Meeting up with old friends . . .

Pia made arrangements to meet up with Danielle, a friend mom met on her first trip to Finland.  (Forgot to take a photo - snap)  "In a nutshell", Danielle is from Toronto, married a guy from Finland, moved to Finland then Singapore and now has been back in Finland a few years.  They have a 2 1/2 year old son, whom they just adore.  Danielle is also a music teacher and brought us up to date on her work at the university regarding music in Nepal.

We visited an exhibit of a female photographer who had captured images of life in Helsinki during the early 1900's.  Her photos were contrasted with copies taken in the 21st century from the same location.  Interesting to see the changes, and things that still remain in place today.  Pia mentioned that Finland was one of the first countries to allow women to vote.

We returned for another yummy dinner, followed with cloud berry jam on bread cheese.  Harri and Pia picked up a variety of incredibly delicious chocolate candy for us to sample, all from Finland, with the exception of one Swedish bar.  I think I've eaten more chocolate this week than in two months!

 

We were invited to use the family sauna, which was lovely!  In their home, they have a small wood burning sauna, which they use every other night.  They gave us a choice of going to a public Smoke Sauna, where we "could" jump in the lake following sauna, or use the one in their home.  Now, it wasn't as cold in Helsinki as either DC or Rochester, but we of course opted for the home sauna (ha).  Seriously, they made us feel a part of their family and opened their hearts and home to us.

The Finnish Sun . . .

Harri arose early to get a double batch of rice puuro (porridge) simmering, so we could fuel ourselves for a walk and have enough left over to make Karelia once we returned. 

Because the Finnish weather forecast predicted sun, Harri suggested we head out for one of their favorite family walks.  We discovered the Finnish sun is a slight variation from a what we expect as sun in the US.  While there was in fact sun visible in the sky somewhere, it wasn't over us.  We felt like Eeyore being followed around by rain/slush clouds as we hike.

Despite the rain, it was another beautiful hike.  Helsinki has more forest in the City limits than any other city we have ever seen.  The granite rocks and boulders were spectacular and Mom wanted to bring them all home and have them made into countertops, the rain actually brought out all the colors and patterns. 

As we've walked through the forests here fairy tales continue to pop into our minds.  We think of Goldilocks and the Three Bears and Hansel and Gretel wandering through the forest looking for berries.  Everywhere you turn there are lingonberry bushes and wild blueberry vines, which are called billberry here, not to be confused with the farm grown blueberries we think of.

At the end of the walk we tested our strength at a Finnish work out station that included monkey bars and lifting logs that have fallen over in the forest.

After the hike we learned how to make Karelia! It's a rye flour based savory pastry filled with porridge.  We got slightly better with the technique with practice.

The finished product

Great conversations over breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper, coffee . . .

Thursday, we were greeted by Harri in the morning who had created another traditional Finnish breakfast for us to try.  We are getting very spoiled.  Harri had warmed up Karelia and had three options for toppings; cheese, egg salad or margarine.  Pia returned from a walk with their adorable little dog and they both gave us a lesson on the various types of rye flour and different shaped rolling pins used to roll out different types of dough.

This morning, Harri is going to demonstrate how to make Karelia .  It doesn't get much better than this! We're feeling so fortunate.

Back to Thursday..

Harri drove us, Pia and Otto to the train station and we were on our way into Helsinki City central.  Upon arriving at the gorgeous train station, we walked to the Helsinki Cathedral.  Along the way, Pia suggested we take a quick look inside the university library.  It was beautiful!  So beautiful in fact, that Pia stated it inspired her to take classes, simply to be able to study there.

The Cathedral itself was incredible.  It sits on top of a hill with ominous looking stairs leading up to it.  Inside though it's quite beautiful in its simplicity.

Organ Pipes

View from the Cathedral

Alexander II, Finland's favorite Czar (the bronze guy behind Sarah)

Pia then took us to meet Otto at the bookstore, where he choose a book on WWII Soviet Tanks and where we learned that the Moomin characters were originally chapter books.  Of course we purchased several (in English).

We met the rest of the family and Taina for lunch at the "Sea Horse", where we sat at a long table and had a lovely meal and conversation.  Taina teaches music and just completed her dissertation on music composition, connected with new curriculum for the comprehensive schools. This was one of our favorite parts of the day.  Being able to sit, enjoy, and laugh together was so nice.

We hopped in the car with Harri, Pia, Otto, Eetu & Aaro and went to the history museum.  There was a special exhibit as Finland is celebrating 100 years of Independence.

The Kalevala 

Mom and a Swedish Clock

Uno Cygnaeus (1810-1888) Father of the infamous Finnish Comprehensive School System

Sarah and I continued on our adventure in the city center, visiting the department store, Stockmann, and of course Fazer Chocolate cafe.  Pia made sure we had directions to return home and we were very fortunate to find bus "75" as we were walking to the train station.  Whew!  That bus took us right to the stop a couple blocks from their home.  If we had taken the train, we would have had a couple of changes to make (not sure how that would have worked - given our poor sense of direction -- remember we've gotten lost in hotels).

Christmas Pulla for dinner? Why of course!