I went to the summer cottage island and fixed the place ready for the coming winter time. Mörkö made its last cruise during this season, crawled on the dry land, went under a blanket and started hibernating. The whole place was so peaceful and quit. Cold wind blew yellow, brown and red leaves around. Small puddles were already frozen.

I may return to the island by rowboat or walk on the ice. I didn't put seeds yet into the bird feeder, I think my little friends can find food as long as it's not snowing.

I'm not an autumn person. It makes me sad. My sadness doubled when I found a dead weasel in a water bucket. A dead mole was floating there too. I assume the mole went into the bucket first and the weasel followed it. Unfortunately, they could not come out from the bucket. I'm sad for the mole too. I hope it was not the one who stored seeds under my pillow last autumn - after all, it's Ivan's cousin. I haven't told this to Ivan yet. I think I will keep the secret. :(

( By the request of certain girls from abroad, some autumn colour pictures under LJ cut... )

Some shots from the Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania-Poland tour by bus. Sitting four days in a bus is such an iron butt test that nobody can survive without having some energy drinks. Testing Alexander energy liquid in this picture and duracell bunnies could go on and on and on...



Loput kuvat saa klikattua auki seuraavasta linkistä!

( the tour... )

Greetings from Switzerland! Ivan (and I) arrived to Zürich...

 

( Swiss stuff... )

We slept well in the base camp. It was the summit day. 25 kilometres path leads 600 metres up to the top of Halti. We took our small backpacks and started climbing.



( the summit... )

It was time to move on. We had walked 20 km and there was still 90 to go. At this point, the task sounded "a mission impossible". But we were not the guys who abort the mission only because it felt physically challenging.



( trekking... )

Our adventure started after a 14-hours car drive from southern Finland to the northern most part of the country. We put our backpacks on and walked about five kilometres. Days in Lapland are still full of light, the sun sets under the horizon only for a short moment and it's full daylight all the time. Fjeld Saana's figure on the landscape.



( the start... )

Ivan insisted to come along, so there are three of us :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO lindapendant 

Mörkö the Sailboat!

 

( testing... )

Mörkö is a sailboat for now on. Horrible, merciless, furious etc. etc. pirates sail around these lakes hunting for treasures and pretty helpless ladies (under 48-years old) and female rodents (anything smaller than a rat will do). Beware if you are around these waters and see the black pirate ship coming closer...

P.S. Pictures will be posted when we return to the civilized world next week!

The Forbidden City is a world heritage site of China. I'll let my photos to tell the story...



P.S. I borrowed a movie from my niece, "The Last Emperor". It's filmed on the authentical places in the Forbedden City. I've seen it before but I have to see the movie again - I will probably spot some familiar places...

 

Finally, late in the evening we arrived in China. Well, maybe I should not write "finally" because the journey didn't seem to be too long and I could have continued the train trip still for some days.

( arrived in Beijing... )

 

Finally, we crossed the border and continued our trip. The landscape changed, less green and much much more sand...

( one day in Mongolia... )

 

Novosibirsk, Krasnojarsk, Angarsk, Irkutsk...

( the journey continues through Siberian landscapes... )

 

In Moscow we hopped on a Chinese train that was going to be our "home" till Beijing.

( Train... )

A herd of Russian souvenir dolls. Which one does not belong to the group?

 

( Moscow... )

Day one.

I started my trip from Tampere by a local train to Helsinki from where the adventure was truly going to begin. The map shows the route. The Russian train "Tolstoi" was waiting for us.

 

( more... )

I'm at home. So many stories, so many pictures, so many video clips... Anybody likes to see more?