Cruising around Karelia

Since the last blog entry Katri and I have clocked up quite a few kilometres on land and water, alternating between Katri’s parent’s house in Pieksamaki and their summer cottage. Given that petrol is heavily taxed and is around 1.35 Euros ($2.15 AUD) per litre, it has been a significant expense. However, if you are feeling lucky you can gamble your petrol money at most medium sized petrol stations, as they are regularly lined with pokie machines. Finland has certainly taken a different approach to Perth’s “no pokies outside the (one) casino” policy.

All the driving has been worthwhile as my time the summer cottage and around the lakes has been wonderful. The daily routine of picking berries for breakfast and mushrooms dinner continues, with raspberries now in season and in my breakfast bowl each morning. I have also had plenty of chances to relax, have a sauna and spend time on the water. Katri’s parents offered to take us out on their boat for a tour around the lakes surrounding their cottage, which I gladly accepted. It was explained to me that it would be around 25 minutes each way, but even with my poor comprehension of Finnish it was clear that somewhere along the line the plans changed. The dead giveaway was when after an hour or so going in the same direction, Katri’s father gave the steering wheel to Katri as he quizzically consulted his map of the lakes. Although we were lost, it had nothing to do with alcohol consumption as a random breath test from a police boat ensured.

However, I’m certainly not one to give advice on driving a boat, as my seafaring skills are not as strong as my self confidence. My attempts at steering the family's row boat onto the lake for the first time brought about wholehearted laughter from Katri, and glare from me that was icy enough to freeze the lake over. All things considered, my efforts were not as bad as they could have been, as the last time steered something on water was at Katherine Gorge in 2004 when I capsized a canoe with a friend. Somehow the advice of “don’t take the canoe down the rapids” became a challenge to see if we could take the canoe down the rapids. This time, thankfully, the water remained underneath the boat and all that was lost was some dignity.

The cottage is in Karelia near Lake Saimaa, Finland’s largest lake, in the most eastern province of the country. Karelia has a unique place in the hearts of many Finns as it has been a contested territory with Russia and since the bitter Winter War (just prior to World War II) it has remained divided between the two countries. Karelia is also home to some marvelous local beer, bakery products, forest food and unfortunately forest insects. However, you can't blame the Finns for the mosquitoes and ticks as like most problems, the Russians are always to blame ;)

The last few days have been spent back in Pieksamaki, but last Sunday we went on a day trip on around the Savo region and had a trek around some Finnish national parks. A highlight for me was Savonlinna, a beautiful small town in the east of the province. Savonlinna is famous for its month long opera festival and week long ballet festival in July/August, both held in the impressive Olavinlinna Castle. The Olavinlinna Castle is a magnificently well preserved 15^th century castle and the most northern stone caste in the world. Historically it was used to protect the unstable border between the Kingdom of Sweden and its Russian adversary in Ingermanland. As it was Saint Olaf's Day last Sunday, we were able to tour the castle for free. However it’s not just high culture and history that makes the town famous, it is now also home to the Mobile Phone Throwing World Championships, held every August. Given the weight of my semi-mobile brick telephone, I don’t stand much chance winning the competition this year.

This Thursday Katri and I will be returning to Lund (in southern Sweden) for a week, before I catch the train north to Oslo and commence my studies. I’m really looking forward to being back in the familiar surroundings of Lund, as it has been just over a year since I finished my studies there. I was thinking today that if I continue with my ambitions and go on to study a PhD after this masters program, I have at least another 5 years of studies ahead of me… Well it’s a scary prospect, but not as scary as working a Monday to Friday, 40 hour week. My timetable in Oslo looks more like a Tuesday to Thursday 12 hour week, with 3 months of summer holidays. I think I could handle this for the next five years!

Finnish road trip

Over the past week or so I’ve been on a bit of a road trip around different parts of Finland. Katri and I started our travels in a small town called Sääksmäki where Katri played doublebass in a classical music festival, while I ate food and stayed in the hotel provided to the musicians. Sääksmäki is a small town about 30 kilometres south of the city of Tampere, where I will be studying in January 2008. I think we left Pieksämäki for Sääksmäki last Wednesday (11 July), but I’ve been getting confused about the days of the week as every day has felt like a Saturday since I quit work. If you’re beginning to wonder about the meaning of the word “mäki”, it means hill and as there are many towns named after hills, and many Finns named after towns, there are plenty of mäki’s all over Finland.

Even more numerous than the hills, are the lakes here in Finland. When I first came to Finland I was amazed by all of the fresh water lakes, they are absolutely everywhere. Unfortunately the reason for all the freshwater lakes is that it rains and rains. In the summer of 2005 I had the pleasure of getting free tickets to the World Athletic Championships in Helsinki, as not many people wanted to watch track and field athletes compete in 6 inches of water during what should have been the “driest” week of the Finnish summer. During the Sääksmäki festival it also rained frequently. Finns are beginning to suspect that I bring the southern hemisphere winter to Finland each time I arrive on a holiday.

Thankfully classical music concerts are performed in indoor venues and the musicians were simply fantastic. Although my appetite for classical music does not match my appetite for watching cricket on television, it felt great to see such fine (mostly) Finnish musicians perform. Finland has a strong musical tradition and many of the graduates the Sibelius Academy play music professionally all over the world, but return to Finland during the summer holidays and perform in festivals like the one I attended. An example was the cellist Timo-Veikko, who plays in the Australian Chamber Orchestra and whom I had previously met in Perth, and who played an amazing Beethoven sonata for cello on an early 18^th century instrument. The orchestra initially offered me the opportunity to play viola in some of their pieces, but as I am more of a pantomime musician who treats music as a good way to meet girls (I met my girlfriend Katri by sneaking my way into the Lund University orchestra), I politely declined.

Apart from the music, Katri and I also had time to walk around the neighbouring town of Valkeakoski and take some photos (see below). Another neighbouring town we visited was Toijala, which turned out to be where the brother of a friend of mine from Willetton High School, had recently built a house. Our time in Sääksmäki coincided with a Finnish glam-rock concert in Tampere which my friend Klaus was attending, so we stayed with Klaus at his brother’s house in Toijala after the festival, before travelling to Helsinki.

Klaus shares an apartment in Helsinki with a friend of his, who I met at a Finnish summer festival in 2002, and who has since been voted as the second sexiest man in Finland. I was flicking through some junk mail and noticed a picture of him in a catalogue, which you can see below. You can judge for yourself, but since I have arrived in the country, I'd like to think he'll now be relegated to third sexiest man in Finland.

Katri spent about six and a half years studying bass at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, so I had a good guide for my tour of the city. We travelled to Suomenlinna (translating to “Finland’s castle”), a sea fortress off Helsinki which has been used in the defence of three separate states – Sweden, Finland and Russia – giving the fortress special significance and a unique blend of architecture. For more information on Suomenlinna see: www.suomenlinna.fi/

That night we went for dinner with friends on another island, Uunisaari, where I experienced how much a glass of cheap South Australian wine costs in Finland, around 13 Euros (21 Australian dollars). That said, the food was delicious and there aren’t too many cities in the world that offer island restaurants with panoramic outlooks onto the sea. We also went for a drink at an Australian bar (not my idea!) which was surprisingly authentic, with bottom-shelf Australian lager, served by a foul-mouthed Australian bartender, who did not know a word of Finnish.

Following our stay in Helsinki, we stopped overnight at Katri’s parents’ summer cottage, which her father built on a lake in eastern Finland. This was my first time meeting her parents and it was a uniquely Finnish experience. Katri’s parents do not speak much English and as I speak even less Finnish, Katri acted as interpreter. One thing that needn’t be interpreted is my running from the sauna and jumping into the lake, naked in all my glory (though slightly less glorious when I climbed out of the cold water). Needless to say, I made a great impression on them and we will return to the summer cottage in a few days time.

The number of blueberries in the forest surrounding their summer cottage was absolutely amazing. You can easily pick half a litre of blueberries in half an hour, and given all the fruit picking I have done lately, I beginning to feel like a true backpacker. But the forest is not without its own dangers, with the neighbours reporting that a bear (or “karhu” in Finnish, which I remember as it is also the name of a popular beer I have drunk here) had been swimming in a nearby lake. A storm also passed through the region last night, resulting in trees falling on 30 summer cottages. Time truly stands still in the Finnish forests and I can’t wait to get back out there in my retro sports gear, which should be bright enough to scare off most things lurking in the woods.

Sunny nights in Pieksamaki

Okay so now it all begins! It has been a hectic few weeks, but I have made it to Europe and finally got this blog up and running.

For those of you not yet aware, I quit (or as I prefer to believe, "retired") from my Government job to study a second Masters degree in Europe. This time I will study a joint European Master in Higher Education at the Universities of Oslo (Norway), Tampere (Finland) and Aveiro (Portugal). The programme is for two years and I will move between the three universities, starting with Oslo next month. It is all funded by the European Commission through the Erasmus Mundus scholarship scheme, so I can seriously claim to be a professional student now. For more info on my course and other courses where you can get paid to study, refer to: http://www.uv.uio.no/hedda/masterprogramme/heem.html http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/mundus/index_en.html

I left Perth on Tuesday last week (3 July 2007) and flew to Singapore, then via London to Helsinki. I know some of you were interested in my initial flight to Singapore with the budget carrier Tiger Airways (www.tigerairways.com), as they offer perhaps the cheapest way to escape from Perth to Asia. Tiger Airways are cheap, in every sense of the word. The flight was cheap (about $350 one-way) and so too was the terminal I arrived in at 3:00AM (the budget terminal, not the regular one), but once you add in the other costs of upgrading luggage to 20kg, paying for every kilo of excess baggage, booking a preferred seat, buying a packet of chips and drink onboard, it does start to add up. Free of charge however, Tiger left my suitcase to be washed in the rain on the airport tarmac.

The flight itself was comfortable as I had a seat on the emergency exit row, but it was strangely hot inside the plane. Perhaps it was an attempt to induce further purchased of overpriced beverages, but the real oppressive heat was when I arrived at the semi-air conditioned budget terminal in Singapore. The advertisements for the airport carried the slogan “Singapore Airport Budget Terminal- Enjoy the Experience”. Sweating it out with my wet luggage, whilst waiting half an hour for a bus to the main terminal, was an experience I could have easily gone without. Still, it was cheap, and as I am a cheap kinda guy on a student budget again, I'd travel with them again.

The flight out of Singapore to London with British Airways, was far more comfortable, despite its 13-14 hour duration. Being from Perth you get used to long-haul flights, as unless your planning to holiday in a mine site, you will generally have to fly for 3+ hours. The transfer in London went without incident and before I knew it, I was with my girlfriend Katri in Finland and ready for her home town of Pieksamaki.

Katri's parents’ house is on a street aptly translating to “forest school road” as it is near a world renowned school for forestry studies and is very close to forests (obviously!), freshwater lakes, berries and mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are Finland's answer to the Australian blowfly. As with the Australian blowfly, my personal technique to repel these nasty creatures is to violently flail my arms around my head and swear loudly.

The landscape here is extremely tranquil and beautiful, though slightly less so when I am dealing with the mozzies. It's commonplace for rivers, lakes or coastlines to be without houses, fences and traffic here in Finland. There are strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and many other fruits ready to be eaten immediately or used in Finnish cooking. I have done well raiding Katri's parent's fridge of blackcurrant juice and blueberry tarts, while they have been on summer vacation at their cottage. I'm sure I will enjoy them even more once my stomach adjusts from my regular steak and potatoes diet.

It’s summertime and if I am lucky, the temperature outside will get above 16 degrees and an even warmer 60 degrees in the sauna (the pic below is a Finnish smoke sauna in the forest, not a little house!). The days have been rather wet and overcast, but the wonderfully aspect of a Finnish summer is that an overcast day can easily become a warm and sunny night. Looking outside at the heavy rain this afternoon means we may postpone our cycling, walking and berry-picking until it brightens up later tonight!