Barcelona, Spain - 13th August 2013
By: SiniS
Hi mom!!
Today I arrived at Spain!!! I heard some voices outside of my envelope…
When I saw outside, a little butterfly, a ghost dog and a demon were waiting for me!!!
- Hi!! My name is Qah!!!
Q-I’ve brought some things with me, let me see…
I showed the presents I brought from home and we took a photo of us
And, as traditional here, Zero, the host here, wrote my name on his guestbook. Do you know, mom??? I’ve helped Zero to get one of his life missions!!! I’m his 10th guest!!!!
Don’t worry about me, mom, I think I will have so much fun here
I love you!!!!
|
Posted Oct 26, 2013, 4:59 pm Last edited Oct 26, 2013, 5:00 pm by SiniS
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
|
Barcelona, Spain - 28th August 2013
By: SiniS
Hi mom!!!
This year we go to the festivities of Sants. This neighborhood decorates its streets.
The first street we found was this one decorated as a hell and it was a criticism about political corruption.
The next street was a forest.
This street was decorated as the house of Club Super 3. Club Super 3 is a TV program for children where we can see some different cartoons. Here, we met Son Goku and Vegeta and Shin Chan with his family.
This TV program is also a club. Look!! This is my membership card!!!!
And this hand is the mascot of the club. It’s a super hand!!
Oh, oh!!! In another street we found an Alien spaceship!!!
Waaahhh!!! A baby Alien attacks me!!!
Better run…
Ufff!!! We are safe now in this zouk
And walking, we arrived to Venice!!!
And in the last street we found a dragon. Can you see the knight at the left of the picture? This is the story of Sant Jordi (Saint George). The story tells that a dragon was frightening a whole village during a lot of time, eating its sheeps, cows… The people of the village decided to sacrifice a person per week to calm the dragon. But the random select the princess to be immolated!!! And when the princess was already in the cave of the dragon, a knight, Jordi, arrived and killed the dragon whit his sword. From the blood of the dragon, some red roses were born. The knight took one of them and gave it to the princess and returned her to the village. It’s a romantic story but poor dragon!!! I think he wasn’t as bad as people though, he only was hungry!!!
|
Posted Feb 18, 2014, 12:25 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
Madrid, Spain - 4th September 2013
By: SiniS
We go on holiday to Madrid!!!! Yeehaaaa!!
As Zero is a postcrosser too, he has a friend in Madrid, and we all go to meet her I’m very nervous!!!!
During our trip, we saw some interesting things: a bow situated in the same place where a meridian pass, some windmills and a bull, the mascot of Spanish trademark, Osborne.
Look!!!! We arrived!!! This is our hotel
We left our things at the room and we took the underground. We met Auri, Zero’s friend, in Madrid center. She’s a lady dragon
We met in “El oso y el madroño” sculpture, a symbol of Madrid.
Z-Auri!!!! Nice to meet you!!!!!
She showed us some interesting places during the day.
Km 0, the central point where all the roads starts.
Plaza Mayor (yes, a relaxing cup of “café con leche” )
Calle Velazquez
Teatro Real
Catedral de la Almudena
After a long way, we had something for dinner.
And before to take the underground back to the hotel, we visit “La puerta del sol”, where people celebrates the end of the year eating grapes.
Great day!! Thank you Auri!!
|
Posted Mar 17, 2014, 10:31 am Last edited Mar 17, 2014, 11:21 am by SiniS
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
Madrid, Spain - 7th September 2013
By: SiniS
Today we meet Auri again. She will show us more places in Madrid.
First we visited Plaza España and we saw a monument to Cervantes (the one who's sitting) with his two most famous characters, Don Quijote y Sancho Panza.
Then we went to Templo de Debod, an egyptian temple dating from 2200 years ago, which was devoted to the cult of the gods Amun and Isis. It was donated to Spain by the Egyptian government in 1968, as a token of Egypt's gratitude for the aid provided in rescuing temples of Abu Simbel, in Nubia.
We were hungry so we ate some typical food in Madrid: bocata de calamares (calamari sandwich)
After lunch, we visited Calle Alcalá where we saw Edificio Metropolis...
... and La Cibeles, where the fans of Real Madrid celebrates when they team wins.
And the, we went to visit Plaza Colon, where is situated a monument to Cristobal Colon.
To do a snack in the afternoon, we ate another typical food: chocolate con churros.
Now is time to say goodbye... We have to come back to Barcelona, so we give a very big hug to Auri. She has been a perfect guide!!! We will miss you, Auri, we will be in contact!!!!
|
Posted Mar 17, 2014, 11:56 am
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
Turku, Finland - 15th April 2014
By: jinxed
Hello
I was examining a hollow stump of a tree, when I suddenly heard someone talking. The voices belonged to other toys, who had came for a walk to the forest. It turned out that they are toyvoyagers, too. Gozer, Emil, Hanne Hü and Mr. Moose. They invited me to join them and that's what I did.
It's spring in Finland, too. Look at these flowers. They're growing here and there in small groups among all the old, fallen leaves. Beautiful.
Huge old tree had snapped in two and the upper part had fallen down. The damage seemed to be quite recent, although the tree is very old and hollow. Perhaps the tree had finally gotten tired of standing still.
Unfortunately it started to rain and we had to rush back to jinxed's before getting soaked.
Best wishes,
Qah
|
Posted Apr 18, 2014, 2:09 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
Turku, Finland - 18th April 2014
By: jinxed
Happy Easter for those who celebrate it and happy spring for everyone.
Qah
|
Posted Apr 18, 2014, 2:15 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
Turku, Finland - 22nd April 2014
By: jinxed
Hello
It's one of the warmest days of this spring and sun is shining, so we decided to go to the riverbank for a walk. There are very nice walking routes following Aurajoki (joki = river).
The river on this photo is Vähäjoki, a smaller river that flows into Aurajoki. It looks like we're on the countryside, but actually we walked only a couple of kilometers away from the town center.
Soon after crossing that bridge we arrived to Koroistenniemi. Here's a sign telling something about the area. This is a historically notable area: an old trading post and a church, where the diocese of Finland was located before Turku Cathedral was built. The diocese was then moved to the Cathedral on year 1300 or so.
A view towards Vähäjoki.
And a view of Koroistennimi. The white cross marks the place, where the church and the diocese were located. The river on this photo is Aurajoki and you can almost see the place, where Vähäjoki joins it. If you look carefully, you can see the tower of Turku Cathedral, too.
There isn't much left of the buildings anymore. You can seen some remains here and there, though.
Mr. Moose and Teddy arrived later and we gathered on a big stone that's probably been one of the foundation stones of the church.
We talked a lot, enjoyed the nice weather and had fun, but nothing lasts forever and soon it was time to say good bye. It's time for Gozer to continue his journey.
Best wishes,
Qah
|
Posted Apr 23, 2014, 4:35 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
Turku, Finland - 30th April 2014
By: jinxed
Hello
Tomorrow is the first of May, which in Finland is called vappu and we're going to celebrate it. The celebrations start tonight, even the shops are closed earlier than usually and tomorrow is a national holiday.
The roots of vappu can be found from pagan spring celebrations and later it became the worker's holiday. Whatever the reasons for celebrating are now, the Finns gather their friends and/or families and do something fun. Like going out for a picnic and probably getting drunk, too.
Silly costumes are a part of vappu, too. Unfortunately we didn't have any, so we took some silly photos instead.
The weather isn't that nice, so we decided that jinxed's balcony is a good enough place for our picnic. So, that's where we went with our balloons and serpentine. Teddy brought us some traditional vappu snacks: crisps, funnel cake, doughnuts and mead.
We ate and drank a lot, maybe a little too much.
But who cares, we had fun.
Greetings,
Qah
|
Posted May 5, 2014, 4:03 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|
|
Turku, Finland - 14th May 2014
By: jinxed
Hello
It's a nice and sunny day, spent outside at riverbank. This time we walked towards the sea.
Here's a view towards the town center. The building is theater and there's Samppalinnanmäki behind it. Seems to be a bit greener than last week.
Another view, but to the different direction. Here you can see the windmill. The building in the front of it is the Museum of Wäinö Aaltonen. He was a Finnish artist and sculptor, who lived on 1894 - 1966.
If you're following the Aurajoki (joki = river) towards the sea, Martinsilta (silta = bridge) is the last bridge that crosses the river. Here's a view from the bridge.
Here's Ukkopekka, a steamboat that makes day and evening cruises to the archipelago on summertime.
This boat is Rudolfina, she makes dinner cruises to the archipelago too, but I think her cruises are shorter than those of Ukkopekka.
The bow on the right belongs to Esposito, one of the many restaurant boats that you can find in Turku. The orange ferry is called Föri and she transports people over the river for free.
Between Rudolfina and Föri, we had wandered off to Kakolanmäki. I think it's better to write about that on another post, otherwise this one's going to be horribly long.
Anyway, here's Sigyn, one of the museum ships that are docked near Forum Marinum. the Maritime Center, where you can find the national special maritime museum and the Finnish Navy Museum.
Sigyn is the last of her kind, the only remaining wooden-hulled barque which has transported cargo in ocean traffic. She was built in 1887.
Here you can see Suomen Joutsen (Swan of Finland). She's one of the museum ships, too. Suomen Joutsen was built on 1902.
This one is Keihässalmi, a museum ship, too, although not as old as Sigyn and Suomen Joutsen. She's a minelayer / minesweeper and was built in 1957.
This ship is Bore. She isn't a museum, but serves as a hostel, a restaurant and a cafe.
From here we continued our way to Linnanpuisto (linna = castle puisto = park), but that's another story, too.
Greetings,
Qah
|
Posted May 14, 2014, 6:00 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
Turku, Finland - 14th May 2014
By: jinxed
Hello
While walking on the riverbank, we decided to go to explore Kakolanmäki (mäki = hill), too. Again, it's one of the seven hills of Turku.
Here we are climbing up the hill. On this side of the hill, it's only a serpentine road going between trees, grass and walls, heading towards the gates of Kakola.
The building on top of the hill is an old prison, which is known as Kakola. It was known for holding the worst criminals. Kakola was built on the mid 19th century and was in use until 2007, when the prisoners were moved to the new prison located in Saramäki. The reason to build a new prison was that the old buildings of Kakola became too small, too old fashioned and they also are in need of renovation.
After the prisoners left, there were some sightseeing tours in Kakola on a few summers. It was also a filming location for a reality TV-show, where teens that were in a risk to become criminals were put there to try a life in a prison. Now, the buildings just are there and it seems that no one really knows what to do with them. The old buildings are protected, so they can't be demolished either.
We didn't go to the other side of the hill, because there seemed to be somekind of a worksite. They're building new apartments nearby.
If the prison was still in use, some of these areas that we visited now, would've been out of bounds for us.
Greetings,
Qah
|
Posted May 15, 2014, 5:26 pm
[Quote] [View just this post]
|
|
|