“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”
Today is sunny, a lovely day. It will stay in the 70’s. I need to refill the bird feeders. The spawn of Satan eats out of and empties one of them so I’m going to cayenne the seeds in that feeder. Take that, you spawn!!
When I was teaching, I traveled every year during the summer, usually for at least a month. I was a backpacker. One of my favorite trips was Finland to Russia to Denmark then finishing in London. Today I’m taking you to Finland. Enjoy your trip!
In Helsinki, we stayed in a hostel and in a university dorm, both were close to the city square. Helsinki is beautiful. One of the trams is also a tourist guide of sorts. As you ride, a voice tells you in a couple of languages what you’re seeing. I shopped at Market Hall, a farmers’ market. Stalls were lined along the square and boats were moored and filled with produce. From Helsinki I took an overnight train to Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland. I bought the cheap ticket for a sort of bunk room, a couchette with three bunks on each side. The friend I was traveling with and a Finnish lady were the only ones in my room. She didn’t speak English so we passed the language book back and forth to have a conversation. Next we took a bus to Lake Inari, north of the Arctic Circle. It was the time of the Midnight Sun. Reindeer guided by a herder were along the roads. We stayed in a summer hotel which was surrounded by huge pine trees. We also had dinner there. I had reindeer. The next day we explored. It is an incredible place.
We returned to Helsinki and booked a train ride to what was then Leningrad. There were three of us in the car. A bulky woman would come down the aisle and just say, “Tea? I always said yes. The tea was Russian and came in glass cups with long sugar cubes. I had several cups. When we got to the border, my train car was detached from the Finnish train and attached to a Russian train. Soldiers came on and checked my passport and visa. We then continued to Leningrad. Our arrival in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, ends today’s travelogue.
My dance card has a few entries. Today is a luncheon at a restaurant in Hyannis with the president of The National Peace Corps Association. Monday is the last summer concert in Hyannis with a celebratory pizza party after we play. I have the usual uke practice and lesson and two more concerts later in the week. This will be a busy week.
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
August 24, 2024 at 12:17 pm
Hi Kat,
Hotter than hell. Predicted high at the century mark.
My grandparents came from Russia at the turn of the 20th century. They always drank hot tea from a glass. They would take a sugar cube and hold it between their front teeth and sip the hot tea through the sugar cube. The reason I was told that they drank from glasses was because a glass is non porous and therefore always kosher even in a non kosher restaurant or home.
I watched the Democratic Convention with great interest. I only hope that Kamala can overcome the male unfavorable rating that older males had against Hillary in 2016. I love seeing Trump squirm as his poll numbers recede. He’s now the oldest person to ever run for President. 🙂 He’s also the dumbest. Sometimes, I think many people really want an autocratic president. Independent thinking was never the intention of public education. Public education was designed to produce pliable workers for industry. They wanted people who could read directions and follow them. We are no different from the Germans who voted for Hitler in 1933.
Casting Kamala as the prosecutor and Trump as the felon is a brilliant strategy. I can’t wait for their one debate. Unfortunately, the general public doesn’t care that he’s a felon, a rapist, an philanderer, and a crook. Also, Kamala has to attract down ballot races so that we get a Democratic controlled Congress.
Here in Texas, where we already live in a state that is run by the 2025 plan, we can’t vote a straight ticket ballot. The Republicans told us that straight ballot voting, hurt down ballot races. This of course slows the process and discourages voters from going through every race on the ballot. I personally refuse to vote for anyone running uncontested. Usually, they are Republicans.
August 24, 2024 at 10:00 pm
Hi Bob,
In one of the videos I watch, a grandmother is raising her granddaughters in Iran. They drink tea exactly in the way you describe also in glass cups. I suspect it is custom with them, not religion. They do use several sugar cubes.
Trump will tell you he is leading in all the polls. He is leading with Blacks, Hispanics and the young. He is a stable genius. Public education is quite different than you described. I worked in a high school for 33 years. Having kids learn to think for themselves has been the goal. No one wants blind followers, automatons who don’t think for themselves. I found kids often followed their parents’ politics.
It is true many people don’t care that he is a rapist, philanderer, adulterer and liar. They have swallowed the proverbial Kool-Aid. I think you will never change the minds of the hardcore. I watch videoes where YouTubers ask questions about government and even the Constitution at Trump rallies. The cult members cannot answer or they give wrong answers. They echo their leader.
It seems that many democrats are leading in house and senate races. I hope this trend continues. I live in a state which is bluer than bluer. In the Massachusetts house there are 133 democrats and 25 republicans.