The Summer House

Back home in Finland, the summer house is up there with sauna when it comes to enduring national obsessions. As soon as the ice and snow of the long, harsh winter starts to fade, people all over the country head to their haven: a small (or somewhat bigger) wooden cabin somewhere in the woods, preferably by a lake (the fact that the clichéd description of Finland as the "country of thousands of lakes" is actually true helps), with sauna and no immediate neighbours as essential accessories. For Finns, it's not enough to have a roof over their heads: for many, a normal house in an urban area will not suffice at all during the brief but frequently blazing summer season. The hardiest summer house enthusiasts even make regular visits to their summer refuge during winter months: quite a feat considering everything is iced over or covered in snow, and the heating's not been on since September.

This urge to escape the busy cities and head towards a quiet plot on the edge of wilderness where you're more likely to encounter a moose than another human being probably says something about the mindset of Finns. Finland is a large country (area-wise) with very few people in it. As the country's moved away from agriculture to more modern industries, the vast majority of these people have centred on a few densely populated, ever-growing cities. Being used to lengthy silences and the closeness of nature on some primal level, being surrounded by so many other humans on a daily basis simply becomes a bit too much to handle for many. It's time to get back to the roots, the woods and the lakes, and retreating to a summer house is considerably easier than, say, actually turning into a forest-dwelling, berry-foraging, hairy hermit. 

Sounds strange? Please take my word for it: resting at the summer house for a week or so is hugely refreshing. That's even if you end up having almost as many neighbours as in the city, many of whom follow the time-honoured Finnish tradition of not putting on any swimwear as they leap to the lake from the sauna...which is very much the case with the cabin by Löyttyjärvi, near the town of Karkkila (about an hour's drive from Helsinki) we're lucky enough to have access to. It's a question of cutting out various modern distractions (although electricity supply is warmly recommended) and simplifying your life to a bunch of basic activities: sauna, chopping wood, swimming, rowing at the lake, picking berries (and dodging snakes in order to fetch them), resting - and cooking. In this area, too, simplicity rules: the kitchen at our (borrowed) summer house is miniscule and stripped-down, and there's only so many ingredients you can cram into the boot of the car. When the weather's good, the best option is to heat up the grill and cook outside whilst trying not to be distracted/disturbed by nude swimmers.