Porvoo - June 15-17

The plan was to spend a day in Helsinki, then travel to Porvoo for three days, then back to Helsinki. Shortly before arriving in Porvoo by bus, life intervened. Chris told us that Monna's father had died. This terrible news put us in a bit of a tailspin. While Monna went to her parents' place outside of Helsinki, we went on to try to enjoy the itinerary she had planned for us, albeit with somewhat dampened spirits.

Porvoo is a cute little town 50km to the east of Helsinki. This also puts it about 100km from the Russian border. While people are joking that one should see Porvoo before the Russians get here, the Finns are in fact looking at Vladimir's recent expansionist ambitions askance and have heightened the state of alert of the armed forces. One hopes that some sanity is left in the big state to the east. Porvoo is the second oldest town in Finland, and was founded around 1370. Its importance was based on its location by the exit of the river into the gulf of Finland. A row of warehouses on the river is still preserved.

We arrived on a Sunday and found out a little too late that restaurants close early that day. After wandering around aimlessly, first on the web, then on the streets, we wound up at a Nepalese place. So much for local cuisine. I overcame my prejudice for eating non local ethnic food outside of Queens, and it was actually pretty good.

The next day we were being hosted by friends of Monna's family. We started by visiting a small Orthodox Church, complete with private tour by the pastor, followed by a tour of the locale cemetery and its notable deceased. After that we had coffee at their house followed by sauna. Can't come to Finland without that. Alas, the weather gods were starting to desert us. It rained much of the afternoon and got colder.

Today started with flurries. That curtailed any thoughts of kayaking or biking. We went to see an organ concert at the Lutheran church and then had lunch with that same family. The afternoon was spent largely inside, since it was decidedly uncomfortable outside.

In spite of my earlier comments about the midnight sun, I'm becoming very fascinated with the bright nights. I wound up wandering around in a very empty Porvoo last night at 1:30 after we closed down the Irish pub. I get this sense of not wanting to give up daylight. Had it not been cold, I very likely would have stayed out much longer. It also totally screws with your sense of time.
Midnight:

1:30 am: