1st May

The first of May is, officially, the students' and workers' day; a day when students don't study and workers don't work. While in the past 1st May had considerable political meaning, with marches and demonstrations, it has now become merely a carnival. The eve of 1st May is a big party day all round, and on 1st May itself, Finns nurse their hangovers with students putting on their white caps and having champagne parties in public parks. A few die-hards still march behind the red flags, and politicians make speeches that few people take much interest in. Below a few photos of Elk's Street's 1st May celebrations.

Both Thomas's and Henry's class had a fancy dress party.

Thomas having breakfast wearing his frog hat.


Henry having breakfast wearing his spider hat.

Elk's Street is not very good at fancy dress, there is always a scramble at the last minute to find something vaguely suitable.

While students may drink champagne, the traditional Finnish drink for 1st May is 'sima' accompanied with doughnuts. Tiina was in town, so she and Lilli dropped round for afternoon coffee and the above mentioned 'sima' and doughnuts.

We also had another special guest, Simo the hedgehog. Simo is a toy that each child in Thomas's class gets to take home for a couple of days. They then either have to tell the class about what Simo did, the activity for the autumn term, or write an entry in Simo's diary, the task for the spring term.

Simo enjoying some chocolate cake.

With 1st May falling on Friday, people could enjoy a long weekend. Elk's Street used the Saturday to visit Anttolanhovi, a resort/spa near Mikkeli, about 100km from home. The idea is to spend a few days there to celebrate H-M's 'round' birthday in August, and the aim of our quick trip was to check the place out.

The restaurant has one of Finland's better chefs, and while the à la carte menu looked very good, we took the cheaper buffet menu, which was traditional Finnish fare but done very well.

The chalets are award-winning designs, although to my uneducated eyes they do look a little prison-like. The inside of the chalets makes Elk's Street's normal run-down living conditions look a little shabby.

Chalet from the road side.

Chalet from the lake side.

Thomas throwing stones off the jetty, Tiina and H-M in the background (H-M in her Paddington hat to protect herself from the sun).

On the way home we stopped off for ice-creams in Puumala, the 'Gibraltar of Saimaa' and the location of the fourth longest bridge in Finland.

An empty Puumala marina waiting for the summer guests to arrive.


Thomas and Henry on the bridge lift.


The steamship Wenno moored at Puumala jetty. (To see Wenno 'live' click here for the 'Wenno Cam' webcam, for more information about Wenno (in Finnish) click here.)

As can be seen from the photos, the weather was excellent, blue skies and warm temperatures, rather unusual for 1st May in Finland, when there are often grey skies and driving sleet.