We spent the mornings with our individual host families today. So, Liisa and I woke pretty early and she took me to the local Pori cemetery to see a mausoleum built by a very wealthy businessman in 1903 when his 11-year-old daughter, Sigrid, died. He commissioned a famous Finnish architect for the structure as well as a very prominent painter for the frescoes.
Next, we drove to Reposaari to eat at a very local, traditional Finnish coast restaurant. The food was served smorgasbord style and we had great fresh salmon, "white fish", and baltic herring prepared four different ways including salt cured, curried, and with a tomato sauce. Baltic herring is a TRUE specialty here and we're not sure how we feel about it as a group. Only a couple of us have been willing to try it - it's not bad, but it is quite small and has so many bones (that are soft and one eats), that it's hard psychologically to eat. The taste, however, isn't bad - just pretty salty! It was a bit of a shame because Liisa saw an old friend who offered the two of us to join with friends and sail back to Pori on their private boat. That would have been amazing, but we had arrived by car and there was no way to get the car back home and we had to be back to Pori for the events with too little time.
In addition to saunas, it seems that all Finns have summer cottages and we have each been fortunate to visit those of our respective hosts. Liisa and I visited hers to find two birds in the front room flying repeatedly into the glass windows. We finally managed to free the birds and enter the cottage. The pic below shows the cottage, and she had another matching building housing the sauna and shower facilities, as well as a third on the water - traditionally for boat storage, though she doesn't currently have a boat, so now housing mower and other necessities. The view from this location was amazing as was the amount of time, effort and labor that Liisa expends to keep a fabulous garden at the cottage!
Next, we drove to Reposaari to eat at a very local, traditional Finnish coast restaurant. The food was served smorgasbord style and we had great fresh salmon, "white fish", and baltic herring prepared four different ways including salt cured, curried, and with a tomato sauce. Baltic herring is a TRUE specialty here and we're not sure how we feel about it as a group. Only a couple of us have been willing to try it - it's not bad, but it is quite small and has so many bones (that are soft and one eats), that it's hard psychologically to eat. The taste, however, isn't bad - just pretty salty! It was a bit of a shame because Liisa saw an old friend who offered the two of us to join with friends and sail back to Pori on their private boat. That would have been amazing, but we had arrived by car and there was no way to get the car back home and we had to be back to Pori for the events with too little time.
In addition to saunas, it seems that all Finns have summer cottages and we have each been fortunate to visit those of our respective hosts. Liisa and I visited hers to find two birds in the front room flying repeatedly into the glass windows. We finally managed to free the birds and enter the cottage. The pic below shows the cottage, and she had another matching building housing the sauna and shower facilities, as well as a third on the water - traditionally for boat storage, though she doesn't currently have a boat, so now housing mower and other necessities. The view from this location was amazing as was the amount of time, effort and labor that Liisa expends to keep a fabulous garden at the cottage!
Tonight, we all attended a Finnish baseball game. This sport is quite different from our national pastime! The pitcher in the picture is the guy in the black outfit - he tosses the ball straight up into the air over the white disc on the ground. The batter runs into the area and hits the ball. The batter's three strikes were at first confusing as he has the option of which ball to run the bases - if he hits the ball, but doesn't like where it goes, he can take it as a strike and hit another - even if it's in fair territory and not a foul ball! The base pattern is different - yes they have 1st, 2nd, 3rd and home, but they are not in a diamond, and the bases are HUGE chalk areas they only have to stand in. There isn't a home plate so the batter only need cross the baseline across the entire width of the field to tag home - basically it's only beating the ball, and no skill on the "catcher" (he's the same guy as the "pitcher" to tag, etc. The players don't "tag up" either - again, having the choice to run - not often in a force out situation. There is a back line boundary so a home run isn't possible - in fact we never saw a batter get more than a single since the field is quite a bit smaller. We did see a couple of steals so that was exciting. It's much faster paced than American baseball - they play four innings, take a break and play another four innings. It poured rain on us a few times, but we enjoyed cheering for the local Pori/Ulvila team though they lost to a much more experienced team.
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