Summer Europarty in Rotenberg, Germay AND moving on!

Soo.... Here's Ferdinand again, this time about the awesome Euro Party in Rotenberg "Jugendburg" in Germany. It was SO much fun, and I met so many wonderful TVnet members, most new to me but some people I already knew (and stalked... *evil smile*). Anyway. Here are the pics, enjoy!

Here, in the first one I'm sitting on top of Taika Sedai's luggage on Frankfurt airport train station. We took an IC train to Mannheim, and then continued to Wiesloch-Walldorf (I know, these German town names... *rolls eyes*), where we continued by bus to the Rotenberg town, and walked up the hill to the party castle. Everyone else were already there, and we were quite late since we missed one train and had to wait. But nevermind... I was tired after the journey and spent the time in our room labeled the (pie) cookbook (*arch*).

Next day, we went to see the medieval Burg Steinsberg in a nearby town. It looked like this:

Here I'm posing on top of the donjon of the castle. It had 4 meter thick walls, and very worn steep wooden stairs. I'm glad Taika Sedai carried me in her backpack. It'd have been a pain to bounce up all the stairs!

After getting back down we had some refreshments. Here I'm taking a sip from Taika Sedai's coffee. Rijomu Sedai's sitting next to us.

Well, SHE (Rij Sedai) had much better refreshments, and she offered me some of her wine and cheese cake (after I had glared at her menacingly for a while *nods*)

Well, then. The evening went nicely with some beer and campfire, and the citizen Argent "Ninja" Shiroi kept the fire alive for us. We roasted marshmallows and various other stuff (*look*) at the fire. The second day we visited a medieval market in another nearby town. This time I stayed at the castle... had hell of a hangover...

And at Saturday evening there was the banquet with official ceremonies (led by Alyssa Sedai of the Yellows). The dinner was good, and I stealed some of Rij Sedai's wine, too. :D

Here she is, carrying me in one of my favourite places (at least on Aes Sedai *nods*).

Here I'm meeting my new host, Thalya Sedai from Sweden! She's a real Aes Sedai, she could glide, have conversations, and even nod while I was sitting on top of her head!

It took one of Isarma Sedai's lively country dances to scare me off her head. Here we're waiting for the dance lesson (3-hour long!!!) to begin.

Well... You know dancing is not really my thing, so I went to the banquet room and stole the Goldstrike. You can just see the magic clock on the background of the picture. This party was the starting point for a new cult: the cult of the magic clock! Whole bunch of people sat there at the last night just to watch the hauted clock... They're all believers, now.

Well well, this evening I had quite a lot of drinks (had to, since I know Thalya Sedai doesn't drink alcohol at all, so I'll have to sober up a bit... :/ ), and said goodbyes to Taika and Rij Sedais. The next day we - Tha Sedai and I - started our journey to Sweden! Exciting!!! I'll post more when I've got past the after-party sleep deprivation and hangover! ;)

Berlin Sightseeing!

Finally here, writing you about Berlin sightseeing tour I had with Taika Sedai. :D This is the last time I'll update my blog from Berlin, because tomorrow we will travel to TV.net Summer Euro Party in Jugendburg Rotenberg, about an hour away from Frankfurt am Main. I'm so excited to meet Tower people again, after such a long time!

Anyway, off we go to the sightseeing tour. Here we are, planning to get going with Taika Sedai's favourite way of traveling, the bicycle. :p The pic is from the back yard of her house.

First we're going to see the Mauerpark, where the Berliners have left some of the old Wall as a memorial from the time of division. People like to make graffities and writings overall it. Here I'm posing in front of a random graffiti.

Then, we went to the castle and palace of Charlottenburg. We didn't visit inside, but the park was quite fancy. They had a lake in there:

And also very Baroque style garden. This summer has been such a dry and hot one here, so the gardeners had to be watering the flowers and lawn all the time.

This is the front gate of the Charlottenburg palace. Lots of other tourists here, too.

So... Next to Alexanderplatz! Here is a good example of Janus face of this city: some places are really beautiful and well cared for, but others are like this. In the background you'll see the famous Berlin TV tower. The irony is that it was built in DDR (an officially atheistic state), and in the light of setting sun the construction of the ball reflects a cross. But quite awesome, isn't it!

And another famous Berlin sight, the Welt-Uhr, or World Clock, situated in Alexanderplatz. This was the end of our trip, we didn't go to see Brandenburger Tor, or Siegessäule (which is under construction right now), which is too bad. But I think this is good, too. :D

As a conclusion, I'd say Berlin is a fascinating city; you can meet all kinds of people here, from the trendy young families in Prenzlauer Berg are to the punk rocker people with scary looking dogs, hanging around U-bahn or S-bahn stations. Surprising amount of people don't speak English, but they are in general very friendly towards foreigners. The beer is good here, too!

But as I said, tomorrow brings a change for me and I'll say goodbyes to Berlin; I'll be leaving Taika Sedai and travel to Sweden with Thalya Sedai. Though before that, there's the PARTY!!!!

First impressions of Berlin

Hi, it's me, Ferdinand, again! I've now arrived safely to Berlin, Germany's capital. Cargo box as a means of traveling isn't one of my favourites, though. I needed some Bitburger to recover from that...

Taika Sedai's new home is still full of those boxes, and she has to get through some serious bureucracy-type-of things, so I haven't got a proper sightseeing yet. She's promised me one, so I'm not entirely grumpy at her (yet).

Berlin seems to be a place of easy going, a bit scruffy and ragged, but it has its charms. (Good beer being definitely one of them!) So far I only have seen Taika Sedai's home district, and we've been to Friedrichshein park with her son. The park is quite big, and people do various sports there, but also picnics (I never saw grilling outside in a public park in Finland!) and there are a couple of play parks for children.

Here I'm posing on top of a wooden dragon statue:

And here, of course, an owl. The small guy next to me (casting suspicious looks, since he wasn't allowed to play with me) is Taika Sedai's son, who's currently 2,5 years old. And talks all the time.

Okey, I'm going to write some more when I've had the sightseeing! Until then, stay safe and have fun!

Towards Germany!!!

Hi again, peoples! I'm just writing quickly (Taika Sedai is impatiently waiting for me to finish this since we're in a hurry...) that my time in Finland is ending, as soon as I'm finished I'll hop into one of Taika Sedai's family's cargo boxes, and begin a week-long journey towards Berlin, Germany.

Wheeeee..... Auf Wiedersehen!

Long time no see...

Hi friends! I'm sorry I haven't been around... :o I rather got lost reading Taika Sedai's books. Well, Dostoyevsky became my favourite, as you can see:

I also found a new friend, Mr. Who, who is Taika Sedai's favourite owl. She's very fond of owls you see, and Mr. Who shared my love for reading and taking care of books. He's specialized in music history and composers' biographies, and when this pic was taken he was just reading everything about Richard Wagner...

And so went the spring, and winter, and next spring came. I kind of woke up, and started to long for traveling again. Fortunately there was something really interesting to watch from Taika Sedai's balcony: Fieldfare's nest in the tree right outside her family's balcony!

Also, I knew I was going to get on traveling soon, so the time passed very quickly. Taika Sedai and her family was going to move to Germany, and she would take me with her. Summer Europarty was the place where I'd meet my new host. It's still about a month to get there, but I'm already saying goodbyes to the books and my Finnish friends, and looking forward to get to see more of Europe! :D