A rather sad Christmas...

After my wild night out @ Guildford it was time to catch my flight to Finland. It was all a bit hard going since not only did I have a bit of a headache, I'd also been foolish enough to do a fitness trail two days ago during lunch time, which meant all the muscles in my body were aching. Thankfully, I was able to haul my luggage into the plane and board in spite of these inconveniences...

Dad was kind enough to pick me up at the airport, from where we sped off to spend Christmas eve at my brother Tomi's place. I was quite happy to see that Helsinki was snow-covered for once (the last couple of Christmases have been depressingly snowless), and the air was refreshingly cold as well... We had a very nice Christmas eve indeed at Tomi's place, with his kids and grand-kids (wow, we sure are getting old) livening things up. And of course great food - including a proper bûche de Noël to give proceedings a bit of a French touch.

After making our way back home, I got all crazy and decided to head out into the Helsinki night to do a bit of night-time photography. Helsinki is, after all, rather beautiful when covered by snow, even at night-time. Sort of strange thing to be doing on Christmas eve, I suppose, but there you go...

The next day, I headed over to Parainen with my dad, the plan was to try out the new fireplace and then have another Christmas meal at Estrid's place. Now, if a snow-covered Helsinki looks beautiful, then our summer house (which these days is habitable also during winter) at Parainen covered with snow looks absolutely magical. And what's best, the sun was out as well. This is what the Finnish winter should be like!

We were enjoying a very nice meal at Essi's place with Gunnveig, Berit, Maria and her kids when we got the call. My dear cousin Maikki, who has been very ill for quite some time, had been taken to hospital. So we jumped in the car and made our way back to Helsinki, where we spent two days with her, which turned out to be the last ones in her life... Some Christmas present. Possibly the two hardest days in my life. I do my best to keep the tone of this blog upbeat, so I will write no more about that. 

Our plan had actually been to have a kind of family lunch at Mei Lin (one of Maikki's favourite restaurants) on Saturday, and in the end we decided to go, in spite of the terrible news the day before. And I think in the end, it was a good idea to enjoy some fantastic food, all together. Mei Lin is definitely the best Chinese restaurant I've been to in Finland - possibly in Europe. Real authentic Chinese cuisine is not easy to find, but Mei Lin serves it up. 

I spent the afternoon walking around Helsinki, taking in the beautiful snow-covered views. I walked through Eira past a snow-covered Johanneksen kirkko down to Merisatama, from where I crossed through a beautifully white Kaivopoistu park, making my way up to the observatory, from where I enjoyed the panorama. I then made my way down to Kauppatori, where the Christmas market was in full swing. 

Then it was time to catch the train to Kauniainen, where I met up with Jani and Jonas for dinner at the rather aptly named MOMS (which means Value Added Tax!) - I say aptly since Kauniainen has a bit of a reputation as a town for rich kids (to call it the Beverley Hills of Finland would perhaps be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the picture...). I finished off a rather busy day at Angleterre, a rather excellent English pub near my dad's flat, where I met up with Jani, Sari, Janne and Katja. Cheers!

I started the next day, my last one in Finland for this trip, by having a rather ungastronomic lunch at McDonald's with Aki and his two sons. Oh well, I make a point of going  to McDonald's at least once a year, just to check whether the quality has improved (it hasn't). But anyway, it was great to catch up with Aki!

Aki then dropped me off at Janne and Katja's place over in Pitäjänmäki, where we enjoyed our customary board games session - Rasse also came over with Yang and little Filip. It was all good fun as usual - even if I didn't win. 

Now, the climax of my trip was supposed to be the early "Vain elämää" concert.
Vain elämää is a Finnish reality TV show, where a bunch of famous musicians get together and sing each others songs. So the concert is a kind of farewell party they throw at the end of the year to mark the end of the season. It's actually a pretty cool concept. For me it's also a great way to get a bit of an idea about what's going on at the Finnish music scene...

Now, the thing about the concert is that my cousin Maikki organized it, so given the recent events, we didn't really know how to feel about the whole thing. But Maikki wanted us to attend the concert, so we did. And I think in the end it was good that we did. It gave us all the chance to spend a bit of time together in a, let's say, uplifting setting. Actually, "Vain elämää" means "Just life" in English, sort of appropriate in a way I guess.

So that brought an end to a rather sad Christmas... But in the end, I'm glad I was there in Finland during those difficult days.