Last nostalgic days in Finland this summer

The last days in Finland we had to hurry in order to do as many things as possible before leaving. We had nice weather ant the sea water had got warmer.
So we finally went swimming to Laajakoski, which is the place where we love to go for quick evening swims and to Äijänniemi, which is the nearest beach.

I took the girls for a photo shoot in a wheat field.  Took lots of photos and we had fun.

We went to Katariinan Meripuisto, a lovely park in Kotka where we had an evening picnic. I really love that park. You can see the sea all the time and there are lots of things to do, you can have barbeques there, there are good picnic tables, you can excercise or just relax and breathe in sea air.

We went out for dinner to an Indian restaurant with my mother and I went out with my sister's daughter to a Thai restaurant and the girls wanted to go to Subway once more. That's there favourite restaurant in Finland.

We went for bicycle rides and picked some more blueberries in the nearby wood. They were getting a bit dry and you could see from the trees that autumn was arriving.

Then we had a nice day in the countryside at my sister's home. The girls tried pony agility and  driving a pony carriage with my sister's cute Shetland ponies.

It has become a tradition to buy sweets here in Finland before leaving. The supermarkets in Finland have a really good selection of them.

We went to the swimming pool in Kotka and to the shopping center for some last shopping.  It was a cool and rainy day, but the outdoor pool still was open and the water felt really warm compared to the air.

We went to Lovisa because Daniele had left his watch at Onni's home. That day it was also the old houses' day there, where you can visit people's houses, but we didn't have time to do it this time. There were lots of people and we walked around a little bit before driving back to Kotka.

The last night in Finland we had a get-together with old school mates in a beautiful restaurant by the sea in Kotka. I got to see some old class mates and we had a really nice evening. There were people from different graduation years, so many of them I had never met, some of them I didn't recognize and others were just like 30 years ago. Only four persons from my class came, including myself. Two of them are my close friends and fortunately I see them every time I go to Finland. The third one I hadn't met for many years and it was really nice to see her. I hope we will meet soon again. She even came to my home to meet my parents before the party and the four of us had a drink in the bar near the restaurant before going to the dinner. 

Posing with my parents before going out.

A week at the summer cottage

After our trip to Tallinn on the 15th of August it was time to pack for our yearly cottage holiday. This year my parents had booked a week in a cottage in Valkeala, so it was a new place for us. Francesca's flight back to Rome was early in the morning two days after we arrived to the cottage and we couldn't get ourselves and all our staff into one car to get to the cottage, so I went there with the girls first and after having taken Francesca to the airport, I went to get my parents.
Considering what kind of weather it had been in Finland all summer, we were incredibly lucky. It was sunny all the time and the water in the lake slowly got acceptably warm to swim in. We had a swim every day from the sauna anyway.
The cottage was called "Tehtaanpuisto", which means mill park, because in the area there had once been a mill and the houses around it used to be the factory worker's homes. The garden was really big with big trees and a big lawn. There was a walk down to the lake where there was a sauna with a stove that was really easy to warm up once you learned how to do it. Also the cottage was big and spacious.
Of course we compared it to the cottage where we had been going for four years now and there were some things we missed from there. I missed the lovely sunsets and the view over the sea from the cottage, the girls missed the jetty to jump from and we missed the terrace where you could sit and have breakfast or eat in the evening, although it was a bit narrow. We also missed the woods just outside the cottage where you could pick blueberries.
The pros were the grocery store at a walking distance with a bar and a small post office, where my parents had ordered our newspaper to be sent, the sauna that was easy to warm up and very near the lake, so it was easy to have a quick swim from the sauna, even when the water and the outside air weren't so warm, enough space inside the cottage and the dartboard outside. There was a place to go horse riding just 2 km from the cottage and there you could also stop to pick blueberries.
They could have provided something to play with in the garden and maybe a garden swing that most gardens in the countryside in Finland have and a table and chairs to sit and have your morning coffee a bit closer to the cottage. Now you had to walk to the grill place, which was a bit too far away. There was a lot of space in the garden, but not so much to do there actually. We did find some raspberries and red currants to pick there and in the end of our holiday I picked some and made a pie of them at home.
Anyway our holiday was really nice and relaxing and we were so happy to have had a week of lovely weather.
We had a sauna and a swim every day, went out rowing a few times, played lots of cards, had barbeque evenings, sat out in the garden and made a drawing of the cottage, read magazines and books, threw darts, picked blueberries and made a blueberry pie and once we also went horse riding. I had a morning swim a few times after having gone out for a walk/run. The first nights were very cold - when I took Francesca to the airport at 5 o'clock in the morning it only was 6 degrees. But then the nights got warmer, so the last night when we had our barbeque in the garden we were able to sit there until it got dark. Only the mosquitoes disturbed us, so my father went in to the cottage as soon as he had eaten his sausage.

Here's a collage for each day at the cottage.

Day 1

 

Day 2

Day 3

 

Day 4

 

Day 5

Tallinn day two

The next day we had a good breakfast and another swim in the pools. Me and Carlotta had our hairs cut at the hotel. The hair dresser remembered us from last year.

Then we went out to do some more shopping before taking the ferry back at 16.30. This time we found the Rotermanni shopping centre which we didn't find last time, because it was a bit hidden. It was worth seeing. It was built in an old factory and there were very nice coffee shops, some good shops and the Kalev chocolate shop.

Tallinn, here we come! Day one

Tallinn is such a nice little town, so I wanted to go there again this year. Just in time to see Daniele in Lovisa before he flew off with his friend to Monaco and get to know the mother of his friend who had invited him to Monaco.

Then we took the bus to Helsinki and we went to my friend Alexandra in Espoo and the next day by the ferry to Tallinn.

We stayed at the same hotel as last year, Tallink Spa & Conference hotel. It's a good choice if you want to relax in the pools and saunas after having walked around the city.

When we arrived we first had a soup lunch in the Soup gallery where you can eat as much as you want of different kinds of soups and bread for only 5 euros.

We were a group of girls of different ages and different needs, so we all had to be a bit flexible. While we were walking around in the old town, which I love, the 10-year-old wanted to go to the hotel and the pools and the teenagers wanted to go to the modern part of Tallinn where they could find shops that interested them. Francesca took some photos of the old town just to show her parents and Sofia said she had seen all that last year already. Well, after I had forced everyone to take the mandatory walk up to the Toompea hill where you have a view over the old town, we went to the shopping centers in the modern part of Tallinn. When we all were tired the pools and the saunas were waiting for us at the hotel. Just perfect!

Family reunion in Santalahti

The last years we have organized a summer get-together with some of my realatives in Santalahti. It's a camping site with a restaurant, a café, a playground, a beach and a mini golf course, so there's a lot of space and things to do for everyone. There were my mother, my brother and sister, my sister's two daughters with their families, or part of them. A good tradition that I hope we will keep up as long as possible.
The weather was beautiful and the sea water had warmed up at least a little bit. After some mini golf playing, first in the water were the Italians! When I saw that Sofia, Carlotta and Francesca went there and stayed quite a while, I thought I could manage to do it, as well. Slowly I made it and once you got used to the cold water, it wasn't that terrible.
I had brought a little present from Italy to my godson, Justus. Justus is my sister's daughter's 2-year-old son. He and specially his bigger sister didn't think the water was cold at all.
Before going home we had an ice cream and something to drink in the café.