June 2011: Finland

The final stop of our ten-week European trip was in Finland. Marcia is of Finnish heritage, and she had visited the country in 1974 with her mother Emily. During that trip, they visited with relatives of Marcia's father near Seinäjoki, about 350 km (215 miles) north of Helsinki. Although the two of them had planned only a brief visit, the Finnish side of the family was so excited to have visitors from the United States that they insisted that Marcia and Emily stay for several days. The only English-speaker among the relatives was one of Marcia's cousins, Seija, who was about 14 at the time. Emily's Finnish was somewhat archaic since it represented the language as it existed when her parents had emigrated around the turn of the century, so Seija had a lot of translating to do during the visit.

Seija is now married, with three children in their late teens and early twenties, and works as a teacher. She and her husband Ilkka (also a teacher) live near Seinäjoki. Seija's mother and Marcia's father were first cousins, although they never met. When we knew we were going to Europe, Marcia contacted them, and they invited us to come for a visit. It didn't take us long to say yes!

Although we had been in Helsinki earlier in our trip, the timing didn't work out for us to visit Seija and Ilkka. As it turned out, it was actually better that we were able to see them at the very end of the trip. Our first nine weeks in Europe had been mainly about places, but this last week, first in Belgrade and then in Finland, was equally about people. It was a very satisfying way to wrap up the trip.

We flew from Belgrade to Helsinki by way of Copenhagen. We had a layover of several hours, but that gave us a chance to have a leisurely Danish lunch and relax after our busy days in Belgrade.

We arrived at Helsinki's Vantaa airport late in the afternoon, took a local bus to our hotel (next to the Tikkurila rail station), and had dinner in the hotel. The next morning we boarded a train for the 246-km ride to Parkano (south of Seinäjoki); from there, Seija and Ilkka would take us to their summer house on a nearby lake. Many middle-class Finnish families have lake houses where they can relish the long, warm days of summer before the cooler weather of fall gives way to the long dark Finnish winter.

Their lake home is a wonderful place, with a two-story log cottage...

a sauna...

a barbecue hut known as a grillikota (modeled after a type of lodge that the Sami people use in Lapland) with a grill inside...

...and a garden and shed (plus an earthen "beer cellar" accessed through the small structure on the left).   

Because of the lake's irregular shoreline, you can’t see any other houses from here. The big lawn has a patio seating area, a swing set and a zipline. 

There’s a little island with benches that has a ladder-bridge leading to it.

Ilkka teaches construction engineering at the local university; he designed the house and most of the other structures and built everything here, including taking the bark off the logs for the exterior of the house. He also built much of the furniture inside the house.

This is the log stairway leading to upstairs bedrooms...

and this is the fireplace in the downstairs living area.

The house is in a delightful setting...

...and we had perfect weather to enjoy it: abnormally warm by Finnish standards, with temperatures that felt like the low 80s Fahrenheit.

             

We sat and enjoyed the surroundings and then went out on the lake in their small motorboat.

We got off on a small island, and sat on the ground having a picnic of coffee and dessert after exploring the island.

We returned to the cottage in time for the wood-fired sauna to be heated. Sauna is an important aspect of the Finnish culture, and part of many Finns' daily routines. Since this is one of the few Finnish words that is part of the English language, Marcia feels strongly that we should say it like the Finns,with the first syllable rhyming with cow. Modern homes and even apartments have electrically-heated saunas, but there's nothing like the real thing, heated by a wood stove. 

The two of us went to sauna together. Seija had made switches from birch branches with leaves for us to use, and we threw water on the rocks with a dipper to create steam. There is no electricity in the sauna, so they use candlelight when it is dark outside. We enjoyed the authentic sauna experience but decided not to go into the cool lake afterwards; we were afraid the sudden change of temperature would kill us. Seija and Ilkka took a sauna after us, and (hardy Finns that they are) they went into the lake while we enjoyed the ambiance from their yard.

Then it was supper time. We sat on the reindeer skins placed on the benches in the grillikota...  

...and used long forks to grill sausages on the charcoal fire.

It was a delightful Finnish experience. Seija and Ilkka made us feel very tervetuloa (welcome).

The next day we went to the farm that has been owned by Marcia's father's family for many years. The family name is Kaunissaari, but when Marcia's great grandfather Matti arrived in the United States, his name was changed to "Mattson." There may be some of his descendants who would have liked a more authentically Finnish surname, but Marcia was grateful to grow up with a simple, easy-to-spell last name.

But first, we visited the local church in Peraseinajoki...

...and a nearby museum. Many of the Finns who emigrated to the United States (as well as other countries, like Australia) did so from this part of the country, and a local group is developing The Finnish Emigrant Museum to help document their experience. They have been bringing buildings here from overseas to show modern Finns how their countrymen lived during their early years overseas. This corrugated metal building was used by Finns newly arrived in Australia.

After lunch we drove to the  farm, which looked exactly as Marcia remembered it. The buildings are rustic but well-maintained, and a member of the younger generation of the Kaunissaari family now owns the property.

Seinajoki has grown closer to the farm, but it is still very rural in that area.  When we arrived, a couple of women were outside, but more were inside. Senni, who is one of two surviving siblings from her generation (the same generation as Marcia's father), has lived there all her life. She doesn't speak any English, but Seija did the interpreting.

Four of Seija’s sisters, and one sister's husband, were also there, as was Seija's father, Lauri, who is 95 years old. Seija is the only member of this family group who is fluent in English (Ilkka is very fluent in English as well, and has even taught courses using English when foreign students were enrolled). The young woman on the right is Seija's and Ilkka's daughter Johanna, the youngest of their three children. She is studying to be a plumber and although she's learning English, she's shy about speaking it.

Ilkka's not in the family picture above, because he took the photo. Several of the other photos on this post are by Ilkka, too.

This three-room house (living room and kitchen downstairs; bedroom upstairs) has a freestanding wood-burning heater in the living room...

...and a wood-fired stove in the kitchen.

When we went into her living room, there was a painting of birch trees near a stone wall with mountains in the background. It was a New England scene, and Marcia recognized it immediately as a painting by her mother which was given a gift when they visited in 1974.

Nearby was a large photo of a family from the early 1900s. It was a picture with Marcia's father Eino as a two-year old, a baby (Uncle Tom), her grandparents, great uncle Tom, her grandmother's brother Herman and some other unknown relatives. Senni knew only that the family in America had sent the picture, and that it had been in the home for as long as she could remember.

It was stunning to see these pictures in this rural farmhouse in Finland. Senni then took out picture albums, and one of the photos we saw was our  35-year old wedding picture, which was equally surprising. 

After spending an hour or so at the farm, it was announced that the gathering would be moving to the house in Seinajoki where Seija’s father lives with two of his daughters. There was a plentiful coffee table with pulla (coffeebread) and coffee, and the men (including Seija’s father) soon drifted out to the patio for some man talk...

...while the women visited inside. Tom reported that Seija’s father engaged him in some serious conversation about his Winter War (1939-40) experiences, which Tom knew only because Ilkka was on hand to translate. Tom was very touched by the earnestness and intensity of Lauri’s conversation with him, during which he talked about being wounded and getting to a place where he could get medical care.

When we left we had to go to downtown Seinajoki to pick up Johanna, who had spent a couple of hours shopping while we were at Seija’s father’s house. Before we met her, we went to Lakeuden Risti, or Cross of the Plain Church, in town, which was designed by Alvar Aalto and constructed in the late 1950s.

The church itself is very modern in appearance, especially inside, even though it is now close to 50 years old.

The view from the bell tower showed how flat the area around Seinajoki is, but it was interesting and Tom enjoyed the good view of the rail station and yard. 

After dropping off Johanna at home, we proceeded back to the lake house. Because it was quite late, we declined the offer of a sauna, but Ilkka grilled chicken and potato sticks, and we talked well into the evening about all kinds of things, while we sampled various Finnish beverages including a delicious blueberry wine called Mustikka and Sima, a type of fermented lemonade. We can’t begin to describe how warmly Seija and Ilkka welcomed us into their home(s) and into their family.

Seija and Ilkka were eager to have us explore their part of Finland, and we set off for Kristiinankaupunki, a Swedish-speaking settlement south of Vaasa, where there are many older buildings, most of them constructed of wood. The town's Swedish name is Kristinestad. There were thunder showers in the morning, and when we arrived in the town (about an hour’s drive from their lake house) there were still some rain drops in the air. We walked around town, where almost every house is of traditional wood construction. This one was marked “Anno 1731”.

While most others were not quite that old, the overall appearance of the town was very appealing, with many buildings painted in various shades of red, green, blue and yellow. These buildings are unusual because, through the decades, fire has destroyed many of the older wooden structures in other Finnish towns.

Most of the older buildings appeared to be used as residences and they showed a lot of care by their owners. As is the custom in Swedish-speaking areas of Finland, most signs were bilingual – Swedish first, Finnish second.

We decided to have a small lunch, and we ended up in a café-museum (Café Lebell) whose history goes back to 1841.

We were the only patrons, and we enjoyed coffee and pieces of rhubarb custard pie. Afterward, we walked a few more blocks and then stopped at an old windmill.

Our next stop was at a historic church (Ulrika Eleonora)...

... but first we had to visit a small “summer shop” with locally made crafts.

By this time it was after 4 P.M., so we headed back to  Seinajoki to get organized for our departure on Saturday. The house is in a nice wooded setting, with beautiful summer landscaping.

That evening, we had a delightful chat with the older daughter, Annukka. She speaks excellent English and is a university student studying to be a teacher. She's also a wonderful singer, and later that evening she performed for us. Earlier in the morning, we briefly met her brother, Mikko, who lives in Helsinki, but was home for a night since he was working nearby. Mikko works with musicians in the area of sound production.

 

We left for our train early the next morning, sad to say goodbye to our kind and generous hosts. 

They showed us the best of Finnish hospitality and made us feel like they had known us forever.  We do look forward to seeing them again.

Text and images ©2011 Tom and Marcia Murray 

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