Today I’ll show you some photos and write a promised post about my faculty of biology – why do I love it so much. Recently we had many excursions (while it’s still warm outside), so I’ll tell you a bit about them (or at least I’ll try, cause something’s wrong with the internet today, it shows just Latvian web-pages without any problems).
So, our first excursion was to the zoo :) We had some kind of orienteering there, as we had to find animals from different parts of the world and fill a list. Of course, I was just taking photos :D
On my way to the zoo
Manul ^^ So cuuute ^^
Kookaburra doesn't laugh! We were trying to make it laugh for almost an hour :D
Zebras
Owl
Cute tapir and hippo ^^
Love this frog ^^
Aquarium
Aquarium once again
At the evening we went to our Museum of Nature with another teacher to see different mushrooms and have a lecture about them :D Was interesting, but it seems like almost all of them are edible – I would never pick anything like them. And there also was a director of truffle center in Finland (juvatruf.fi), he told us about truffles a bit, was interesting :) A day before me and my friend Zane also worked at this exhibition (we were changing old mushrooms to a fresh ones). And people asked so many questions, I didn’t even know what to answer!
At least these ones are poisonous :D
And these are edible...
These ones too :D
It would be a tasty sauce from these ^^
Giant puffballs
Part of exhibition
Last week we also had a lecture about mushrooms in the forest. At first saw many poisonous and touched them, later ate some edible (touching them with unwashed hands :D ). But a woman, who was telling about them (she’s the best mushroom specialist in Latvia) told us that it’s possible to die only from Amanita phalloides and Amanita virosa, others are not so poisonous, you must eat very much (and she even tried one poisonous mushroom :D ). Biologists are funny people :D
Mycena epipterygia
This is a very beautiful mushroom
We also had a lecture at the Botanical garden, this time I also took some pictures inside tropical and palm house. And again – at first we touched some poisonous plants, and then ate edible fruits without washing hands :D
Victoria cruziana (with very small leaves :( )
Cacti :)
Other beautiful succulents
Dahlias
And at the end some other photos. We noticed that every morning many crows in our district are sitting on wires and waiting for sunrise. And at the evening they sit there again and watch sunset (they even turn to the right side). So my dad woke up at 5 a.m. on Saturday and went to take some photos.
How do they know, where and when the sun will rise?
Sunrise
And last Saturday I was supposed to go to my friend to celebrate her Name day, but instead of this I went to Alfa shopping center to meet Latvian racing driver Haralds Šlēgelmilhs ^^ He will take part in formula-2 race in Monza this weekend, so in Sportland shop was a formula-3 car and it was possible to take Harald's autograph and ask some questions to him.
Of course, I had to have a photo :)
Formula-3 car
And that's all for now, I must finally go and finish my work about lichens :)
Have a nice day! ^^
And again I must say that finally I'll write something here. Just two days of lectures in a week don't mean that I have much free time - I still have to write 10 pages about lichens or mosses (I already watched best moments of five last F1 seasons races while writing, and there's still so much to do), and many other homeworks. At least it's interesting to do them :) Anyway, main idea of this post was to tell you about Roja, where I try to spend at least few days of my summer every year, as my best friend's grandma has a house there.
Notice the seagull ^^
These are photos from this year. But the main thing here is a story, why it's such a great place ^^ In short, Roja is a small city (I call it a village, but people living there don't like this name :D), which was first mentioned in documents in 1387. It's located at the coast of Gulf of Riga, where Roja river flows. There is also a port, and it's 7th biggest port in Latvia.
First of all, Roja is feeling of freedom. Because of the sea, of course. Because of the wind, waves and other things.
Gulf of Riga
Catching some waves with Linda
This year Linda got Bavarian national costume (or at least something similar to it), and all of us tried it on :D
Me at the seaside
And we also had to climb up the tower, which was rusty and unstable. Well, that's us, what could you expect? :D
It's possible to see us at this photo
I also love Roja, because you can do almost anything there, and nobody pays attention. Where else could you walk in a city like this (with a food) and nobody would ask you, why are you doing it? :D
Pizza, cucumbers and a cake together :D
Roja is a place of sunsets ^^ I never saw so many beautiful sunsets as there.
2006
And many many photos at the sunset ^^
2008
Roja is Ancient Fire Night Festival (Senās uguns nakts festivāls). I recommend you to visit this event. It's held every year at last Saturday of August. This year we wasn't there then, but previous times it was wonderful.
Photos from 2006.
Roja is Sea Festival - held every year at second Saturday of July. There you can see Neptune, attend some concerts, have fun and see fireworks above the sea ^^
Photos from 2007.
Roja is the city of roses :) Our house is near the school of music, and many beautiful roses grow there. Also many of them are at the main square of Roja.
2006
Roja is just 35 kilometers from Kolka. I guess, after all my posts about this place I don't have to tell you, why it's wonderful (not because of biologists)? :D So many tourists visit Cape Kolka every year, don't you want to join them? :)
Monument for taken by the sea. 2008.
Roja is 34 kilometers from Talsi. That's, in my opinion, the most beautiful city of Western Latvia. It's located on 9 hills, has 3 lakes there, many beautiful, old streets and amazing atmosphere.
Lake Talsi. 2009.
Roja is I don't know how many, maybe 20 kilometers from Valdemārpils (the same direction as Talsi). There you can see the largest lime tree in Baltic states, called the Idol Lime Tree (Elku liepa).
Photos from 2009. (And I have fallen off this tree - what a surprise :D).
Roja is the city of fireflies and night life (not because of parties and nightclubs!). Where else you can walk in the forest at 4 a.m. and collect them? ^^ Or where else you can go to a graveyard exactly at 12 a.m.?
2009
12 kilometers from Roja is little village called Pūrciems, where you can see a White Dune. There is a nature trail (where we tried to climb up broken stairs, carrying bicycles) and cuuute horses ^^
2009
15 kilometers from Roja (just in opposite direction) is another little village called Kaltene - a place to watch birds. There is also a nature trail, which resembles nature trails in Finland - many rocks, mosses and a great forest ^^
View from the bird watching tower. 2009.
And finally, Roja is the city of hedgehogs (I just couldn't resist to put here this cuuute photo ^^)
2009
So, what's a place you'll visit, if you are in Latvia? :D Well, seriously, from all Latvian regions Kurzeme is the most beautiful and the most... latvian? Or I just have some kind of nostalgia, while listening to Sting and The Rasmus?
Anyway, one more thing I promised to show you - video from Brainstorm concert, where they sing `Bronze` and our Olympics Champion Māris Štrombergs is there ^^
By the way, I achieved one of this years goals - to drive 1000 km with my bike :) So far I drove 1015 km ^^
And that's all for today, I guess. Hope soon I will write another post about our awesome excursions at lectures and about a little trip to Daugavgrīva fortress last weekend.
I guess, I'm now going to our zoo too often, because today I was there again :D But today there was a big event - our zoo (sponsored by Viasat Nature TV channel) bought scales, on which they can now weigh animals up to 3000 kg. And today the big secret of our zoo was revealed ^^
