Beating Jet Lag, and Life Around the Homeplace

 October 26, 2022

I was quickly settled into my cozy upstairs room in my brother house, and surrounded by the lovely chaos of family.  Darkness began to descend as we ate an early supper of tasty vegetable beef soup.  Following the meal, in order to keep myself awake a bit longer, I took a walk around the yard and through their small forest.  

The house and shop look so cozy and welcoming from the edge of the yard

Nearly leafless trees on the edge of the yard, reaching for the evening sky

For this trip I opted to leave my big camera and long lens home.  To that end, I upgraded my phone a bit, to get a better camera.  It has a feature that allows for a long exposure.  The picture below makes it look almost like daylight, but in fact it was quite dark.  I don't know this woods well, but it's relatively small, with no chance of getting lost, and I remembered the general lay of the trails through it.

The photo below is fittingly spooky, being nearly Halloween.  A large black crow called raucously through the dark, adding ambiance to the October night.

Skeletal fingers of the trees, reaching for the sky

I was properly refreshed by the time I made the loop and could see the warm glow of the house through the trees. 

By 7:45 I was falling asleep as we visited at the table, so made my way up to bed.  I always read in bed, but this time I lasted less than two minutes before a crash startled me awake.  It was my nook reader falling to the floor.  I slept pretty well for the first night, aside from an expected wakeful time in the middle.  By the time I made my way downstairs in the morning, the kids had all scattered to work or school.  Armed with a stiff cup of Finnish coffee, I watched my brother fry up a plate of pancakes for me.  Studded with meticulously foraged wild blueberries, they were topped with a smear of his homemade cherry jam.

Fluffy blueberry pancakes, sweetened with banana and topped with cherry jam

Keeping me company while I ate was Blackie, their mostly outdoor cat.  A shelf outside the window is the perfect perch to keep his eye on both the humans inside, and the birdfeeders outside.  I'm guessing he's responsible for the various holes in the window screen.

After breakfast, Wade, his wife Anna, and their youngest and I, took a little drive.  We stopped for lunch at a cute service station-turned-cafe.  They are apparently known for their salmon soup.  It was delicious.  And indicative of Finland, a country that consumes more coffee per capita than any other, a cup was included with the soup.  It was delicious. 

Naapurissa Kahvila

Cafe menu board

On the way home we stopped at a roadside stand, hoping for some fresh eggs but they were out for the day.  

On my previous trip over three years ago, to beat jet lag, my brother had put me to work picking sticks in the yard while he ran a buzz saw and made firewood.  Since the weather wasn't conducive to that, he put me to work cutting up some of the pretty green squash he had grown.  

While I worked on that, he tackled the apples that had been picked from their trees.  Freezing them in chunks, they would later be used for applesauce and other things to enjoy through the winter.

The next day Wade made a yummy soup out of some of the cooked squash, which we enjoyed for our lunch. 

Return to the Land of Finns, Family and Fjords

 October 25, 2022

It was under leaden Portland skies that my plane waited at gate C23.  Our long-awaited rain was finally here, blessedly putting out the wildfires that had marked the latter part of our summer.  

As I waited for my Iceland Air flight, I admired the crew as they checked in at the gate and boarded.  The women wore smart navy skirt suits with ruffled white blouses, and a navy pillbox hat.  The men were sharply dressed in crisp suits as well.  Most people in my world now dress so casually that this was notable.  

There were only a smattering of people gathered near the gate so we were all invited to board at once.  Only sold to maybe 15% of capacity, there were enough seats for everyone to claim a row if they so chose.  

Around 3:30 in the gray afternoon, we lifted off, affording one last view of the Portland area before we were engulfed in the clouds.

With three pillows and blankets at my disposal, I propped myself up against the window with my legs stretched out, and a sewing project on my lap.  Called trapunto, the technique is basically creating a stuffed quilt.  In this case, batting is sandwiched between a printed top and a backing.  I'm stitching around strategic pieces, and later with slit the back and push stuffing in, to create a three dimensional effect.  My intention is to stretch it over a wooden frame and hang it above my fireplace at Christmastime. 

Flying towards the sun on a late October day, daylight was soon waning and the sun slipping behind the thick blanket of clouds that was the horizon. 

 The night was very short, and despite a few attempts, sleep was very limited.  And then, before I knew it, we had landed in Reykjavik, Iceland.  I had opted out of the supper on the plane, so grabbed a simple breakfast before heading to my next gate for the three hour flight to Helsinki.  

 The sun made a brief appearance shortly after take off, and then the skies were gray the remainder of the day. 

This flight was completely full, primarily with Finnish speaking people.  I was in a tight seat next to the window, with a woman on the aisle that was disinclined to letting us out for bathroom trips, so I just tried to catch a nap and tracked our plane's progress on the screen.  The clouds broke as we crossed over Norway, providing a beautiful glimpse of the snowy mountains.

And then at last we were on Finnish soil and I could find a bathroom.  A brief wait at the baggage carrousel, and both my big bag and my gate-checked little roller bag appeared.  On my last trip I'd had some confusion in the airport and embarrassingly couldn't find my way out.  The airport has since been remodeled so I easily followed the huge exit signs, and soon was tucked into brother Wade's car and on my way to their house. 

Going Home

 

The last several days of my trip are somewhat of a blur.  Somewhere on the northbound stretch, I was made aware that my father's health was failing.  As he had been declining in the last couple of years, I knew that this time would come, I just didn't know it would be while I was alone and across the world from him.  I knew that I needed to get home.  Around this time we also hit some stormy open seas, which made me rather sick.  

To add to the challenge, I found that the airlines leaving Norway were on strike, so I was unable to get a flight home.  My travel agent suggested possibly disembarking at an upcoming port and taking a train into Russia, to fly home from there.  That option would have added days to my trip home so we didn't pursue that.  

I used what remedies I had for nausea, and a couple I'd met gave me an anti-nausea patch to put behind my ear.  I'm not sure it helped, but I appreciated their kindness.  

Though I had no departure plans in place, I went to the customer service desk to explain the situation and see if they had any advice.  They were so kind.  One lady asked if I'd eaten lately and when I wasn't sure, she went and fixed me a plate of food.  Bread, meat and cheese for a sandwich, and some fruit I took back to my room.  When I next went to the restaurant, I found that they had moved me from my very sociable group table, to a small private table next to the window.  There, turned towards the glass, I could hide my frequent tears as I nibbled at my food.  

To help with nausea, I spent as much time as possible outside, under a covered area.  Here the air was fresh, I could see the horizon, and I was usually alone.  

The ship was ever moving, though I recall nothing of our getting to the end of the line at Kirkenes (a few miles from the border with Russia), turning around and making our way south.  Finally, the couple who gave me the seasick patch found me and told me that they heard that the airline strike was over. I emailed my travel agent back home, and soon I had tickets to fly home from Tromso, through Oslo, then Iceland.  We docked at Tromso around midnight.  I was to have attended a classic concert at the beautiful Arctic Cathedral there.  Instead, I found myself lugging my suitcases down to a taxi, who took me to a hotel I'd reserved for a few hours sleep and a shower.  At this port, the dock was very low, which meant the stairs leading down from the ship were insanely steep.  An elderly man from my group table assisted me in getting my luggage down.  

Morning came way too early, but somehow I got off, into another taxi, and to the Tromso airport.  I found some kind of breakfast there before boarding my flight to Oslo. Thankfully, despite the snow, flights were still operating.  

 From Tromso to Oslo.  In Oslo I bought some lunch.  Possibly the most expensive chicken salad I've ever eaten.  But since getting off the rocking ship, my stomach had settled, I really appreciated the food.

And then I was off to Reykjavik, Iceland for a stop, before heading on to Portland.  Leaving Reykjavik, I got assigned a seat in an exit row, which was nice, as it had some extra space.  Then a guy got on and said I had his seat.  And somehow two women seated near me thought they should have my seat and the one next to me.  I offered the guy my seat, and he declined it and sat elsewhere.  But the two women made a huge issue, and ranted to the flight attendant the whole way home, complaining about everything.  I didn't care where I sat, but just wanted to be home.  

At long last I was.  I was taken straight to my father's bedside, where I was able to spend some precious days with him before he too, was home.  Truly home.  

This post has been completed 3 1/2 years after it was started.  Much of the timeline is a blur to me so may be somewhat inaccurate.  But I felt the need to write the final page on this journey as I soon will be embarking on a new one.  The same route, in the same country, but a whole new journey.