Update from 24th of April

So this is actually the story of Anna-Karin's party in Lainio (Europe's last wilderness according to their website www.lainio.com). Anna-karin is one of Camilla's old school-friends and I first met her at Camilla's birthday party. Camilla and I travelled from Kiruna to Vittangi (the silence) and on the way there you come across this interesting pine tree which is called "suptallen" hence a most to investigate for me he he he. Suptallen means shotpine (as in snaps) and this tree is a nature reserve as here people used to stop on their way to vittangi and take a shot of vodka and let the horses rest before continuing. Apparently the horses got so used to this (having good memory and all that) that they automatically stopped as soon as they approached the pine. I doubt that people stop there for a shot of vodka nowadays but it is a rest stop.




So once in Lainio, just outside Vittangi, (a smaller village than Abisko can you believe it!!!) there is only one road going through the village and most people have some type of work associated with the "wilderness" such as raindeer herding. We arrive to this small cottage where the party is at, and it is a lovely cottage with an adjacent sauna house.








The cottage, lovely place but no water or plumbing in there.











The sauna viewed from the cottage, in the early morning hours.













Anna-Karin had a friend that played both the accordion and....










..... guitar. He had a huge set of songs that he could play and we were given a song-text compendium to sing along. Some of the songs were in finish though and the only thing I master in finish is kippis which means cheers. However, after a few beers my finish was improving (or at least I thought so he he he). It is worth mentioning that Lainio is in tornedalen where tornedalsfinish is common. This is a type of finish-swedish language more like finish than swedish though.








Anna-karin and Maria, singing along.











Camilla and party crew.











So as there was no water in the cottage we had to walk outside and into a nearby house to go to the toilet. Here is Camilla early in the morning, doing her morning (or goodnight exercise....). Reminds me of these characters (stick people) you used to draw when you were little on seperate pieces of paper and when you moved them dead quick together it looked like the character were moving arms or legs. Anyhow you get the idea.... and isn't Camilla's pyjamas cute =)









Inside the cottage this big thing was on the wall which the owner of the cottage had dragged back from Canada. He actually shot this moose over there and managed to transport it back to Sweden....











Early morning, Camilla on the accordion.... she was good on that. A potential new career maybe....












Well, if Camilla can.... then I can....