"Nevilles Travails - Finland" drabbles by Neville Hunt

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Åland - degrees of difference

Nevilles Travails - Finland #2

My Finnish buddy had a holiday cottage in Åland, an archipelago between Sweden and Finland. Every little island has a single cottage. Every single cottage has a sauna.

Lars, me and his teenage son went there to fish, barbecue, drink and breathe. The fish were huge, barbecue gutbusting, drink endless and sauna extreme!

Sauna - de rigeur, clothing not permitted, (really tough for a Brit!). Lars liked it very hot - 100 degrees. Just when I could bear it no longer, we had to run naked into the nearby Baltic. SUCH pain! 5.5 degrees. Did it twice! They're mad. I was Finnished!

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Not much Finn

Nevilles Travails - Finland #1

Work… but fun! Staying in a lighthouse, halfway up Finland, mid-June with 'white nights'. Light all night; fascinating.

On to St Petersburg via Helsinki by the quaint Russian 'Repin' train. Flight from Vaasa OK, except that umpteen massive Americans joined the small plane late - ice-hockeyers. Arrived Helsinki, but my luggage didn't - removed because the plane was too heavy! Up shit creek without a paddle, I blew my stack! "Why my little case?"

Minutes to spare, my luggage, specially flown down from Vaasa, arrived at Helsinki train station. I don't choose to live on the edge! It chooses me!