Enjoying the Finnish summer

Barely had I gotten back to Cagnes after a relaxing few days at Montpellier, before it was time to pack the bags again and head off to Finland (alone, unfortunately, with Mathilde staying in Montpellier) for a few days.

Thankfully, good weather was in store for me, not something that is a given in Finland... After arriving at the airport rather late Wednesday evening, I jumped on the Turku-bound bus (after a rather boring 1 1/2 hour wait...). A short car drive later I finally found myself at our lovely summer cottage in Parainen.

What followed were a few days of what Finnish summer is all about (when the weather is nice like it was!). Relaxing, chilling out in the sauna, swimming, more relaxing... What I really love about Finland, and sometimes miss living here in France, is the peace and quiet.

I did head out to Turku to meet up with Jenni and Andy - friends of mine from my studies at Edinburgh whom I met up with earlier this summer during my business trip to Edinburgh. After a nice meal by the Aura river, we headed off to a real Turku drinking institution - Apteekki - for a couple of more beers and catching up. It's basically an old pharmacy which has been converted into a, with a rather remarkable beer collection. So in short, my kind of place, then ;) And great to catch up with Andy and Jenni again. Hope to see them again in the near future in Edinburgh!

The next day, things carried on with more chilling out - but actually a bit of work as well - as I helped out dad to put up a lamp (they've done plenty of work over the last few years to continue the transformation of our "summer cottage" to something resembling a holiday complex for the whole extended family!). Nice to get my hands dirty again for a change, so to speak ;-)

For the evening, there was naturally a crayfish party planned (absolutely mandatory during a summer visit to Finland!). Both my brothers, Janne and Tomi, as well as their better halves could luckily make it. We had a simply great time, eating crayfish, singing drinking songs (outsinging our neighbours, who were also having a party!) and naturally enjoying some sauna as well. Oh, the bliss...

The next day continued along the same lines - ie. just relaxing, and enjoying the Finnish summer. Riku, Tarita and their little one came over in the afternoon, followed by some of our local mates later on (our cousin Tomppi, Jocke and Oski). The activities were the usual ones - beer drinking, eating, chilling out, catching up, sauna and some board games. Great to catch up with everybody again!

That brought an end to a very relaxing few days, as it was time to head back to France. It was short, but sweet, as they say...