Finnish Summer Cottage

This has been a long summer. From the United States to Finland. From working remotely to working in the lab. And from endless summer nights to the gradual darkening of the days. A lot has happened.

In mid-July I experienced my first Finnish summer cottage. We visited one for an hour or so during the language-culture course last summer, but this time I stayed for a full week. First my girlfriend- Linnea, her sister, and I took a train to Tampere to pick up their dad’s car, then drove to Helsinki to pick up a friend, and finally drove to the summer cottage in Rautalampi, a small town of about 3000 people. Overall we traveled about 800 km.

It is common for Finnish families to have a summer cottage, especially one that has been passed down for a few generations. When I first heard this, I was surprised. Usually only rich people have lake houses in the United States. But a summer cottage is no lake house. It is often on the rustic side with no running water, no electricity, or electricity supplied by solar panels (though ours was connected to the grid). Finns go to cottages to take a break from everyday life and enjoy the simpler things.

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It took me about a day to get acclimated to this way of living. We used an outhouse, washed our hands in rain water, and boiled water to wash the dishes. Every few days we went into town (only a 10-minute drive) to go grocery shopping. There we filled big water jugs for drinking and disposed of any non-biodegradable trash. We burned paper products and threw biowaste into the forest. Linnea and I opted to sleep in a tent since the original six people would’ve made for a tight fit in the cottage’s one living space. Each night we went to sleep cold and woke up soaked in sweat, the sun acting as our natural alarm clock. Finally on the last night, we decided to cover the tent with a tarp, making it so much cooler in the morning.

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We spent the days at the cottage playing games, doing a bit of outside work, reading, shooting a BB rifle at a target, and grilling on the fire pit. One day a man drove past selling these tiny fish called muikku, which we cooked up with potatoes and salad- a typical summer cottage meal. Occasionally we ventured into town to swim at the beach and drink coffee at cafes. At one I was presumably the first North American to visit, which the owner excitedly had me mark on the world map.

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We chopped firewood that was already cut from the surrounding forest and used this every night in the wood-burning sauna. For the first time I tried vasta, which is a bundle of birch branches used to lightly whip yourself or someone else. It may sound odd, but it felt pretty nice. Afterward we mixed the cold well water with the sauna-heated water and used this to wash ourselves. This particularly put into perspective how much water I really need versus how much I use regularly.

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Overall this was a fun and relaxing week. This kind of environment allowed me to enjoy the people and nature without as many distractions. In fact, upon return my phone informed me that I used it 50% less compared to the previous week. Now I understand why Finns love their cottages so much, and I have this to look forward to next summer.

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