.. where Ikea visits Suur Munamägi

Hello there! It’s me, Ikea!

“wohoo, bumblebees” said the Teddies when I told him i was going to travel to Suur Munamägi. i don’t know how they knew it because they have never been to Suur Munamägi. well, i guess the bears tend to know these kind of things..
so, naturally, i had to take some fotografs. the thing with this Suur Munamägi is, that they have a large tower on top where everybody can go with a ticket and enjoy the view. because of the tower, u don’t need a long neck to see far. in fact, instead you need a pretty good weather and binoculars. so, here’s me finally on top of the tower:

but, before that, a lot of fun happened! so, let’s start from the beginning. in order to get to the top of the hill, first you have to start from the bottom of the hill. the bottom of the hill is where the road is. in fact, me and my friends, we travel this road quite often to visit South-Estonia, especially when we go to see the mountain-bike racing. but we never stop at the Suur Munamägi. so, this time we had it all planned out very well, especially the climbing part. it looks a bit like this:

when u start seeing the tower then you know u are almost at the top.

but, it is sometimes good to stop and take a breath or so, like for example in the middle of this climbing. because, u know, then u can see the bumblebees, hehe!

i like bumblebees a lot, especially big ones like that! now, i also have to tell u one thing. it is the name of this place, Suur Munamägi. in English it is the Big Egg Hill. and u must be wondering where this name comes from, because, u know the hills in Estland are not so big at all, like in Sweden. and u are quite right, it is the EGG! check it out:

i’m not a big fan of Eggs myself, as u may have noticed, but this big one is quite cool, don’t u think?
in order to get to the tower, u need to buy a ticket. luckily, giraffes, like me, can go for free! because they don’t have tickets for giraffes. or any other animals, really.

for others, there is two tickets – with an elevator or climbing stairs. guess which one is more expensive, hehe! as for me, i decided climbing. because elevators they make my head dizzy sometimes. they tell me it’s because of the long neck – i’m not sure.

but even climbing, it is not so easy. luckily, they have benches after every once in a while, so that’s quite nice. also, u can sit there and look at some fotografs or spy on other people who are just arriving on top of the hill, like from this round window here:

after many many stairs, finally on top!

this is a compass actually, so u can see where is South. it’s good to have a compass actually, so u know where to go, like for example if u go to South-Estonia. also, did i tell u that i discovered a really really nice shadow there? apparently, this is the highest-placed shadow u can find in Estland!
so, after enjoying the moment of being on top of Estland, (on the first fotograf), i tried out these things called binoculars! and u know what, it seems to me when it comes to sightseeing, i think binoculars are “the best thing ever”, like my friend Otter says! because you can see really really far! here’s me trying to spot a cow 20km away!!

as u can guess, we stayed there for quite while, hehe! so, that’s my trip to the Big Egg Hill. But what about you? Have u noticed any big eggs for example? let me know! have fun and cu l8r! btw, if you are into eggs, check out this post about ostriches!

ooh, almost forgot, also did a little bit of sunbathe later on top of the hill. and also, my friend Dea went to visit Africa and made lots of from Giraffes!!! they are nice!

.. where Ikea builds a stone castle

Hello there! It’s me, Ikea!

for a start, i have a little question for u -why do you think is Estland called ‘Estonia’ in English? this, for a giraffe, is a gr8 mystery. but i have one idea – because they have a lot of stones!!

so, instead of all these great stones going to waste, i decided to build an eSTONEan castle, so to speak, hehe! and there is no better place to build a castle than Saaremaa, it seems to me. because, u know, Saaremaa is quite flat. like Holland for example. so, it is good to build a stone castle there – because you can see it from very long ways away. or, u know, when it is ready, amd you climb the tallest tower – and you are giraffe with a long neck – then you can see quite far too u know! in fact, i saw two rainclouds coming REALLY far away. because they only arrived in the evening. so, they must have been far. OR they took a really long detour…
but, before that, i had to actually build the towers. so, here’s me building:

so, this is going to be one of the small towers. u can see lots of towers in the background – i guess everyone wants to build a stone castle these days! but they only managed a tower or two, not more i’m afraid..

so, here’s me building some more. this is going to be a stone wall with a hole-y stone on top of it. quite fun stone, actually, hehe!

and here, something interrupting the building of the stone wall – woohoo! it’s a shadow!!
i have to tell u that giraffes are not very fast stone-wall builders. quite slow actually. but with all these fun shadows everywhere… it takes almost three times as much time!! i could say that building a stone wall with gr8 shadows like this one takes many more times the time it takes to play all levels of the giraffe apple-eating game. that’s quite a lot!

but, after all this great fun building, it’s ready! please, come look a little closer!

see, this is the courtyard. please, do come in.

no need to take off shoes, there are still stones everywhere! and mind your head! especially, if you are a giraffe! it’s because of the gate that i built here. u know, i wanted to build a gate with closed top because that way u can walk around the stone wall without ever needing to come off. so, it’s a bit like a carousel really. except that u need to walk or run yourself. i must say i ran three laps and my head got all dizzy. it’s probably because of my long neck, u know..

also, it is very well known fact that stone castles are REALLY good for playing hide-and-seek. here’s me showing the gr8 hide-and-seek potential of the stone castle. see if you can find me, hehe!

so, this is pretty much it, really. gr8 fun! ooh, almost forgot – finally this is where you need to climb in order to enjoy the view. it’s nice! have u built a stone castle this year? if not, let me know, we can go and build a couple more before the winter comes. not so much fun building a stone castle in the winter i’m afraid. much nicer to stay inside and play yatzy!
or read a book! because, u know, a really nice book came out, which has almost more than 1 MILLION giraffes inside!! it’s quite a big mystery in fact, how did they get there? but it sounds really good. u can check out this book over here! ps. if you have the book and u found me, Ikea – let me know!!!! until then,have fun and cu l8r!

.. where Ikea goes to small zoo and meets Pippi Långstrump’s horse

Hello there! It’s me, Ikea!

how are u these days? i am doing gr8, thank you for asking! it is kind of fun, being a giraffe, it seems to me! like for example, i went to this very nice small zoo on Muhumaa – another island, i’m afraid, hehe! although a very small for a zoo, they have really fun animals, u know. birds mostly, in fact. for example they have these really big birds with big eyes called ostriches!! check it out:

i have to tell u, i kind of like them already. because of two things: 1. they have a long neck. in fact, their neck is actually longer than mine, giraffe’s. [also – a note to my friend otter – if u read this: if they lower their head, they look kinda like a hoovers!!] but u should not be afraid, i have heard from my other friends giraffes, who live in Africa that they have many friends ostriches actually. and 2. they like running a lot. u know, sometimes my giraffe friends in Africa don’t like ostriches – because the ostriches beat them in the marathon running sometimes, hehe!

so, here u can see the small ostriches. they are not so scary at all, are they? :) but they have some other birds in the zoo too. like for example nandus and emus. i don’t have fotografs of them, but they have on their homepage. they are all ostriches actually, but because they live on other continents, they have a new name. like for example me, i have name Ikea here in Estland, and when i go to Holland my name is Olaf! jei!
but, they also have a big red kangaroo called Gunnar and lots of wallabies there. here’s one wallaby (two actually, i think), because of the small one in the pocket!

kangaroos are quite fun too! u know why – because they have a pocket! u know, my friend Undu also has this sheep costume and this sheep costume also has a pocket! Undu has a cow inside the pocket! i don’t know why.
i have to tell u that i liked this zoo a lot. because these animals that they have are really fun ones. for example, look at this pony over here:

i guess u already know why i like her – she’s half-orange! here i am telling her to come a little bit closer, so i can hop on.

so, here we go!! jei! i guess this is first time ever giraffes have been riding on a horse, hehe. lot’s of fun!! although i have to say that we could not go too far, because of the fences. so, maybe next time when i go travel, i go on a horse. a small one like this?
anyways, she was not the only one horse there, there was another one with spots!! have u read about Pippi Långstrump? Pippi Långstrump, (like Nils Holgersson) is a compulsory reading for everyone in Sweden. because of all the fun things she does. and if u have read that, then u know that she had a white horse with spots. so please meet – a Pippi horse! (say hello!)

well, i guess she is not the horse that the book-Pippi had. so, if there is a Pippi horse, Pippi must be nearby. so i went looking. and i have to tell u, i did not find Pippi, nor the spunk, for that matter. but i did find some huge eggs! very nice big ones in fact. oh, wait! i remembered i have to go now. so, let me know if u have found some nice eggs recently? u can also guess who’s eggs are these: (below) until the, have fun and cu l8r!