In the
middle of July we had our kitchen reconstructed so we went to our cottage in
the eastern Finland. We made some trips from there, including a visit to Karelian Pasty festival (“Piiroofestivaalit) in Ilomantsi, the most eastern parish in
Finland. The Karelian pasty is a small pie made of rye pastry and with filling made
of rice, barley or potato. It is delicious and very popular and I think the
most original version of it is made in regions round Ilomantsi with the strongest
Karelian orthodox cultural influences. We had an opportunity to make our own
pastys and naturally to eat them, as well. There are some other traditional pasty variants such as sultsina (a kind of tortilla mad of rye pastry), tsupukka and
vatruska (containing potato cover around the rice filling). We tasted also the
new innovations like tsupukka with wild boar filling and sultsina with chanterelle
filling. We ate some pastys also at our
cottage so it might have been the reason I gained two extra kilos…
On my way to Piiroofestivaali
In front of the "Kalevala Poem Singer's House"
Making the pastry Ready for the owen!!
So delicious....!! Greeting the calf of the original Eastern Finnish cow "kyyttö"
The weather
was not very warm or sunny so I took sun bath in my bikini only once. When we swam
while sauna-bathing we naturally wore no clothes.
We also
visited Savonlinna opera festival and saw Boris Godunov, Matti Salminen as
Boris. Salminen is already 70 years old but his voice is still full of power
and expression. Compared to average Boris he avoided exaggerating expression,
partly to reserve his powers, of course. The performance took place in Olavinlinna castle
From
Savonlinna we traveled to Kuopio. We
choose our route through lakes and islands of Northern Saimaa region, the home of Saimaa lake ringed seals. The
islands with small hills are filled with forests and very often the road joins
the rocky coast line. In some places there were little ferries called “lossi” instead
of bridges.
On the ferry
from an island to another
By the
Kermankoski rapid
In Kuopio we
had a boat trip on the Kallavesi lake. I have lived in Kuopio but my spouse had
never done it there. We saw a new suburb built in the archipelago. I remember the
same region when it was a total unbuilt wilderness.
In the Kauppakatu street in Kuopio
In Kuopio
we had a message that our kitchen reconstruction was ready, so it was time to
go back home. On our way we still met my friend Tiina in Joroinen and had a
nice chat with her.
