Christmas in Finland

This year, we were spending Christmas apart again, sadly, as Mathilde headed to the West of France, and I myself headed back to wintery Finland. Or rather, as the case was this year, a rather non-wintery Finland (the forecast promised something like 10 degrees on the plus side!).

I arrived after a rather long voyage (as the case often is, when going to northerly Finland), as planned on Tuesday evening, happy to meet my dad, who picked me up at the airport.

On Wednesday, the plan was to go and see Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens, but before then, we had a couple of administrative formalities to take care of. And lunch, of course, which we had at a nice little place called Pompiers. It's a nice little lunch restaurant, managed by the Michelin-starred chefs of Postres. The name refers to the fact that the restaurant is located in an old firefighters barrack (the cool, retro interior decoration still reverently remembers this past). Pretty good food, but most importantly, excellent value for money! (somewhat rare in Finland, and especially Helsinki).

What about the film then ? I loved it! Unlike the prequel trilogy released ten years ago or so (jeez, is it really that long ago?), Part VII very much lives up to the spirit of the original trilogy. The nerd in me was certainly awakened ;-)

For the evening, we visited Jukkis, Jarkko and the kids at Ylästö, in Vantaa. Great to see then again, and glad to see that Jarkko seems to be coping well on his own with the kids.

The next morning, what better way to start Christmas eve than with a Christmas Swim ? So off we went, to Oittaa, us three fools (me, my dad and Jukkis). Actually, to start with, it didn't really feel like winter swimming, as the temperature was several degrees on the plus side (as promised), and the landscape was sadly snow-free. Well, the moment we got into the water, though, it definitely felt like winter swimming!  I think I did a bit better than earlier this year (I did my first winter swim this January), managing maybe 30 strokes or so instead of 10. Getting out of the water was clearly easier with a more modest air temperature. I wouldn't go as far as saying it was too easy though ;-)

In the afternoon, before starting the Christmas eating marathon, I decided to have a walk around Helsinki for a bit, since the sun was happily out. Unfortunately, there was no snow, but the light was just perfect for a bit of photography. So I had quite a longish walk in the end, taking pictures and just taking in the beautiful views over Helsinki, from Kauppatori and up from Uspenski cathedral. It really is a beautiful city.

For the Christmas celebrations, we headed to my brother Tomi's place in Espoo. Nanna was there with her family, as well as Sofia and Julia as well with their other halves. As always, we had a great time, eating traditional Finnish Christmas food (I did bring some foie gras for a French touch...), opening up pressies (I had one this year, which was an improvement over last year ;-) ) and just chatting away.

Christmas day was very relaxed indeed. We had a proper lie-in, and only got up at around 11AM. We then slowly made our way over to Tomi's again, for more eating and socializing. This time, Janne and Katja joined us for the fun. Time for some sauna action as well!

The next day, the plan was to head to the West of Finland. We started off by visiting mum's grave at the cemetery, and paying a visit at Estrid's place, for some coffee and cake. From there, dad drove me and Janne to Tomppi's place in Kaarina, for a real nerd/lad's day out, or whatever you want to call it. It basically involved board games, beer, greasy food, sauna and just hanging out, basically. The usual suspects were present, that is to say Tomppi, Rasse, Oski, Jocke and Janne. Great fun! And after all the fun, I got the unique privilege to experience Kaarina night life with a real expert (Tomppi). We nearly beat the local champions at pool! (more thanks to Tomppi than me!)

On Sunday, 'twas then time to head back to Helsinki, Rasse drove us. Surprisingly, I didn't even have much of a hangover. What was great was that some snow had appeared on the ground overnight, so Finland was starting to look vaguely wintery. I finished off a busy weekend with a few beers in Kaisla with Jani, Jocke, Jonas and Jose, followed by a decent, if over-priced burger in Morrison's Grill.