# Europe Forum > Travelling & Living in Europe >  Promote your childhood place here!

## Mzungu mchagga

Ok here's a small fun thing:

Collect all the interesting stuff you can find about the place you are coming from or have spend your childhood in! 

Don't care if it's just a tiny village or some allegedly uninteresting suburb of a bigger city. 

Any myths, anecdotes or other interesting stories to tell?

Any celebrities who have once been there?

Any funny traditions and rituals the people there celebrate?

Or any other interesting facts?


Sometimes you might just find the place of your origin very uninteresting and boring, but if you do some research on the internet again or even only think about it twice, the one or other interesting thing will surely come up!  :Good Job: 

Enjoy!



PS: Non-Europeans are of course also encouraged to participate!

----------


## Mzungu mchagga

Ok, I'll have a start then. I grew up in the small town of Hochheim am Main (= "High Home" at the Main)

some facts:

-16.893 people live there (2010)

-it is located near the right bank of the Main River three miles above the branch into the Rhine, as well as on the German Framework Road. 

-next bigger cities are Mayence (Mainz), Wiesbaden and Frankfurt. It belongs to the German Bundesland of Hessen

-Located in the Rheingau, Hochheim has historically been a center of trade in wine. The English word Hock, a generic term for Rhine wine, derived from Hochheim. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hock_%28wine%29

-American President Thomas Jefferson owned a vineyard in Hochheim

-also British Queen Victoria had a stay in Hochheim, with which she brought it's wine to the British Royal Court and introduced the word Hock

-with about 65.000 square meters and about half a million visitors each year, the annual "Hochheim Fair" (second week in November) is one of the biggest in Germany


History:
-the area has been highly inhabited by Celts (a huge burial ground was found here), later the Romans introduced wine growth
-several Germanic tribes (Chatti, Alamanni, Franks) passed through and settled here, the name Hochheim was possibly given by the Alamanni
-officially the name was recorded first in 754, when the dead body of Saint Boniface was carried from the river Main to the Cathedral of Fulda through the village 
-it's possesion was passed on over the centuries from the Chapter of Cologne to the Chapter of Mayence (1273), to the Duchy of Nassau (1803) and annexed by Prussia in 1866
-after WWII and the following decades, refugees from former German territories, GDR as well as Volga Germans and from Hungary, Romania, plus so called "guest workers" gave a boost to the town growth

----------


## Mzungu mchagga

a youtube video I've found of the "wine fair" in July

----------


## Mzungu mchagga

the "Celtic Mirror", the main treasure


view on the town with it's church Saint Peter and Paul


the vineyard "Queen Victoria"


the old town


the Wine Queen (second from left) and the Wine Princesses

----------


## Dagne

Oh how very nice! Please more picture of the time when you were a child!

----------


## Mzungu mchagga

Well, nothing in architecture and customs has changed much since the 80's. I could only google for pictures with older car models or 80's hair-cuts  :Laughing: 

What about you? Are you originally from Vilnius? What about telling something of your home town?

----------


## Dagne

I grew up in Kaunas - the second biggest city in Lithuania http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaunas


The most popular pedestrian street in Kaunas - the Laisvės alėja (the Alley of Freedom)
Watch for the changes of its name:
1847 m. Nokolaevskii prospekt (under Russian Tsar Nikolay)1918 m. _Kaiserwilhelmstrasse_1919 m. Laisvės alėja1946 m. Stalinskii prospekt1961 m. Laisvės alėja


At the end of the picture you can see a Russian style church "Sobor" - just imagine, now it is the very centre of the city (just off the old town) however, the church was build in the XIX century for the Russian Tsar Army officer and solders next to the nearby swamps famous for the duck hunting!

It is good to relax right on the street now:

----------


## Dagne

More exactly, I grew up in one of Kaunas suburbs called Panemunė (literary - along the (river) Nemunas), which after the WWI used to be a resort place - the river, forest ... pathways through the forest and street called by the names of birds and forest animals - the nightingale alley... moose street etc J

Panemunė 

I loved playing outside with my brother as a kid, spending my time cycling in summer, or skiing in winter, fishing, going for a swim, or further hike ...
 
A monument to the Father of the Lithuanian Nation - Jonas Basanavičius - it was just some 100 metres from my parents house, my grandmother would let me (age 5) go out saying but don't go out further than Basanavicius ...

----------


## Dagne

And this is nearby hydro power plant - 


When in my teens we could cycle across the river to the peninsular - where a baroque style church and monastery stands and further is a small port for sailing boats:




The legent runs that a old oak next to the monastery marks a place for the sacred pagan temple of the love godess Milda ...




Can you see the tower on the left? It is closest to the water in the first picture 


Some 20 years ago the place was empty and I with other teenages could creep in and climb up an old ladder to have wonderful view on the waters in front ...

----------


## Dagne

Inside ...

The monastery was founded by the *Camaldolese,* they were in Pazaislis from 1664 to 1832. They had very very strict rules of life, one of them being silence - they lived in their own cell-houses, grow vegetable and met with other people as little as possible ...


Now the place is open for visitors, and it is kept by nuns of St. Kazimiera, who areopen for communication.

----------


## Dagne

and these are the views of the Kauno marios (the fresh water lake formed instead of river)





The picture was called: "Let's sail while the ice is not on!"

----------


## Dagne

Winter time

Can you recognise hare's foot print in the snow?

  
power kite "sailing" on ice

----------


## Mzungu mchagga

Oh wow, now THAT is really amazing!!!
I have been to Kaunas in 2003 for a seminar, and I remember some of those places, like the church Sobor, the pedestrian precinct, the monastary, the lake...
It was during that hot summer we took a sailing trip on the lake. I fully underestimated the sun and got the worst sunburn ever in my life lol  :Laughing: 

Other things I remember about Kaunas was the "Devil Museum" which was quite scary, another museum containing a lot of modern art work. And some place out in the forest, that showed some ancient Baltic sculptures. I can't remember however if they were "real" or re-arranged.

----------


## Dagne

So, you've seen Kaunas!

Lithuania became Christian the last one in Europe, only 600 years ago. The old religion was both incorporated and banned - 
The Christian churches were build in the places of old pagan temples - also our main archicathedral in Vilnius stands in the place of Perkūnas temple in the middle of sacred forest, pieces of which still stay in the very centre of the modern city.
The devil in the folk understanding is a somewhat silly and a bit wicked creature that any smart peasant can easily overcome … So one mustn't be scared of devils J


And you might have remember the hill of witches, full of wooden sculptures of folk tale characters … They were made in 70-ies just for fun ...
But the place is not in Kaunas but by the sea in Neringa http://yewtreenights.blogspot.com/20...f-witches.html
On old man fairly teller who scares children ...

A couple of witches 



A devil and a witch are playing cards. You may join in!

----------


## Dagne

Another example of the mixture between the old religion and Christianity are krikstai - wooden grave markers made of one board in the old cemetery in Nida. Krikstai remain only in the parts of Lithuania that belong to protestant Prussia, while in the territory of Catholic Samogitia they were banned by the church. Krikstai were planted at the feet of the deceased. The stick had to reach the grave bed. This construction should help the deceased to grab it and stand up at the time of the Doomsday... 

Different kinds of wood were used for male and female. For men, the male tree species -oak, ash, birch were used, and female -linden, poplar, spruce for women. The paint colour and ornament depended on sex and personality of teh deceased, for instance, men's grave markers were decorated with carved horse heads and women's with birds and hearts ...

Similar grave markers could also be found in Latvia, Germany and Switzerland

----------


## Mzungu mchagga

> So, you've seen Kaunas!
> 
> Lithuania became Christian the last one in Europe, only 600 years ago. The old religion was both incorporated and banned - 
> The Christian churches were build in the places of old pagan temples - also our main archicathedral in Vilnius stands in the place of Perkūnas temple in the middle of sacred forest, pieces of which still stay in the very centre of the modern city.
> The devil in the folk understanding is a somewhat silly and a bit wicked creature that any smart peasant can easily overcome … So one mustn't be scared of devils J
> 
> 
> And you might have remember the hill of witches, full of wooden sculptures of folk tale characters … They were made in 70-ies just for fun ...
> But the place is not in Kaunas but by the sea in Neringa http://yewtreenights.blogspot.com/20...f-witches.html
> ...


YES, now I remember those wooden carvings again! They were in my vague memory but couldn't really get a clear picture again. Now even more memory about that trip comes back lol. Now, I thought I've seen them on a daytrip from Kaunas, but it might be also have been from Klaipeda, I'm not 100% sure anymore. Thanks for uploading them!  :Good Job:

----------


## barbarian

wonderfull.

a very nice thread, thanks.

----------


## Dagne

Barbarian, it is you turn now. Show us something about the place you were born at!

----------


## barbarian

> Barbarian, it is you turn now. Show us something about the place you were born at!


i will. but i need time, because i spend my childhood in 3 different places.

----------


## LeBrok

Great place and great pictures Dagne. Makes we want to live there. :) 
One note though, you should have left your beautiful place for grand finale, after everybody else posted.
I can't show my small, nothing special, average birthplace now, lol.

----------


## Mzungu mchagga

> i will. but i need time, because i spend my childhood in 3 different places.


Hey man, that would be great!!! I'm really curious!  :Good Job: 




> Great place and great pictures Dagne. Makes we want to live there. :) 
> One note though, you should have left your beautiful place for grand finale, after everybody else posted.
> I can't show my small, nothing special, average birthplace now, lol.


Oh COME ON LeBrok!!! 
Just look for some nice pictures or just some facts! This is not a competition. If it's not the direct place then take at least the region you are from!  :Wink:

----------


## Dagne

LeBrok, come on, REALLY! I am sure you can bring out some wonderful experiences from your childhood place. The world is very big and beautiful when we are children and the whole universe can open up when watching aaa let's say ants or a snail... Just remember some details of the time when you were a child...

And you know, the winter and fall can be cold, damp and very grey in Lithuania, and the daylight is very short... So my secret dream is to come to live in Southern latitudes, in a countryside and work on land in somewhere like vineyards...

----------


## Cimmerianbloke

Great thread, I'll contribute in the coming weeks, I'm going home for holidays in october, good opportunity to go back to my childhood town.

----------


## Mzungu mchagga

> Great thread, I'll contribute in the coming weeks, I'm going home for holidays in october, good opportunity to go back to my childhood town.


I would be very grateful!  :Good Job:

----------


## Riccardo

I think that there's nothing new about Roma to say...Well, Roma is my birth place, full stop. xD

----------


## LeBrok

You can always tell us what is most beautiful in Rome for you. Buildings, your street, parks, a fountain?

----------


## Riccardo

> You can always tell us what is most beautiful in Rome for you. Buildings, your street, parks, a fountain?


There are some "hidden" places, less known:

Giardino degli aranci (The Garden of Orange Trees):
giardino-degli-aranci.jpg

Il Pincio:
Pincio_orologio%20ad%20acqua.jpg

Villa Torlonia:
643-Villa%20Torlonia%20-%20casa%20delle%20civette.jpg

Piazza Mincio:
piazza%20mincio4.jpg

Villa Paganini:
408150994_e5e148c44f.jpg

----------


## Riccardo

> There are some "hidden" places, less known:
> 
> Giardino degli aranci (The Garden of Orange Trees):
> giardino-degli-aranci.jpg
> 
> Il Pincio:
> Pincio_orologio%20ad%20acqua.jpg
> 
> Villa Torlonia:
> ...


Ponte Milvio:
pontemilvio.jpg

Singita Beach, Fregene:
singita_intro.jpg

Villa Celimontana:
villa_celimontana1.jpg

Terme di Caracalla:
il_palcoscenico_gallery_full.jpg

----------


## Mzungu mchagga

Rome is big! I'm sure it is divided into districts, too! Is there anything you can tell specifically about the district [e.g. historically, people, anecdotes etc.] you are coming from?

----------


## Riccardo

> Rome is big! I'm sure it is divided into districts, too! Is there anything you can tell specifically about the district [e.g. historically, people, anecdotes etc.] you are coming from?


My district is not patricular or beautiful, it's quite boring. I live in a simple residential area: buildings, some shops, parks (3 all around here).

----------


## JamesWorsham

view on the town with it's church Saint Peter and Paul is so cool

----------

