One of the things we wanted to do was cross country skiing. People in Finland all ski, they ski in the countryside and they ski in big cities, as part of their PE curriculum. It's amazing! The last time I country skied was in Misawa, with Katya, as they did it right after school at her elementary school.
So we hired the same guide that we had for snow shoeing and she took us on a 2 hour adventure.
The boys went at their own pace.
And the guide Kristina stayed with me as I was a bit tentative with my knee. We chatted the whole time about ALL sorts of deep life questions. It was very interesting to hear her life story.
At some point I had to climb a hill and then ski down a hill. The groves helped, of course, but it was quite scary for me as I didn't have the best confidence in my knee. The good news is that it didn't flare up or anything. No ACL still but that's ok.
According to Mark, the loop was very long and tiring.
Here is a close up to the ski tracks. Quite satisfying to be following them.
This is one of the road signs in our village to guide you what track to take.
After the tour, Robert took the boys out for some more skiing but they quickly returned because it was starting to snow and skis were sticking a lot to the snow.
So Robert decided to go get some more food from the grocery store (we were eating quite a bit at home on this trip--pasta and salad one night, pizza another night).
At the market this is one of the candy items there. No idea what to think.
Drum roll please...we got to the part in our blog post where Robert agreed it’s best the story needs to come from his, as it was his exciting experience.
Robert is now writing this part: This single photo is all the evidence you need to know.
Okay, so seriously, here’s the story. I (still Robert writing) drove Alex and Mark into town to get some food and treats. Shopping wasn’t a big deal at all. It was what happened afterward that will never be forgotten. The snow falling was picking up and it was dark, no surprise, and I didn’t clear the windshield well enough before leaving. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I saw a small drive that led toward the main road and because I saw a stop sign up ahead I assumed it was a road. Literally half a second before I entered that small drive, I realized that the stop sign was a TINY stop sign as in the kind of stop sign they have for SNOWMOBILES!!! The small car we were in suddenly stopped and we were stuck. So embarrassing. Thankfully no one (or nearly no one) was around to witness this unfortunate predicament of a foreigner lacking proper navigational skills. I’ve been stuck in the snow plenty of times in my life so I figured this would be quick and we’d be back on the road in no time.
We tried everything! We pulled out the floor mats and put them under the wheels. We dug out as much snow as we could with the ice scraper and when that broke we used the cross-country skis as makeshift shovels. As we dug out the wheels and I attempted to rock the car forward and back, instead of getting unstuck, the car sank just a little bit deeper until the underside of the car was literally just sitting on the snow. There was no way we were going anywhere. At one point I went back inside the grocery store and begged other shoppers and even the lone cashier if they could help. No one was willing, or able, to offer assistance. So I went back to the car and hoped someone would come along who would. Eventually, two lorries (trucks) pulled into the parking lot clearly stopping for the night after a long travel day. The drivers got out and as they were walking around checking their hauls, I took a deep breath and approached one of them. I started explaining the situation and as he didn’t speak much English he took me over to the other driver who spoke more English. They walked over to the car to take a look, then went back to their trucks to get a real shovel. They proceeded to dig around the wheels as well as reaching under the front of the car with our skis to remove snow that was in contact with the undercarriage.
EVENTUALLY, a man stopped his pickup and after speaking with the truckers, he went and got a tow strap. He connected it between the pickup and the car and after a couple of tugs he pulled it out!!! And we didn’t damage the car!! (yay, because it was a rental). I was so grateful to all of them! The pickup driver took off fairly quickly after helping, but before the truckers left I offered to reward them. I didn’t have any cash, I explained but I’d be happy to buy them a six pack (I couldn’t think of anything else) at the store. They declined any reward. And the the only words I remember them actually speaking to me the entire time. One of them just shrugged his shoulders and said, “Winter. Winter.” As if to say, this is just part of living in the Arctic Circle.
Now go back to the photo and you can see what I mean. The entire imprint of the car is clearly visible in the snow. This was not the only time I got “stuck” during this trip. SPOILER ALERT! You may have read about the time I got the snowmobile stuck because I drifted too close to the side of the trail (which was packed snow) and fell into the soft powder, with Mark on the snowmobile with me. Or (just earlier in this post) Lyana mentioned how we went cross-country skiing, just the boys and me, and even though we successfully skied earlier in the day, when we went back to explore more trails, snow was sticking to the bottom of my skis so much it was easier to take them off and walk than deal with stopping and scraping off the packed snow. You may even read later about how on our out bound flight was cancelled without us even knowing until only a couple hours prior so we almost got stuck in Finland! All in all, everything worked out and I remember thinking, and one reason I stayed so calm when we were trying to dig out the car, was that this event (and others like it) are often the ones that make the best stories and ultimately the fondest memories. So good for me for creating a great memory for my family. :)
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