Back to Finland

This weekend brought me back to Finland for a very sad reason indeed. As I mentioned earlier on this blog, my cousin passed a way just after Christmas, so this weekend it was time to say our farewells to her. Now, I want to keep the tone of this blog cheerful, so no more about that. Suffice to say that I'm glad I'm glad I was there, sad a day as it was. After the funeral we met up at my dad's flat on Fredrikinkatu, where we spent a rather nice evening all together, in spite of the sad circumstances.

Now, in spite of the sad nature of my visit, I decided to do something I've had a notion to do for quite a time - what we call "avantouinti" in Finnish - apparently the correct term in English is "ice swimming". It amounts to making a big hole in the ice, where people then, yes, swim. It might sound crazy, but I've wanted to do it for a while now. And I was actually able to convince my dad and my cousin Jukkis to join me. (apparently my dad was quite happy about it - he'd also been wanting to do it but hadn't found anybody crazy enough to join him apparently).

So off we went then, early on a wintery Sunday morning, to Lake Bodom in Espoo. So how was it then ? Well, you know what they say, if it doesn't kill you it'll only make you stronger. I'm really happy I did it. Saying that I enjoyed it (all 30 seconds of it!) would be an exaggeration, but it does give you a kind of euphoric feeling afterwards. And apparently it's very good for you!

All three of us felt we deserved a reward after our Herculean efforts, and what better reward on a wintery Sunday than some proper blinis accompanied by a couple of shots of vodka ? It was a bit hard to find a place that was open on a Sunday (this is Finland, after all...), so we ended up in Kappeli. Not our preferred choice, but at least we got to enjoy the impressive interior of this historic place. And no complaints about the blinis or the vodka either ;-).

And then, time to head back to France after a rather emotional weekend. I'm looking forward to visiting on more joyous terms next time!