Midsummers Day 1
What is Midsummers?What a weekend!! I expected to have a good time on Midsummers, but this was not at all what I anticipated. Each time I came to Finland for Vaapu, one Fin or another would say that the next best time in Helsinki was Midsummers, which is a celebration held at just that point of the year when the day is absolutely the longest. It was explained to me that the city just about empties out, and all Fins go to their summer cottages to celebrate. Last week when I met Anders and Joen in Parnu, Anders told me that they invited over 30 people to Joen’s family cottage for the weekend, and this was going to be the biggest Midsummers party they have ever had at Joen’s place.
Back in Helsinki
I flew to Helsinki from Budapest on Thursday; I arrived around noon, and Anders was still working. So I grabbed a Finnair bus to downtown. Anders met me at the bus stop, gave me a key to his parents' unoccupied apartment, and sent me on my way. And as usual I arrived with my last pair of clean boxers, so I threw a load of laundry into his parents washer as soon as I got there. Unfortunately, dryers are not all that common in Finland. Fins prefer to hang dry their clothes. So when Anders got off work, we transported my wet clothes to his apartment, where luckily they have a dryer.
Now we had planned on having an early evening, since the next day we were going to the cottage, but instead Anders, Robert and I ended up at a club downtown partying until 5. My last memory of that night is staring at a very drunk Anders while we ate kebab shortly before I walked back to his parents place.
You Have 5 Seconds to Get Dressed
When I woke up the next day, I was without clean underwear – we left it all in the dryer at Anders’ place. So I showered and waited for him to bring my dry clothes over. Then at about 11:30am he calls – I buzz him into the building. I open the door and he says, “You have 5 seconds to get ready.” The entire time I’m packing a bag and putting on my clothes he’s downstairs pushing the doorbell.
Downstairs I jump in the back of Robert’s VW, and we were off. So the story is that everything in the city closes at 2pm on this holiday, and we needed to shop for Saturday night’s dinner. The three of us ran around a Walmart style store searching for toilet paper, insect repellent, and food for 26 (Saturday’s dinner was smaller than Friday’s). Anders already had 6 liters of vodka in the car. We barely finished in time.
Tandem Seating
Joen’s family cottage is situated in a particularly beautiful area. It is surrounded by birch trees, and it is right on the beach. The actual building is probably about 1000 square feet, so there is no way 36 people were going to be sleeping there. So as people arrived, up went their tents.
Also, it is normal this far from the city to have no water or sewer. So there were special bathroom instructions. Women may use the bathroom in the house, but men had to use a “special facility” around the back of the shed. The special facility is a wooden outhouse for 2. I’m not sure why, but when the original owners built it, they cut 2 holes in the seat side by side. I guess the husband and wife enjoyed using it in tandem. These new rules were put in place because there was a toilet emergency the year before that everyone wanted to avoid this year.
We spent Friday afternoon drinking beer and setting up for the asian-themed party. When it was time for dinner, Joen selected the seating arrangement, ensuring that couples and close friends were split up. Then came the singing. Everyone started with a full shot glass of vodka, and 36 people erupted into song. Then at the end of the song they yell the Finnish equivalent of “cheers” or “skol” and take a shot. Another song, skol, and another shot. And another, and so on. This continues from appetizers through the main course. By this time everyone is in a party mood, which is why we immediately broke into dancing. Don’t forget that it is bright as day at 11pm.
Sauna Time
Unfortunately we had segregated sauna time. The women went first, and so the men were left to drink some more vodka and beer. And when the women were done, we brought our vodka with us. I won’t go into it here, but if you’re curious, you can read about how the sauna process works in A Proper Finnish Sauna. Only this time they added a twist. I guess it is customary to collect birch leaves and hit each other in the back when in the sauna. They say it is for circulation. So we piled into the small cedar lined room with the temperature hovering around 100 degrees Celsius and hit each other with tree branches. Oh – don’t forget the drinking game where we sang, drank vodka, and poured more water on the stove. After all that, we took a nice dip in the Baltic Sea to cool off, and ran right back into the sauna to start all over again.
Dancing and Dogs
When we got back to the music, it looked like the girls were celebrating our absence. There they were, 12 or more girls dancing wildly with just themselves. Finding that unacceptable, I immediately jumped into the crowd. The dancing continued into the wee hours. At some point it was time for second dinner, so out came the bbq and hot dogs.
How'd I Get Here
As I said before, there just isn't enough space in Joen's cottage for everyone. At some point I was ready to snooze, but I didn’t have a tent or a sleeping bag, so I went into the loft to sleep. I found an empty bed and crashed into it. At some point in the evening, the couple that had been assigned that bed to sleep dumped me onto the floor, where I found myself the next day.
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