Never one for taking anyone’s word for things, my good friend Ron from England took time to come and see where we’d been living the last five months or so. We met up in Helsinki and toured a few watering holes some more lively than others. Note: Czech bars-good! Irish bars-not so much, although this could be due to our English accents causing friction. Anyway, our focus was to catch up after not visiting for a few years, and this we did.
Ronnie decided to break his English reserve and visit the Alas sauna down at the harbor in Helsinki which has 3 outside pools, one of which is filtered and unheated water from the Baltic Sea. A party of Japanese tourists entered the sauna before us wearing swimwear which by default gave us the excuse of doing so also. I’ve never witnessed a look of relief as profound as that moment on my friend’s face! We also took avantu in the unheated sea pool which although being the start of June, is still exquisitely frigid. My only goal was to immerse myself and enjoy the sisu that comes from such a challenge. Ron’s was to not run out screaming like the other tourists…He did well!
In Jyvaskyla, my good friend got to see my kids who had grown from little guys into young adults since we last spent time together. In fact, it was good to see our little town here in Finland through his eyes. Some experiences, like hiking in the nearby forest were beautiful and serene. Others, such as the Finnish line dancing event, were a little odd and confusing. We did like the country version of ACDC tunes everyone was dancing to onstage, although the spectators were silent and still. Ronnie was surprised by the lack of noise and facial expressions, but took it in stride. Liam and Ron jammed with ukuleles one day. We also swam and enjoyed the sun at the lake, toured the town, played pool, and tasted lots of Finnish foods. Of course, right now we are enjoying long days due to only perhaps 3 hours of actual darkness. This means that a person hardly wants to sleep. It does promote lots of time to talk, though. With hardly any visitors who speak English, Ronnie found himself somewhat of a captive audience for our household…
Although Robyn was not in town to participate, it was good to reconnect with my friend of 34 years and have some deeper conversations like our hosts, the Finns.
