A CHRONICLE OF
FINLANDMOOT
AND
THE RETURN OF JON SNOW
(as seen by your humble servant, being the memoirs of Pitchwife from Germany, to be supplemented by an account of the participants and photographic evidence following as soon as I manage).
I arrived on Monday 1st and was picked up by
Nogrod at the airport. After dumping my baggage at his place, we joined the rest of the Finns (including
Legate as a Finn honoris causa) +
Estelyn,
Oddwen,
Squatter &
Hookbill, who had arrived before, on one of the lovely islands near Helsinki for a delightful seaside picnic. In the evening, we had dinner at
Nog's, where
Aganzir and
Legate had a highly entertaining staring contest and Apples to Apples was played for the first time but not the last.
On Tuesday 2nd, some of us went to the Ateneum art museum where we saw a fascinating exhibition on the Magic of Lapland; sharing our impressions of the paintings and objects there was both fun and enlightening. For the evening,
Lommy and
Agan had secured the clubroom at their students' home for us, where we abused the pool table for playing table football and lots of other fun was had. By then,
Rikae,
Mac and the
Wereduckling had arrived as well, as had a somewhat jetlagged
Shasta (who had had bad luck with his plane connection and been stuck in Paris the night before).
On Wednesday 3rd, the whole of us (now including
Kath, skip spence and BD lurker
Annina) moved to
Nog's family's log cabin in the middle of Finnish forests, between a lake and a swamp. After feasting on a yummy veggie chili cooked by
Esty on the campfire, we much enjoyed the sauna (
++beer for the pouring!) and a swim in the lake.
On Thursday 4th,
skip led a fishing expedition which didn't catch anything but at least avoided getting
Squatter drownded. Also, there had already been omens presaging that
Rune (that "sad predictable piece of Danish meat", ©
Lommy) wouldn't be able to stay away from the moot; his arrival in the late afternoon was celebrated with a repast of crêpes, ice cream and freshly gathered berries. Later that night, the elderly fraction (
Esty,
Nog & myself) watched the rest of us playing the legendary Guardian game (which revolves around hiding in the forest and sneaking back to the campfire without being caught); lots of suspense there and very entertaining, I'd love to play that the next time.
From Friday 5th, the most memorable event has to be the RL Werewolf game of triumphant wolf victory, which has already been reported on on the TIG thread. Also, yours truly introduced the others to Obatzter (Bavarian beer cheese).
On Saturday 6th, we headed back to Helsinki (
Annina, who was driving one of the other cars, leading me a merry chase on the way). After rejoicing in the blessings of civilization (the first hot shower in four days!) and having dinner together at a restaurant near
Nog's place, we conducted a logistic experiment to determine how many Downers fit into
Nog's living-room (answer: 17 + 1 Wereduckling) and indulged in surrealistic storywriting creativity fuelled by
Rune's Quality Danish Mead. In the small hours of the night, the Gradual Crumbling of the Fellowship began with the Departure of
Squatter (this being the Seventh Age, he was buried in an airplane instead of a boat).
On Sunday 7th we went to the island fortress of Suomenlinna, the Gibraltar of the North, where rehearsals for Cannonicity the Musical took place and
Esty,
Agan,
Shasta and yours truly had an erotic cherry-eating contest. In the evening, we played paper telephone at
Nog's and said goodbye to
Rikae,
Mac and the Wereduckling.
On Monday 8th we took a ferry across the pond to Tallinn (enduring gruesome dance music and even more gruesome karaoke on board), explored the lovely old town centre and had a delicious medieval lunch in highly immersive atmosphere at the Olde Hanse; also,
skip unsuccessfully tried to teach me the tango on the ship (I'm still negotiating with
Legate on the price for not posting the video he made of this event on YouTube). Back in Helsinki, the Crumbling continued with the much lamented departure of
Rune.
On Tuesday 9th, some of us went to see the beautiful Temppeliaukio rock church and admire a stunning view of Helsinki from the Torni tower café twelve stories over the city. In the evening, we gathered once more at
Agan's and
Lommy's club room and had a farewell party for
Esty and
skip, who were to leave the following day. We played an outrageously funny name guessing game (unforgettable question from
Kath: "Am I some kind of food ?"),
Greenie played the kantele for us, and
Esty read some pertinent passages from LotR; by the time she came to Sam's Famous Last Words, I think most of us had moist eyes - the occasion made us feel how much we had indeed grown together into a Fellowship during the past week, and breaking apart was hard; but as Gandalf said, "not all tears are an evil".
After that, it felt kind of strange to still be there the next day, and I rather dreaded going through more leave-taking, but we made light of it by going to listen to some interestingly weird live rock music in the evening and saying goodbye quickly between changing busses on the way home. In the early morning hours I caught the plane back to Frankfurt, and coming home felt - to borrow Frodo's words at the end of Homeward Bound - "like falling asleep again".
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So far the memoirs of this chronist; but I hear there are more stories to be told which others will have to recount - most notably the forming of an ad hoc Downer band with potential to go far; watch out for
Die Kunst der Wurst!
(Appendices to follow)