Oulu day 3: Tiger palaces and Greek lighthouses

The next day was meant to be our Hailuoto day, but alas it wasn’t. We were leaving our home around 1pm, famished and ready for a new round of iced coffees from Tähtikahvila, when L, our host, came to talk to us. He asked us if we were in a hurry, which we weren’t, so he suggested he take us sightseeing a bit again. Sure!

This time I was sat behind and Fabio in front. L showed us the university, a place where he has band practices and other places not so near the centre. The best bit was still being sat in a convertible, holding my hat with one hand and my bag with other, enjoying the wooshing thru the wind.

Then L suddenly thought of somewhere else he wanted to visit, his friend’s place. So he spontaneously got out his phone to ring his friend to invite himself over. The friend didn’t answer. Two attempts. Oh well. (Would’ve been quite random to go there anyways innit, inviting ourselves over like that.)

We were about to head back towards Oulu when L changed his mind at a junction, quickly switched lanes to turn the opposite way. We’d go anyways to the friend’s house, L informed us decisively, dunno why he’s not answering his phone.

It was an interesting situation – nothing out of the norm from what we knew of L and his style, but still – we’re going to bang on the door of this random friend of his when he’s not even answering his phone? It’s 2021, how many alarm bells should be going off for the inappropriateness of this.

But maybe for only our generation.

As we drove towards this friend, L told us about him. The friend’s also from the music circles, but his biggest claim to fame is being the Laziest Man in Finland, proof of this is that he no longer goes by his three-lettered real name, but just calls himself “E” and that he had the same Christmas tree for forty years. So E too was a musician once upon a time, until his band pals decided to do music for a living, not just a hobby, and he was against work so he quit.

So, our convertible swerved into the yard of this quaint red wooden house of this famous lazy man, where L jumped out and proceeded, indeed, to go and bang on the various doors of the house, shouting E’s name. We waited patiently, and were about to give up when the front door was nudged ajar, and a giant black-and-white cat ran out.

I occupied myself with the cat, as I noticed from the side of my eye that the man at the door was naked at least on the top half. He didn’t seem too embarrassed, so after a while I made myself visible too. (Turned out he did indeed have trousers on.)

So, L invited us in to his friend E’s “palace”, as E calls it. E is a 70-something Finnish man whose one English word he knows is “andostän” (‘understand’ said with a very Finnish accent) without (apparently) understanding what it is. A huge bushy beard and magnificent moustache, four or five chains around his neck hanging on his bare stomach, each one adorned with the letter E.

His “palace”, or the part we saw, was a room plastered in pictures of celebrities, of him younger (the moustache and beard still there, looking more trim, as did his figure) with various Finnish music artists and actors. On the floor there were a pair of posh pointed men’s shoes which apparently are from a certain famous Finnish singer. E sat in a velvety throne-vibed armchair, and cuddly toy tigers adorned the arms and various other surfaces around the room. (Side note: I have been starting to wonder if a childless woman my age should any longer have cuddly toys in her flat… but since it’s ok for this 70-year-old man, I embrace my cuddlies with pride.)

We discussed the creativity and freedom of laziness, and how it’s shouldn’t have a negative connotation.

At some point E asked L, mildly interested, where he knows us from. “Oh I don’t know them!” L replied enthusiastically, and proceeded to explain the concept of Airbnb, which E didn’t really seem to take in, nor seem interested in taking in. In a way I can see this being a situation where L transports random well-or-less-known celebrities to E’s place, and E is used to a steady flow of fame coming in and out of his place, him being a bit unbothered. I don’t know what made us worthy of the visit, maybe Fabio’s exotic nationality.

But I believe it was just part of L’s eccentricity. We were his first guests since covid, so I guess we got special treatment. I hadn’t heard of others being picked up by convertible.

Then it was time to leave. E bid his farewell by putting out his fingers as if to shake hands, but telling us just to touch the tips of his fingers. Apparently this greeting and farewell was not a covid precaution, but is a famous trademark of his, depicting his laziness.

In the yard, Fabio was admiring the cat and asking – in good Finnish – what is the name of the cat. E answered “tä”, twice, and we’re still unsure whether it’s the actual name of the cat or just a Finnish injection meaning he didn’t understand Fabio’s question.

Goodbye E, what a visit.

And so then we were heading into the car, E casually at the door remarking that he hopes the cat isn’t under the car, the cat likes being under cars. I obviously was not keen on being in a car that runs over E’s only live feline friend, so I was bending over to look under the car for the daring mog. “I don’t see her,” I said, “but I’m not gonna swear she’s not there, the grass is too long.”

In the end “Tä” came bounding to us from the road, from where E then picked her up and took her in.

After this exciting detour, L took us to the café we’d been planning to go to when he had stopped us, where we had a 3.30pm breakfast, followed by a 4.30pm lunch at a cute and popular Pancake place, where the pancakes were yummy but the staff seemed over-eager to clean up our plates, with Fabio literally picking up his last forkful of smoked reindeer and smoked cheese pancake from the plate in the waiter’s hand.

After that we headed off, at Fabio’s lead, towards the RIVIERA OF THE NORTH, Nallikari beach. It was a long and hot walk, comme d’hab, but we made it to the beach, where we had a long paddle in the eternally-and-forever-and-ever shallow sea (talk about family friendly beaches!!). Fabio’s fave beach, and it was indeed lovely, but I preferred Tuira’s decent depths and smaller size.

Then we headed to a lighthouse on a Greek island. Or well, seemingly.

At the end of the beach, there was a lighthouse. A BEAUTIFUL lighthouse. Just look at it. We went up and admired the snail-paced sun setting (it was only 10pmish, so it’d be up for a few more hours), took some magnificent pictures in the eternal #goldenhour, watched the jetskiiers and boats in the water, and enjoyed life.

And then time to walk back, this time in a slightly more manageable heat.

By the time we got to the centre, starving again, it was very late again. This time we found a more busy-looking restaurant which was open, and so we enjoyed a 1am dinner in a restaurant which was charmingly… EUROPEAN. Let me tell you. My vibe in Finland about 1am eateries is greasy kebab places for intoxicated partyers. But this seemed like we were enjoying a nice meal at a late hour (which obviously once again didn’t feel late at all).

Shortly after we got our not-too-fancy meals, the two men on the nearby table commented to us how it’s a “tropical night”, look at the current weather forecast on his phone! This started a brief friendship with very talkative Jaska and his a tad less-talkative mate. Fabio waited patiently, as is his way, to start his food after the conversation had died down, but after a while he commenced eating too as the end of this light chat didn’t seem to be coming anytime soon. We had nice conversations primarily in Finnish (go Fabio!), and Jaska invited us to the nearby bar Jumfru-Jumpru-bar-something-like-that, I wonder if it’s Oulu slang. He was going there now.

We went to the Jumfrujumpru terrace after our meal for a drink, and Jaska came over happily to welcome us and encourage us into the little room where they were playing the piano and singing loudly. (It seems everyone in Oulu is a musician.) We were getting tired and so didn’t enthusiastically take up his offer, but his final attempt was more, er, friendlily forceful. So we found ourselves in this little room where at the piano was the “best live musician in Oulu/Finland” (I don’t remember which) and around him a group of more-or-less happy Finns, singing loudly (some less loudly, this is Finland after all) to the singalong sings he was playing. Jaska threw us a song book, and we sang happy Finnish classics like “Lumi teki enkelin eteiseen” with lyrics like “dad went to Sweden, mum died, dad was drunk, brother was drunk, then dad died, the snow was black” and “Päivänsäde ja menninkäinen”, a BEAUTIFUL piece about a love story between A Ray of Sunshine (Päivänsäde) and a goblin (?) (Menninkäinen) who can never be together because the Ray of Sunshine can’t survive darkness and the goblin can’t survive light. Bad times.

ANYHOOS there were maybe a few happy songs in it too, though actually now come to think of it there wasn’t, I don’t think.

All in all though, WHAT AN EXPERIENCE. Singing these Finnish legends to our hearts’ content, it was incredibly special for me and perhaps even more so for Fabio, who was sat next to me meticulously inspecting the lyrics and singing pretty perfectly. THANK YOU FRIENDLY OULU-PEOPLE FOR BEING ADAMANT WE JOIN YOU. <3

The next day we basically just packed, had a nice brunch, and then L zoomed us to the station to catch our train back to the dark old South. The train ride could be a story of its own, Fabio’s first experience of the #ravintolavaunu. Not that it usually requires a hashtag, but this time it was full of some intense – and drunk – personalities, first providing entertainment, then disgust, then some drama.

When we arrived back in Helsinki it was 11pm and the sky was already a lovely dark blue and there was a faint breeze and I was happy. 🙂