Finnish Finale
Trip Start
Mar 07, 2006
1
21
22
Trip End
Jul 11, 2006
Vantaa, Finland
Friday, July 7, 2006
Now down to business...serious stuff this travel blogging. Arrived Helsinki last Wednesday, beers and sauna and delicious Finnish food Wednesday night, Thursday was a day in the city with Netta and the kids visiting markets, parks and sites and getting acquainted with the art of managing a double pram containing two energetic toddlers in a variety of city challenges like roadworks and crowded trains. On Friday Netta had got us all tickets to Tuska (Pain) Open Air Metal Festival. Marianne (Netta's mum) took Onni and Miina for the day and we took off into the city to meet mohawked Nici (Netta´s sister) before the big event. Had a great day checking out all the freaks, goths and metal heads...it was as crazy a people watch as Amsterdam! Antti showed up once he finished work and we kicked on in a city club when the festival ended. Discovered the joys of the late night Finnish fry up at 3am ish before jumping in a cab for home.
Saturday, once awake and breakfasted, we were off to Marianne and Jyri's summer house in the country by a huge lake. We were blown away by the incredible setting and the thought that has gone into creating such a beautiful retreat. In the afternoon we went to the Lock between two big lakes and we got to see the way the boats get from one lake to the other (there is about a 3m difference in water level). Saturday afternoon was spent in the sauna and what a heavenly experience it was. It is a woodheated sauna in its own little house by the lake with a big window and great view. We three ladies went first, the woodheating felt much softer than an electric sauna and I felt so lucky to get a taste of what the real Finnish tradition is about, there was buckets of various temperatures under the window for washing or cooling off, a bunch of young birch branches in a bucket of cool water for whacking yourself all over (smells and feels great), icy beers waiting out on the deck when the heat got too much, swimming in the lake, chatting and sweating and just feeling alive and wonderful. The boys turn next and once they were finished it was an extravaganza at the dinner table. We tried moose and white-tailed deer (Jyri hunted them himself), baby potatos with fresh dill, bbqed veges in foil with cream cheese and blue cheese as well as wines and dessert. Wow! Andy and I floated down to our bed on cloud nine! It was such fun and felt all a bit surreal because it never really got dark...stays a pretty blue twilight from about 11pm until 3am and then the sun is up again. Thanks so much Jyri and Marianne and Netta and Antti for a magnificent weekend experience. We hope to have our woodheated sauna up and running at Marcus Beach for your next visit to Australia.
Sunday we checked out Lahti harbour and also the huge ski jumps used for world championship events. Whoah man, they looked seriously scary. Lovely country drive back home, chilled out then blissful sleep! Monday was operation get our arses to Estonia. Got the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn found a nice room and settled in for a few days. Spent time roaming the impressive old town, caught a bus to the busy beach Pirita, shopped, did a cool bicycle tour of Tallinn, checked out the nightlife, ate, drank and were merry. Ray if you are reading this Andy says to tell you that Estonian women outdo Czechs!..and they all seem to like the skimpy clothes....apparently it has something to do with the oppression under Russian rule up until 1991, maybe because it has been so hot lately but it was pretty hard not to gawk when girls walk past with skirts so short you can see their undies and some with shorts so tight they dont bother doing up the zipper! I'm not kidding...glad I got Andy out of there before he needed glasses or put his neck out!!
Anyway back in the safety of normal life at Netta and Antti's now but only for one more night. Had our final Finnish sauna for a while and just said goodnight to Antti...still waiting on Netta to get home from the Guns n Roses concert...what a cool mumma she is!
