Finnish SISU and MÖKKI

There is something about Finns swimming in cold lake water: I think they have a skin of a seal with a good amount of fat protecting them from freezing to death :) The Finnish kids might get the famous Finnish SISU (= courage, will and determination) with breast milk, but I think it's refined in cold lake water :)

lake Hankavesi

When you ask Finns what makes them special, then they might answer you, it's SISU. As a German-born  Roman Schatz has written in his book From Finland With Love "sisu is spending your entire summer in the forest in pouring rain, loving every second of it". 

There are hundreds of summer cottages (FIN: mökki) in Ähtäri area. People come here for summer from as far as Helsinki. Roman Schatz describes this migration in the above mentioned book in a very shrewd way: "The  only real traffic jams known in Finland occur around midsummer, during the mass exodus when thousands of people leave their homes and disappear to the countryside". In the countryside you enjoy silence, sauna, swimming in the lake (because every mökki is by the lake or at least within a walking distance to the river), fishing, picking berries and mushrooms. The towns are left for tourists who roam about the empty streets and wonder where all the people have gone. 

Ähtäri zoo camping ground cottages

When in town you miss seeing stars in the sky because the town illuminates the sky too much, then amongst the Finnish forests you miss seeing stars in the sky as well -- the sky is just too light. The sun doesn't really set during the night. The magical midsummer nights!

Neither mosquitoes nor black flies (FIN: mäkärät) stop Finns from living amongst the woods for the summer. Mökki is the place to be during summer holiday!

A true example of Finnish SISU: tree growing on a rock

Golf and more

Marko Viitanen a middle distance drive

Golf is perceived to be an elitist game. In general it is true, as an average club costs about 200€ and a club annual membership fee can be as much as 1000€. And, of course, taking a golf course is not the cheapest. However, there are clubs in Finland that do not ask for that high membership fee. You can be a club member for as much as 70-80 euros a year. Ähtäri Golf club annual membership fee is just 78€/year and if you play often, then an annual pass of 500€ is better than paying per game (=greenfee). At FamilyGolf Par3X you can buy an annual pass for as little as 149€ and, what more, you don't even have to know how to play golf beforehand. The golf pro Marko Viitanen will instruct you and you can go and play a round for 15€ and rent clubs and balls for 5€. You can also improve your drive strokes on golf simulator and the pro will analyze your technique and give you advice on what you should work on.

Par3X golf course

I took the Green Card course on my first Ähtäri weekend. Green Card is like a certificate that proves that you understand the basic rules and regulations of golf, you know how to drive, strike and putt, and how to behave on a golf course (from being courteous to fellow players to dress code). On the last day we showed on the golf course what we've learned. I expected to write a written test, but instead we just played golf. Reminds me of Mario Passos Ascencao's Business Wargaming, also Creativity and Innovation Management classes at Haaga-Helia where we played with LEGO and strategic table games :) Learning should be fun!


I must say it was my first time ever to hold a golf club in my hands at Ähtäri. Before that I had played another type of golf: disc golf. The only similarities between these two golfs is that they are both played on 18 holes and the one with the least stokes wins. There are some other rules and regulations and codes of behaviour that are similar, but I had to learn from A and B how to hold the club and how to move your arms and body (and not you head) so that the ball would actually fly to where you want :) Huh, I have the whole summer ahead to practice it.

FamilyGolf is open for everyone: experienced and beginners, seniors and children. It's a place where you can take the first baby-steps of golf or practice your drive or polish your putting technique. But what most important, have fun with the whole family.

During the first days at FamilyGolf I was surprised how many grandparents came there with their grandchildren to play and teach them to play golf. It's a fun way to spend a day out with grandchildren, have a good exercise and, in addition to that, get a nice sun tan :)

What more, FamilyGolf organises children golf day camps during the summer. They spend 5 days a week 5 hours per day at the club practicing strokes, analyzing them on golf simulator and learning golf in a fun way, not to mention going for a swim in the lake Hankavesi be the weather chilly or not :)

The golf club not only attracts families with children but also those who want to learn more about golf ethics. What am I talking about? A few weeks ago there was Seppo "Buddha" Palminen visiting FamilyGolf who came to talk about his "Buddha Plays Golf" trilogy of books (Buddha pelaa golfia, Lisää Buddhaa peliin, Buddhan eväät) and give a lecture about how to play golf with a right attitude. The first book of his trilogy "Buddha plays golf" has been translated into English. In this book Seppo Palminen offers insights on how to enjoy golf and life. According to Seppo Palminen golf is not just a game, it's a way of growing as a human being: golfers are encouraged to be proud of their imperfections and forget negative emotions on golf course, instead have fun and relax. Enjoy the game and let others enjoy theirs! For Seppo Palminen golf is a spiritual exercise where co-players play an important role. The book is a sort of guide-book for golf professionals, club players, new players, but also for the ones who plan to start playing or do not (yet) play the golf. 

Tuomarniemi

The moss is growing on most conifers

I live in a most amazing place in Ähtäri: in a botanical garden :) No, really. Almost every tree there has an info stand about the tree species. My home in Tartu, Estonia, was right across the street of the Botanical Garden of Tartu University, now in Ähtäri I'm actually living IN a botanical garden :) Well, Tuomarniemi is a SeAMK campus and the guys here study forestry. That explains the tree signs everywhere.

I live in a student apartment house with a view on the lake Hankavesi. The apartments are free for the summer as students fly back to where ever they come here for their studies, so therefore, I could get a nice studio apartment in Tuomarniemi, the botanical garden :) 

I have a studio apartment here

The area has a perfect location, as it's located right on half way from the town centre to the Ähtäri Resort (zoo, golf, hotel and holiday cottages). So I get a good workout when I need to go grocery shopping in the centre or go the Zoo or FamilyGolf. The zoo and the golf club are on the other side of the lake. If I could I would paddle across the lake instead of cycling around it :)

Ähtäri is located in the lake area of Finland, so no wonder they have water everywhere here. Many lakes here are connected with one another by canals, so you can go great distances from one lake to another.

Tuomarniemi is an old settlement, as you can find many old buildings dating back to the beginning of 1900-s. These buildings are one of the oldest buildings in Ähtäri. The name Tuomarniemi basically means "Judge's Peninsula". The road names here really fit the theme: Maitotie (Milk Road, which almost sounds like Milkyway), Metsurintie (Logger Road), Laamannintie (Judge Road, it's an old word for judge in Finnish), Metsänvartijantie (Forest Ranger Road), Käpyriihentie (Cone Barn Road). I'm still puzzled about the judge part here, all the rest of the names make perfect sense, though.

Maybe one day someone tells me why the place is called Tuomarniemi and why they have a Judge Road there. The building above looks like a former court house :)

Back to Ähtäri

It was Elina Viitanen's casually spilt a comment that we could do our summer work placement in Ähtäri, that triggered me to ask for more information. And here I am, back in Ähtäri! I'm working for and with several accommodation and experience companies in Ähtäri like FamilyGolf Par3X, Ähtäri Zoo, Valkeisen Loma and Hyvölän Talo. I will be doing the basic customer service but also contribute to marketing and service concept development -- anything that would help them deliver their service effectively (and efficiently). I'm not going to describe here what my tasks were or give an overview of my daily duties during my stay in Ähtäri, but rather share with you what makes Ähtäri such a special place that amazed and drew me here.

PEOPLE = kind and warm-hearted

They say the more north you move the friendlier the people. I'm just 325 km away from Helsinki. I wonder what kind of people live in Sodankylä then (that is 1000 km north of Helsinki)? I haven't been to Lapland yet. I have to go there one day.

PLACE = the land of fairy-tale lakes and forests

On my way to work

I have to say right here that I live by the Hankavesi lake and I ride a bike to work every day round the lake to the other side of the lake (10km/day). I would paddle to the other side of the lake if they just gave me a kayak :) I love kayaking. At least it doesn't hurt your back side as much as sitting on a bike. I miss my own bike back at home! Maybe I should look into a possibility to use a kayak to get to work...

TOURISM = zoo, golf, spa, cottages, sauna, water sports, reindeers, home-made food, ice-swimming and snowmobile-rides in winter, fishing and ATV-rides in summer

Ähtäri resort is attracting more and more tourists every year. The town and many tourism entrepreneurs are working together to offer their customers the best service packages for the better experience of the place. Right now the town is pretty unknown as a tourism destination, although there is a lot of potential. If you visit www.visitfinland.com page then you can't find anything written about Ähtäri. The Finnish Tourist Board hasn't discovered the "Little Lapland yet" :) The three tourism themes developed by the tourist board are:

• Silence, please
• Wild and free
• Cultural beat

I'd say you can find all three in Ähtäri: you can enjoy a peaceful holiday in a rent cottage in the middle of the forest by the lake, lots of nature activities (snowmobiles, ATV-s, boats, reindeer sled safaris, fishing, etc), local musicians and singers. So why on earth can't I find any articles or links to Ähtäri on their page then?

Hankavesi lake

There's something about Ähtäri...

There's something about Ähtäri... I realized that in April this year when I first visited this place in Southern Pohjanmaa region.

It's 4 hours away from Helsinki when you take a train, or 3,5 hours when you drive a car from Helsinki. The highway until Tampere is very good (two lanes each way), after that the good road ends...but also traffic is much thinner, so it's not that bad at all. If you take the train, then you need to change a train in Seinäjoki, but if you drive then you won't pass that town.

Ähtäri is a small town with just 6400 people living in that area. It's a place where you won't really hear any other language except for Finnish and won't really see any people with a different skin colour. So people will stare at you if you happen to speak in a different language or speak Finnish with an accent.

In April the area was still sleeping in deep winter like a bear stretching its sore limbs ready to crawl out of its den. You couldn't make the difference where the lake or the golf field was as everything was still under the snow.

The train that took us to Ähtäri from Seinäjoki had just 2 wagons. When we first saw the train we thought they sent a bus to fetch us :) There was not a soul at Ähtäri train station as if the town was still hibernating.

Well, soon we saw a bus that came to pick us up and town tourism office people met us. Elina Viitanen -- the soul of Ähtäri Resort -- was one of them. She was our guide thoughout the two days we stayed in Ähtäri. 

The first place they took us to was Valkeisen Loma tourism farm. We stepped out of the bus....and saw a living shaman in front of us who told us to follow him. OK. It's getting interesting! He took us into a Lappish teepee (FIN: kota) with fire burning in the centre and seats all around it covered in reindeer skins.

The shaman's wife was bringing out local delicacies. We were hungry from the long journey up to the North and we couldn't wait to taste what they had prepared for us. We were given wood plates to eat on.

• savoury smoked salmon
• muffins with reindeer meat
• various salads
• warm home baked bread with melting butter on it

It was heavenly! I wish we could have that food at school! Should we ask the muffin recipe? 

We all had seconds :)

After a hearty meal we were taken to the reindeer field shelter right next to the kota. They had 6 reindeer (FIN: poro), one of them albino white called Lumikko. They allowed us to feed them with Iceland moss. It was like candy for kids :) They ate and ate and couldn't get enough of it. No wonder, they can't just wander around in the forest and scrape some moss from under the snow. Glad we could be of help to them :)

These reindeer work as well -- they pull sledges. Some are still being trained, some are already experienced. We didn't get to experience a sleigh ride, though. Maybe next time then...

Then we were taken to the Ähtäri Zoo. They keep there only these animals that live in Finland and they keep them in really big cages so they could have more room to roam about. No wonder they need space if they have about 10 big moose in the same closed space :) The moose were really friendly and one of them allowed us even to pet him. I still can't believe I actually touched a moose :) We were even allowed to feed the moose with birch branches and some granules they eat.

By the way, they also have 3 species that do not naturally live in Finland: bisons, snow leopards and wild boar. The latter used to live once in Finnish forests, but now only in the zoos.

The adult bear the zoo has looked surprisingly fat and healthy although it had just woken up from its hibernation (or do they not sleep in the zoos?), but its cubs looked as if they hadn't eaten for a very long time, though.

The was an accident in the wolf pack just the night before: two males got into a fight and the weaker one got bitten in the leg and was limping badly. Natural selection happens even in zoos. The vet was supposed to come that day to check the wolf, but if it won't let, then it'll die.


The next stop was at Naava Resort -- fancy villas by the lake. They are very close to the zoo, right by the lake, like many other accommodation resorts in the area. However, Naava villas stand out for their top-notch interior and amenities.

Most of the villas were still under construction. Looked like they wanted to get them ready for the high season of summer.

Oh, yeah, the minimum booking days is 7 days and in July you'd pay about 2000€ for a weekly stay there. But think, a villa can fit as many as 8 persons! Not bad, I'd say.

After the posh villa tour we were taken to FamilyGolf Par3X. All we could actually see was the club house and café because the golf course was hidden under the snow. You couldn't actually even tell where the course was located :) If all the other golf courses usually require you have a Green Card and a golf club membership then Par3X doesn't -- everyone can go and play there. I wish we had come there in summertime!

So instead of playing snow-golf we went on a snow safari with snowmobiles. I decided to sit in the back and have a stronger person drive -- it was hard work to hold on to the snowmobile and not to fly off when it jumped on the snow! They told us we were driving on the frozen lake. I have but to believe them, as for me it looked just as a regular field. What long lake it was!

My hands were shaking with adrenalin after the ride so that I had to hold on to my hot chocolate cup with two hands in order not to spill any. WOW! What a ride!

Elina Viitanen, one of the owners of the FamilyGolf, had baked us some pies and muffins. WOW! What a treat!

It was time for a relaxing sauna now! We were taken to Hyvölän Talo -- one of the first farms in Ähtäri dating back to as long as 1570! The farm has been within the same family for 443 years!!! The current owners are the 14th generation. Amazing! The current buildings are not that old, of course, just 100 years :) Anyway, they had prepared a smoked sauna for us. I've been to a smoke sauna (FIN: savusauna) before so it wasn't anything new to me. If you think then smoke sauna has no chimney, therefore all the smoke stays in the building and you'll smell like smoked ham afterwards :) What more, your eyes start itching because of the smoke. So you just have to get out of the sauna every now and again. They had a hot tub right outside the sauna by the frozen lake. Some of the bravest ones dipped themselves into the ice-cold lake water as well. Well, ice swimming is  not really for me. I could do a +10C degree water in a spa, but not in the frozen lake :) There was a gorgeous view from the hut tub over the frozen lake and the sunset!

After the relaxing sauna we were served a hearty meal. How delicious can be homemade food! All the Ähtäri Resort people that took care of us that day were there with us and we had a lovely dinner together.  Elina, the fairy of the resort, was singing to us. But she also made us sing in Finnish an old traditional song. She wanted us all engaged in it, so each of us got an instrument to play on -- really simple one so even those who couldn't play any instrument could play along. She definitely knows how to entertain people! But that wasn't all. She also asked us to compose a song about our experience in Ähtäri that day. Mission impossible was actually viable :) Our group of four came up with a song that we named "Little Lapland" because we thought that Ähtäri has all the attractions that Lapland has. So why go to Lapland if you can have the magic of Lapland much closer to the capital!

The day was long but full of various experiences. It was time to go to bed. We stayed at Hirvimökit (Deer Cottages) which were very close to the zoo, right by the lake.

The rent of these cottages is lower than that of Naava villas (just 690€/week). They fit 6 persons (1 queen bed and 4 twin beds). It's a really nice and spacious cabin with a big kitchen and bathroom. And, of course, it has a sauna and a fireplace.

The next morning we were welcomed back to the Valkeisen Loma for breakfast. The resort entrepreneurs and the town of Ähtäri were interested in getting valuable feedback from us, the Experience and Wellness Management students. We were all so amazed by how warm and welcoming the people of Ähtäri were. Having come from Helsinki, it is a totally different world -- relaxing, slow, quiet, surprising, exciting, engaging and involving place. A place to come back!

And I did come back :) But more about that in my next posting...