Happy New Year vol 1 - faces and places in Latvia and Estonia

Inspired by remarkable Christmas time 2012 holiday in Estonia and Latvia
PLUS
from the 2 posts Places and Faces from previous "home leave" 1.5 years earlier.
This year the known reason for winter holiday in cold place was to see the winter in Estonia after 4 years, the commonly not known reason of getting married in Pärnu 3 days before the year number changed.

Place: Rizhao, China. All packed and ready to roll, just few kg over the limit. No problem, the best we have done is 90 kg of checked and non-checked luggage for 2 people, roughly 50 kg over limit between Shanghai-Rizhao.

Place: Central Riga. Latvians traditional pie or Finnish Karjala pie, same same. Ask from one or other side, hope not causing a border conflict, Estonia would be just in the middle. 

Place: Riga Centre Christmas market.

Face: Santa, Riga Centre Christmas market. Not real, now I know

Place: Riga Centre. When very cold, even the traffic signs dress up. 

Places: shopping centre in Riga. Instead of window shopping went for escalator hopping.

Place: hip restaurant in Riga. Frozen marzipan cake worth of travelling continents... or at least from Tallinn to Riga.

Place: Frozen sea, Pärnu. Second main reason for the holiday: snow and ice

Place: Frozen sea, Pärnu

Face: KUMU, Tallinn. One white sheep. Spontaneous stop at KUMU (Art Museum), outside blistering cold (must have been at least -2 degrees), where else to be if not in KUMU!

Face: KUMU, Tallinn. Free divers from 1960s

Place: KUMU, Tallinn. Faces from different times

Place: KUMU, Tallinn. Small artwork in one of the corners of the exhibition a yellow digger pulling down Kadrioru castle.


Faces: KUMU, Tallinn. Sofa art

Face: Taivo. Getting wax done. Then skiing done, checked. The very last day in Estonia.

Face and place: Aegviidu, very traditional New Year dinner around long table

Face: Armin and the pork stake

Face: Annabel and her potato, this time as discussion partner

Place: Seaplane Harbor, Tallinn. One more museum. Interesting because of its interior and some of the exhibits. Honestly getting to know every single fresh & salt water buoy is not that interesting, of course if not being in process of making captain's papers

In the very centre of China

Preparations for visiting the middle kingdoms of China started ... let's say exactly ... 3 years ago by starting to convince my mother to visit me in China. After all these years of hard work it all finally started to roll in November 2012 when my mother and brother landed in China, not in Shanghai or Beijing, but in the very middle, in Chongqing. Mother first time ever so far and in Asia! Brother already second time on rice.

Wanting to show something different from golden triangle of Shanghai, Beijing and Xian, we headed to search for somewhat more traditional - Southern China's rich minority culture, misty hills with small villages in between, burning spicy food, long bus and train trips. All this was available in Guizhou and Chongqing province.

Chongqing transporter. As the city is very hilly, old profession of transporter guys offering service to carry goods on their shoulders is still highly valued.

Mother getting to know the local market life

Vegetable seller's rice break

Train departing from Kaili (Guizhou province), 13 hours and ~700km it took to get there from Chongqing.

In Kaili, the last big town, before heading to villages in the middle of mountains. Feel of China: little foggy (smoggy), little hilly, a pagoda and already few rice terraces. Still the beginning!

 

Miao minority women

Xijiang village in mountains

When there is no rice season the same field is used as a fishing pond. Basket was used as the fishing net

Just a spider net

Village street, for some reason cars were not the most popular mean of transportation inside the village, must have been high parking fees :)

Terraces preparing for winter

Xijiang village entrance - developed as tourist attraction, so everybody coming to the village will be welcomed by local dancers

Getting the true looks of Miao people

Chinese-Estonian farming cooperation, knowledge sharing workshop in progress

Tasting flowers

Roofs with no cement

Into the mist.... siilike

Next stop Baltics, Dec2012

Rizhao October festival time

A new food concept, found this simple place in Rizhao university district. Private hot pots for students, usually hot pot restaurants are for many people sitting around one pot and dipping food into boiling broth for immediate eating, this little place offers it for people coming alone. Things to be cooked are rotating on small conveyor - typical to fast food sushi restaurants.



This is once again the trip for getting to know back corners of Rizhao, finally the city has 2.8mil people, somewhere all these people must be hidden! October festival Golden holiday week gave us a chance to go slightly further to the villages of Rizhao. With more hills and dirt tracks and less of 8-lane roads.



Beginning of October, harvesting is going on in full speed, mainly peanut and soya bean. Obviousely all sorting and drying is done directly on the roads.

Educational graffiti, the message seems to be: work hard, study hard, then it is possible to get a machine on the field to do the work.

Chimney valley - old brick factories. Tens of them, all scattered around in the same area.

Inside the brick kiln

The main control room of the factory

Corn people

The non-back road - Rizhao Beijing Road