We decided it was time to go deeper into the country side, since we’d been in Moscow and St Petersburg and we were exhausted from all the city fun. The plan was to find some Couchsurfers with kids in the country so our kids could just be kids for a while. To my surprise Finland had a few Couchsurfing families that we decided to write to. We instantly got confirmation and invitations from two families. So we decided to go and stay with the Jarvinen family that had 5 kids and lived in a converted school in the country side. What a great choice that turned out to be for everybody. Firstly we had arrived at a kids heaven, toys everywhere, trampoline, Lego’s, Barbie’s, rollerblades and an entire climbing gym indoors and outdoors, as well as 5 little blond bambini’s to play with. Our kids where in heaven and the lack of understanding of the Finnish language didn’t seem to worry them at all. Juha and Mari were the best host to us,with their life’s already full with work, a large house and 5 children, I was amazed at how much time they still had for us and how they made us feel welcome. We spend the next 8 days picking all sorts of yummy berries, bushwalking with the kids to little huts and climbing towers. Making fires and cooking damper and marsh mellows on them, as well as sausages. Richard managed to catch an 8cm long fish, which turned out not enough to feed all of us. Finland is the land of the thousand lakes and so so beautiful at sunset.At home we ate delicious food cooked by Juha and Mari, and we just simply relaxed and learned much about the Finnish culture.
Richard helped Juha to get his website back up and running and it felt good to give something back. These guys were also extremely generous in lending us their car for the day, so we could have a drive around the coastline. These guys were awesome and we are definitely planning a trip back up, hopefully in Winter and up to Lapland to find a Moose and Santa Clause and search for the Northern Lights.
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