By Hilary Musgrave
View From The Bedroom
Last month I was chosen by the Ski Club to go with a group from Huntly to Juankoski in eastern Finland with the aim of exploring the possibility of setting up joint projects through an EU funded trans-national arrangement. I should say that by “chosen” I really mean that I was the only person who was available to go – so thank you very much to all those who were better qualified than me but busier! The liaison with Finland had been initiated by Juankoski after a group from the town visited Huntly last winter and instantly thought “this is the place we want to work with” – which was very flattering!
There were six of us in the group – Donald Boyd and Jane Lockyer from the Huntly Development Trust (who liaised with Juankoski and organised the journey), Maria from the Huntly Mental Health Trust and Community Garden scheme, Anna from Deveron Arts Trust, Sandy from the Youth Centre and myself. We had two days in Juankoski but it took a day to get there and another back, flying via Amsterdam, Helsinki and Kuopio. On the way over we had 4 hours to spare in Helsinki and the Finnish organiser had volunteered a friend of hers who lives there to meet us and take us on a quick tour of the city. This was a good taste of what was to come as all the Finns we met were incredibly hospitable and put themselves out to make sure we were enjoying their country.
Forest Shelters
Juankoski is in the Lake District of Finland. Considerably larger than the English Lake District but with much smaller hills, it is a beautiful area of rolling forested hills and lakes – there seems more water than land. The town has about the same size population as Huntly but is very spread out and with trees everywhere it actually appeared to be about the size of Oyne (ie not big at all). It originally came into existence about 200 years ago because of the discovery of a supply of iron ore in the lakes. The smelter which they built then gradually grew in size but in the 20th century it was closed in the face of Swedish competition (quite a bit of Scandinavian rivalry became apparent !). Latterly the economy has depended on a large paper mill, but this went bankrupt in the current recession – unemployment in the town is now 13%. But Finland has an amazing social care system and to us there was no apparent poverty. And we did have a very comprehensive visit – the first day was completely taken up with visits to the town hall, primary school (with concert), secondary school, craft centre, community garden (under construction), church, youth centre, cultural centre and museum (in the old iron works), mental health centre, brass band meeting house, a Nordic walking lesson (identical technique to the Huntly taught version), then dinner (of reindeer casserole, naturally) and a concert given by 3 local bands of decreasing age and increasing volume (the oldest included the nursery school headmaster and the middle aged one had the secondary school headmaster on bass guitar and looking as if he’d have been at home in Status Quo). I’m sorry to say that I didn’t do at all well in upholding the honour of the ski club at the last event of the day – a karaoke competition in the local pub which stayed open beyond normal licensing hours especially for us (most of the town council spent the day with us after all) – I went to bed.
Our Finnish hosts knew what each member of the group were hoping to achieve on this visit – in my case to
investigate the possibility of someone from the area with cross country ski coaching qualifications coming over to Huntly to be a ‘coach in residence’. Very early on the first day my hopes of achieving anything were somewhat dampened. On our first school visit someone asked about sports facilities and from about 4 of our guides we got the same story of skiing being compulsory at school “and so we all hate it”….not a good start! However the town has many kilometres of ski tracks going out into the surrounding forest, with several kilometers illuminated at night, so someone there must like skiing! Because none of the organisers were skiers they had arranged for me to visit a large holiday resort about 20 miles north of Juankoski on the second day. So while the other Huntlyites were having intensive meetings at the town hall I was taken for a walk in the forest around the ski trails on a beautifully sunny, crisp autumn day– I think I had the best of it! But although I had a great afternoon it was not very helpful in the search for a coach. My guides were extremely kind and showed me the resort (3 golf courses, riding stables, downhill ski slopes as well as xc trails, Russian oligarch holiday houses, marina on the lake) but there are no xc ski clubs there so not full of young coaches itching to come to Scotland and show us how to ski.
There are two things that the Finns seem to be passionate about. The first is the forests. These are of course very important for their economy but they also spend lots of time out in the forest and by the lakes in their country cabins. On the second day we were taken for “coffee in the forest”. We had a short walk up a forest trail and then stopped at a picnic area where there were two shelters – one an octagonal cabin with a huge stove in the middle, the other an open-sided shelter with large table and benches – as well as a rustic loo and a wood store. These areas are very common all round the walking/skiing trails throughout the country, with the cabins built from wood found on site. Our guides produced flasks of the usual very strong Finnish coffee and some kalakukko – a local speciality consisting of a fish wrapped in beef fat and then in bread dough, then cooked long and slow….surprisingly tasty!
The second – really the consuming – passion of the Finns is the sauna. Even the town hall had its own sauna where apparently meetings are sometimes held. On our last evening we stayed at a hotel on the lakeside and after the meal were expected to have a sauna (fine) and jump in the lake (maybe not quite so fine!). We didn’t have to break any ice but it was very, very cold! Definitely invigorating.
Our two days went very fast and I would happily have stayed longer. I’m sorry I didn’t achieve very much for the ski club, although there is a possibility that a youth exchange might be organised and which could include a Huntly/Finland work party to build a Finnish style cabin in the Clash. But I was impressed by how warm and friendly the people are, and how keen they are to forge links with Huntly. I do hope that more comes out of the visit and I’ll look forward then to us showing the Finns how to really enjoy skiing!
A Finnish Cabin