Barely had things quieted down at home, until it was time for me to pack my bags again – my destination Finland was this time. The flight via Munich on Wednesday night was eventless – which for me is a positive thing when it comes to flying with Lufthansa (since an event with them normally means them losing my luggage).
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In spite of a rather busy day at the Ruoholahti office on Thursday, I managed to squeeze in a lunch with Jani M. and Micke at the nearby shopping centre – they both also work in the ‘hood… It was good to catch up with them, especially with Micke who’s a very hard man to meet up with these days (that’s what young children tend to do to your social life, I suppose….). Jani seems to be adjusting back to civilian life well enough after his 12 month sting with the EU military forces. Later on I ran into Frank in the office, who decided to join me for a pint in downtown Helsinki after work. Since I know Frank from my days at our Southwood office in old Blighty, we decided Pub Angleterre would be an appropriate watering hole to spend our hard-earned cash. That’s a funny name for an English pub, by the way – even the British pubs in France have at least vaguely English-sounding names – but I suppose as long as the beer is good, who cares, right? After dropping things like badge and laptop off at home (thought that might be a good idea – being by now all too aware of my impressive record of loosing things…) we carried on to a German pub in Forum where Jani R. and Jocke joined us. A couple of pints later, we all headed back home – making lame excuses about having to be at the office the next day and so forth.
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Unfortunately, the main reason for my visit this time was not a pleasant one. My dear grandmother Nelly, whose 94th birthday we had just celebrated a few weeks earlier, had sadly passed away recently. So I joined the rest of my family and other relatives to bid my farewells to her on Saturday. I won’t write any more about that, since it is not really in the spirit of this somewhat lightweight blog. Suffice to say that she lived a long, eventful and very rich life, and her time had come – and she passed away without pain.
We actually had another family event scheduled for the Sunday, which was to celebrate my other grandmother Kyllikki’s birthday (her 95th!). Which meant that we had to speed back to Helsinki on Saturday evening (as Kyllikki lives on the other side of Finland, in Varkaus). We arrived rather late, so decided to have dinner in Saaga, a Lappish restaurant on Bulevardi, near my parents’ flat. It was my first visit to a proper Lappish restaurant – and we all enjoyed it very much in spite of the somewhat steep prices (the reindeer I had was the best I ever tasted…). Strangely enough, the waitress insisted on speaking English to us – I didn’t realise my Finnish was getting THAT dodgy….
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As we had a long drive ahead of us, we got up rather early (we managed to leave the flat before 9 – which is quite an accomplishment for my family!). Which meant we actually arrived in Varkaus on schedule – before 2 PM. The festivities were taking place in my grandma’s elderly home, a converted farmhouse – seemed like a very cosy place indeed. It was very nice to see Kyllikki as it had been about 3 years since my last visit. She was talkative as always, and seems to remember even recent events very well (I wish my memory will be half as good as hers if I ever get to be her age)!
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After some musical performances from my brother and my nieces, and of course some cake, we bid our farewells to Kyllikki and headed downtown Varkaus for lunch (that cake just wasn’t enough – need to maintain a balanced diet). As it was Sunday, the choice was rather limited, but we actually managed to find a real gem of a restaurant. The place was located in the old refectory of the local paper mill – which had been tastefully and originally converted into a classy yet unpretentious restaurant. Their speciality was sturgeon – brought in from a fish farm in Varkaus where the fish are used to produce caviar… (There is a BIG market for that not too far East from Varkaus, obviously). What’s really interesting about the place is that the refectory used to be operated by my great-grand-father!
That brought an end to a rather strange and emotional weekend – as it was time for us to be on the road for Helsinki. On Monday it was time to head back to France – and Lufthansa impressed me again by managing not to lose my luggage on the way back to Nice!
More photos here.
.jpg)
In spite of a rather busy day at the Ruoholahti office on Thursday, I managed to squeeze in a lunch with Jani M. and Micke at the nearby shopping centre – they both also work in the ‘hood… It was good to catch up with them, especially with Micke who’s a very hard man to meet up with these days (that’s what young children tend to do to your social life, I suppose….). Jani seems to be adjusting back to civilian life well enough after his 12 month sting with the EU military forces. Later on I ran into Frank in the office, who decided to join me for a pint in downtown Helsinki after work. Since I know Frank from my days at our Southwood office in old Blighty, we decided Pub Angleterre would be an appropriate watering hole to spend our hard-earned cash. That’s a funny name for an English pub, by the way – even the British pubs in France have at least vaguely English-sounding names – but I suppose as long as the beer is good, who cares, right? After dropping things like badge and laptop off at home (thought that might be a good idea – being by now all too aware of my impressive record of loosing things…) we carried on to a German pub in Forum where Jani R. and Jocke joined us. A couple of pints later, we all headed back home – making lame excuses about having to be at the office the next day and so forth..jpg)
Unfortunately, the main reason for my visit this time was not a pleasant one. My dear grandmother Nelly, whose 94th birthday we had just celebrated a few weeks earlier, had sadly passed away recently. So I joined the rest of my family and other relatives to bid my farewells to her on Saturday. I won’t write any more about that, since it is not really in the spirit of this somewhat lightweight blog. Suffice to say that she lived a long, eventful and very rich life, and her time had come – and she passed away without pain. We actually had another family event scheduled for the Sunday, which was to celebrate my other grandmother Kyllikki’s birthday (her 95th!). Which meant that we had to speed back to Helsinki on Saturday evening (as Kyllikki lives on the other side of Finland, in Varkaus). We arrived rather late, so decided to have dinner in Saaga, a Lappish restaurant on Bulevardi, near my parents’ flat. It was my first visit to a proper Lappish restaurant – and we all enjoyed it very much in spite of the somewhat steep prices (the reindeer I had was the best I ever tasted…). Strangely enough, the waitress insisted on speaking English to us – I didn’t realise my Finnish was getting THAT dodgy….
.jpg)
As we had a long drive ahead of us, we got up rather early (we managed to leave the flat before 9 – which is quite an accomplishment for my family!). Which meant we actually arrived in Varkaus on schedule – before 2 PM. The festivities were taking place in my grandma’s elderly home, a converted farmhouse – seemed like a very cosy place indeed. It was very nice to see Kyllikki as it had been about 3 years since my last visit. She was talkative as always, and seems to remember even recent events very well (I wish my memory will be half as good as hers if I ever get to be her age)! .jpg)
After some musical performances from my brother and my nieces, and of course some cake, we bid our farewells to Kyllikki and headed downtown Varkaus for lunch (that cake just wasn’t enough – need to maintain a balanced diet). As it was Sunday, the choice was rather limited, but we actually managed to find a real gem of a restaurant. The place was located in the old refectory of the local paper mill – which had been tastefully and originally converted into a classy yet unpretentious restaurant. Their speciality was sturgeon – brought in from a fish farm in Varkaus where the fish are used to produce caviar… (There is a BIG market for that not too far East from Varkaus, obviously). What’s really interesting about the place is that the refectory used to be operated by my great-grand-father! That brought an end to a rather strange and emotional weekend – as it was time for us to be on the road for Helsinki. On Monday it was time to head back to France – and Lufthansa impressed me again by managing not to lose my luggage on the way back to Nice!
More photos here.
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