Last Day in Salo

Kari's Post:

We met Tuomo and Jyrki at the market place and headed off in Jyrki's Land Rover to Teijo National Park. The plan for the day was hiking and fishing... but while I was off with Patti hunting for a bathroom, Jyrki and Tuomo were busy setting up a birthday party for me, complete with freshly prepared birthday cake and champagne. And as a birthday gift, they gave me a gorgeous knife made by a well known Lapland knife maker. It was very sweet.

After the birthday party wrapped up, we headed off into the forest. On our hike, we saw a number of fairy ornaments scattered in the forest. These ornaments represent the traditional Finnish gods and beliefs. We also crossed paths with a large group of small children dressed up in handmade native american headdress, grilling Finnish sausage. We have noticed that a lot of childrens' activites are planned around nature in Finland.

After the hike, it was time to fish. We didn't have much luck at the first lake, but Patti started things off reeling in a lake trout shortly after we arrived at the second lake. Not even a few minutes later, Mary had a nibble. Mary reeled in a lake trout just a tad bigger than Patti's; it was the first fish that Mary has ever caught. A very excited moment. Patti, Mary, and I tried fly fishing briefly before the group headed to another part of the park for lunch. We were back at the homes of our host famlies in the early afternoon. Most of us are planning to meet up again at the market center this evening for a concert by a local artist.

Tomorrow is the last official day of our GSE trip. We will leave Salo early in the morning and will spend the day touring around at our leisure in Helsinki. Julie, Patti, and I will leave for Minnesota early on Saturday morning. Mary will stay and travel around Europe for a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for the last photos of our trip...