Lättyjä

Last night's dinner was more of a dessert actually...

Lättyjä are like Finnish crepes.

aurinkoinen päivä Pyhäjärvellä - a sunny day on Lake Pyhäjärvi

Today a family friend, Petri, took us on his boat from Nokia to Tampere on Pyhäjärvi. Once there we had lunch in the harbor and then sailed back. On the way back we stopped at Viikinsari island to wander around and have something to drink. To put the icing on the cake, today's weather was the best it has been since I've been here. I even wore shorts! And dare I say that I got some color from the sun... in Finland.

Akseli Gallen-Kallela

Yesterday we woke up early and set out to the Helsinki metropolitan area, which includes Espoo where we first ventured to. After a two hour drive from Nokia, we landed at the Akseli Gallen-Kallela studio museum. Gallen-Kallela is one of the most famous and influential Finnish painters. I also have a pretty big connection to him back in Buffalo too. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo recently just got a new art museum director from Helsinki. His name is Janne Gallen-Kallela Siren. The names are similar you say? Indeed. His great grandfather is the Aksel Gallen-Kallela. I always find weird connections to Buffalo.

We toured around the gallery for a while and walked a the surrounding land along an inlet of the sea. After sitting for two hours in the car it was nice to finally stand up.

Tampere ja hevoset

Downtown Tampere and horse races.

kiireinen päivä - busy day

Today was a busy day. First we ran some errands and then went to lunch at the American Diner. Such a foreign type of cuisine for me! 



When we left the restaurant, we headed to do a few more things and then ended up on a drive through the countryside. We made it to Häijää (pronounce hi-yeah) which is a town in the country where my host mom used to spend her childhood summers at the kesämökki (summer cottage). The cottage is still in the family, and there are now cousins who have built their home across the street from it. We stopped the car and decided to explore the yard along with the shed buildings. 

Most adult Finns have very fond memories of the kesämökki during their childhoods. Finns still flock to them in the summer. When we were exploring the yard and such, Anne was telling me stories about what used to be here, where the horses and cows were kept, where her cousin found a snake on the front steps, how the apple tree in the garden was older than her. These little stories could otherwise be nothing to somebody, but I couldn't help but try to recreate them in my head. It made for a pleasant walk around the garden. 

One thing I missed from Finland: stopping everything you are doing to "hunt" for berries, as it would be translated in Finnish. 

Pea pods too!

From there we were off again and on the way back to Nokia. After stopping for a few more roadside adventures of course. 

Later in the day at around 5:30 we headed out again to first drop Eeti off at pesäpallo training (kind of like baseball) and then to IKEA. There's something so much better about going to IKEA in a Nordic country. 

Sidenote: Last year when I was here, Anne and I went to the same IKEA in Tampere and while there I ran into Teppo Numminen of my city's hockey team, the Buffalo Sabres. He is originally from Tampere and he was home for the summer when I saw him. It's a very small world. It was probably one of the weirdest moments I can remember. The post about it from last summer's blog can be found here. We found the spot where we ran into him and recreated the picture! No Teppo this time. 

Aurinko vihdoinkin paistaa! - The sun finally shines!

After two rainy days in Finland (at least for me since I arrived), the sun finally started shining. Yesterday would've been comparable to weather in October at home; I was wearing pants and a jacket too. This is a big change from how boiling hot it was at home before I left. But today had good weather and it made for a good day.



After getting ready and having morning kahvi (you can probably guess what that one means), we set out to first bring my brother Ante to training, and then I, along with Anne and Eeti, went across the street to Hinttala, a museum that is a plot of old farm buildings showing how Finns used to live a long time ago. All the buildings were built from the mid-1800s to early 1900s. We walked around inside for a few minutes and saw all the old rooms filled with furniture of the time. Then we headed outside and tried old fashioned stilts. I'm a pro, if I may say so myself...

After that, Anne and I drove into Tampere. Once there, we went to Pyynikin näkötorni, a tower on the top of the ridge in the middle of the city. On both sides are the two lakes that surround Tampere, Näsijärvi to the North, and Pyhäjärvi to the South. There is a cafe at the base of the tower which is known for its munkki, which is like a doughnut but with cardamom in the dough. So we had munkki ja kahvi (munkki and coffee) together, a very Finnish thing to do when in Tampere.

As you can see, Finnish is difficult. 

For the rest of the day we did some food shopping, went to a flea market, visited an aunt, and now to top the day off with sauna!