Syyslommaa is fall/autumn (syys) break (loma). Our syyslommaa is a whole week off from school and so for these first four days I have gone to Savonlinna in eastern Finland. Savonlinnassa means "in Savonlinna" because the "-ssa" at ending means to be "in a place."
Esim. (example); minä Savonlinnassa ja se oli kiva. I was in Savonlinna and it was fun. Minä is "I", ja "and", and se oli kiva "it was fun."
On Saturday morning we got into the car and drove three hours east to the city of Savonlinna. My host mom and sisters are from Savonlinna which is a pretty small, but beautiful town. We drove to the summer cottage at Lammenniemi just outside of Savonlinna where we would be staying. Lammenniemi has been in the Höglund family (my host mom's family) for nearly 50 years now and so there are usually always other cousins and aunts and uncles, etc., there.
The last time we visited was in the summertime when it was warmer and we were able to sleep out in the wood aita where there is only a simple electric heater and beds, etc. Since it was only 1 degree above freezing, we decided to sleep inside the main house.
At the same time we were there, we saw two of our cousins, an uncle, and grandma.
Besides cooking plenty of delicious food, on Saturday night we went to sauna down by the private pond. It was nice to have sauna, but I didn't go into the pond because it was just so cold. I really do need to prepare myself for ice hole swimming in the wintertime though, that's going to be a real challenge, but a once in a lifetime kind of thing too.
It was really cold on Saturday afternoon, but while the light lasted we were outside doing what we could. So we bundled up and went to a marshy area to pick cranberries.
I've never seen cranberries in the wild before, only the fields full of cranberries in the Ocean Spray commercials back in the US. There weren't as many cranberries as on a farm, but quite a few if you knew where to look. I'm so glad I brought rainboots and my rainpants because the water was quite deep in the marshland and I would have been soaked otherwise. We called it quits when our buckets were somewhat full and our fingers were begining to freeze.
On the way back to the house we walked through the forest, crossing over some of these planks of wood which are in different areas to protect the forest floor from being trampled if people use the trail a lot.
We also crossed a few of these wooden bridges too. You have to be really careful on some of the wooden bridges and paths, because they are really slippery when wet, and some of them have collapsed from being used so much over the years.
Lammenniemi used to be a farm before the Höglund family purchased it, but there are still some areas for horses to graze. The sun set pretty early at about 6pm and it is especially dark out there with all of the trees around.
We spent the night there and then the next morning went mushroom picking and cooked more delicious food. Everyone was leaving that afternoon to return back to their homes for work on Monday and we decided that instead of sleeping out there all alone and being there with not too much to do, we too would leave. After coffee and a final goodbye, we left Lammenniemi and drove to Savonlinna where we stayed the remaining two nights in my host grandma's apartment.
It was quite a shock when we woke up to cloudless skies on Saturday morning. It really was beautiful outside, chilly, but nice. After breakfast, we walked across the town to visit Olavinlinna.
Savonlinna is built on three different islands on the biggest lake in Finland, and this image is taken from one of the islands looking across at the harbor, a church, some different buildings, and my host grandma's apartment right along the waterfront.
That evening, we went over to one of my host uncle's house and got a tour of their new boat. It was pretty nice and of course, had a sauna.
After the boat tour, we drove up a large tree covered hill, that also housed the cemetery in Savonlinna. I didn't feel it'd be right to take any pictures so there isn't anything to show for this. My host grandpa passed away last January after falling very ill, so we visited his grave and put some candles there. Then we walked among the tombstones a bit before retreating back to the car because it was so cold.
On our final day in Savonlinna, we woke up to gray skies and the news that snow would be coming to southern Finland tomorrow. I wandered around town a bit with my host sisters, and after lunch my host mom and I went to a museum.
We were the only ones there besides one other man who came in after us. We watched a video on the Saimaannorpat (in English!), which is an endangered species of spotted seals that can be found nearby. The video shared the story of a seal pup and his first few weeks of life and the transition of life from winter to spring. It was really crazy to see how quickly the seal pup grew and fattened up. They are really cool with their nice leopard spots, but now their numbers are dwindling from hunting and being caught in fishing lines, etc. Finland is one of the only places in the world where this species can be found.
The museum was mainly about Savonlinna and how the city looked in the old days and about the boat industries. I learned that Finland had a huge tar industry for building boats, and it was actually tar that was the first thing that really put them in with world industry.
There was also an opera costume exhibition and a small art exhibition upstairs.
One of the boat models outside, and a view of Olavinlinna in the background.
There it is, the Museo which I visited earlier today.
There were some different steamboats in the back outside, but because it isn't summertime, they weren't open to go on.
After visiting the museum, we walked back home, had coffee and packed up, then drove back home to Lahti where I am now typing this. This weekend has been really fun and I really enjoyed getting to see different things in Savonlinna.
I could see snow coming down lightly on the drive home, so it will be interesting to see how things look tomorrow morning when I wake up. Now I also have five more days of syyslommaa, so we'll just have to see what I do next.
Happy autumn!
No comments:
Post a Comment