A Finnish Weekend

This weekend I was in Ekenäs again. After a long time A. and I had a reason to visit her parents and the rest of the family again. C., A's niece was going to be baptized and we were invited.

We arrived on Friday afternoon, when A. was talking to her sister in-law, who is managing a hotel in Ekenäs, about A's bachelor thesis, as she is writing it about something with marketing for the hotel. Anyways, during this time I was helping A's father renovating a room of the hotel. When we came home A's mother was already waiting with the dinner. The evening we had a sauna and were just relaxing at home, as I was anyways recovering from a cold.

The next morning became really Finnish. I went for the first time in my life skiing. As I learned skiing in Finland means cross-country skiing, different from Germany where you mean down-hill, when talking about skiing. We went to Grabbskog, a really nice area not far from A's home. It went really well and I just fell thrice. It was good to have exercise in fresh air again and I enjoyed this Finnish national sport.

In the afternoon we had the baptism. It was held at F's & I's house. We had the ceremony, sparkling wine, good food, more wine, coffee, cake and even more drinks. It was fun to see everybody again, since we haven't been really together since Christmas like this. The kids were playing around and we were sitting, drinking and talking.

Today we went to the center of Ekenäs, as there was some kind of public fair at and on the lake. People were making ice-sculptures, going with the snow-mobile on the frozen lake and doing all kind of "wintery" stuff. We went to a museum, which displays the history of the city. But we did not go for the exhibition, we went there because you could get there free fastlagsbullar, a typical pastry, which you eat traditionally on Fastlag, which is on Tuesday. After that we went home again and had another snack. To be even more Finnish we then went to the local school to go ice-skating, the second Finnish national sport. I used A's father's super old - like from last century ;-) - ice-skates, but hey, never mind, vintage is in. It was again so good to be outside and have some exercise and I really enjoyed it.

Now I am back in Hesa and spend the evening alone. Tomorrow I have to work again and have a group meeting. Student life will go on anyways, always on the road, always active... and mostly drunk! (Naaah... just kidding)

~M~