What dock are you at?

Helsinki Finland
Turku Finland

After a long 91/2 months we finally saw our son again.

The ferry ride over from Estonia took two hours. The ship was more of a cruise ship then ferry and it was full of Finns bringing back cut rate beer and liquor.

As the ship neared the dock David called on the cell and asked if the ship was delayed. When I told that we were docking he said that was impossible since he was at the dock and no ships were coming in. Turns out he was at another dock about two kilometers away. After a period of us waiting and him trying to walk there we just decided to meet at the central train station in Helsinki. After a 20 minute wait for a bus (in the rain) we finally got there and of course didn't recognize him until he was right in front of us.

I haven't felt that good since my daughter came back from a year in Katimavik.

We took the two hour train back to Turku where he was living and then spent two days trying to meet all three of his host families. We stayed at the third host family and spent Mother's Day morning and afternoon with them. The first family we had dinner with and the second family we played salibandy (floorball - a kind of floor hockey) and had dinner. At both places the men had to go into the sauna a number of times (oh we also had to drink beer as part of it). At one place we also jumped into the small pool outside (9 C - 48 F) several times.

Sauna is a very important part of Finnish culture and I thought it was great. Not the same as a North American sauna at all. Certainly if you had any inhibitions before doing sauna you didn't after.

All the families were incredibly nice to us. They all asked why we were spending so little time in Finland and couldn't we stay longer. I had read that the Finns were a quiet reserved people, and maybe they are, but certainly not with us. After five months on the road it had been a long time since we had spent time with anyone but strangers. Now we have a lot of friends in Finland.

I think when we actually have a house again we would like to invite everyone in Finland for a visit although I will have to build a pretty damn big sauna.

Spent the last night in Helsinki with David. He has changed a lot but it is good to see that we can still drive him crazy with very little effort. Very hard to let him go again - even if it is only for a couple of months.