{finland, day 8, drive to kajaani}

day 8 was the start of our 8 days of traveling in finland.
there were 8 of us so we had to rent a huge van. we all worried about it not having air conditioning. did i mention yet that finland was having record breaking heat + humidity? a real sweat fest, i tell ya.
of course the guys tried to fool us that it didn't have air conditioning but we didn't buy it. :) well, it was like not having air conditioning as it didn't work very well. but i guess little bit of it is better than none at all. all in all i found that finland needs to invest in air conditioning more. only the large stores, for example, had air conditioning. buses and local trains didn't (i guess some new ones do).
our first stop was kajaani where my grandma and two uncles live. i was born in kajaani and spent most of my childhood summers and christmases there.
a fun thing happened on the way there. in a small place called juva, we had stopped at an ABC to get gas and to eat. i was waiting at the entrance for everyone when a beautiful lady stops me and says "you don't know me, but i know you from reading your blog.".

savu, if you're still reading my blog: thank you so much for stopping to chat with me. it made my day! so often i've thought of saying "forget it... no one reads my blog... there's no rhyme or reason for it... i'll just close it". so it meant a lot to me that you would stop to chat with me. thanks again!
what a surreal feeling to be in a place i've never been to before and be recognized by someone. it was great! :)
in kajaani, we stayed in a guest house at heikki parviainen's horse farm. some of my finnish readers may know that heikki has won many horse races with his horses. he's famous for how he treats his horses (he never whips them during the races...). my uncle knows heikki and that's how we happened to find such a special place to stay in.
this was the scene from our bedroom window!!! needless to say it was wonderful to wake up to this each morning.