Just a few more kilometres till Oulainen. A small town, with about 8000 inhabitants, in the middle of Finland. 830 km up to the Arctic Ocean Coastline and 550 km till Helsinki which is in the south.
We arrive Kanturinkatu No 9. Matti, Lissas dad, already awaits us. We did plan our visit to their house already a few month ago. Now we are here. Originally it was planned that Liisa would come as well, while we are here, but due to holidays in Bavaria, where families with children have the right beforehand for vacation it was not possible. Apart from Elsa and Matti, a few parcels already awaits us from grandma, parents and brothers and sisters. Lots of goodies are in it, from smoked ham over Levercheese and homemade strawberry jam. Certainly we are not starving at all, you remember that we wrote in our last diary ?since days we eat mushrooms from the forest? but it is always nice to have some delicacies from home for a change. In one of the parcels my new camera lens is in, which unfortunately broke on a hiking tour on the Lofot islands
The communication is more with hand and feet, than with our mouth. We do not speak Finnish and Elsa and Matti are not speaking German or English. In Norway and Sweden it was quiet easy for us. The words are very often similar to German and when people spoke slowly it was working out quiet well. But not with the finish language, no chance at all. Well this situation can´t go on like that. Raimund and Matti are going into town to purchase a dictionary ?Suomi ? Saksa? (Finnish ? German) Now our conversations are going better. Later on Matti, the priest of Oulainen is visiting us and he is our translator. Matti, he is about our age, was born in Tansania and lived with his parents for a while in Ethiopia. He speaks fluent English.
See picture in German version: Matti and Michaela
The sanctuary of all finish people is the sauna. Most of the houses have their own one. The importance of a sauna is different then in Germany. It is so to say the expression for Finish lifestyle. It is a place for communication and parties. It is said, that a lot of important business is done in a sauna. The tradition of having a sauna is most probably as old as the Finish people and nobody would have the idea of putting rules onto that tradition. It doesn´t matter, how long somebody is staying in the sauna, how hot the temperature should be, or how long you should do a rest in between having a sauna. The only rule Finnish have is: Enjoy! It even happens sometimes when a group is having a sauna they grill sausages on the sauna oven or drink beer. Matti explains us all about having a sauna. In the afternoon we go into the forest to cut some birch branches which are bind together with another birch branch. In the evening when we having a sauna we punch each other with that branches onto our backsides and legs to open the pore.
See picture in German version: Matti, cooks the elk
Next hurdle. Mass on Sunday morning. While Matti is preparing the Sunday meal, we visit with Elsa the protestant mass which is about the same then in Germany. Back home again we can already smell the elk meat. There will be for lunch minced elk with mashed potatoes and cranberries. As a dessert we have blueberry-raspberry-strawberry soup. All what comes on the table is fresh, either from the garden or the nearby forests, just like the things are in season. Even the potatoes are from Elsas and Mattis own garden. Since now is blueberry season, there is always fresh blueberry juice with our meals. Elsa tells us that they are collecting every year more the 100 Liters of blueberries. 2003 they even had a record year with over 160 Liters of blueberries. Here it comes quiet handy that in the house of the Jussinniemis is a huge fridge where one even can walk inside (like in the gastronomic). Nowhere else we have seen such a fridge in a private household. All the of the harvest of the garden and forest is in here.
In the moment there is harvest in all the forests. You can see the Finnish people spreading out on all the little roads out of the forests. They try to find balance on their bike since they have buckets full with blueberries. The typical sign of this season are deep blue fingers.
See picture in German version: ? even we were going into the forests
In all the supermarkets where one can normally find lots of sugar, the shelves are at this time of the year nearly empty. In all the finish houses people preserve the forest fruits. The winter is long in this part of Europe and to the next harvest it is quiet a while to go.
See picture in German version: Elsa and Michaela are picking blueberries
Matti show us the technique of paddling. We are going to the Piipsjärvi (Lake near Oulainen) set in the canoe and off we go. Both of us are first doing a few rounds with Matti and then he just let us go.
See picture in German version: Matti and Michaela on the Piipsjärvi
Matti says, we should cross the lake and he picks us up with the car on the other side of the lake. That was our baptizing before we paddle tomorrow on the river. A few years ago I did go by canoe with a friend of mine, Amann Reinhard, in the river ?Schwarzer Regen? (Bavarian Forest). Well I have to say we did go more under water then over the water, but this is an old story. A few weeks ago a Swedish told us: A good Indian paddles soundless, when you put the paddle into the water there should be no sound at all.? But till we have reached this point we should do many more paddling. Till now we anyway haven´t seen any Indians in Scandinavia (not till now!) The next day Matti brings us together with the canoe to priest Matti. Priest Matti is for us not a stranger anymore since he helped us in being a translator Priest Matti and his family are living at the Pyhäjoki. Pyhä means holy and joki is river. To the holy river. The mooring is next to Mattis house. There is a strong wind blowing so that the bit of current of the river is holding our canoe more or less move less onto it. We paddle through the reed out of sight of the house and let us flow on the river. Back to the mooring, Ruth, the wife of priest Matti receives us and invites us for coffee. After coffee we are showed round the house which they bought just a few years ago. Before that time they were neighbours to Elsa and Matti
See picture in German version: Michaela, priest Matti, Elsa and Ruth at the coffee table
Ruth, who is the daughter of a priest, tells us, that she actually never wanted to marry a priest. But lots of times future has other plans for us then we would like to have for ourselves. Now they live with their 4 kids (three daughters and a son) on this wonderful idyllic place. The grandfather of Ruth used to be already the priest in this town and they found out that he even used to live just a few meters away where they are living now. Late in the afternoon Matti and myself are driving to the collective and help priest Matti with the shifting of some cloth bags, which are collected in the parish and later go to the 3. World countries.
See picture in German version: priest Matti with family
Two years ago Elsa and Matti did visit Liisa in Munich. At a trip to Andechs they were ordering pork with dumplings. Michaela remembered, that Elsa and Matti liked it a lot. So the idea was born, that I should prepare for them this Bavarian speciality so to say as an souvenir. It should be me who prepares it, since at our home in Germany it was as well always me, who was in charge for the Bavarian dishes. Now we have a problem. How do we get the dumplings from Germany to Finland, since here we definitely can´t buy dumpling dough. We have two possibilities, either we let us send the dough from Germany and hope it is still fresh when arriving or we do the dough by ourselves, but this is the more difficult way, since it takes a long time and I never did it before. To make sure after all that we will have dumplings at all, we ask my mum to send the dough and as well the recipe of how to make dumplings. For our luck the dumpling dough which was send came in ?good health?.

One week we have been guests in Elsa and Mattis home. Tomorrow we want to go further on to the East of Finland, Karelia. Today in the evening we have once more sauna.
Next morning after having breakfast together it is time to say goodbye. Matti once more goes to the garden and makes us another care package: Fresh onions and potatoes.
The next lines are just for Elsa and Matti

? Mieluummin Elsa ja Matti, olemne viihtyneet täällä oikein hyvin.Oikein
paljon kiitoksia kaikesta.Toivottavasti tapaamme pain uudestaan?.

It is already the third week of August and the Summer vacation in Finland are over. School has started this week.
On the big campground we are totally alone. The atmosphere is really strange. Even the nature seems to already have said good bye to summer time. The days are getting shorter and in the evening it is really getting cold. In the morning the windows of our bus are covered by condensed water and the sun has problems to eat the mist above the lakes away.
See picture in German version: Evening sky at the Puruvesi
We are going further south. We follow the border between Finland and Russia for quiet a while till we come to the Saimaa Lake district. The landscape is criss crossed by lakes, islands and peninsulas.
See picture in German version: at the Russian border
The whole landscape is surrounded by endless forests. In this maze we loose track where a lake ends and where a lake starts.
See picture in German version: Lake maze in Southeast Finland, more water then land
The way leads us further over a spit of land through a lake. Suddenly the street ends at the water. But we can see already in a distance on the other side of the island a small ferry boat which brings the few cars over to the island. The ferryman lives next to the ferry and his duty is from 6 am till 10 pm every day. We find a wonderful place next to the beach, surrounded by trees and there we make a small campfire. The nature is with us, all over we find berries and mushrooms. That?s a place to be for a few days
See picture in German version: Nightcamp at Saimaa
Slowly but surely we say good bye to Finland. With our thoughts we are sometimes already in our next countries to come. But a bit of time we still have. There are still 250 km to go to Helsinki, where we are invited from Pävi, a friend of Liisa and our guide in Helsinki as we have been here a few weeks ago with my parents. In Loviisa, a small village at the south coast we walk over an open market. And there, quiet unbelievable, we see an Indian in Scandinavia. If he knows about the quiet paddling, we are not quiet sure about that?!
See picture in German version: an Indian in Scandinavia
In the evening we are at Pävis place. Again we get a terrific meal. Quiche with a filling of reindeer ham. Delicious! Pävi wants us to sleep in her bedroom that we at least would once in a while have a real bed. She herself sleeps in the kitchen. Dear Pävi: ? Paljon kiitoksia!? Unfortunately we have to go out of this comfortable bed already at 5.30 am, to make sure we are in time for our ferry to Tallinn in Estland. The ferry leaves exactly at 8am from the West harbour in Helsinki
See picture in German version
With melancholy we look back a last time. Even with all the mosquito?s it have been a wonderful three month in Scandinavia. We will never forget the beauty of this countries but even more we will always remember about the warm-hearted people leaving here!

The next time we will tell you more about the three Baltic states Estonia, Latvia and Lettland, which have been liberated themselves 14 years ago from the nation prison Sowjetunion.
Have a good time in the meanwhile!

Michaela und Raimund