Top 5 statues and sculptures

Hej hej,

Some time in the future the world will be full of statues commemorating Vanja the Great, Vanja the Conqueror, Vanja the Awesome and so on...
But while we're waiting for the rest of the world to discover my amazing talents, let's have a look at some of my favourite statues from my travels.

1. A Crab/frog/whatever in Slovenia

Last summer I met this dude (whatever he is, maybe batfrog?) on the Mesarski bridge in Ljubljana. For some reason he has a padlock in his mouth. He wouldn't tell me why.

2. A Croatian Dragon

Did you know that my middle name is Lord of Dragons? (Julius' is "Pain in the Ass"). Well, I try to live up to my name by taming any dragons that I come across.

This is a basilisk from the Trsat Castle in Rijeka, Croatia, that I defeated with my own bare paws. It was a great moment, I felt as powerful as Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones.


3. Charles Darwin

Here I am with Charles Darwin in the Museum of Natural History in London. I'm not a big fan of the theory of evolution — I mean look at Julius, something clearly went wrong there — but I feel Charlie and I could have had some stimulating and interesting discussions had he still been alive.

By the way, the Museum of Natural History is worth a visit if you happen to be in London. And it's free! (Not that I normally pay for museums, I just sneak in.)


4. Shepherd and Sheep

Speaking of London. Julius and I went there last November. The city is almost too big for me. There are too many statues and monuments you can climb on. We were quite exhausted.
We found this funny sculpture in Paternoster Square behind St. Paul's Cathedral.

Sheep are stupid, you don't need to be Charles Darwin to prove that. The silly things refused to move no matter how much I shouted and kicked.

Come on now, move it, I'm in a hurry.

5. The Cordwainer

I quickly lost patience with the stubborn sheep, so we went to Cheapside were we met this dude.

We played shoemakers for a while. The man held Julius in very tight grip (he could hardly breathe) which gave me an idea. I went for ice-cream in peace and quiet while he held on to Julius. Thank you, shoemaker!


You can't write a blog post about sculptures and statues without mentioning the Vigeland park in Oslo. I went there for Easter 2017 and it was (literally) freezing cold. But I'll tell you more about that tomorrow. Until then, here's a preview:

Staring into the abyss.

While you're waiting for my next post you can check out my other top 5 lists: tops, sports and drinks.

Top 5 drinks

Hello again! Welcome back!
I finally got round to making another top 5 list. This one is about drinks, or well, beverages I guess.

1. Coffee

Coffee is number one on the list just because I need coffee to function. At home I start the day with a nice cup of no-nonsense Finnish filter coffee. Lots of suger of course.

When I'm travelling I like to drink espresso. It makes me feel European.

Julius says he likes coffee too, but I suspect he just drinks it because it gives him an excuse to order a piece of cake with the coffee. Of course he's even more unbearable than usual when he's had too much coffee.

2. Coke

Coke is great, sugar and caffeine, what's not to like? It's a staple part of my diet. None of that zero nonsense, though. What's the point of sugary drinks without sugar? I'll stick to the real stuff, thanks. It's my drink of choice when eating junk food. Speaking of which, I think this picture is from a kebab shop in Brussels. I should go back, it's pretty much impossible to find a good kebab in Finland.

3. Wine

I like to relax with a nice glass of wine. Nothing like sitting down at a café with a glass of red wine and just watching life go by.

If it's hot I might treat myself to a glass of cold sparkling wine.

4. Beer

If you've read my sauna post, you'll know that no sauna is complete without a beer. In the sauna any kind of light beer will do, but my favourite beer in the whole world is a Berliner Weisse mit Schuss. It's a low-alcohol, sour wheat beer mixed with a shot of syrup. The one in the picture is mixed with woodruff flavoured syrup, that's why it's green. The red one with raspberry syrup is also very popular.

5. Glühwein

Talking of German drinks, there's nothing like a mug of hot mulled wine in the winter. Just the thought makes me happy.

Hmm, now I'm thirsty. Time to end this writing and go see what's in the fridge.
Auf Wiedersehen!

Also, don't forget to check out my other top 5 lists: tops and sports.

Top 5 sports

Hello there and welcome back!

So today I'm going to make another list of Top 5 things like the one about "tops". This one is going to be my Top 5 sports!

Sport 1. Riding

Riding is great. You basically just have to sit there and enjoy the view. Julius loves it too.

We're not picky, we also ride other animals than horses.

Did you know that hobby horse riding is a very popular pastime in Finland? There's even an online register where you can register your hobby horse and stables that will take care of them. Sometimes (well, most of the time to be honest) I question the sanity of the inhabitants of this country... Anyway, I gave it a try but it's too much work having to do all the riding yourself.

Sport 2. Swimming

Swimming is great too. You can just float around and call it a sport. This is me trying out my new flippers. I think they might be a little too big for me.

Here I am in my Baywatch bikini. I call it my monkini. Look how handsome I am.

Sport 3. Bowling

Bowling is hard work when you're as small as I am, but I like a challenge. Last time we played the ball started rolling backwards and ran Julius over. Haha! He couldn't play the rest of the evening so I won!

Sport 4. Climbing

When you're as small as I am, climbing is not as much a sport as a necessity. I constantly have to climb things to get a proper view of the situation.

Sport 5. Roller skating

My latest fad is roller skating. I'm not particularly good at it yet but I will be!

Look how focused I am.

As you may remember from one of my posts about things to do in Helsinki, Julius prefers skateboarding. He's annoyingly good at it.

That's it for today. Hope you enjoyed it.

Top 5 tops

Hey hey!

As you've probably figured out by now I've travelled quite a lot in my life and I have lots of pictures to show you. So my plan is to do a series of "Top 5" posts with highlights from my previous travels.

Let's start out with a fun one: Top 5 tops! Or in other words the top 5 high places I've been to.

Top 1. A mountain top in the Swiss Alps

Did you know I climbed a mountain? A whopping 2548 metres above sea level! That's right, I'm tougher than I look. I sometimes have to remind my humans when they're being annoying.
Also, what's up with the Swiss? I know they're a very efficient people, but having signs telling you how many sexually transmitted diseases (STD) you can get in 30 minutes seems like overdoing it a bit, don't you think?

Me in the snow on the way to the top. Brrr.

Top 2. The roof of Duomo in Milan.

This picture isn't from our recent trip to Italy. It was taken back in the good old days before I started travelling with Julius.

Ooh, that looks like a nice gelato place down there.

Top 3. The Eiffel tower (you can't do list of tops without that)

Haha, I'm kidding of course. That's just a model of the Eiffel Tower, I'm not King Kong — though sometimes I wish I were... Here's a picture I took of the real thing:

And here's one with me in it. Look how tiny and insignificant I am. You probably can't even find me in the picture.

Top 4. Catedral de Santa María La Real de La Almudena in Madrid. (Yeah I know, the Spanish have a way with names...)

This is the cathedral next to the Royal Palace in Madrid. There's a wonderful view of the city from the roof.

If you look to the west you can see the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains in the background.

Top 5. Ljubljana Castle.

You do know that Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia, right? Just checking. It's located in the foothills of the Alps in the centre of Slovenia which is itself sandwiched between Austria and Croatia. But you already knew that, right? 

Because of the location you have a beautiful view of the mountains.

Bonus Top! The top of the Asinelli tower in Bologna. If you haven't done so already you have to read my post about Bologna to see the pictures from the tower.


That's all for today, folks!