Hello from my home in Helsinki! This is NordLetter #110, a weekly newsletter on living and walking in Finland. Each week I share some of the interesting things I found on the web.
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Sometimes I wonder if people back home (in India) do the same things we do.
Do they sit together on weekends, and plan the week which lies ahead?
Do they plan to go to the mall, or the park or a drive somewhere?
We have not really lived in India. We meaning Prerna and me. We got married after I was already living in Finland. Prerna joined me soon after. And India changes so quickly and so often. I remember being surprised and delighted when I experience the Zepto 10-minute delivery thing. And so, it feels to us that this is how all people our age do things.
All this to say, that we plan in advance almost every week for something or the other for the weekend. Because otherwise, everyone has admin stuff to do - tending their homes, buying groceries, going out, whatever.
A couple of weeks back, we were sitting at the home of a friend who have a child of around the same age as Savya. We had been planning to do this for a while, or at least I was.
We are on the lookout for people for Savya to have play-dates with. In our old building, one of our neighbours had a son who was around six months older to Savya. And so in Matinkyla, we did not have to worry about this. We could just get into the lift, go up seven floors and be at their place. It was effortless.
Here, in this place, we haven’t yet met anyone like that. Savya is the smallest kid around here. We haven’t been able to organise playdates with kids from Savya’s daycare either. And I feel like they must have had enough of each other in the daycare.
So, we are at their place. The children are laughing, shouting, jumping around. They have a small slide and a see-saw. The kids are playing there too - though its a little cold outside. So, I am trying to get them in.
We, at the adult table are having some samosa chat, chai, and some conversation. We talk about the things we usually talk about - jobs, jobs in cloud, raising kids in this country, and nature. From there, they talked about going camping a couple of weeks from then and would we want to join them?
And so, here we are.
Hanko is around a hundred and twenty kilometres from Helsinki. We took Route 51 and then Route 25 to get to Silversand Hanko. Most of this was a two-lane road with speeds varying from 80 to 100.
We left at 12:00 and should have reached there in around a couple of hours. It took us more. For most of the road-trip we were crawling through traffic. It felt like everyone was going to Hanko for mid-summer eve. At point on Route 25, we were sitting on the road with the car shut down. I opened the 112 app and saw there was a traffic notification for an issue with the bridge up ahead. Meanwhile, cars were taking u-turns and going away in the other direction - back home, it felt like.
It felt like this would be the end of our trip. I talked to some friends of ours who were closer to the bridge where this situation was. Just as they said lets wait for ten minutes and then see, the traffic started moving.
Silversand is a camping site near Hanko with different accommodation options and places to pitch your tent in. There are cabins in all shapes and sizes, including one in a barrel on the beach.
After reaching the site, we slowly drove toward the reception and restaurant. There were caravans and cars and people milling about. I wondered for the first time after reaching here, if we would have space to pitch the tent somewhere.
The plan and there was only a brief outline at this point - was to see the place, see the facilities and then decide if we wanted to stay the night. The highlight would be waking up in the morning to the chirping of birds and a wonderful morning sun over the bay.
We parked just outside the reception. The weather outside was warm, but not humid. There was a breeze in the air. There were some swings and a trampoline. There were kids running around. Savya was asleep now and I wondered if I should wake him up and let him have a go at the swing. He loves the swing. I did not wake him though.
We did not have to wait too long as the friends who had invited us to this thing had come to the reception as well. We started the boring stuff then - paying for a spot to put the tent in, finding a place to park the car, getting stuff out of the car, and so on.
Just past the reception/restaurant/washroom building, there is a kitchen on the other side of the road. That was our first stop. We had not really had much to eat before starting driving. We had made some sandwiches and rajma. We were carrying some rice and yogurt with us. Other friends were carrying similar things - veg biryani, some cutlets, chai.
There are three or four sections in the kitchen building - first a play room with a pool table and some toys for kids. There are also some booths for people to sit in, next to the windows. The next section also has a booth and some charging points, plus the refrigerator. The next section is the kitchen section - with sinks and induction cookers. Finally, the last section is a open sit and eat section - with three benches and tables to sit at.
We sat here and ate.
Everything was delicious - as it usually is. Then, I took Savya to the beach. Last summer, during a picnic at Oitta, Savya had really enjoyed himself at the beach. I had similar hopes this time around. The water was not too deep, there were kids playing in the water already. I changed Savya into his swimwear and took him in.
The water was chilly. And while he was laughing and saying - water - and pointing at it, he was also crying from time to time. So, I took the executive decision and cut his playtime in the water.
Our friends had put the mat on the beach and were just chilling there. We went there next. We took out the beach play-set and let Savya play. Which he continued to do for the rest of our stay.
We just sat and talked. Different things this time around. I went and sat at the raft out in the water a little distance from the shore. It bobbed and waved. I sat with my feet in the water.
We had decided by this time that we would not stay overnight. I don’t like crowds. And the crowds had only grown since we had arrived. I saw some familiar faces - someone from work, a teacher from Savya’s old daycare. And even though I loved the idea of staying here, and waking up in nature - I did not want to do it with so many people around.
There is a reason why I love living in Finland.
We went back to the kitchen. Someone started a fire at the beach. We made rice. Someone else had brought some parathas and pickles. We mixed and matched. I had rajma-rice, and paratha-rajma and paratha-achar.
We cleaned up after ourselves, put things back in our cars and went back to the beach. We stood near the fire, which felt uncomfortably hot. So we moved a bit away from it.
There was live music at the bar/restaurant. We asked if anybody wanted to dance - and then moved to the dance floor ourselves. I took Prerna’s hand and before we had completed one sway of our hips, Savya had joined us.
‘Papa’, he said.
I picked him up and held Prerna at her waist as the three of us danced, awkwardly, perfectly. This little moment of not caring about things and just being.
Hyvää Juhannusta!
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Until next week.
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