I can’t believe it’s been a week already since I arrived. My trip seems to be going so fast, but in some ways it also seems longer, as I’ve done so much … and I have almost another week to go.

Tuesday 4 July 2017
Today was a packup-and-leave-Heinola day, but rather than heading straight home, my cousins took me to another beautiful cemetery. They know me so well already! Anyway it was here at the town of Hämeenkoski I got to see my 4x great grandpa’s grave. This place is about a 1 1/2 hour drive north of Helsinki. So that was another very exciting day.

the bell tower at Hämeenkoski church, Finland

cemetery at Hämeenkoski

Nils Winter’s grave at Hämeenkoski is in such a lovely place

Nils Winter’s grave. He died 30 August 1864

this was a lovely family grave/crypt at the Hämeenkoski cemetery, not my family though

The journey to and from the cemetery really was beautiful, as we went through the most spectacular countryside.

And as you do, on lazy country drives, we found strawberry farm and got the tastiest strawberries EVER.

isn’t it lovely!

almost like a postcard

everything is still so green in their summertime

My cousins and I had pizza for tea, and I must say their “small” pizza is huge. I would expect that in America as everything there is supersize, but not Finland. Anyway it was very tasty, but waaaay to much. Oh and here’s a Finnish thing, when you buy a pizza it’s not pre-cut into slices for you. If you want that done it costs more.

a giant “small” pizza

Tomorrow I head to the archives for some research …

My adventures in Finland continue and the last couple of days were spent at Heinola, at my reli’s summerhouse. This is just over an hour away from where they live… so it’s not far, but it truly is a whole different world, and not just the scenery but also the house and everything in it. It kind of reminds me of my grandma’s place which was filled with everything from a past era, it’s like walking into an antique store. Old knick knacks, old tools, old everything, even an outdoor toilet … but that’s part of the charm of it.

In Finland it is a common thing for families to have a summerhouse. It’s school holidays in Finland at the moment and those who work tend to take their holidays during summer if they can, and then all head off to the summerhouse. Some might get there a for a few days, others the entire holiday period.

Apart from the noise from roadworks that are happening nearby at the moment, it is incredibly tranquil, and you could totally lose track of day and time very easily. And remember it doesn’t even get vaguely dark until maybe 10.30pm … so you really can stay up all night, outside playing games, or whatever.

Sunday 2 July 2017 to Monday 3 July 2017
I won’t go into detail of the past few days, but with the nice weather we had breakfasts outside, went in their sauna (by the way the correct pronunciation of it is sow-nah, not sor-nah), playing games, reading, learning more family history, checking out the town centre, including the bird rescue centre and more. It’s been relaxing and fun, and I’ve taken hundreds of photos. Below are just a few.

the weather was lovely

Heinola, we’re in the right place

the summerhouse at Heinola

the old drop toilet, fortunately there is an indoor one too

the lake

this is the view I woke up to

enjoying breakfast outside

you can see the glow of the sunset on the trees – this was taken about 10.30pm while we sat outside

I did some genealogy-ing

Flags … now let me tell you about flags. It seems that every house in Finland has a flagpole. And in the old days, people put a flag up (like the long one below) to show that they were home, and take it down when they weren’t. This isn’t done so much these days, due to crime. Still, it’s a nice idea.

Also the proper rectangular Finnish flag can only be put up on celebrations. As my visiting was classed as a celebration they decided to put it up, and got me to help. 🙂  Also there are rules regarding the official flag, it’s never allowed to touch the ground, and you can only have it up during certain hours. I don’t know if Australia has any such rules, as I don’t know of anyone who has a flagpole.

the long Finnish flag

I got to help putting up the “official” Finnish flag

it’s up and flying

Games … I was introduced to the game of “kubb“. This is an old viking game, and uses pieces of wood which have to be knocked down. I can’t think of anything really equivalent to say what it’s like, but here’s a link for more about it. I also got to play my first part-Engish part-Finnish game of Scrabble. I made words in English, and my playing partners chose either English or Finnish. It was a whole heap of fun for all of us, even if I did lose. 🙂

it was a very interesting game

Custom … here’s a Finnish custom, they all take their shoes off to go into houses (it doesn’t matter if it is their own place, or elsewhere they are visiting, it’s still shoes off). This wasn’t a custom I knew about before, and I do keep forgetting.

shoes get taken off at the door

Heinola was beautiful place to visit, so quiet and relaxing, and I’m so pleased my cousins took me to visit the place. Tomorrow it’s time to pack up and head home. But there’s more holiday still to come …

Note: The only downside of the summerhouse is that Finland’s entire mosquito population found me, so I’m thinking a hazmat suit would be the way to go next time.

My adventures in Finland continue and cover churches, cemeteries, a mental hospital and family. Sounds like an interesting mix. Right?

Friday 30 June 2017
The day was cool and cloudy, and rain was forecast, still my cousin took me touristing again. This time to the Rock Church in Helsinki. I found this listed on a number of “things you must do in Finland” lists, so asked if we could go there. The Rock Church is a modern church, built in the 1960s that has been built into rock and largely underground. I know my photos don’t do it justice, so here’s a link to find out more about it. It is a big tourist attraction, and yes it even costs to enter (3 Euros/person).

the entrance to the church

the view from the balcony

looking up

the top of the dome roof from the outside

Next stop was the Helsinki cemetery. I visited this cemetery a couple of years ago and was shown some relatives graves then, so it was an interesting challenge to see if we could locate them again from memory. Yay for us, we did, though we pretty much walked the entire cemetery looking for them. But since it’s a spectacular cemetery, and the rain held off it was lovely to just wander. I know a cemetery wouldn’t be on most tourist’s itinerary, but you know it’s what us genie folk LOVE, so I was pleased that we got there.

look who I found in the cemtery

Otto and Hedvig, my 2x great grandparents

Gustaf is my 3x great grandpa

Gustaf’s wife, Ulrika is there too, but in a separate grave

having candle lanterns on graves is a common thing in Finland

isn’t this grave pretty

more pretty graves …

this was interesting, grave plaques or markers with lanterns

Following on from visiting a church and a cemetery, my cousin took me to a mental hospital which is now partly a cafe … you’d never guess it from outside would you?

now a cafe, but formerly a mental hospital in Helsinki

Saturday 1 July 2017
Yesterday was seeing the ancestors, today was seeing the cousins. Today was an ‘at home’ day, so I don’t have any interesting place pictures to show you. But we did have cousins come and visit and with quiche, rhubarb pie, Tim Tams and Fruchocs (chocolate covered apricots), chatter, photos and family history … it was a great afternoon.

cousins

and I said we needed a group selfie

Tomorrow we head off to the Summer house.

Thursday 29 June 2017 was my first full day in Finland, and despite me figuring that I’d need days of straight sleeping to catch up from the trip over, I was up early, and out enjoying the blue sky and warm day and watching the squirrels play in the backyard.

My relatives live in Vantaa, which is not that far from Helsinki (Finland’s capital), but it’s a whole lot quieter and a whole lot greener too. Very picturesque.

It’s holiday time in Finland (not just for me), so my morning started with sitting out enjoying the sun, watching the squirrels, and enjoying a Finnish breakfast.

out on the balcony enjoying the morning

traditional Finnish breakfast: Karjalanpiirakka = Karelian pie

isn’t he a cutie … can I take him home?

After that, my reli’s took the opportunity of the great weather and took me out to Porvoo (pronounced porr-voe, like toe). Porvoo is old, and I mean REALLY OLD. When Australian’s think of old we think 100 years is old, but most other places in the world ‘old’ means hundreds, if not thousands of years old. Porvoo fits into that category.

Wikipedia says the following:

“Porvoo is a city and a municipality situated on the southern coast of Finland approximately 50 kilometres east of Helsinki. Porvoo is one of the six medieval towns in Finland, first mentioned as a city in texts from 14th century.”

So this is a town that was founded back in the 1300s … and is STILL STANDING. This means two things: 1. it was built THAT well, far better than anything is today, and 2. developers haven’t come in to demolish and build apartments or businesses instead, which is a blessing as Old Porvoo is a very picturesque (although a little touristy now), place to visit. So if you ever get the chance … go visit.

shops and cafes at Porvoo

steep cobblestone streets seem to be a thing at Porvoo

sign post lists everything in Finnish, Swedish, English and Rusaain

we have caution kangaroo and koala signs in Australia … Finland has caution moose signs, although this one was in a souvenir shop

one of the many stunning old buildings at Porvoo

We visited the Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral which sits on this hill and is seen as you come into the town. This also has a LONNNNG history, dating back to the 1400s. While is has been damaged, and burnt down, part of it is still original. You can read more about that here.

the Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral dates back to the 15th century

the ceiling of the church is beautiful

Porvoo is lovely very picturesque

all signs are in Finnish (top), and Swedish (bottom)

After a day out, we had tea at home, and it was light enough and warm enough to eat outside. My cousins introduced me to the game of korona, which is vaguely like pool or billiards. Though rather than a big table, this is played on a 1m square board. And rather than balls, you use pucks (like hockey pucks). But you still use a pool cue to “shoot” your big puck, and try to get your little pucks into the holes, so it’s not unlike it. P.S. I lost … but hey, that was my first time playing … so I think a rematch is in order.

playing korona with my cousins

this is Finn, my Finnish moose – a present from one of my cousins

And you may have heard of the “midnight sun” … basically means the sun doesn’t really go down during summer in the northern part of the world. Well this is a view from my room at 10pm. Seriously it looks like mid-afternoon doesn’t it.

view from my room at Vantaa at 10pm

Anyway now I’m off to bed, so I’m ready for more adventures tomorrow.