Midsummer Antics.

So it is, I am destined to be sleepy the whole summer long after kipping through Midsummer’s Eve, well according to Juhannus folklore anyway.

I tried to stay awake, but three days without sleep and a switch in hemisphere took its toll – I was out like a light.

My folly did allow time to re-charge for the rest of the celebrations, and what a weekend it was.

I didn’t dream of my future love quenching my self-inflicted herring thirst or bathe in nine types of mud, who knew there were so many varieties anyway?

Neither did I find a bonfire or a midsummer bride. I did look.

But other strange almost unworldly occurrences took shape.

I came across some Brazilian dancers who, instead of shaking their Zumba behinds, were ripping up the Finnish folk-dancing floor at the Seurasaari Open-Air Museum*

A Chinese shopkeeper attempted to rip me off five euros with the logic that if I couldn’t speak Finnish I obviously couldn’t count euros either.

There was the mysterious case of the vodka bottle turning to an almost solid state in the freezer.

I took a photo of my brother and he appears to be a ghost and some guy tried to convince me to invest in a new online currency to buy hubcaps.

Strangest of all was the time warp I took to some sort of Stalinist-era soiree.

I had mistaken the “We Love Helsinki” festival for a dance party with DJs.

Instead, hundreds* of young people were rocking away to 1940/50s era pop songs translated to Finnish, appearing to be having the time of their lives.

I’m usually a pretty open-minded sort of person, but this was something else.

Here’s hoping these events were all just part of the Midsummer antics which only take place one weekend each year.

Sgt. (Sleepy) Sana

* The museum, just a few kilometers from the city center, includes traditional Finnish cottages, farmsteads and manors that date back over four centuries.

* According to the We Love Helsinki Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121903967894591 – close to 700 people said they were attending the party, I am still lost for words to explain.

Arrival in Helsinki – Midsummer’s Eve

First impressions are lasting, so boy did I get a shock when I arrived in Helsinki (after a very, very long flight) on a Friday morning to find a city deserted.

I had expected to find a capital city bustling with people, instead I found a ghost town.

I felt as though i had wandered into the opening scene of 28 Days Later.

The explanation, I soon discovered, was a far cry from the “rage virus” of Danny Boyle’s acclaimed horror flick.

I had arrived on Midsummer, the summer solstice – a very big deal on the Northern European calendar.

It  was the first day of the long weekend (shops actually shut for three days).  And as I discovered Finns had fled the city in droves for their summerhouses *.

The celebrations, known as Juhannus after John the Baptist, often involves bonfires, booze and weddings.

The pagan festival is also steeped in mysticism and superstitions, many about love.

If you go to bed thirsty from eating salty herring the person who offers you water in your dreams is your future husband or wife, so one story goes.

If you sleep on Midsummer’s eve you will be sleepy for the whole summer. Or if you mix up nine different sorts of muds and cover yourself in it you won’t freeze during the winter – good advice for the Army?

I think I have to go and check out some of this Midsummer madness for myself– I’ll keep you posted on the results.

* The summerhouse is a widespread second home in Finland. The small cabins are typically built on the shores of a lake. There are more than 470,000 summerhouses in Finland – not bad for a country of five million inhabitants.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXBH9OWgALc – Song “It’s a Ghost Town around Here”

Helsinki central railway station

Helsinki central railway stationCBD Helsinki

Leaving Home

* The initial blog entries take place before my interview in Helsinki.

The sauna is a key part of a Finns life, so a stint in the big hot Nordic sweatbox was a fitting farewell * to life in Canberra.

Well two stints actually, in between champagne dinner, Jacuzzi, and fretting about last-minute packing preparations.

This was all part of the dinner-package my friends, at the ever so stylish Finnish embassy, organised for me, and fellow conscript-elect Lisa*.

I was stoked, because in Finland it is considered to be a great compliment to be invited for a sauna and chat.

It was my last night in Australia, and already I felt like I was in Finland.

So bring-on the saunas, and everything else Finlandia, that lays ahead!

Farewell Australia (I will miss you), and hello Helsinki!

Let the adventures begin.

Sergeant (Sus)Sana.

(Sana means word in Finnish)

• My mates have endured numerous farewells for me over a month. I’m sure they were just as relieved as I was to learn that flights out of the east coast of Australia had returned to normal on the day of my departure, following disruption caused by a volcano in Chile. Strange coincidence that the Icelandic volcano had also threatened my brother’s arrival to Helsinki six-months before.
• 21 year-old Lisa  Ylisalo, from Canberra, has also applied for conscription in Finland in July. Our mothers meet each other, completely randomly, in a clothing store a month before my departure. What are the odds – stranger things have happened right?

 

And check out the Canberra Times article on my adventure!  Canberra Times

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/finnish-is-just-start-of-national-service-journey/2200190.aspx

 

 

Preamble

National service in Finland is compulsory for men, who must complete up to one year of service before they turn 30. Women have ben allowed to partake since 1995 but service for them is voluntary.  I have sent in my conscription papers to the Army but have to undertake a final interview in Helsinki in the final week of June before I am officially accepted.

About me

My name is Susanna Dunkerley, I ‘m 26 and recently left my life, and job as a journalist, in Canberra to undertake national conscription in Finland. As a dual Australian/Finnish citizen service is completely voluntary. So why have I moved to the top of the world to join an Army in a land whose mother tongue I don’t know? Good question; I guess I’m about to find out. Stay tuned and enjoy my trip towards The Finnishing line …