perjantai 28. kesäkuuta 2019

A short tour in Saaremaa





Before the midsummer we made a tour to Saaremaa Island on the western coast of Estonia. The island is very famous for its nature and “white nights” as the song tells us about it.  

To get to Saaremaa one must go to Muhu Island by a ferry where there is a causeway to Saaremaa.


On the ferry to Muhu


Our cottage was on the northern side of the island so we decided to drive along the northern coastline. First we stopped in Orissaare village where we enjoyed some refreshment in a tavern next to the “stadium” – the tracks probably made of car tyre material and certainly made by USSR.   

Refreshment by the stadion: rhubarb, mint and lime


The next stop was on the Panga cliff – the northern coast is a continuum of cliffs starting from the Estonian main land and continuing in Gotland Sweden. Panga is the highest cliff in Saaremaa but as such its’ height only a bit over 20 meters.


The Baltic Sea seen from the Panga cliff

A typical Estonian swing and a typical Finnish maiden swinging. A typical Soviet watch tower on the background.


Our cottage was situated near Küdema village and it was made of logs taken from some old house. The steep ladders led to a low attic for sleeping. There was a modern bathroom with shower but because of the chemistry of the soil the water stink terribly of hydrogen sulphide. The cottage area was surrounded by pastures for sheep and highlander “Beatles cows”.


Our camp seen from the road

The cottage
Ladders

Attic

A window scene to the backyard


Our faithful friend, too friendly to guard anything

Our interests in the Saaremaa nature were many: Birds, orchids, butterflies and hopefully seals. However our skills are quite limited except the bird so we just enjoyed what we saw and hoped that we would see some more. What comes to bird we didn’t see any specialties. Seals we saw none. We saw lots of orchids but most of them were the most common species and the rest were impossible for us to define the species. 

Heath (maariankämmekkä) was the most common orchid

Buds of an unidentified white orchid

Melampyrum nemorosum

Campanula persicifolia

Geranium sanguineum


What comes to butterflies there were lots of white rowan butterflies who tend to glide somewhat like monarchs. The other numerous big butterfly was Vanessa cardui.

A gliding rowan butterfly

Vanessa cardui on a viper's bugloss flower


The song tells about the white nights of Saaremaa. For Finns it is not especially mystical thing. However we saw a magical combination of red sun and green grass which we unfortunately failed to catch to camera at its best. 

An almost magical moment of the night

On the second day we traveled westwards and spotted some more cliffs. The nature varied and we could enjoy the wonderful scene of flowers. 

Surrounded by bugloss flowers at Ninase cliff


Unfortunately some of our destinations had signs of private place and we couldn’t get there – the feature not so common in Finland for the nature sights.   


No fossils found in limestone

Saaremaa cultural environment is not yet severely damaged by the modern world. The nicest example of it was the Ninase fisher village near one of the cliffs.







Ninase views

In the afternoon we ended up to Kuressaare, the main city of the island. We had our lunch in a fish restaurant near the medieval castle. I ordered cam pike and was surprised by its’ green bones which naturally helped the eating a bit.


At the Kuressaari castle


The fish restaurant in Kuressaari
The whole cam pike

Only the green bones left


Having a break while shopping in Kuressaari

Some catches


The third day was the last and we had a ferry tickets from Tallin to Helsinki this evening. We still had some time to visit places on our way. One of them was Kaali meteor crater in the middle of the island. It is not very big but it has it special feeling with elm trees surrounding the pond in the center of the crater. The Estonia is full of big stones that actually don’t belong to the places they are now. The folklore claims the mythical person Kalevipoeg has thrown them when he got mad every now and then. The real thing that happened was that the ice has transported the stones from Finland during the ice age. But maybe the Kaali stones really were thrown by him, at least they have definitely come from the air.


A pond in the center of Kaali crater

Old elm trees by the Kaali crater


We had the lunch on our way in Laitse castle in the mainland. The castle was somewhat like an English manor made of gray stone. We were the only customers so we had our own private servant. We ordered mallard in calvados sauce and of course it tasted noble - with common expenses. We asked how come it is possible to have mallard round the year in Estonia and had an explanation it also can be hunted round the year.




Having a lunch in a castle

perjantai 14. kesäkuuta 2019

Spring 2019 briefly

The spring after the winter holiday has gone somewhat fast. There’s nothing much to tell about my normal life and this is just amazing: The way I live now was beyond my dreams just some years ago.

    Dancing with dear friends

               

 Relaxing in the Rhododendron park


I just go to work either by bus or by bike. Thanks for the new metro my way to work takes 15 minutes longer than it used to take. Luckily there is an alternative by train that is the fastest. My gym is near the metro so I still use this way as well. When I work at home I usually go there by bike.


On my way to gym



Lately the weather has been quite warm so I have had an experience of working in bikini – not bad, either… 

My work outfit

Today was the last day at work and I feel I definitely earn my long holiday.



Aside the work I’ve been busy with political issues as well. I’ve been a vice chair in Seta trans political committee and full of things with the Trans Act campaign. We had a parliamentary election and before it we had very conservative government with no good for trans people. After the election the situation turned around: Despite of the victory of True Finns we got a new government with more progressive views on the issue. In the program the government declared that juridical and medical gender reassignment should be separated and the juridical should be based on the individual’s own decision. The sad thing was the religious part of the coalition demanded it should be allowed only for over 18 years old citizens. It seems that the people who demanded this restriction didn’t really understand what was it all about – or actually it seems they didn’t even want to understand. So after the new program has been declared we have campaigned very intensively for the rights of young trans people.

Demonstrating for the rights of the trans kids

One thing that divides Finnish nation is the climate issue. Especially our young people are very anxious about the situation and on the other hand the right wing populists want to neglect the issue and say we have already done more than needed for it. This one together with trans act immigrant issues has created sort of “enough is enough” thinking which has increased their popularity.  



Demonstrating again, this time to stop the man made climate change

One of my many issues has been the work against hate crimes and hate speech. It seems that there’s a campaign going on for blurring the meaning of hate speech. And the same people who seem to act in the campaign very easily seem to get to the blurred zone and even further. Their argument is mostly the freedom of the speech and they want to ignore the responsibility of one’s sayings and writings. The other problem is many LGBTI people won’t report the crimes they face in social media or in real life. The reason for that have been either their experiences or impressions of officials who ignore their reports because the deeds have been so minor! I attended in a discussion in the Ministry of Justice about the problems the minorities face in such cases. There is an emergency help organization for the victims of crime and we try to encourage LGBTI people to use it.


With Kerttu, the head secretary of Seta

The wonderful detail of the meeting was that I used Anukatariina for the first time as my official name in the Ministry security control.

















One meta-political case also took place. As I was polling in the EU election the lady behind the desk stared at my brand new ID card with three male names before the name Anukatariina. Then she stared at her screen and again at the card. After doing it some while she said: “Excuse me, I have to check one tiny thing...” and disappeared. It took some minutes before she came back and looking somewhat relieved said: “Now, where were we...”  I replied that as a citizen I have the right to know the cause of the delay.  She asked if I really want to know and I answered I definitely did. So she told the reason: “You look so much like a woman...” I asked didn’t my fourth name ring any bell and she explained this was the first time for her. I told her to be sure it will not be the last one either.


An unhappy citizen after the poll

The regular Hauho meeting in May was a bit different this time for me because I was the chair of Dreamwear Club and I had to lead the annual meeting there. 

The chair has something to say...
The chair wants to have fun as well

 I also made an interview of the Finnish transvestite Icon BB about the old days and about the ladies of the sixties and seventies. I will edit it to Youtube when I have a little time.

With BB

Now I’m still busy because of Helsinki Pride preparations. How did it go I might tell you in my next blog.