My wife is Finnish, so a trip to see the parents-in-law involves a lot more than simply trotting down the M1. But hooray for easyJet, who have just started flying Manchester to Helsinki for £30.
This year, to celebrate my mother-in-law’s birthday, all three of her children and their other halves went to Finland for a weekend at their mökki (summer cottage). Since we live in the UK, and one of my brothers-in-law lives in Germany, it’s quite an event to get them all there at the same time.
My parents-in-law’s mökki is in the Finnish archipelago in the south-west of the country, on an island forty minutes from the mainland. The boat ride out is fantastic – the Baltic Sea well known for being calm and still – and you can see sea eagles as well as the occasional nude Finn jumping in to the sea after a sauna.
Once you reach the island, you appreciate how far away from the world it all seems. You need to take everything out there, including food, drinking water and bedding, but, actually, it’s rather luxurious for a mökki. Sure, you have to use an outside toilet, the water that comes from the taps is a bit iron-y, and the mosquitoes are out in full force, but we had beautifully warm weather, fantastic food (courtesy of some great outdoor cooking – the smoked salmon was a highlight) and a sense of peace that it’s difficult to find anywhere in the world.
There’s no city glow in the sky, so the stars shine brightly, the only occasional sound is a motor boat in the far distance taking another happy Finn to their holiday cottage, and there really is nothing like the invigorating feeling you have after taking a sauna.
For Finns, the sauna is like a ritual. It takes a lot of stamina (in fact you can see how dangerous it can be here) and involves extremes of both heat and cold, but you feel so good afterwards, especially when finished off with a cold beer. Running down from the sauna to jump off the jetty into the sea is bracing, but not excruciating – however, I’ve yet to try rolling in the snow in the winter.
On Saturday afternoon, just as the salmon had finished smoking, we were hit by a huge storm. It swept in from the south west, thundering, flashing with lightning, and pouring down with rain. We stood on the balcony of the log cabin and watched, amazed by the fury and the noise. And then, within twenty minutes, it was gone, replaced by a freshness and a calm that made our meal seem even tastier.
Our few days away felt like a week, thanks to the feeling that time really does stand still when you’re at your summer cottage. We plan to visit for longer next year, and stay for a week instead of a weekend. It will probably feel like taking a month off.