The plan for the weekend was head off to Laitila, and pay a visit to my good mate Jani. Jani took the rather radical decision to move from Helsinki to Laitila, a town that Jani describes as "redneck country in Finland" - a country town located a 100km or so from Turku. The things you do for love, eh ?
To house his family, he bought a school! Just goes to say property prices aren't quite the same in Helsinki and Laitila, I suppose... So anyway, in spite of Jani's detailed instructions of how to get to his house, I blindly/stupidly trusted my GPS, and ended up completely on the wrong side of Laitila (got one lettre wrong in the street name!). Anyway, I eventually managed to meet up with Jani and Riku (who was also visiting with his family) in Laitila "town centre" (basically a few shops, a petrol station and a church). And of course there is the famous brewery!
Before heading back to Jani's place, we went for an adventerous quest to get a church bench, from a guy selling a bunch of 2nd-hand stuff in this huge barn. The place was quite a sight - you could probably furnish a whole house with what the guy had stocked away there (there was even a car) !
To make a long story short, we manged to procure the bench, and transport it back to Jani's place, and put it in its place. That kind of hard work surely deserved a good dinner and a few beers, and our kind hosts were more than happy to oblige! Janne and Katja also joined us for the fun. The school was really something - rarely seen an original place like that. For sure a great place for the kids to grow up (at least summer-time!).
The next day, we got up with a relatively mild headache - looks like we are all getting a bit old. A few years ago, we would've partied all night and gotten up around noon - this time we were more or less in bed by midnight! We then spent the day doing the stuff one usually does at a Finnish summer place. We had a swim in the nearby lake (where we swam & conquered the island in the middle of the lake). A bit of DIY, with us helping out "very actively" (mostly giving excellent beer-fuelled advice, with him doing all the work).
Sari and Jani fixed us a great BBQ lunch, which we had in their huge garden. And after the great lunch, it was of course time for that other Finnish summer house institution - enjoying a sauna bath in the newly finished sauna (so at least all that beer-powered advice didn't do any harm, then...). We then finished the night off in true Finnish bloke fashion: watching Dredd while eating chips and drinking beer.
Ah, how I miss some things in Finland... Yep, you've guessed it, had a great time at Jani's and Sari's place, thanks to them for organizing a great weekend! Great to see everybody else as well. And at least now I can say I've seen Laitila! The next morning, I had to get up early as I was picking up my French visitors at the airport.
To house his family, he bought a school! Just goes to say property prices aren't quite the same in Helsinki and Laitila, I suppose... So anyway, in spite of Jani's detailed instructions of how to get to his house, I blindly/stupidly trusted my GPS, and ended up completely on the wrong side of Laitila (got one lettre wrong in the street name!). Anyway, I eventually managed to meet up with Jani and Riku (who was also visiting with his family) in Laitila "town centre" (basically a few shops, a petrol station and a church). And of course there is the famous brewery!
To make a long story short, we manged to procure the bench, and transport it back to Jani's place, and put it in its place. That kind of hard work surely deserved a good dinner and a few beers, and our kind hosts were more than happy to oblige! Janne and Katja also joined us for the fun. The school was really something - rarely seen an original place like that. For sure a great place for the kids to grow up (at least summer-time!).
Ah, how I miss some things in Finland... Yep, you've guessed it, had a great time at Jani's and Sari's place, thanks to them for organizing a great weekend! Great to see everybody else as well. And at least now I can say I've seen Laitila! The next morning, I had to get up early as I was picking up my French visitors at the airport.
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