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July 8: the long journey to Savonlinna

An early start and a long walk to the ``Bomba house'', a tourist attraction halfway between the campsite and the town, which the guidebook assured us was interesting. It wasn't.⁶ Then it started raining, and we got a taxi the rest of the way into town.

Our next stop, some 300km south, was Savonlinna. We were now travelling in the lakeland of the south-east, through some of Finland's most beautiful scenery, and the view from the train window was great. Reached Savonlinna in the evening. Patrick realised he'd left his wallet on a train, leading to hours of frantic phone calls over the next week, which I will not detail in the interests of tedium limitation. We were saved from disaster by my credit card's ample limit.

We were met in Savonlinna by our hosts for the next two days, Anni and her sister Suvi, who drove us to their summer cottage outside the city. The summer cottage (mökki) is an important part of Finnish culture, the main elements being a pleasant natural setting, a sauna and a lake.⁷ The sisters' mökki had all of the above, and we enjoyed a sauna and a dip in the lake on our first evening there. It was a welcome change of pace from our frantic travelling of previous days.

Footnotes

... wasn't.⁶

This was not the first perfidy perpetrated upon us by the guidebook, nor was it the last.

... lake.⁷

Trivialities such as electricity and running water are not considered necessary.