USA, South Carolina, Greenville: A Very Special Kind of Scavenger Hunt

Be charmed by a visit to Greenville in South Carolina in the USA. This city has a special treat to offer for those on the hunt for fun activities for the whole family.

In 2000, Jimmy Ryan, a high school senior from the local area wanted to do something special for his community by designing and developing the famous Mice on Main Scavenger Hunt for little mouse sculptures inspired by the popular Children's book Goodnight Moon. He raised funds and worked with a sculptor Zan Wells who created the little mice in bronze. They can be found hidden along the Main St of Greenville where thousands of people come to find them.


According to what I was told, the city has done a lot in beautifying the Main Street and the local Falls Park. The partnership of Jimmy Ryan and Zan Wells now also includes a writer Linda Kelly who wrote a book about how the Mice on Main found their 'freedom' and 'sparkle' prompted by her grand daughter who wanted to know about how the mice found their places on the street.

The combined efforts of the city, the creator, the artists and the writer have certainly paid off with the popularity of the park and the hunt that fills the city with tourists on a nice autumn day. It can be said that the realization of one brilliant idea has really created value for the community of Greenville. We certainly enjoyed our day there.


There is lots of information to be found by just googling Mice on Main or the name of artists. They have created additional goodwill with little mice sculptures and special t-shirts. The proceeds from the book and the shirts go to a charity it the area.

So, it can be said that Greenville presents its compassion and friendliness for the community and the world in practice with a very charming front. I look forwards to visiting there again and recommend you to do the same.

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USA, Indianapolis, Indiana: Christmas Cheer at Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art

If you ever think of visiting Indianapolis for family fun, you could choose the time when the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art is at its best. That would be in November and December, every year.

For the past three years, during the Christmas season, the museum has exhibited an ever expanding Model Trains and the American West section where the whole family can enjoy the joy of seeing many of the famous landmarks of the American West in 1:32 and 1:28 scale. What a fun thing to do!


The attendant, I interviewed about it said that the aim of the exhibition is to get families to the museum and also at the same time introduce them to the magnificent collection of Western Art exhibited at the Museum otherwise.

I can surely appreciate that it truly is magnificent. The best I have ever seen. It draws you and gives you insights to the way the American West was occupied by the white people. The art is absolutely fabulous.

I saw a painting which made me comment to the friend that I recognise the style. It is the Russian St Petersburg School of Art style which I have seen in my own country.

It tuned out that the painter was Russian. How marvelous was that. In fact there were two Russian style painters depicting the Western life. It soon became clear that it were the painters who were the true anthropologists of the West, preserving the lost Indian culture to the future generation.


The Christmas exhibition brings people from all over to the museum. Is makes around 50% of the total visitor numbers to the museum during the whole year.

For the compassionate world traveler, the museum is a gem. It reminds us of the times gone by and the commitment of some truly talented people who saw the future of the West and wanted to gift the pictures of the life in the past to the future generations.

Visiting the Museum makes you sad but also makes your heart sing to see the quality of care that has gone into presenting the artifacts and the art to the modern audience.

I warmly recommend the experience to everyone.

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Australia, Victoria; Be Inspired by the Changing Seasons in Melbourne

Recently, I went to Melbourne for a long weekend for work. Usually, up north in Queensland, we do not get to experience the seasonal change as those who live down there do. I was really inspired by the possibility of a walk along the streets, where I could spot the falling leaves of the front gardens and experience the coming winter in Australia.

Sometimes that is the only touristy thing a person who is travelling for work can expect to experience. There might not be time for going to museums or visiting the cultural monuments or events or anything else that might be recommended. While enjoying the services of a good hotel or a wonderful restaurant, it still could feel like there might be very little time to getting to know the place.

Taking an inspired stroll from the place of your conference, hotel or work could well be the only option available to you. So, instead of taking a taxi, why not walk. It cannot really be put down as exercise if it is leisurely but it could be said to be a touristy thing to do. Besides you get to know the location for when you go there again.

If you are from the northern hemisphere where you are used to Birch, Oak and Mable trees, walking the streets of Melbourne is a treat. They are everywhere. It is even possible to spot trees like in the Lapland tundra as some are grown in a very peculiar way. The other things to watch for are the roses in bloom. The whole walk will remind you of Europe, UK in particular with the small fenced off front gardens and flowerbeds.

While walking you can marvel of how much effort, compassion and dedication the ardent gardeners put into their small front gardens. It is a pleasure to find gardens are so dear to us and that often we try to replicate of what we have liked or know even tough living on the other side of the word to our original country of birth.

In Australia, it is a real effort to grow a tree that drinks so much from the ground where there is not so much water around. So, it is a pleasure to travel to Melbourne to see that clearly the trees we wouldn’t be able to grow up north thrive and the leaves fall just like on the other side of the world. Maybe just when it is spring in my birth country, but who cares anyway. This is the seasonal change in Australia we are talking about.

So, do it. It will be jolly good fun and healthy, besides. It is highly recommended!

Australia, Victoria: Visiting the Historical Town of Yackandandah

Australia is a huge place to tackle to visit on one go.

I have heard a few stories about how people who are not so familiar with the distances have asked their friends to give messages to other friends thinking that it is only a short way to travel from one capital city to another on the Australian continent. This kind of stories are a great amusement to the Australians who of course know that it takes days by a car or the train to travel between the largest cities and that it is not possible to know everybody from your ethnic background across the nation, not even if you live in the same city.

So, when my friend said to me that she had moved to Melbourne, I believed her to mean the CBD, or there abouts and said that of course, I'll come to visit. And true to my word, I hired a car, and started driving along the Hume Highway towards Sydney. It took me three hours to reach my destination. By that time, after seeing all the beautiful countryside along the way, I was quite intrigued by what I would find.



What a person will find is a very interesting scenic drive through a few of the most adorable little historical country towns that have become a very popular destination for tourists.

On a fine sunny day, we visited Yackandandah (forgot to ask the meaning of the name), a little historical town along a route of several other similar town. We found a lovely street full of shops, including a large Buddha shop, nice cafeteria and a very interesting Art Gallery. And I should not forget to mention the the organic store and bakery, which by the way bakes rye bread in the style I am familiar with from my Scandinavian heritage. Yum!




It will be worth your while driving around the place, absorbing some Australian autumn weather by walking up and down the main streets of the little towns, visiting interesting stores, parks and art galleries. At the same time it will give you an opportunity to remember the history of the Australian Gold Rush of the 19th Century that led to the building of these towns.

It will also be a compassionate act to help the local economy by finding some cool things to buy, like for example this nice leather case from b.sirius® for an iPad to keep it safe while writing the blogs about where you have been.




I most warmly recommend to anyone a few days holiday along the Victorian Historic Towns of Indigo Shire.
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Australia, Queensland, Sunshine Coast at Bli Bli; The Finnish Memorial Park

On the Finland Rd at Bli Bli, at the Sunshine Coast, there is a park that would interest the Finnish immigrant population to Australia, if not all the immigrants to Australia. It is the Finnish Memorial Park, created by the Finnish cane cutter families that lived there during the times when cane was still cut at the Sunshine Coast.

It was about 17-years ago that I had last visited this place. Then it was just cane fields, but the place for the park had been selected and the organisers of the planned park were just getting to ordering the memorial sculpture. After much discussion they settled in inviting Martti Väänänen, a sculpturer from Kiiminki in Finland to create the memorial. The park itself was opened in 1997. At the same time it was also donated to the Council for upkeep.

The Finland Rd as such is a long and lumpy ride amongst the last cane fields at Sunshine Coast. Not much of them is left as the new suburbs are born across the coastline. However, it is a delight to suddenly end up in a small, well tendered park that makes one remember those people who came to Australia on ships, after spending weeks on the oceans, and months on the migration centers in the south and ending up in Queensland on the cane fields.

The Migration Museum at Peräseinäjoki in Finland, previously presented on this blog, carries matching information about the emigration of the Finnish people to around the world. I am hearing that more than million Finnish people live permanently abroad.

One of the highlights of the Finnish Migration Museum is the cane cutters cottage that was actually dissembled in Ingham, Queensland and sent to the Museum at Peräseinäjoki, where it was reassembled in a totally new surroundings to the delight of many people interested in the migration history of the people of the area.

The Finnish Memorial Park at Bli Bli carries on the delightful tradition of people building spaces for themselves where they can comfortably meet and have a picnic in memory of the times gone by. I, for one, can very well see this park as a functional meeting place for a family gathering, even a wedding as there is a kind of Finnish style pavilion included in the park just inviting dancing.

When choosing a place where people could meet at Sunshine Coast for a celebration, the Finnish Memorial Park is a good pick. It is well kept, secluded and spacious. See you there sometime on your travels.

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Australia, Queensland, Sunshine Coast; Bellingham Maze

If you are looking for a very cool, wonderful and compassionate day with your family, friends or business partners at Sunshine Coast, Queensland and unsure of what to do, I would recommend choosing to 'get lost' at the Bellingham Maze. A day of fun and games there will make your visit a memorable addition and give your brains some extra exercise. The main attraction of the site, a large star shaped hedge maze was designed and planted in 1991.

According to maze masters website 'a maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route.

Mazes have a long history, the famous Cretan Labyrinth being the oldest and the most famous one. It was where the king kept a minotaur. Hedge mazes have been planted since the 16th Century in Britain. This is when gardens became places for games and fun for the noble families.

The original hedges at the Bellingham Maze are of Cypress Tree, but they are now being replaced with the native Australian plants for better sustainability.

I can just imagine the start of it. About 20 years ago, somebody at Sunshine Coast, who was fond of British mazes and puzzles had a bright idea of starting a tourism business. You can clearly see that the place has been developed with love and compassion for the environment. It is a nice Australian adaptation of the European mazes.

There is a very curious water fall to walk through at the entrance, a tropical garden, plenty of purposefully designed puzzles to solve, a friendly cafe to rest you feet at, have a 'cuppa' and discuss some serious or frivolous problem solving issues. The large aviary is a nice addition, displaying local birds.


The maze itself is good fun. It will take a while to solve. At the same time, the visitor can look for how many gnomes are hiding in the maze. Your reward is finding the secret fountain in the middle. And then you have to find your way out, or, you could find the 'give up gate' like my friend did.


It is possible for a family or a group to spend a whole day at the
Bellingham Maze solving puzzles, playing around, drinking tea, walking in the forest, looking for birds and visiting the Snow White House. Apparently, she even shows up at the house herself. The place calls for a peaceful and friendly day amongst the busy time during holiday or weekend fun. There is a natural feel to it! That is it's charm. I would definitely classify this attraction as a compassionate place to visit.

We dragged a wheelchair along the corridors of the maze with some effort, but it worked and provided lots of fun and entertainment to try to get through the openings. Finding our way back was a 'piece of cake' as our 'tracker' just followed the previous wheel tracks in the gravel. Very clever of her, I thought. I am certainly looking forward to taking my family there another time and seeing how the new Australian type of maze will look like.
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Australia, Queensland, Logan; Local Library as Art

If you are truly interested in books, a library near your home would be the easiest, cheapest and the most accessible place to find them. Sometimes the library experience can also be inspirational to your senses. It can be true art.





Sharing of knowledge through the free libraries of the world can be looked on as an expression of compassion and kindness. It is wonderful how reading books, magazines and other materials that can be found there can help to make the world a better place by providing an outlet for easing everyday worries. Enjoying a moment of peace and quiet reading, listening or browsing amongst the treasures that can be found in any library can contribute to the general wellbeing of any community.





Many libraries also contain art or house various exhibitions that highlight the importance of knowledge. Some libraries are built on a theme. This is a case of the main library at Logan in Queensland, Australia. Curiously, the theme it shares with the clients is 'books'.





Being a great admire of books, I found that visiting this particular library inspired me to find thing about using books as art in other places, too. Throwing away old books is often a hard thing to do. Many find it difficult purely on the basis that it does contain information that can be useful. In this high technological age, where eBooks and eBook readers rule the world, finding additional use for old books is a kind thing to do. For people fond of libraries, visiting your nearest one with friends and children can open up a new world to you and the people around you.

Let's enjoy the libraries of the world and promote their usage as an compassionate act to everybody!

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Holland, Amsterdam; Canal Cruises on Museum Line

I haven't been to Amsterdam for a while, but a sudden opportunity allowed me to spend a day there. I had to be quick and size the moment to see something of the great city before breezing on.

My recommendation is to go for the obvious and the quickest opportunity, namely a cruise along the famous canals of Amsterdam.

A cruise, especially on the Museum Line, where you can suddenly hop-off-and-on the boat all day allows for every weather on every season. Off course, there might be occasional freezing of the winter canals, but that haven't happened in a while.

My cruise started from the Amsterdam Central Railway Station, but a visitor can start anywhere on the line track.

A cruise will introduce you to the old city of Amsterdam. Along the line there are most of the famous tourist attractions. Time allowing they can be visited and the ride will continue. I found it a wonderful experience.

There is a continuous guiding monologue in several languages explaining all that can be seen from the boat. The captain is a very polite and helpful person. The rain splattering to the boat's sides has no effect on the experience.

It gets you thinking about all the compassionate people who have contributed to building the city of Amsterdam through the centuries it has existed. It is a city always in the move, always changing like all the cities in the world. It is a city full of art, curious cottage industry, cheese and a feeling of lightness, even in a dreary winters day.

It is warmly recommended.


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