Juhannus report

I was trying to be sensible and managed to come back. Now I have to say that this Juhannus isn't something that I could call typical Juhannus. When I was invited to go to a friend's cottage I assumed that we go there, upack, relax, chat a bit, set a camp-fire, grill some sausage, have a drink or two, have sauna, swim in the lake and go to bed. I have to admit that I actually did all of that but the relax-part was not what I expected it to be - nothing like sitting on the pier or around the camp-fire. If you are curious to find out why - check the following paragraphs!Everything worked like I thought it would until the point when I arrived in the island where the friend's cottage is located. I was immediately told to take something for grilling with me and we are leaving. Nobody told me where are we heading, when are we coming back. For usually very well organised Finns it was a bit unusuall behaviour. Especially that I have not been told to prepare for anything particular.

Anyway we set out. First we spend about an hour in a motorboat to get to some point. Then we took our backpacks and started to climb up the hill, then down the hill, then up the hill again... And then one of us said that he is not going any further because he hasn't got proper shoes. I was wondering where is the famous Finnish "sisu", especially that we were almost there... Anyway we didn't want that he spends Juhannus day just by himself and we turned back according to his will.Nearby where we left the boat we set up a camp-fire, grilled sausages, and got some rest. After that we went down to join crowds gathered around big after-ski (in summer after-golf) centre to see a bigger camp-fire set on the waterand feel the atmosphere:The weather was astonishingly good (sunny and ca 15 Celsius degrees) in comparison to last two weeks when it was raining most of the time. The atmosphere around the after-ski centre was dizzy and drunk in general but very friendly. For some it was even a way to earn some money.








Filled with this atmosphere we came back to the cottage, had sauna and swam in the lake like all other "proper" Finns ;)