Beautiful Virtasalmi

The beautiful village to which we are attached is called Virtasalmi. The population, I have found from doing some research is about 1125. I don't know where they all are though, as at most I've seen about 25 people at once in the shop. And that was a holiday weekend....I presume the area is quite largely spread out.

It is built besides a very large lake. As you enter the village, a road has been constructed right over it. It's part of the Maavesi. This is a shot of it from the road looking towards the village centre. Lovely isn't it?

The village 'centre' itself consists of a few houses, a pub/pizza place, a factory (but I haven't found out what it produces yet...), a supermarket and a chemists. And....oh, that's about it. Apparently, the area is known for it's beavers - although I have never seen one. I read recently that you can take a kayaking trip over to where they live - although locals have told us they taste great, so maybe they got wise and moved out; or remained dim and became dinner. Hopefully next year will solve that mystery. Within our village, is a model village! It depicts old buildings that used to exist in the area, and some that are still there. I think it is a largely farming community.

Although our place is about 8-9kms away from the 'hub' of the village and our house is not on the edge of a lake; there about 20 lakes within a brief 5-10 minute drive. I have suggested that we walk to our local lake (Iso Tikkala - The Great Woodpecker. So named because it is shaped like one!) Actually I may have spelt that incorrectly, it may only have one 'k'.....The area around us seems to be used a lot for dairy farming or wood. Each year we go, more and more of the surrounding forests have been chopped down. However, I know that the Finns farm trees a little better than we do and replant regularly. I presume that is one of reasons birch is grown; it's fast and can be thinned out over periods of time.

It's very quiet in the village and I am concerned a little for it's survival. Last year, someone told me that the pub had closed. I'm not sure if I understood correctly, but each time we drove past, it did not seem to be open. I can see that apart from the shops and the factory, there seems to be very little in the way of job opportunities. The nearest proper 'town' of Pieksamaki, is about a 20 minute drive away and the larger town of Mikelli is about 40 minutes away. Quite a way though, should you need a 'specialist' item (don't ask about the 6 hour hunt for a dehumidifier....).

But we love it. It's serene, quiet, friendly. I have a sneaking suspicion we are known as 'The English' to the locals and we are quite often given the once-over in the shop. I remember one year, waiting in the supermarket queue of the Midsummer weekend, an older chap striking up conversation with us. It was mainly about football and fog. He was very pleasant though, as has everybody been. A wave of a hand as you drive past, a smile, a little salute. And the best thing is, we can't hear our neighbours.

Next time - I think I'll take you on a tour of the house itself. Yes?

The procedure of purchase

Previously, I said I'd go through what happened with the purchase of the house. It was quite a while ago now, so the memory is a little rusty - I'll do what I can if you can stay with me.

We had already sent a deposit to the agent via the bank, which arrived safely. When our remortgage money came through, we had to wire the balance over in the same way and this happened about a week before we were about to leave. There was some frantic communication between the agent and myself as it seemed the money had gone missing! Eek! I reconfirmed the IBAN and SWIFT numbers we had sent them to, and the agent investigated his end. Disaster...there was a number wrong. It turned out the money was sitting in a 'holding' account with our bank as it had nowehere to go (thanks for letting me know Lloyds TSB :/). We managed to get it sorted with a promise from the bank that it would be sent that very day. Phew. Crisis averted.

After spending the usual wonderful first weekend with our friends in Uusimaa, and loaded the car up with Ikea essentials; we were really excited to take the drive to Mikelli to meet the agent and sign the paperwork. Upon arrival, we were greeted warmly by the agent, with a handshake and a hug! So much for 'cold' Finns! He provided us with coffee and said we were waiting for the sellers and the local notary. I tried not to look puzzled....the sellers were coming? This would be interesting.....

The farmer and his wife (ee-i-addi-o) arrived and we shook hands. Neither spoke any English (and nor should they) as the agent made the introductions. There was much nodding and smiling so much my teeth dried up. Then the notary arrived. It was explained that this was the person who would handle all the legalities of the paperwork; overseeing our signatures, checking ID on both sides - passports for us and ID cards for the sellers. The agents quickly translated the paperwork and everything was soon completed with payment to the notary being made also. The notary appeared a bit fierce to begin with, until after the deal was made; and then he warmed up a little, asking us whereabouts in the UK we came from and what that area was like. After he left, the agent informed us that the notary was somewhat fascinated with England - maybe he was a little wary of us instead!

Our agent (oh, I'm going to use his name now - Arto) accompanied us to the electricity company to help us set things up for billing, and took Dom to the land registry department where he was given a map of our fishing rights in the area - we have loads! Dom told me that Arto seemed to have a lot of swing in the area, virtually commanding the registry office to hand over the map to Dom! It transpired that he is also the pastor of the church in Mikelli. An estate agent with a religious belief! No wonder he was so wonderfully helpful We certainly could not have had such a smooth process if it hadn't been for him. After that, we each got into our cars and he offered to lead the way to the house. I had the sat nav, so said I'd be alright and off we went.

I still remember that feeling as we drove up to our new 'holiday' abode. It was a LOT bigger than I'd anticipated. I swore and turned to Dom saying, 'What have we done?' Arto unlocked the door and ushered us in, giving us a guided tour and showing us how things worked, before shooting off and leaving us alone.

You can see from the picture, left, how huge the house looked next to our little hire car! I spent the first week constructing furniture and arranging everything to my satisfaction. We did get a chap in to put our television ariel up - again through Arto, as the chap spoke no English!

Please don't think that we expect everyone to talk to us in our native tongue - it's just our Finnish is extremely poor and the call for Finnish language lessons in deepest, darkest Devon is not a large one, as you might imagine. Most of the time we do quite well with the odd Finnish word and plenty of mime.

But as you can gather, no waiting six weeks for solicitors to 'do their stuff', just a plain and straightforward transaction. Just like that (as Tommy Cooper used to say). I can only speak from our own experience. Also, I have heard that valuing over there is different too. I understand that it's not estate agents who value the property, people ask what they need for their houses. Sounds cool to me.

What shall I write about next? Maybe show you the area which we are attached to? Yes, that sounds like a plan, Stan.

Value for money....

So, I've been trying to come up with a 5 year 'master plan' to finally get to move to Finland. I'd had all these ideas of doing up the place we already have, which would mean then having to get water piped to the house, a bathroom built, re insulating the roof, paying 5,000euro to get the house registered as 'omakotitalo' status and so on....

However, after doing some searching - perhaps this is not necessary? Here are my thoughts so far: If I can reduce my mortgage in 5 years and then sell my UK place, I could have a potential large profit. During those 5 years, the work would continue on the farmhouse and we could make enough to buy somewhere that is already 'omakotitalo' and have enough left to live on without having to work or claim any assistance. This is a dream, obviously. Why do I think this is do-able? Look at this....

This house comes with around 20,000m2 of land. Isn't it beautiful? The balcony alone makes me think of breakfast in summer looking out over the land and forests. This is one of things I love about the houses there. All different colours and shapes as I think I mentioned in my previous post.

Here is the kitchen. Already a sink with running water. Super looking wood cladding and simple units. Enough room for a dining table, although I think I would rotate it 90 degrees, to offer more room.

Here's the floor plan. You can see how it flows and how much space there is. There's also the bedrooms upstairs and several outbuildings.















So how is this achievable? How much would you pay for a property like this in the UK with around 2 hectares of land? Half a million? More? This property is still within the region of our farmhouse. We like it there. Granted, houses closer to Helsinki are much more expensive, but I think you'll agree that this one is a beauty. Price? 99,000euro (about £87,000). What's that? Yes, you DID read that correctly. 99,000euro. Ridiculous isn't it? You couldn't buy a studio flat over here in the South West for that. Of course, in 5 years this will have sold, sadly. But on further investigation there are plenty of these over in Finland for under 100,000euro. One I found was right by a lake and was even cheaper! But I just think this one is gorgeous.

Fingers crossed. You never know........

In the beginning....

...which is the opening line of a very fine Slits song. However, I get asked loads by both UK and Finnish people WHY we decided to buy a summer place in Finland. It's a long story. Have you got time?

I got together with my SO (significant other) about six years ago. He's a tad younger than me *coughs13yearscoughs*. He went to university in Brighton, and while there shared a house with an English bloke and, by accident, a Finnish bird. These friends got together and are happily still together awaiting their second child. Aaaaanyway, in a bizarre twist of fate, Dom came away from uni with his friends wooden egg cup that he had made at school. I 'egged' him on (see what I did there?) to send it back and Dom got in contact with his old friends. They invited us to go and visit them 4 or 5 years ago and off we went.

We fell in love with Finland, although not immediately. We initially started in Helsinki, which I found rather drab and industrial. Building projects appeared to have been abandoned, there were lots of blocks of flats. At first glance it appeared to be another city. They showed us around and we gradually warmed to the beauty of Helsinki; the Russian Orthodox church, the older buildings of the city which were grand and splendid. And then they took us to their 'summer' cottage....

For me, that's when it clicked. When it felt like I had 'come home'. The houses we passed on our way to the cottage were beautiful, different colours bright against a lush green backdrop. There was no uniformity to the houses. All individual shapes, characters and sizes. And the most important thing of all, space. Just walking alone back to their place through the woods and seeing a woodpecker watching me, flitting from tree to tree, just out of reach. The quietness, the beauty and sense of tranquility struck me hard.

We had a great time, messing about on the lakes, sauna, great food and total relaxation. When we returned to England, I felt a loss that I couldn't explain. I got itchy feet. I wanted to move from the place we currently reside in. I hunted the internet, I saw a mortgage advisor and became depressed again. We were priced out of our own country. Don't get me wrong; the place where we live will 'do'. But we have no garden and most of the properties around us are rented out. I started to wonder and think more about Finland. Could we?

Obviously, with no grasp of the language and no particular skills to speak of, an outright move was out of the question. I asked our friend for property websites to look at and found out how much we could remortgage our property for to raise funds.

This was one of the most frustrating times. I found Finnish estate agents nowhere near as aggressive as our own. Every time I saw something I liked and contacted the agents, they took so long to reply, the property was sold. And that was if they bothered to get back to me at all. We lost so many opportunities and people were advising us to wait and look when we returned the following year.

I happened to pop home one lunchtime and was casually browsing through the property sites again and my heart leaped as I saw the pictures of what finally became ours. We were having to look further out from Southern Finland as we couldn't afford those prices. Instead of waiting or e-mailing, I telephoned the agent after sending a text to Dom telling him to get home quickly if he could. Luckily, the agent (who has since become a good friend) spoke excellent English and told us more about the property. As we couldn't get out there, he volunteered to go and take some more pictures to send us. Dom came home and I excitedly showed him the pictures. We agreed. We didn't want to lose it. It was not a cottage, but an old farmhouse. I telephoned the agent again and we put in an offer below the asking price. By the time I returned home, the agent had e-mailed me to tell me our offer had been accepted!

So, did I answer the question? We chose Finland because I feel, for me, it's the right place to be. I miss and think about it every day when we are in the UK and feel truly unsettled when we're not there. Maybe there's something deep in my heritage that links me to the country; I just don't know. All I can say is when we're there, I refer to is as 'home'.

In the next week or so, I'll write about the actual process of purchasing a property there.

Back in Blighty....

So we have returned to the UK for another year. It's amazing the differences we notice immediately on our return, which has also led me to reflect a little more on our time in my favourite country.

Whenever we return, even coming into land, you can see how much the landscape of Britain has been raped and plundered. Everything is so....flat. Not many patches of forest, lots of ploughed field separated by scrubby hedges; and of course lots of houses. I had to drive to the supermarket today after our month away and was taken aback by the amount of cars EVERYWHERE. But then, you must remember that while Finland is about 3.5 times the size of the UK, they also have a population of a mere 5 million people, compared to the 65 million or so residing in the UK. I realise that if Finland had 65 million people, things would look a lot different. It also leads me to wonder, why isn't the population larger? You would think in the Winter, there wouldn't be much to do!

I was also struck by how much 'fear' we live our lives in, in Britain. When we first arrived in Helsinki this year, I accompanied my friend and her 2 year old child to a local park. Whilst there, a boy on a bike came over to chat to us and remained with us for some time. He showed me things in the park and chatted to other passers by. To be honest, I felt a little uncomfortable. Had an unknown adult tried to strike a conversation with a child, immediate cries of 'paedophile!' could be heard in your head and probably the child's too. When we visited and stayed with a family in Lapland, their 7 year old was off at a skate park and had been all day while they were at work. He didn't return home until around 7.30pm, under his own steam. No parent felt the need to go and collect him.

This led me to cast my mind back to when I was a child in the 1970's. It was a similar situation as Finland today. A whole gang of us who lived in the same road used to be out in the Summer from after breakfast until we would magically appear in time for dinner. And our parents didn't know where we were. And they didn't worry either. It's very sad that these days have gone.

On the return journey, I composed a list of things to bring next year that I can't seem to find in Finland. I expect it will get longer....

Wooden spoons
Marmite
Jungle Formula insect repellent
Decent cheese grater
Milton sterilizing fluid

It's a long way to Kuusamo...

We had a trip planned for Dom's angling writing, to make a feature about the Kuusamo factory where they produce fishing 'spoons'. Everything had been arranged with the Director of the company and a rude awakening of 5am greeted me as we had to be on the road for 6am. The journey was mainly uneventful until the further North we went, the more vast and beautiful the scenery became.
Every time we visit Finland, we hope to see an elk or moose. Sadly this has not happened so far, but we saw the next best thing; a raindeer wandering around the road like a village drunk! We tried to get some pictures, but obviously the Finns are used to this sort of thing and beeped their horns at it. On the return journey, I saw a single raindeer laying down in a ditch by the side of the road. I hope it had not been hit by a car....
The lakes in the area are HUGE and clear and clean looking. The weather was so calm, the water looked like a mirror.
On arrival at the factory, we were greeted by the director, who took us over to meet his partner who ran the shop. Both of these people gave us such a warm and friendly welcome and had offered their home for us to stay at whilst we were there. Annukka and I got along extremely well and they prepared us a fine feast of smoked trout and risotto. Their home was beautiful and they also took us for a little tour around the town itself and showed us the sauna cottage they were building beside a lake.
The next day, Dom and I went fishing with Kimmo (the director) in his boat, that he had arranged at an old traditional Sami village. The chap who ran the place, Tuomo; was a softly spoken, friendly and gentle man. His wife prepared a superb lunch for us which consisted of locally caught whitefish, vendace and pike. I can honestly say it was the best fish we have ever tasted. Over dinner, we were told about the history of the place, which was very interesting.
I was very sad to leave Kuusamo and our new friends. Everyone had been so hospitable, kind and proud of what they had achieved and their roots within Finnish culture. We have been invited back next year, which we probably will do!
On the journey up, we were driving quite quickly and we sped past an art installation that I had been aware of from Finnish friends photographs. We promised ourselves that we would stop on the way back, which we did. As you can see from the picture, it is called 'The Silent People' () and was constructed by artist and dancer, Reijo Kela. These are wooden crosses which are clothed and have peat cuttings for heads. There are nearly 1000 of these in a field beside the road. It is quite an eerie sight. We were told by the people who maintain the installation that it was also like a big second hand clothes store and that we could change something if we wanted. There was rather a nice Vihti biker gang t-shirt, which I swapped with the one I was wearing; a band that I know very well. They are going to love it when they see the pictures!

I don't want to overthrow the Government.....

...but I would like to buy a washing machine. Finland can be an odd country for bureaucracy. They have no problem with us buying a house here, we pay our taxes and other bills. We even have a Finnish bank account! - but the most difficult thing I have found so far is trying to buy a washing machine! Because we are not Finnish citizens, we do not have the 'magic' social security numbers to ease our way through our time here. As I couldn't understand the web site, I telephoned the store that sells them. The first lady I spoke to was extremely helpful but told me the item was out of stock, although I could still order it. Unfortunately, they'll be back in stock when we leave.

I telephoned the next day, after deciding to order one and negotiating with our lovely neighbours (who's English is not there with the chap and a little with his wife) to supervise taking the delivery. I went through the options with the different woman who was not as forthcoming as the last person I had spoken to. It all went swimmingly until I asked for the bill to be sent to our UK address, so we could pay it. It all went downhill from there. She informed me that we could not make the sale because 'you do not live in Finland'. I was quiet for a time and she asked if I had understood. I said I had - but was just flabbergasted at the response! She was clearly not going to give an inch, so I gave up. Instead, I've had to ask a friend in Helsinki to order it and hold onto it for when we come next year.

So, that's the saga - now to the machine! It is known as 'pulsaattoripesukone'. It is basically a machine that uses electricity, but you put the water in yourself. We have no running water at the house and we draw water from our well by rope and bucket. In the sauna changing room is a wood burning water heater. Oh boy, does the water get hot! So you put the water in one side and start the paddles, adding the soap powder and gently placing your clothes in it. The clothes get washed and you put them in the other side of the machine to spin. Then you rinse them, let the dirty water out, replace with clean water and repeat the process for rinsing. Genius!

We witnessed this when our neighbours showed us there 40 year old Hoover pulsaattoripeskone. And they washed our clothes for us! (Thank you Teuvo & Anita!) We have always done it by hand in the past and it just wasn't cutting the mustard any longer (cheesy towels anyone?).

So, we'll have to wait until next year to give it a try; but I'm quite excited! Which is actually quite sad :)