I hate Finnish cottages! -the twist-

A few days ago I was invited to spend my first weekend off in weeks to a rented cottage somewhere near the forest. 

To begin with, my imaginary idea of a cottage was somewhere between a tropical beach house in Thailand and the criminal location in the woods of Unabomber. Sometimes I’ve also imagined the Finnish cottage as something like Johnny Depp’s house in ‘the Secret Window‘. And since I hardly google anything, I let my imagination build my “expectations”. Something that we should all avoid. 

Anyhow, I accepted the invitation, and I came along after a night shift arriving at the destination by breakfast time. To my surprise, the cottage was in a little village with other cottages. And that bothered me. I looked around, and I saw a beautiful forest, but well… 

I went inside and quickly realised that the place was nice but smaller than where the person who invited me and I live. The outdoor was in the forest, but so is our home. I checked the sauna, and it’s even smaller. The upper floor with four beds. What are we? Twelve years old? 

I started wondering why someone would pay 180 plus euros per night to stay somewhere near home that looks and feels less comfortable than your own house. 

To make it even worse, I realised that there is no lake nearby in these set of cottages, destroying my imagined stereotype of a cottage by the lake where you can dive in after a hot sauna. 

I was sleepless, hungry, and tired, but I eventually ended up in a small, tiny, natural lake six minutes away by car. Wow, I truly enjoyed my hours there. I also fell asleep, totally forgetting my drone’s bag unattended – Nobody stole it – We are in Finland after all. 

I came back to the cottage, and somehow the feeling began to change. 

I enjoyed my shower with a bit of window open overlooking the forest. I began to observe the six people table by the large window. Also, the outdoor deck started to make sense and feel relaxing and welcoming… what was happening to me? 

Since I promised them that I would cook dinner, I began to look through the kitchen appliances. There was everything you could have imagined of. There were massive sizes of pans to cook for many people, so big that it would have been way too large for my kg of pasta that I made. Another thing that I noticed was that every plate, glass and cup are from the finest Finnish brand Iittala. Fancy! 

I smashed two plates of pasta myself while watching Portugal- Germany. I just remember exulting for the last German goal, but after that, I began to “passing out” around several benches. I was tired from last night’s shift, the hours of sun and the large amount of pasta just eaten. I laid down on that super comfortable sofa. By the way, during the day, I told my girlfriend that in case I would fall asleep on it to never ever try to wake me up – I love sleeping on the couch. 

And that happened!

Blackout, a blackout that was only interrupted by the sound of someone washing the dishes and cleaning the mess I made while cooking and the change of light coming through the window. As you may know, in the North of Finland, during the summer, the sun never truly goes away, it sets just to come back straight up. Being in the West’s bottom of the country, this phenomenon is also visible, but there is some sort of darkness. 

What has happened to me? I woke up during that sort of darkness. Everything was cleaned, and someone also tried the Tiramisù I made. I can’t remember passing out so bad in front of other people. Maybe the last time was in Amsterdam in 2019 when my friends and my brother were at my place drinking and eating while me; after two sleepless days, I passed out on the couch missing out on a nice party.

What has happened to me? I went out from the back door, stood on the deck looking at the forest first, the beautiful trees playing with their shadows, then I looked up: on one side of the sky, the last minutes of the sunset, on the other part the very beginning of the sunrise. It was sometime around 3 am and the sky was of that kind of blue that you can’t even reproduce with the best software. 

A lazy personality of mine said, “go to bed, it’s time to sleep, you are tired!”. But I couldn’t disagree more! As Johnny Depp’s character in Stephen King’s story, I felt terrific after sleeping on the couch. I then went for a walk barefoot in the nearby forest; I was awake before most birds, so the quiet was absolute. No wind, no background noise, no car passing in the distant highway, just the music of the tree remixed with my steps over the forest’s undergrowth. Magical, I would say.

I came back, I got myself a slice of tiramisu, I grabbed my backpack, and I sat on the large wooden table on the deck, and I began catching up with all those things that I have been procrastinating for the last several weeks. I felt as good as I didn’t feel in many months. Was it because I was alone? Was it because I was awake so early? What was it? 

It was probably the sum of everything, but the striking ingredient was that the environment was just right. Looking to the shadow of the forest in front of me, listening to the silent, and see the rest of the neighbours’ life in the still of the night put me at peace with myself. I was not high, I was not wired, I was not thinking about the past or stressing about the future, I was here. I was here, and there is nothing better than that. Being in the moment. 

Now, only now, I understand, or begin to understand why Finnish people need their cottage time. It’s not about the luxury, it may not be about the natural resources around it, it is because living is also being together somewhere where you can feel peace with the world, and first and foremost with yourself. 

So, now, tell me: do you also hate Finnish cottages like I do? 

Virttaa, Finland 20th June 2021