Yes, now it’s on. I came to start the summer on my home island. I came right on time, on 20th June. Loaded 4 cases of beer, 10 litres of white and rose, 10 kilos of various meats for BBQ, suitcase full of sheer dresses and shorts and swimwear and SPF creams-sprays-lotions. It’s on. Heatwave is on. While driving here my cars thermometre showed 32C. While driving. Not in some insane parkinlot with no shade. So I am all prepared and ready. I took all I could imagine. Except anything warm in case 20C in the night feels freezing. AND, yes, you guessed it right. First night at about half past midnight I was still outside and I thought I will freeze to death. I checked the thermometre – it showed 22C! Oh, yes, looks like I need some shopping. Well, I don’t really mind supporting the local business. 

Ferry takes about one and half hours to get to the island, including the loading, berthing and discharge. If these are not the correct words for ferry operations, then sorry, I only work with cargo ships :). Ferry ride is like 100% better than it used to be 20+ years back. I think I have a post about my childhood trauma of being stuck in ferry for 32 hours in freezing cold in the middle of the sea. At winter, with minus 32C. We lost hope…. until it started to be warm, a whole minus 26C. Then there came hope of getting out of the icy frozen sea…. If not I shall tell one day of this insane trip. Today the ferries are very pretty little things taking on some 100 cars I think…. never really counted the number of cars on the new ferries. Should do some research because it’s really fascinating for me. All that is related to sea, ships, fishing, transport, all that is my thing. 

Each metre I get closer to the island feels so strangely mine. My home, my island, my everything. I don’t know if anyone else has this feeling going home. But I do. Maybe it’s because I have to cross the sea to get there. It’s in a way crossing an invisible border. To the other side. To the unknown. And the same time to everything I know. I know probably 90% of the island. Roughly. I know each big road, I know some shortcuts in some places, some forests, some houses, some people. Some people because I have been away from the island for many decades. And the young locals I have no idea who they are. Some of them I can recognise by face of which family they are from. You know, if I used to know their dads or moms when I was young. And I recognise some of my schoolmates, some of my friends friends, my sisters ex boyfriends, my own crushes. Some oldies still work in the same places they worked 20+ years ago. Funny. That’s the stability I could not stand. For me it was stagnation, not stability. I need to move ahead. Change, grow. 

So I go to town, the only real town we have here on the island. I chat a bit with my ex neighbour. I mean, neighbour from the time when I lived here. She still works in the meat section in shop. The shop is new tho. She is still happy camper. I see my classmate Martin, I last saw him 30 years ago. He greets me and tells me happy holidays. I am stunned and ask why 🙂 :). Then realise it’s one of the biggest holidays indeed. I just came home, not for holidays particularly. Just home. But I gather myself quick and reply some greetings to him. The summersolstice is huge holidays here because it’s at the same time with one of our victory days and we celebrate it all together with huge fires, music, dances. Which all together means we have three if not four days off. And the days off are sacred here. We have so few of them that it sometimes feels we are working non stop like japanese. Even the duration of fully paid vacation of 28-52 days per year is somehow miserable considering our neighbouring country has 17 bank holidays but we have only 11. The fact that I have looked up this data also confirms how miserable we feel 🙂 refusing to celebrate the slightest of reason. So summersolstice with fires, dances, looking for love during the longest night is our inborn right and that we celebrate like nutters. Everyone tries to get their paid vacation at the same time so cities are literally empty. Nobody is in town. Like abandoned. But instead every corner of countriside is full of our local tourists, cityfolks who bring in the money. Our islands survive exactly like that – they have to sell everything and more within the 4 summermonths we have so they are able to live the remaining year on this income. Everyone has a cabin or 4 for rent. Everyone has cafeteria. Everyone goes fishing wee hours in the morning in order to sell what the sea gives. 

Enjoy the summer. It might aswell be soon constant autumn with all the global warming. 

Stay cool and hot