Parikkala is a small village in the East of Finland. It has about 5,000 inhabitants and there are nearly 2,000 summer cottages officially in the village. My grandparents' (mother's parents') cottage is there and there are more pictures of the place in this same site but another album:
http://tiinamichelinda.multiply.com/photos/album/11/ParikkalaThere's more common information of Parikkala at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ParikkalaPictures 1-9:
We went to the summer cottage where we've spent so many weekends this summer and also spring. We grilled and danced, listened to the music, took a long sauna bath, and had a great time, and on Wednesday the 9th we drove to Parikkala. Why we went to the cottage first is that it's on the way when it's driven to Parikkala. It takes 45 minutes to drive to the cottage and three hours from there to Parikkala.
Pictures 10-41:
We spent an awesome week in Parikkala. We did all sorts of fun things; went around the village and the places around it, we grilled and swam, we went for walks, we baked, and the pictures show the rest. Even Garfield went to swim and when he didn't have energy to walk for longer, as we took my grandma's dog for a walk, I carried him on my shoulders.
Pictures 41-52:
Parikkala is just about 3km / 3 miles away from the border of Russia and Tuula, my grandpa, and I went to see the border. Picture number 46 shows the forest which is on the side of Russia.
"Parikkalan Tulli Ja Raja-asema" means "Parikkala's Customs And Border Crossing". There are pictures of the place. Anyway, only the big trucks with wood and other cargos can cross because the border crossing area isn't ready for tourists on the side of Russia.
Pictures 53-66:
Patsaspuisto a.k.a Statue Park is a park full of statues. It's life's work of my grandpa's second cousin who makes the statues by himself. He's created and made and updated the park over 30 years.
Most of the statues represents people who go for and do yoga. The reason why this is is that the creator and owner of the place who is working and also having his house in the park has yoga as his dear hobby too.
Pictures 67-70:
There are two pictures of the pets we had there at the cottage; my grandma's dog swimming and Garfield being outside.
Tuula and I went to dance on Thursday evening. There was a big occasion at the dancing place and there were over 1,000 people participating. First there was singing, then dinner and coffee, and from ten o'clock in the evening on people could dance.
There are places for dancing in the countryside in Finland and it's an old tradition that people go to dance there. The dancing goes along the Finnish dance music which is tango, waltz, and some other typical and traditional Finnish music types which, some of them, don't even exist outside Finland. There's usually an orchestra or a band playing and there's a dance floor where people dance.
