Day One

---

Day one
Thursday 21st July, 2011-07-22
Helsinki to near Jyvaskyla

I arrived ABSOLUTELY exhausted from being in a seat for twelve hours. The plane was about 20 minutes ahead of schedule which the captain was very keen to inform the passengers. The time was 6:10 am Helsinki time and the weather was a warm 20 degrees Celsius. Beautiful except for the fact that my butt was numb, I’d managed about three hours sleep since leaving home at 7:00 the previous morning, and my body clock was screaming it’s two thirty in the afternoon and I want out of here. Apparently there is a limit of how much plane travel I can handle.

Disembarking went without a hitch, but who in their right mind thought that a fully loaded handbag, a seven kilo carryon bag and a laptop bag – no lightweight either, was a good idea? Luckily the etiquette of leaving a plane in turn from the front onwards, allowed me to crash the overnight bag into the back of each headrest without causing grevious bodily harm to my fellow passengers.

Passport control and customs were a breeze, the Finns are very polite, and after asking me where I was travelling from, the customs officer waved me through with my (guiltladen, oh my god I can’t believe that I brought them even though they were from the Brisbane airport duty free shops– they’re animal products you ninny) kangaroo and crocodile jerkey. Apparently the sign ‘declare all animal meat and dairy products’ doesn’t include Australian animal and dairy products.

My aunt Eva met me on the other side of the doors, and after a teary, whisked me off to her little car. I proceeded to the left hand door and there’s a steering wheel- a moment’s pause and eva asks if I want to drive? Only if I want to do some major damage to myself, her car and probably a couple items of city infrastructure. They drive on the right hand side here. I knew that, I just didn’t KNOW that.
The feeling of sitting in the driver’s side of the car, without a steering wheel, and going down the streets on the wrong side of the road freaked me out a few times, convinced that any moment, someone is going to turn right into us. Sleep deprivation didn’t help.

The City is beautiful. Very green – a beautiful deep green of countless fir trees, their needled fronds creating graceful spires with the yellow green of birches poised gracefully on their slender white and grey trunks softening the view. The city parts which we drove though are very modern, without any feeling of being in a major city, almost no traffic, and in no time at all we were at my aunts’ apartment complex – a series of rectangular three storey blocks set in a garden of large trees.

SHOWER – oh I felt human again. I can’t believe the black crap I washed off me. How does one get absolutely filthy just sitting in a plane?

Coffee, bread, pulla – a Finnish staple (sweet yeast bun with cinnamon, cardamom and sometimes jam or berries). I’m ready for anything.
My cousin Marja (pronounced Mar-yah) comes to visit, and she’s lovely. Her sense of humour is wonderful and we could have talked for hours, but it’s time to leave and go to the lake cottage where we will be spending the first few days. Finns have these summer cottages by a lake like Aussies used to have beach shacks. It seems that most Finns like to get away from the everyday life in the city, and head off to the summer cottage to immerse themselves in nature, fish, pick berries and enjoy a sauna and a swim.
On my first night, I was treated to freshly caught smoked trout, chanterelles (a type of mushroom), picked yesterday, cooked in cream, new potatoes boiled in their skins, fresh salad picked from the garden, and crusty home made dark rye bread.
Afterwards Eva and I headed for the sauna, and after getting up a good sweat, ran to the lake for a skinny-dip. (trust me- not a sight for anyone to see – just as well there wasn't any one there to see.) Time to leave any Australian inhibitions behind – we’re in Finland now and “when in Rome, do what the roman’s do.”

---

Photos

The summer cottage
This is a wooden house, with a living area,kitchen adn a bedroom downstairs, a second bedroom upstairs, and a lovely view out of every window

The path from the cottage to the sauna and lake
Lots of birch trees line the path to the lake and sauna where I had a bedroom

The Outdoor grill house
The red painted outdoor grill house

The Aitta
A storage building and bedrooms upstairs

The wood shed
The colours in the sunshine just glow

Some wildflowers
These flowers are everywhere. a beautiful violet spire - I need to find out hte name of these.

Comments

[Pappa Hilden]

Very Good!
It was really interesting reading! Nauti lomasta!

[Eva täti]

Day one
Hei Sari Mielenkiintoista luettavaa. Sinä olet kyllä laittanut saunaa koskevan kuvatekstin grillikatokseen. Mahtaa ystäväsi ihmetellä, miten olet voinut nukkua siellä ;)