Alone you are, alone in the middle of the people!

Tonight I feel just like the words of the famous Finnish poet, Eino Leino, when he wrote "yksin oot sinä ihminen, kaiken keskellä yksin".
After being a long time with other people, I yearn for lonelyness.  But then, after being a few days alone, I start feeling like I´m the only man on earth, and I start longing for the company of other people.
The fact is that man is a herd or flock animal, like wolf, and that´s why the exceptions are called "lonely wolves".  I think I have a tendency of being one of that kind. Lonely wolves have more freedom than the ones that live in herds, but the life of a lonely wolf is very lonely. And that´s why I have the same problem as Shakespeare, "to be, or not to be (lonely), that´s the question"!

Kimito, Finland

At the moment I am staying in my summer apartment in Björkboda, Kimito (Swedish) or Kemiö (Finnish). It is a big island in South-West Finland about one hours drive from the town of Turku, or a little less from Salo.
I am alone here going through my old photos and letters, most of them from 1970, and I have not even touched them there after. I didn´t remember that I have had advertisements in some papers in Finland, Sweden and Germany, looking for friends (that is, girlfriends).  I had had quite a success, tens of letters from girls in Germany and Sweden, and over 100 from Finland. It is a strage feeling reading these letters and trying to guess, have I answered that letter, have I met her. I remember answering only a few and meeting only some of the girls.  Some of the letters were so inviting that I had a desire to write to them, but I wonder what they would say if they get a letter after 44 years from a guy they don´t know. And I wonder if any of them live anymore in their old addresses, and if they are or were married their surnames have surely changed.
So I think it is better to leave the memories be memories!

But this week on this island is a jazz festival! BALTIC JAZZ in Dalsbruk (Taalintehdas) starts on Friday 4.7. with a parade at 12 o´clock and concerts in the evening, on Saturday 5.7. there is even Baltic Scramble, a golf competition starting at 11 am and in the afternoon and evening many concerts, and the last concerts are on Sunday, 6th of July.  YOU ARE WELCOME!

Levi

At the moment I am in Levi ski resort in the north of Finland, called Lapland. I try to relax here and do some cross country skiing. In the morning the ski trails are a bit icy, but in the afternoon they melt in sunny places and it makes skiing sometimes quite difficult. However, I think it is better for me to do only the cross country because icy Levi´s steep downhill slopes might be just too much for my strained knees.
So today I concentrate in culture here, and I`ll be visiting the art museum of Reidar Särestöniemi in the evening.  And tomorrow I`ll visit an other local artist`s museum in Kittilä, that is. Einari Junttila

Cyprus

Last week I visited Cyprus for the first time after 1966, when I left the island after being the Engineering Officer of the Finnish Contingent of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
The first Finnish blue berets arrived in Cyprus 50 years ago, in March 1964, and to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of UNFICYP and the Finnish contribution to the Mission the Ambassador of Finland in Cyprus had a reception for us, the veterans!
I stayed the week in Louis Nausicaa Beach Hotel, in Protaras, near Agia Napa and Larnaca. It was a really beautiful place, sea was blue and you could see many meters to the bottom of the crystal clear waters!