,
Leila

OOOOOooooooo!!!     

It's soooooo dark here! I can't see anything! 

I'm in the envelope, and travelling to Italy. 

Bye bye Finland!

Italy, I'm cooooooooming! 

xoxo
Leila

Hi Mummy!

Here I am again!

Today I could finally come out of my envelope and have a look around, breathing the fresh air again!
My host came to pick me up with all my new friends: Trifolo the rabbit and Wellington the penguin, who are living with her, and 2 other ToyVoyagers: Orkku Orava the squirrel and Gaspode the dog.

As I heard someone speking outside, I started shouting to come out -I was sooo tired to stay there!

Luckily, they open the envelope quickly!







Hello!!!!



Here I am!!!!



I greeted everybody and gave them the Mommin lollipop I took with me your letter, Mum. They read and promised they will keep good care of me. I'm sure they will!!!! 



As I've been in the envelope for so long, my new friends invited me for a stroll outside. It's very cold and there is snow!!!
Trifolo was too cold to come outside, but Wellington was very happy to come with us!



We even engaged in a small snowballs battle -Wellington and Orkku Orava VS. me and Gaspode! 





Then we tried to build a snowman...



... but the snow was too iced and we couldn't really model it, so we had to give up!

It's so cold that all the water now is ice. Wellington looks quite happy, but all of us other wouldn't dare to walk on pure ice!!!



Then we went back home for lunch.

Did you know it's our host's birthday today???? I didn't neither... 

But of course her mother did, so she made a special cake for her!!!! 
Something Hello-Kittish...



We ate it with some good Spumante, it was really good!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FRANCY!!!!

Dear Mummy,
how are you doing?

Christmas is approaching and today our host decided it was time for some Christmas shopping & sightseeing!

So, we walked to the very city centre, passing by the Roman ruins of Torino. Most of Italian cities have Roman origins and so does Torino, but there are not a lot of remainings of that time, the Palatine Gate is the most important one.



Then we walked to Castle Square, which is one of the most important squares in town. Here we saw 2 of the Savoy's palaces, the Royal Palace...



and Madama Palace. Those are the places where the Savoy kings used to live!



And there also are some Christmas decorations -look, they put an advent calendar in the square!



This one is quite weird... can't really guess why it should look Christmassy... but it's artistic it its own way! 



On another square thay have an old merry-go-round, which looks much more Christmassy! 



But the Department Store is the most Christmassy place of all!!!! Look Mum, doesn't it look beautiful? 



When we came out of the store it was dark outside, so we could see all the Christmas lights!
The city of Torino puts a lot of efforts in those "Artistic Lights" and some of them actually look gorgeous and bring you a sense of happiness!





This one tells you a whole story! But it was in Italian, so Francy just gave us a little summary: it talks about someone walking in the wood with snow... 



As we went back to Castle Square, we notice there was a show going on on Christmas music: look at the dancers over the square!!!



Then we decided to go back home walking through Via Garibaldi. There are some birds over it, and we followed the red ribbon they hold...



where will it go???

Here it is!!!! There's an angel in Piazza Statuto, where the street ends, holding the ribbon! 
Can you see it? Unluckily it was dark and the statue is almost black, but you should be able to see its silhoutte!



So, here we are back home!
Today we bought some Christmas decorations and a few "Panettone", which is a typical Italian cake they eat at Christmas.
We wanted to taste one, but Francy told us they are to be given a a gift to relatives and friends.



But she says, we'll surely manage to taste it at Christmas. Can't wait! 

Hi Mum!

Our host Francy is spending the afternoon shopping for Christmas presents, but we decided to stay home and put on some nice Christmas decorations!

We have a lot of them, so we had to pick the best ones!



We put up a small Christmas tree, and after that we decided to do another one with a green plant we have at home! Francy will be happy when she'll be back!





We worked hard, so we decided it was time to relax with a nice hot chocolate.

We made it with chocolate blocks, it's pretty simple!



You just have to heat the milk and put the chocolate block inside to melt!



It's yummy!
It's nice to wait for Christmas this way!