A Day at the Continent..

Every now and then we have to leave our escape and visit the mainland with a long list of to-do's and shoppings. Today was one of those days. We wake up early and to make it all the way to Parainen, Pargas -  one and a half hours journey and two ferries - we always have with us sandwiches that we eat at the second ferry between the island of Nauvo and Parainen. And newspapers, make-up-bag to make full use of the 5 minutes crossings and sometimes tea in a thermos if we are really early.

"If you lived here, you would be at home already..." Wellcome to Korppoo!

The journey is beautiful - old oak forests, hills, bridges over to new islands. We try to see sea-eagles and at this time of the year count christmas trees. The narrow archipelago road is winding. Everyone living here carries a timetable of ferries in the car and you can guess that the next one is soon to be leaving when people start driving faster... If you have a red permit card at the window you get to drive in first - we don't so sometimes we have wait for the next one if the ferry gets too full.

One of the high-points of our busy day at the continent is the choosing of the lunch place - some people just feel happy when listening to their stomach. Today after visiting the bank, library, hard-ware-store, supermarket... my husband said he knows perfect place to eat near there. I first thought it must be a joke. No restaurant in Finland can be called The Golden Elk, Kultainen Hirvi. It did, and it was a lovely place with good food and friendly service - many Finnish meals like the baltic herrings fried in butter with mashed potatoes that I had today. So we recommend!

http://www.kultainenhirvi.fi/?o=0&k=2&s=0