Driving in Finland...

On the way to drop off my dad at the airport, the local police was pulling over all cars driving on the road at 4 am in the morning. I wasn't quite sure what to expect since I don't technically have a valid EU driver's license. Here we have been operating under the assumption that a US driver's license is good for 3 months and if that fails play the "dumb American" bit. I was just putting on my innocent face as the officer walked up to the window muttered "houmenta" (good morning in Finnish) and shoved a breathalizer in my mouth before I had a chance to respond. I guess my blood alcohol level was more important than a valid driver's license or my lack of knowledge of the funky traffic signs they use here. I passed the test and was sent on my way.

Lucy and I have been driving around Finland for a about a week now, and I think we can both agree that the scariest traffic norm is that there are no stop signs in the city. We found one stop sign [literally, STOP is this same in English, Swedish, and Finnish] along the country side, but other than that who has the right of way coming into a four way intersection is kind of up for interpretation. The person to the right still has some sort of right-of-way but the visibility coming into these intersections leaves much to be desired. The resulting sounds from the passenger seat sound something like this: "go straight...you're good..no wait slow down!...nevermind go! go! go!"

Anyways, after picking up my mother and Raz from the airport at 1:15am the next morning, we met up with Lotte (my great aunt on my mother's side) in an attempt to catch some wild kittens she was concerned about starving to death. The solution was to catch these three cute kittens deliver them by bicycle to the vet who may or may not put them down. Why you save 12 week-old healthy kittens who are clearly fending well for themsleves from "starving" in order to maybe kill them is beside me, but who were we to argue with an energetic octogenerian[non-fertile, for those post-bar takers out there]. We did as we were told, had a cup of tea and saw my grandfather's and great aunt's childhood country homes while we were at it. The wild cats had at least chosen a beautiful place to live.


After our kitten adventure we dropped off Raz at my grandmother's in order to continue on to an improptu meeting at my godmother's summer place. Lucy has been quite the trooper meeting everyone with little to no notice! We were rewarded with a great smoke sauna and a swim at the end of the night. [Lucy even went in for a 2nd dip because it wasn't so cold! Though dip is a bit of an exaggeration... it's more like put to feet in try to convince yourself to dip all the way in and jump up in shock just after you get your hair wet.]

We continued on to Stenskar in the morning and spent 2 days there with my mother. The weather was still cold and rainy and we had yet to see a sunset. We did manage to ring in the evenings by candle light with a good handful of "hamnsups" (harbor drinks) and cashmere blankets. [Actually, that's not entirely accurate (says I, the editor), the sun came out for the first time in a week or so. The islands were beautiful, the sun was warm and I, the editor, had my best time yet stealing half an hour to read my book (The Red Tent) on the "swimming" dock. see infra. Though Cora and her mom were inside wallpapering the house it was nice to take a short break from cooking and cleaning to soak up the Northern sun. I got to pitch in later with the wallpapering, hanging off the 2nd floor balcony with a rusty knife taped to a child's wooden sword to cut the top of the paper off the wall at the ceiling. Adventures are to be found everywhere I guess. I looked a bit like Don Quixote stabbing up at the imagniary foes in the ceiling]


During our time there the rain let up enough to go chanterelle hunting. My mom showed us where to find them around the island and Lucy marvelled at the many different kinds of mosses, some thick and soft, others more dense and short. They are really beautiful. While the chanterlle find wasn't huge, we found enough to supplement our seared perch dinner.


Too quickly we headed back into Helsinki in order to drop off my mother and Nick at the airport. It is now Tueday morning, August 12th and my immediate family has now returned stateside. Lucy and I are left to our own devices of which I am sure some adventures are to ensue.