Finnish summer: part 3

Hi guys! I know what you think. My blog is turning into a fishing blog! Bear with me because the summer in Finland can’t last much longer! The heat wave has continued on and on and it’s been impossible for me to stay away from the lakes. Last week we visited Marika’s childhood friend Johanna and her husband Jouni who is also a fisherman like me. They live in Mikkeli and Jouni took me fishing on Saimaa, which is the largest lake in Finland. Saimaa even has it’s endemic seal population called Saimaannorppa. These unique freshwater seals are unfortunately endangered species and my hopes to get to see one vanished when Jouni told me how rare they are and difficult to spot and besides we were going to fish only in one bay area of the lake where the water is too murky anyway. Our target species was walleye but despite perfect weather we caught only one pike. I blamed it on north wind. In my experience north wind means no fish but at least we enjoyed incredible backdrop for our evening trolling: a rainbow on the opposite side of beautiful sunset! The day after we went fishing on one of the famous trout and salmon lakes of Finland: Puula. Again the weather was perfect... for sunbathing! Jouni reckoned sunny skies and calm lake were not gonna make our targeted fishes lake trout and lake salmon go crazy about our lures but nevertheless we trolled some hours on this beautiful clear water lake.

I know, now you are worried that I haven’t been training but no worries! I’ve been sweating regularly with my riding gear on in the heat on different trails and terrains. I’ ve been on MX- tracks...

and also on some Xtrem kind of trails....

But the fact that the water in the lakes has heated up good makes it impossible to stay only on dry land! The other day Jari Mattila with his friend Mika came to my home town to find out who is who in Jetski riding! Jari has his old Kawa 750 just like me but his is prepared for racing while mine is stock. We made a track on one shallow bay of lake Vanaja and after a short practice session started to take lap times to see who is faster. After some hours of racing Jari’s best lap time was 39s while mine was 44s and other Mika a little slower than me. Jari was able to corner at so high speed in his unique way I’ve never seen before just basically leaning the jetski by putting his weight on the back and kind of sitting down and at the same time leaning so much out that he actually hit the water with the side of his body but at such a high speed he actually bounced back and kept his balance through the corner. By doing such a radical move he was able to force the jetski to cut the water on it’s side and make it turn in situations where I was only sliding. Impressive. I have to have a rematch though. Otherwise Jari will boast about his victory forever! Next time I will be better prepared and go to his home to ”his” lake... Anyway the day was incredible good fun and we even filmed with a camcorder + a helmet cam fixed on my jetski so I will put a video online as soon I get it edited!

We had also guests from Italy when our friends Mirco and Manuela came to visit us. The day they arrived I went training with Mirco and girls went in the forest to collect some blueberries that are easy to find now! For the dinner we had walleye that I had caught the night before and for the dessert a fresh home made blueberry pie!

Then we took a ferry from Helsinki and crossed the Gulf of Finland to Tallinn, Estonia for Mirco and Manu had seen a documentary in Italian TV about the old town of Tallinn and were fascinated by it.

Me and Marika had visited Tallinn before but it is always a nice to go to the old town that is well preserved medieval piece of art and architecture. Here Mirco and Manuela posing at the center square.

We also ate at one medieval theme restaurant that put Mirco’s mind completely at ease. He sells lightning systems for restaurants for living so having a dinner in a place where the only source of light were the candles was something different and relaxing.

The old city of Tallinn had a nice medieval touch to it and when we saw one stand by the wall of the city advertising archery I immediately challenged Mirco. Ten shots of target shooting and the best score wins. I felt confident remembering my childhood games playing Indian and shooting with a bow but Mirco didn’t know what to expect for Italian children play different games... In fact, my result 48 points brought a crushing victory over Mirco’s pathetic 10 points but I have to admit that he got it with a single arrow while I never hit the bull’s eye!

After the trip to Estonia we headed for the summer cottage of Veksi, Marika’s brother where we had two days of fishing, jetski riding, eating fish and having sauna! Girls went to Tampere for shopping some fresh ingredients for the lunch and dinner (raw spiced whitefish, salmon) and it seemed to me like no-one trusts my fishing skills enough! Com’on! If I was to decide we would go to the summer cottage with my fishing gear and bring only a sack of potatoes!

Marika’s brother Veksi and his wife Leena prepared a welcome lunch by the jetty with champagne and fresh crayfish! Now it’s the crayfish season in Finland and people are catching them themselves or buying them to throw a traditional crayfish parties at home. These parties include a lot of vodka snaps and singing so you can imagine the spirit! Our party by the jetty consisted only a little champagne so it was not that traditional but at least we got away with it without headaches!

Me and Veksi had to take Mirco fishing also and of course we caught the usual pike that this lake seems to be full of. The day after we did some more trolling and caught some perches and a walleye to add to our fish diet.

Smoked salmon for the dinner is a must at the summer cottage!

After the dinner by the candlelight we performed some Finnish voodoo that included a little bull (el torito) and lower jawbones of a big pike...

Oh, I almost forgot: Nothing more relaxing than a sauna in the evening and some relaxing jetski cruising on the calm lake to cheer up the neighbors!

The day before Mirco and Manu left we took them to the forest to find some mushrooms that Italians go crazy about: porcini! In the first place we found only chantarelle and I saw that Mirco was disappointed not to find any porcini. On the way home we checked out another spot in the forest just to quickly look for them and voilá! Mirco was happy like a child on Christmas Eve collecting these precious mushrooms. Back at home we cleaned them and prepared delicious Italian dish Risotto ai Porcini and it was so gooood!