FLASHBACK #40: Viikinsaari Picnic

The Summer was now in full swing and, now that MidSummer was done and dusted, people were returning back to the city. A few weeks after MidSummer, my Neighbour and I organised a trip to Viikinsaari, an island on Lake Pyhäjärvi.

Bree arrived already on the Friday night and, come Saturday morning, we woke up to clear blue, sunny day. Bree, my Neighbour (donning her trademark pigtails, and wearing a t-shirt featuring a small Union Jack) and I headed into town in my car to meet 'Blue' and 'T', another one of my neighbour's colleague's who I had met one several occasions.

I am quite surprised that I haven't mentioned Blue before. You see, Blue is gorgeous. She's sexy, she's girly and sooo funny. If I wasn't gay, well, you know... :-) Anyway, I was glad that Blue could make it and the five of us gathered at Laukontori. It was the first time that Bree and I had been present on a trip such as this with friends of mine in Tampere, and what a lovely day it turned out to be.

Having gathered together and boarded the ferry quite quickly, the 20-minute journey on Lake Pyhäjärvi was filled with lots of 'catching-up' chat. When we arrived, we headed to the far side of the island where we found a nice patch of grass beneath some trees and right by the shore. It was then that my Neighbour presented a wonderful picnic. It was a relief that everybody got on well and, sitting down, we listened with Blue and my Neighbour dished our their usual supply of entertaining stories and funny jokes. Meanwhile, 'T' tended to be rather quiet. As a person, I quite like 'T', but her tendency to be quiet grates me sometimes. We must bear in mind, however, that silence is an integral part of the Finnish persona. This lead me to wonder, where the hell did Finland find my bubbly Neighbour and my gorgeous Blue?

After a couple of hours, we decided to walk around the Island and it wasn't long before we came to a stony beach. I couldn't resist the water so, having stripped to my underpants, I waded slowly into the bloody ice-cold water. One thing about Finnish weather is it can be very deceptive - while the air temperature can be reasonably warm, the lakes retain a chill reminiscent of the long winters. It was refreshing, anyhow.

As we headed back towards the jetty, we came to a Villa which had a play area. The children that we are, each of us tried our hand at walking on stilts. On each attempt, I burst into a fit of giggles, unable to take the activity seriously. Blue, however, showed a talent for walking on stilts and, let's face it, it's a useful skill if you decide to run away and join the circus! As she waded across the grass on the stilts, her pigtails swayed cutely.

We waited for our ferry at the jetty. By now, it was probably about 5pm and I could remember feeling the heat on my face. When we got back to Laukontori, we all had an ice cream from the Ice Cream Parlour. It's interesting to note that Finns eat the most ice-cream per househould in the EU and I have to admit that they certainly know how to make it. Yummy!

It was when we said goodbye to eachother that I realised that the process of saying goodbye to not just friends, but also to Tampere City, had begun.