Fill in the gaps

Here´s a little cull from the archives, just to show you a bit of what happened during the big silence on this blog.

Laskiaissunnuntai, 6th of March

The skipper, moments before busting his knee

Laskiainen is celebrated on both a Sunday and a Tuesday. The Tuesday announces the beginning of the fasting period and the 40 day countdown to Easter, so it´s like Veilchendienstag in Germany, just without the carnival. I don´t have a clue what the Sunday has to do with it, but maybe the Finns just want a bit of the fun happening during the weekend, too. It wouldn´t be the only holiday which exact date they´d fix just a little to make it fit their needs. But maybe the Sunday has a fundamental meaning in the religious calender, I´m clueless. Nowadays Laskiainen is associated more with outdoor activities and fun in the snow anyway. You grab your sledge and take some hot cocoa, pea stew and delicious laskiaispulla to the nearest hill. There you meet your friends and feel like a kid again - at least I did on that day.

Yippie!

Riku, Marika, Susu, Minna and Jaana enjoying some cocoa.

28th of March

Winter had us still in a tight grip. Here´s a picture of the alley leading to my language school. It´s called Edupoli and is located in Herttoniemi. Takes me about 20 minutes to go there.

30th of May

When the snow had finally melted, despite a few piles here and there, some drivers seemed to have severe difficulties adjusting to the altered road conditions. Especially parking posed a problem as you can see in the following picture:

Good attempt, better luck next time. The red building is my school Edupoli. 

Juhannus, 25th of June

Juhannus is the celebration of midsummer. Officially speaking it is the second most important holiday, only topped by christmas. I wonder if all Finns would agree to that ranking. Originally called Ukon Juhla (after the Finnish god Ukko), it was later on christianized (like so many other traditions) and was named after John the baptist (Finnish = Johannes Kastaja). Anyway, many Finns go absolutely berzerk on Juhannus weekend. Depending on where you are in the country the sun doesn´t set at all during the night. Whoever can leaves the city and spends the weekend in a summer cottage (mökki). Bonfires (kokko, sing.) are burned at lakesites and the sea. Sauna, swimming, Bbq and heavy (HEAVY!) drinking are on the schedule, which can lead to certain problems, for example death. After Juhannus 2011 you heard on the news that this year only 8 people died. I think last year it was 22. Lots of drowning, a bit of good ol´ stabbing and the occasional drunken accident. But no worries, I figure that for every death on Juhannus at least one child is conceived in Suomi. I didn´t take it to any of these extremes and rather followed the general schedule at a nice mökki nearby Pori, with my girlfriend and three good friends.

Finns like their nearest neighbor to be not near at all. We used the boat a lot.

The old bridge to the sauna.

Hyvät löylyt! Good steam!

Susu having a nice swim after sauna.

In the beginning of July I had an awesome trip to Germany, two weeks of meeting friends and family for the first time in one year! The spookiest thing was that I arrived at the airport in Düsseldorf exactly (!) one year later after leaving the country with a one-way ticket in my pocket.

Finally in August we had Lutz visiting us. Lutz is one of my best friends, lives nowadays in New Zealand of all places and stupid old me did not take one single picture. In-cre-di-bly stupid!!