This past week, I went to Latvia and Finland. The former was on a student cruise, which means the entire boat was filled with college students from all of Sweden. Everyone drank a lot, danced a lot, and...oh, right. We also saw Riga, Latvia for a few hours. Such a beautiful little city. The sun wasn't out and it was bone-chillingly cold, but the amount of attention and care that went into the details of the city were visible on every building. Pieces of the architecture reflected the changing culture of Latvia as it shifted from the Middle Ages, through various regimes, into Soviet power, and then liberated itself during the fall of the USSR. The architecture was, in all honesty, the most beautiful I've ever seen. Every building had a story behind it, every tucked away side-street had some fairytale legend to explain its importance. For example, there was a thick wall in the heart of the city that was called the "Swedish wall". It was said that, when the city was divided, two lovers that lived on opposite sides of the wall would meet at this spot and whisper through the wall. Sadly, the story ends with the maiden being built INTO the wall while she's still alive as punishment for falling in love with the boy on the other side of the wall. Disney won't be picking up on this plot anytime soon
It was cold, and almost everyone was hungover, but I really enjoyed it. We ended up eating in a New Zealand themed restaurant as well, so I felt very well-traveled after those few days.
After only about 24 hours back in Sweden, me and a few friends (Mimmi and Lindsey) boarded a boat to Turku, Finland, where Mimmi's university if located. We spent the first night in Finland playing beer pong and taking shots of true Finnish drinks: Mintu (mint flavored) and Salmiakki (salty licorice flavored). When we first arrived, people seemed a little weary of the very obvious American girls in the corner of the room. But as the night wore on, the Finns we met proved to be welcoming, open, and very friendly. It was April 20th, so Lindsey and I encouraged everyone to smoke a cigarette at 1:20am (4:20pm Colorado time). We tried to explain why to a few people, but I really don't think we were making a lot of sense.
Mimmi is from the most southern town in Finland, Hanko/Hangö. It's a little city of about 10,000 that probably has as many beaches as people. Even in chilly April, it was gorgeous. The sun setting over the Baltic Sea, driving past lines of multi-colored cottages and thick forests, going to the only local bar opened during the winter/spring, showed me a side of Finland I probably would never have seen, had I not known Mimmi. But I was pretty damn glad to have Lindsey there...I probably met about a hundred people that weekend and I would have been intimidated out of my mind if I didn't have my trusty co-foreigner at my side.
It was SO AWESOME to get spend some time in a real house. The first night, Mimmi's parents cooked us elk meatballs and mashed potatoes, along with some chocolate mousse that we glad spent the following couple days eating. And there were animals galore. And her cat had just had KITTENS. Cutest things alive, a vast majority of the photos I took that weekend are of cats.
I think the thing I found the weirdest was how everyone I met spoke Swedish, not Finnish, as their first language. This particular region of the country is filled with a small part of the population that speaks Swedish as their native language. This American was, frankly, pretty impressed by the fact that everyone in this region is trilingual; Swedish, Finnish, and English were standard languages. Someone explained that there's tension between the Swedish Finns and the rest of the Finns and that some Finns are annoyed that they must cater to the Swedish speaking population of Finland. I guess some people believe that they aren't truly Finnish unless that speak Finnish as their first language. Maybe a little like Mexican immigrants that live in the United States? Except instead of this being an immigration issue, the Swedish speaking Finns have had their roots planted in Southern Finland for a while now.
Anyways, I think I heard more Swedish during that week than I have the entire time I've been in Sweden. I only heard a little Finnish, though. Swedish and Finnish are as different as two languages can possibly be, so I truly wouldn't have understood a single word of Finnish even if I had heard more of it.
I have an exam on Saturday that I'd give a body part to be able to skip. And next week is Valborg, which is like the biggest party week in all of Sweden. Champagne for breakfast, boat races, sunshine, and WARM WEATHER!!
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