I have made it something of a life principle. To leave Finland at least once a year for a trip to foreign lands. Sometimes it has been only a quick nip across the border to Stockholm or Tallinn (panicking, in December) or a visit to my second home Ireland which is not really a foreign land, but still.
I boast about doing this for the last thirty years, with an exception for the year I grieved for my father and couldn't seem to make it anywhere.
Last year, the time had come for an epic journey to Italy. Needless to say, the pandemic had other plans. Even this year, it didn't seem wise to do anything more than a couple of staycations. After all, Finland has plenty to see.
But I did get to cross an international border, thanks to my employer who took the work team on a mini-cruise across the pond to the Swedish city of Umeå. We didn't actually go ashore, there wasn't time. But I got to see the Swedish coast, which was being lashed by a heavy storm and icy rain. It felt like a victory after a year and a half of closed borders.
The ferry is small but brand-new and boasts of being the latest in green technology. It has the most lavish and delicious seafood buffet I have ever experienced. Fortunately, I had worked my way through the caviar, salmon and prawn cakes to the sea buckthorn parfaits and white chocolate mousses of the dessert table before the storm started to toss the boat too seriously. I had also had my fill of letting my hair fly loose in the gales on the "sun" deck and breathing in the cold, salty air, with the exhilaration that only comes in the middle of a storm on the open sea.
I managed to win a quiz despite near-seasickness - my boss and I tied for first place - and then retired to the cozy bar for a white russian and some dozing. So this was my foreign adventure in 2021. Could Italy be much better? I doubt it.
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