Wild Cats

Last year, I had vacations in one of the cities of Gerogia - Batumi. About the city I will write a bit later, now I want to show you just a few wild cats :) All of them are living in Batumi's streets, facing difficulties, hunger and danger every day.

This cat has a nice place for hiding from people and wild dogs.


Making herself beautiful :)

This one was lucky, she could go in and out when she wanted to so do.


Just a kitten


This cat has a look, like he knows some secret - a secret of the universe :) .


Just a furious kitten. Very scared :(

A Land of Contrasts

From Georgia, we are going to northern Sweden - Norrbotten county, which is also known as the Land of Contrasts. Why is it called like this - you may ask me :) don't hurry, you will find the answers below :)

Quick facts: Norrbotten country is the biggest part of Sweden and covers almost 1/4 of Sweden's surface. Population - 258,094 people, area - 98 911 km² , the capital is Luleå. Norrbotten county has two provinces - Norrbotten and Lapland

Why is Norrbotten county called "A Land of Contrasts" ?!

1. Kebnekaize with its two peaks is Sweden's highest mountain. It might be interesting for you that the southern peak (2,104m) is covered with snow and was higher then the north peak which is ice free and has 2,097 meters. However the snow is melting, the northern peak is getting higher than the southern one.


2.The lake Hornavan is Sweden's deepest lake with 232 meters.


3. Polar days :) During summer the sun is not going down and during wintertime the sun is not rising :)


4. You might have heard about the Ice hotel in Ukkasjarvi, near Kiruna - a unique hotel which is designed different way every year and only one thing - the chandelier is always the same. People cut huge blocks of ice from a lake and build up a hotel which stays there only during 4 month. For more information look here :)


Every year each room is uniquely designed. You think you will feel cold if you sleep in such bedroom ? No, no and no, each guest is given special thermal clothes and each bed is covered with nice fur covers :)


5. Flora and fauna. Norrbotten county has very rich flora and fauna. In the forests are unique pine trees and beautiful flowers. There are reindeer, moose, rabbits. Unfortunately, there are really few wolves, they are protected by government :)


In the forests you can meet forest's ghost - Great Grey Owl


I hope I have written enough to make you interested in such a beautiful place as Norrbotten county is. I am sure each of you can find a piece of yourself there :)

Hotels in Norrbotten
Norrbotten- travel map

Heaven on the earth

I bet you do not know what I am going to write about in this post :). First, I want to show you just a few pictures :)

These are the Caucasus :)


Beautiful forests and clean lakes :)


Wild horses :)


colorful fields :)


The Black Sea :)


Ha, any idea? Well, I will be kind and tell you that everything this and even more you can find in one very small country in Caucasus. Nooo, not Armenia or Azerbaijan . Think a little bit more .....Yes, Yes and Yes again, you have guessed, I am talking about Georgia.

The history of this small country is quiet rich and goes back over 9000 years. Long time ago people were living in the Caucasus in tribes, and about 2300 years B.C. Georgian ethnos in the Caucasus is proven.

Well, I am not going to write the whole history here, I will just write some of the most important events :)

By legend the unique Georgian alphabet was invented in the 3rd century B.C. by the Georgian king Pharnaos and has changed several times :)

Georgian alphabet :)


One of the most important date is the 3rd century A.D. when St. Nino from Kolastra, Cappadocia preached and introduced Christianity in Georgia, which soon - after the 4th century - became the official religion :)

Georgians are one of the most believer orthodox Christians and since the 4th century people have built lots of churches there and you can see them everywhere. Georgian people are friendly and like guests really much. They believe "A guest is from the god " - this means that their houses are always open for others :)

I am uploading some more pictures :)


Winter in Kutaisi - one of the biggest Georgian cities :)


Rustavely av. , Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia.


For more information you can always contact me and I will try to help you with necessary information.


Used sites:
www.istora.ge
www.wikipedia.org

Photos are taken from:
www.forum.ge, wikipedia and my private albums.

Sweet Childhood :)

In this post I want to talk about 3-4 cartoons from the "good old days" and invite you in my childhood :). Those animations are so kind and so happy, that even now - after 20 years - when I am watching them I feel happy. All the characters are funny and it seems that they do not have problems at all :)
I recommend you watching the films, even if you do not understand the words, they are not important at all :)


A surrealistic turtle, even now I wonder how one can sleep with open eyes :P


I was quiet surprised how a giraffe, a parrot and two kids can live in a very small place :D


Those sweet characters are riding clouds :) they even have their own world- Tilimilitriamdia - Тилимилитрямдия :)

My dog 2009

Today was just a great day :) I went to the Dogs International Exhibition 2009, which took place in the city of Göteborg, Sweden. The name of the exhibition area is "Svenska mässan" and it looks like this:


Unfortunately I do not have a dog, so I have decided to go and watch other people's dogs. To be honest, all of them were just amazing, sweet and really cute. I took lots of pictures and I will talk bellow a little about them.

This black Labrador was just sitting and watching at other dogs and people :)


Those golden retrievers were really social. They liked people, and being stroked :) Really sweet ones aren't they?


This pretty husky was playing with a labrador :) He was really playful and happy :)


This labrador liked modeling :) so i took lots of pictures about him :)


Oh, and this amazing husky, can you believe that he was talking with other dogs and people ? :)


And bellow, I want to show just few portraits :)


Most likely he is tired of everything :)


Just a princess :)



Spaniels :)


And a very sweet Newfoundland Puppy :)




I want to thank all the dogs and their owners for their patience while I was taking pictures. :)
I want to tell all of them that their dogs are champions and very good in spite of the judges decisions!

Safety match - Made in Sweden.

Today I want to guide you in the Match museum in Sweden, in the city of Jönköping. I went there from Göteborg on 2th of January. The way took about 2.20 hours. Well, buses are very comfortable and I have slept the whole way :P.

This is Jönköping's central station:

From the station till the Match museum it is about 10 minutes walking, but before going there I went to my host to leave all my luggage and have tasty food. After I went on my way to the museum. Maybe you do not know, but this museum and the place itself is unique because 1. there is only one match museum in the world and 2. before this museum was the very first safety match factory in Sweden and I think in the whole world. Of course before people were using matches, but they ware dangerous and caused different diseases.

Everything began in 1844-45 when Johan and Carl Lundström created and started producing matches, below you can see their working table and a match cover catalog.



Some pictures from the catalog:



The very first matches were made from Phosphorus and it was really dangerous for workers especially for kids who were working there 10 hours in day. Kids had thin fingers and could easily work with the thin matches. (Unfortunately they were getting only one third part of the salary what adults were taking for the same job)

Everything had changed in 1853, when chemist Gustav Erik Pasch found out a new formula for the match's head (instead of pure phosphorus). From this time on, the factory started producing safety matches. (I have to say, matches are done from tree Asp which has just perfect qualities for producing matches.)

Bellow you can see the factory's laboratory :


Everything was done by hand for a long time. Whole families were working at the factories and they could even get apartments and could work there, but if one of the family members was losing job, they were losing the apartment as well. Down you can see how a mother and her kid are gluing paper on the boxes:



The whole producing process you can see bellow. One asp log was enough for 370 000 matches.


1.


2.


3.


4.

















Really big changes happened in 1892, when Alexander Lagerman created a universal machine, which could do the whole producing process. Of course this was not really good for people who were working there.


A completely new history starts in the life of the factory with Ivan Kreuger (1917) but now I am not going to talk about this, I just want to show you several other pictures :)

First match boxes:

2. After paper match box was invented wooden box:


3.I tried to make a box myself :)


4.Different match boxes, which were producing all around the world under Swedish match fabric label.



5. different variation of boxes.


Now I want to finish our excursion. Thanks for being my guests. :)