What can be considered to be “very Finnish”?

Hello friends,

Today, MOINK20 will deliver this kaunis piece of memory in English, since our featured guests today are non-vietnamese speakers.

So, to answer such question at the beginning, I would say: heading to your beloved cottage and snuggle there as long as you want to.

And here is my story:

An unexpected journey

October 13th, a bloody cold and foggy day.

Most often, my saturdays include shopping for the next week, doing the laundry, and not much after. But on that particular saturday, I received a phone call from this very kind Finnish family:

“We need you at the Harbor at 10”

“Okay…for what exactly?”

“We go to the mökki”

For anyone who has no idea what I was talking about, mökki (cottage) is a private house (usually wooden) of Finns, which locates in rural or isolated areas. Finns love their cottages, and they will spend a lot of time chilling there.

Back to our story. So at 10am, I was at the harbor.

The breathtaking autumn is rushing to its end; however, every of its second is worth cherishing
Lappeenranta Harbor on a foggy day

Some minutes later, I was taken to the cottage by…canoe.

The sun started to shine at this point. No doubts can be drawn upon Finnish natural scenery, so you can kinda imagine how excited I was, traveling out of the city via this awesome route
About 40 minutes later, we arrived at our cottage: a beautiful set of wooden houses, located on an island so far that I felt like being the only person around

Our lady walked me around their asset, while explaining how they managed to bring all tools from the city here and built this solid, gorgeous kingdom of their own.

Here, people don’t need internet connections. Electricity are solely used for lighting, cooking, and warm-keeping.
By the way, did I mention that every Finnish own a sauna in their house? Here, we had one, and it is possible for us to watch the twilight while having a sauna session
As planned, I was here to help the family by bringing their boats and gadgets inside, as the ferocious winter is coming by. But for me, everything was more similar to a day-trip to my grandparents’ house, which means bonding meals, happy working times, and enjoying the views
In the cottage’s kitchen: Finns love keeping stuffs. Thus, whenever stepping into a Finnish house, getting overwhelmed by how much stuffs they have is somewhat amusing
Remember when I mentioned “bonding meals”? This is what I meant. Me myself have a certain interest in History, and having chance to discuss with elders about such topics at lunch surely makes my day
As the lady always kept me up to intellectual topics, this gentleman taught me how attractive men could be if they were resourceful. He built all the cottage, and basically built whatever I see around his property
Being a good grandpa, he also taught his grandchild to do carpenting. Here are the “airplane set” of his young grandson
Finns love nature, and pets, of course. This old fella has been helpful by wandering around and chasing squirrels
Later I found out that there are roughly five more cottages on this island. Here is the property fences of ours, but well, no one cares about trespassing them. People are in their cottage for hiding themselves from the noisy world, so not seeing your neighborhood on the island is somewhat understandable

At five in the evening, I was taken home by car. The one-day trip ended here, but the experience is somewhat I can hardly forget. Soon enough, whenever my family here would need me, they’ll see.

Mökissä, Syksy 2018

P/S: This article is dedicated to my Finnish family, who has given me the great chance to truly understand how beautiful the nature and people here are 😉

Us taking a nap after lunch 😀

Khanh Tr.