Finland, Finland, Finland. It's where I want to be..... The Monty Python song held true and we arrived in Finland to be welcomed by forest, lakes and birdsong in the toilets. We headed directly out of the city to nearby Lahti, where Ally's Uncle Timo and Paivi welcomed us to Finland with a delicious home cooked meal of salmon (one of the cheapest fish in Finland!) and many accompaniments. Here we saw squirrels as we ate our rye bread and Matt enjoyed a few games of chess. The first photo is Uncle Timo musing over an ongoing international 9-year game of chess he's having with dad (Jussi) back in Australia, mostly via email. It's a pretty close game.
 |
| 9 years and still going.. |
 |
| Can't beat a Finn in chess.. |
The next day we headed a little further north to Ally's family's home town of Sulkava. Heidi, Jukka and Ilja were kind enough to host us alongside Timo & Marianna in their beautiful home. We had a great long weekend playing Frisbee with Marianna's dog Opri, eating Heidi's delicious Finnish cooking including reindeer and (very poisonous) mushrooms we picked together in the wild, and exploring the local area. Matt and Ilja got on pretty well, despite the language barrier and a few weird stares from Ilja when Matt attempted a few words in Finnish, and they had a lot of fun sharing computer games and playing Ilja's Xbox. We went to a bunker where there sits a huge working gun that only stopped being manned 15 years ago. The gun points towards the Russian boarder, not too far away....
 |
| Our poison-filled haul |
On our second day we visited the nearby town of Savolinna and saw the castle and enjoyed elk sausages for lunch. Here we also visited a few flea markets and found some classic Finnish design on the cheap - including a Donald Duck magazine who is NOT banned in Finland despite his lack of pants ;) We also popped into a supermarket which sold soo many tasty Finnish snacks. We found tinned boar and reindeer and piles of korvapuusti (pulla) and pirraka (rice pies, potato pies..) - right there, ready to eat. The fridge section sold yogurt and juice in so many flavours and we tried lingonberry, cloudberry, blueberry and more! Mummi's grandchildren's heaven ;)
A special part of our weekend was an evening spent in the small village of Kyrsya. First we went to past the old pig farm, owned by the Pasanen brother's best friends from their youth, and up to the farm house that sits a top the hill. We met with Mummi's friends and were told off for our lack of Finnish language skills, and treated to pulla, cake and coffee. After enjoying the views and the beautiful farm house we headed back down the hill and stopped for a look at old village shop - where Ally's dad and family lived when they were children. The house is now red (not yellow) and sits right on the river banks, making it perfect to jump into the ice cold river after a sauna.
 |
| And we entered the Eurojackpot to win 90 mil euros |
 |
| The old pig farm |
 |
| The original Pasanen house |
On our last day in Sulkava we were invited to join the village cleanup. Heidi kindly dobbed us in with the editor of the Sulkava newspaper, exclaiming that we had come all the way from Australia to help clean Sulkava! We had a lot of fun fishing rubbish out of the river and stabbing cigarette butts, but with many people in the village helping after less than 2 hours the town was spotless! We made plenty of jokes about how filthy the town had been, but if we'd come a week earlier we wouldn't have been able to tell the difference :p The community was very kind to us, making sure we partook in the free sausages (served with mustard, no bread) and welcoming us to the village.
 |
| Clean up Sulkava 2015! |
We left the pretty town and drove through more forests and lakes enjoying the scenery, then settled near the town of Espoo (esPOO), 30 minutes from Helsinki (helSTINKY). Our little cottage in Espoo (another airbnb) was surrounded by forest and wildlife. We spent plenty of time relaxing in funky chairs on the deck, drinking boysenberry juice and eating rice pies. On our anniversary we slept late and wandered in the sunshine into the local village along the tree-lined paths, then enjoyed pasta and a bottle of red we were given by the kind hotel owners in Santorini. To round off our day we enjoyed the logcabin sauna at our little home and watched the sun keep shining after 10pm at night.
Helsinki is very modern with gorgeous (and expensive) design stores everywhere. We saw the Lutheran church sitting atop steps in the main square, and the Russian orthodox church atop a small hill beside the docks. We picked up some souvenirs in the markets that sold reindeer antler products and handmade crafts, and many local dishes like fried muikku. Nearby was the first nude statue in Finland, that caused much outrage in the early 1900's. The beautiful old market hall was filled with sausages and pickled fish of all varieties. If it's meat, the Finns will make it in sausage. On our way home we passed a modern art gallery filled with moving pieces, like a constantly moving abacus, and a set of hanging speakers vibrating with sound. To round off the day we came across a flashmob made up by the Helsinki Ooppera Ballet Company dancing in the mall to promote their new Nutcracker season! This was our last night in beautiful Finland so we celebrated with a bottle of champers given to us by our hosts.
 |
| Take away lunch! Salad underneath |
 |
| Modern (and moving) art |
 |
| Flash Mob |
We left for the airport with a drizzle of rain, but otherwise had sunny but cold weather, about 7-13 degrees. At the airport there was an art exhibition right beside our gate displaying photographs of Helsinki life in two decades. The first collection (colour photos below) were taken when Ally's Mummi was living in Finland and Ally's own age. The second collection (black and white) were taken around the time that the Pasanen's moved from Finland to Australia. You can even spot the Lutheran church and compare it to the pictures we took.
We looooooved Finland. The green and the lakes and the animals and the people. The art, the buildings, the lot. Already thinking about when we can come back, it was a wonderful week in a wonderful place.
