Myron Floren revisited

When I was growing up Saturday night was at, my dad’s insistence, Lawrence Welk night. I hated listening to all the stupid acts – Jo Ann Castle, Sissy and Bobby, etc. Yes, I still remember all those names. They’re permanently etched in my brain. There are things I’d like to remember about my life and can’t, - but these. They’re right there in the memory banks. I would verbally trash the Lennon sisters with their wholesome squeaky-clean persona, while secretly engaging in a 14 year old’s fantasies. I remember my dad loving the accordion player Myron Floren. So here we come to Finland and voila it’s “flashback time.”
Our Finnish Servas hosts informed us that they were going to a Folk festival in the Swedish/Finnish border town of Haparanda where their son, Heike, was playing, “ta-da,” the accordion. Since we were leaving on the day of the festival, we had to pass.
So we crossed into Finland and stopped at the tourist information building where we got information on local doings. The manager, Eija, told Carol about this famous Weaver who would give Carol lessons for an hour. While Carol was looking at the web site with Eija, I was bantering with the workers, and I mentioned that one of the girls must be a piano player since she had long fingers. “Yes,” she said. At that point Eija asked me if I knew what instrument she played with her stubby little fingers. “Piccolo?,” I asked. She replied that she played, Ta-da,” the accordion. I told her we had heard about a festival and the son with whom we were staying was playing in this festival. She asked his name and when I told her, she giggled and said she was organizing the festival and played in the same group as Heike. She said she had two accordions in her car and when I asked her if she would play for us, she said: “Sure, come back in 30 minutes.” As it turned out she was going to her performing group, so here Carol and I are at a class for 15 accordionists listening to polkas, folk songs, and other traditional songs. We loved it. Somewhere out there, my dad’s laughing at me.
Our host was this wonderful, gregarious, effusive woman who forced me to face one of my personal demons, my innate dislike of people who can be described only as more than overweight. Elana is huge. But she was so disarming that I couldn’t help liking her instantly. Certainly more than I liked my reactions to her the moment I saw her, what with my prejudices. We have family and friends who have worked hard fighting this weight problem with limited success. Just another thing Jim has to work on.
She took us out that evening to show us people, places, and things, all with a giving spirit and an openness that dispelled the notion that Finns are cold, unfriendly people. Combined with Eija’s laughter and smile and the other Finns we met, we were thrilled that preconceived notions could melt away quickly. That’s always a dilemma for me in my travels. Realistically we meet a limited number of people in a limited number of days. Considering karmic forces, coincidental happenstances, luck of the draw, and all the other clichés one can muster, are we seeing a true picture of a place or only our little, personal snapshot of a people. But, in the end, all we know is what we see, and we’ve found Finns to be open and friendly.
.Elana asked us if we knew about sauna. We told her of course we did, since we had one. When Carol described her “Infra-red” sauna, again she just frowned and said: “That is not sauna. Sauna must have water, sauna must be attached to bathroom, and must to have hot rocks.” She said that every Finnish house had a sauna. Even people who live in apartments had a sauna. Finns couldn’t live without one.
On the first night we went out and about we showed up at her uncle’s house at about 10:45 p.m. I couldn’t imagine dropping in on someone at that time of night at home. You might get shot as an intruder. But hey, this is where it doesn’t get dark, so no harm, no foul. “We sleep in the winter,” Elana informed us. Coffee, sweet buns, and conversation made for a late night. We got to bed after midnight, and that after declining another round of late night coffee when we arrived back at the house.
We had told the girls at the tourist bureau that we wanted to see reindeer in the wild and so they told us to go on these remote roads the following day. We did, and saw nothing. Elana just looked at us with this blank stare when we told her where we were going. “Why?” she wanted to know would anybody go where’s there’s nothing but bushes. Her friends at work all laughed as well. It must be a Finnish thing. We had a good time, but saw no reindeer. But we were so tired, we had to pull off the road and lean the seats back on our car and take an afternoon nap.
Another late night visitation the following night with more coffee and rolls and conversation with a friend left us very tired. When Elana asked us what time we were leaving in the morning, she insisted on making us coffee before we left, and then she would go back to bed.
So off we headed, north of course, always north. We passed the Arctic Circle and the requisite souvenir shop, and arrived at Alli Ohenaja’s camp. It’s a beautiful, isolated place. Well, it’s Northern Finland, I guess that goes without saying.
Alli is Sami, the indigenous people of Lapland, and is a total bundle of bubbly joy and enthusiasm. She’s about our age and maybe five feet tall. Her husband died six years ago, so now she runs this guest camp, a 900 acre reindeer ranch, and still creates beautiful designs in her weaving. We don’t know how many reindeer she has, ‘cause it’s really impolite to ask. It’s akin to asking how much money they have in the bank. We were the only guests in the camp so she had a lot of time for us. We went to her “shop” which is a living museum of the Sami life. It was incredibly interesting even for the non-fiber guy She fixed us dinner of reindeer stew, and showed us that it had to be eaten in just such a way: Take the mashed potatoes, make a mountain of them, create a crater in the middle, pour the stew in the middle of the crater, then put the cranberry? Sauce and dill pickles on the side of the plate. Maybe it was the presentation, but the meal was delicious and we overate, of course. Carol got her fiber lesson, wove a sash with a Sami design on it and we had a wonderful afternoon and evening.
Alli was dressed in western clothes when we arrived, but when it came time for her to be “On,” she was dressed in the traditional Sami outfits. She looked absolutely beautiful and explained what each part of the dress was and why it was. Nothing is just there, it’s all functional. I asked her about the knife hanging at her side, and she smiled and said: “If the Sami doesn’t have his/her knife, it’s like an arm is missing. You never know when or how you will need it.”
Winter is the busy time for her camp, and Carol and I are thinking seriously of bringing a group to her camp. It’s a beautiful area. Don’t know how people would do with the “Opposite and equal reaction” light thing I talked about in the last letter, but people can ski, go on reindeer sleigh rides, ice fish, help herd reindeer, and other assorted activities. The ladies could do the fiber thing, and guys could, well, do the guy thing


Mood swings and temperature changes
Elana told us that the wind was blowing from the north and we should expect colder weather. They do know their weather here!
It went from a high of 85 degrees one day to a high of 42 the next. Cold, drizzly rain hampered our ability to do some things, but we were lucky in that it was mainly two days of driving, and the big benefit was NO MOSQUITOES. They are legion and legendary up here in the north. You can buy plush toys that buzz when you squeeze them. There are so many that the reindeer are tormented by them and the botflies that get up their nose. I don’t know about you, but I hate when that happens.

Where’s Santa
On the day we drove to see the reindeer and didn’t see any we were bummed. Well, no more. It’s one of the things I really wanted to see. Reindeer in the wild. We’ll I’m disappointed no more. We saw soooooooooo many that Carol finally said: “No more reindeer stops.” We had plenty of photos and videos. An interesting thing is there are not any wild reindeer. They all belong to somebody. They have this intricate method of ear tagging the baby reindeer. Like cattle brands used for identification in the old west, these ID marks are cuts they make in the babies ears in an intricate pattern of big cuts, small cuts, and notches. There are over 10,000 combinations they can make, and everybody knows everybody else’s marks.
Water, water, everywhere and it’s all fit to drink
Well, we thought we saw a lot of rivers and lakes in Sweden, but it a geometric increase in Finland, and we weren’t even in the lake area. Look at a map of Finland, and you’ll realize what we mean. I didn’t know there was that much water in the world, much less in one country. And it’s all so pristine and unspoiled. Just sitting there for people to use, and we rarely saw anybody on the water. Only one boat on this gorgeous lake we stopped beside to eat our lunch.

The restaurant at the end of the Universe
With all respect to you HHGTTG fans out there, the restaurant is an overpriced Chinese restaurant in Kirkenes, Norway. Yes, we made it!! All the way to the north. Where the road ends. Where Finland, Norway, and Russia all come together. The only place where all the signs are written in Norwegian and Russian.
We went to the Russian border just so we could say we did. It’s only 10 minutes away, and leads to Murmansk. That name from my past map perusals. The place where the Russian navy has its fleet. Shades of Crimson Tide, and all. Kirkenes is a small town, 5,000 people who fish and mine and sleep around, according to Mette, the hotel receptionist who came over and sat down and talked to me this morning when I came downstairs to finish writing this. She said she can’t understand it, since it’s such a small town, everybody knows everybody and everybody knows what everybody else is doing.. She told me more about life here in one hour than all the guide books I’ve read over the months before the trip. She was thoroughly engaging and so open about herself and her life that she will always be the focal point of my thoughts of Kirkenes. Once again, people pop into and out of my life who enrich it by their being a part of it.

To the dark side of the moon
Tomorrow we take the Hurtigruten ferry south on our 34 stop, six day “Cruise” to Bergen. Check it out:
http://www.hurtigruten.us/Itinerary.asp
Scroll down to "day seven" and you’ll see our itinerary. Many of the stops are only for an hour or two, so there’s little time to explore, but we’re really looking forward to it. No more driving for a week. No more changes of hotels for a week. No more……….. well you get the picture. It’s not like a Carnival Caribbean cruise, but I think that’s the good news.
We probably won’t be able to send emails during that time, but I’ll keep my brain from overloading by writing daily and send them when we can.

In the mean time, please you’ll stay safe and know that we are having a great time………..again.
Carol and Jim