Well, my time in Finland is coming to an end soon. Saturday, my friend Matti and I fly out from Helsinki-Vantaa (a day after my dad leaves for Manhattan) and head for Reykjavik for three nights. We’re staying at a guesthouse (Snorri’s for anyone in the know) and have booked a trip to the Blue Lagoon as soon as we land as well as a six hour journey into the wild on Monday. Midday Tuesday, we’re back in the airport for our flight home (at least in my case) and almost two weeks of sightseeing in the ‘city.
Karjalan Maja
The picture right above was taken last night at Karjalan Maja, a small, shared cabin without running water or electricity about 14 km from the town where I stay. It’s really a wonderful experience going there. If a sauna hasn’t already been made, the first hour or so is spent lighting a fire and building it up until the sauna is somewhere around 65 or 70 C. The water is almost always perfectly clean and usually quite warm too. After several trips to the sauna and then a swim to cool off, it’s time for dinner - usually consisting of some sort of grilled meat (sausage … makkara in Finnish or perhaps meatballs), enjoyed with a nice cold Karhu or Lapin Kulta (Finnish beer). Tonight was perhaps the best time this summer. Before going, I biked to the nearest town and round trip, it was a good 45 km trip (27 miles) on nicely paved bicycle roads. So, by the time we went this evening, I was ready for a good swim and the sauna that had been made was perhaps one of the best I’ve ever had.
The weekend trip to Vaasa (Seinäjoki and Kriistinankaupunki) was enjoyable. We were using Matti’s father’s company car so gas was completely paid for, allowing us to venture along the coastal roads and stopping whenever we wanted to. Vaasa is in the Swedish speaking part of Finland, providing a very strange way of living where signs are both in Finnish and Swedish, except when there’s no room and they default to Swedish. We stayed at Hostel Vaasa, which except for the terrible beds, was ok. This past weekend, there was a festival in town - rockperry - meaning that the town was pretty much completely drunk. Nonetheless, it was enjoyable.
The next few days are going to be relatively easy going. A few more trips to Karjalan Maja, a trip to Tampere on Thursday, and a bit of cooking tomorrow followed by the Blues Brothers. I’ll write more once I have some outstanding or interesting thought to post about :)
Copyright © 2000 - 2007, Aram Kudurshian. All rights reserved.
Syndicated Feeds: Journal Entries, Journal Comments, and Noteworthy Links.