This was one of the highlights of the summercourse: in 3 days we visited 2 cottages, drove close to a thousand km. around Finland, and saw nature as it is non-existent in Belgium. Lake-Finland is an area to the north of Helsinki, where there are thousands and thousands of lakes. We saw 2 of them, one was to the north-west of Tampere, the other was straight east from the first, close to the Russian border (or so they said ;-) ). And we had sauna and swimming and sunbathing and lakes and FUN...FUN...FUN. So you would expect me to have some great pictures of it, and yes, I have... and many too!
Well, before we
could leave, we had to do some shopping in Tapiola, a little town
near Otaniemi (= where the student campus was), and all of a
sudden we came across an original Finnish grizzly bear. So if you
think you can only find those in the north of Finland, you would
be wrong... I mean, right. Actually, Conchi is trying to free a
man captured by the Kipling gorilla! Can you still follow?
Finally arrived at
the first cottage, everybody went for a swim, and some people
ended up, shipwrecked if they had had a ship, on this nearby
rocky island.
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We were having a friendly chat, face to face ;-) |  |
And in the
evening, our Finnish hosts had prepared a delicious Finnish meal,
of which the main course was 'white fish' (correct?). The dinner
was enjoyed by everyone, and so was the beer and cider, as you
can witness from this picture!!
Well, all those drinks didn't miss their effect, as can be witnessed from these images!
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And
in the
morning, we needed coffee, and more sleep ;-)
You
see what I
mean with "needing more sleep"? I guess this is how the
Chiara / Fabio namecalling confusion started... ;-)
This concludes the story of the first cottage. On Sunday morning, around 10h-11h, we left for the other cottage, which we were promised, was a little less comfortable, but completely desolate, so there would be even less rules on stuff like making noise, and where not to go...
Somewhere along
the road, I made this nice picture of Conchi, Massimo, Paolo and
Daniela (left to right).
Arrived at the
second cottage, I believe we first settled in, played some
table-tennis inside {special mention: Judit surprised me with excellent
play, as did Jani}, had lunch, and then checked out the
lake... This time we also had rowing boats to our disposal, and did we
use 'em!!!
In the afternoon, our Finnish
organizers were doing something nodoby understood, and they were
not giving away any clues. But in the evening, in the sauna,
we finally understood: the bushes they are preparing here are
used in the real Finnish Sauna Experience to
whip yourself all over. And I can tell you that after the initial
surprise, they were heavily used, until all leaves had fallen
of... ;-)
Well, my pictures
take a jump here. After a relaxing afternoon, and evening with
barbecue dinner and sauna, and nightly games, some of us were
able to survive till sunrise. Then it all began all over:
swimming, sauna, rowing... It was great though, and the tiredness
fell of me as the sun rose...
And some other ones from this time, just after sunrise: the first is a picture of Chiara, Barbara and David, who, together with me were the last ones to leave the lake that morning/night, together with Daniela, Arto and Jani. The other one is me, just me. But it happens to be the very first picture in my life, of myself, that I like !
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After that, we
lay ourselves down on the grass. Here you see only Chiara,
Fabio and me, but a few moments later the row had grown to some 8
or so people. I didn't stay there long, because I wasn't feeling
sleepy...
Later that day,
nobody was very active, and we restricted ourselves to
sunbathing, an occasional swim, and some rowing.
Just before
leaving we took the official group picture: probably the only
picture I have with every participant on it, as well as the
Finnish organizers who were among us during the whole weekend
(and on several other occasions).
The last group
picture is this one: the group in question is that of all Spanish
and Italian girls present. Aren't they all lovely?
Now look at all the pictures from this period!
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Created: 17 Sep 1997
Last update: 20 Sep 1997
