Midsummer with Finland

Ivan Braginski looked out of the windows as the Tolstoi-train arrived at the train station in Helsinki. It was so much smaller than his own station in Moscow, but he supposed it worked for such a small country. Ivan started collecting his luggage and prepared to exit the train. He enjoyed going to Finland by train. It was especially fun to double book the carts for Finnish tourist and watch them carry their heavy luggage around from cart to cart, getting more annoyed by the minute. Ivan had even made sure a cart was triple booked once. He smiled to himself. That had been fun.

He exited the train and started looking around for his western neighbor. The invitation to spend Midsummer at Finland’s place had come a surprise. The relationship between the two countries had been going up and down lately, especially with all the Russian people that lived at Finland’s place losing their children or getting shipped back to Russia. Ivan didn’t really care about it, but the news apparently sold, so all his TV-programs and papers were filled with it. He knew Finland wasn’t very happy about that, so when he had called to invite Ivan over for Midsummer, Ivan had to ask him to repeat the question.

Ivan had happily agreed to go, of course. He knew what a Midsummer with Finland meant, and Ivan wasn’t one to pass a good opportunity to drink. Still, it was surprising.

Ivan spotted his blond little neighbor in the crowd and begun to walk towards him, smiling.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Let the crack begin. XD

((You literally killed me with this one. The triplebooking.. Oh gawd, I'll never forgive them. Not Amorphis either. XD))

---

Finland wasn't even completely sure what had hit him when he invited Ivan over himself. For some reason he rarely celebrated the occassion with Sweden, their traditions being so different even though the appreciation for the holiday and the reasons for it were just the same. The whole dancing around leaf-covered poles had just never really made it in Finland. He preferred having those leaves in the sauna.
Maybe it was because he knew Ivan would enjoy most of his traditions, unlike his more western friends.

Now here he was, stepping out of tram number 4 at the Lasipalatsi to walk the last 100s of meters to the railway station, where he'd promised to pick up Ivan. The whole town seemed almost empty already, most people having already left for their summer houses, cottages and cabins the previous evening, today being the first holiday after all.

After crossing the Mannerheimintie (oh if only he was still alive)he quickly passed Sokos and entered the station. A quick check later he knew what platform the Tolstoi was arriving to. Oh how he hated those trains. How may times hadn't he taken them to Moscow? How many times hadn't it been a trip filled with bad things? Both the trainride and what happened at the destination. He hoped that one day the Russians would learn how to organize bookings.

Track number 13... here it was. And the train stood there already, the ladies in their high fur hats standing promptly next to the open doors without moving a single muscle in their face. Tino wondered if they ever smiled. If teherw as anything worth smiling at in their lives.

And there he was. He would never smitake that face anywhere. Ivan came walking towards him, carrying a bag and with a smile on his face. He always smiled and it still sent shivers up Tinos spine. He quickly shrugged it off and put on a smile, waving at Ivan to show him he'd seen him. A few seconds later they stood in front of each other and Tino greeted his old enemy, now in many situations considered friend. If one chose to ignore the recent debates.

"We'll take a boat from Katajanokka out to the archipelago so we'll take a tram there, are you okay with your luggage?"

-------------------------
OHO IT BECAME KINDA PITKÄ SIIS LONG.

Ivan thought Tino looked a bit nervous when he approached. The greetings seemed a bit awkward too, which Ivan though was understandable, all things considered. He figured Tino would relax soon enough though. He usually did. Or got angry. Ivan didn’t really care either way.
"We'll take a boat from Katajanokka out to the archipelago so we'll take a tram there, are you okay with your luggage?", Tino asked.

“I’ll be fine”, Ivan answered with a smile. He had been carrying much heavier loads over the years. “I didn’t bring that much. Only a few lit… kilos.”

They started making their way to the tram together, Tino walking a bit before Ivan, showing him the way. Ivan had been here so many times he could probably have found the way himself, but Tino was being a responsible host, so Ivan just tagged along.

There weren’t that many people in the tram, but Ivan sat down next to Tino anyway. The smaller blonde didn’t talk much during the journey, so Ivan started talking about a ballet he had seen some weeks ago. It probably didn’t interest Tino very much, but to Ivan silence was never an option when traveling together.

He knew, however, that Tinos silence meant he was starting to relax. Ivan smiled to himself and continued talking.

----------------------------------------------------------------
...becouse Russians talk like there's no tomorrow. End of story.

((Betsi, I have one request. At some point in this thread.... Maybe later. ))

--------------------------------------------------------------

Ivan went on about ballet or something. It didn't interest Tino at all, but he nodded every once in a while out of politeness. At least the blabbering showed that Ivan was in a good mood and that there was no hostility in the air. That was good. How he was interested in such ...feminine... pasttimes never ceased to amaze Finland though. But he was forgiven since he also happened to be quite good at icehockey. A little too good, usually.

Having Ivan sitting so close to him felt a little awkward. But it did with almost anyone. Tino sometimes wondered why the town just didn't order trams with two aisles and only single seats. Less people would be standing.

He watched Stockmann go by as the tram went down Aleksanterinkatu. He nodded again and smiled at Ivan. Soon they would pass by the Senate Square. That did feel a little awkward with Ivan right next to him. He wondered if Ivan would comment anything. Or if he should Or if they'd better just ignore it. Ignore the fact that Tino still had a Russian Tsar standing there, in front of the former Nikolai Cathedral, right next to the former Alexander University. Former.
Tino chose to ignore it and decided to comment on the lovely weather they had gotten for the occassion. When there was a break in the ballet-talk he said it.

"It's quite nice it's so sunny today, then it really won't get dark!"

Ivan looked out of the window as the tram passed the Senate square. The square was probably Finland’s most obvious architectural reminder of the time he had spent at Ivan’s place. Ivan fell silent for a moment looking at the statue of Alexander II in the middle of the square.

Alexander II had been a strange ruler, far too liberal for some, too conservative for others. He had tried quite hard to change the future of Russia, making many changes and reforms. Much of this was for naught when he was assassinated, but Ivan supposed he had succeeded in changing Finland for the better. And Poland for the worse. A small smile touched Ivan’s lips at the thought.

"It's quite nice it's so sunny today, then it really won't get dark!"

Ivan returned to the present, quite amused. Finns hardly ever talk, and when they finally do, it’s always about the weather. Some things never changed.
“No need to go to sleep today then”, he smiled.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Request accepted. Just give me an opening. ^^

Finland actually smiled at Ivans comment. How true wasn't that? He was quite sure they wouldn't get any sleep. That's what midsummer was all about. Staying up until the sun goes down, the night when the sun doesn't go down at all.

Next would be the Uspenski Cathedral. Another of the very Russian things in Helsinki. He wondered if Ivan had heard about the recent icon-theft. He wondered if Ivan would actually care. Probably not.

"It's just a small cabin we're going to, there's a ferry going out to the island from next to the Viking Terminal." He decided to just talk about their plans and where they were going, to once again distract them both from the signs of their shared times in the scenery around them.

Luckily at least the archipelago was very Finnish.

”It’s your дача isn’t it?, Ivan asked. “must be nice having one on an island.”

Ivan had summerhouses himself, many of them, but none in the archipelago. There weren’t really all that many nice spots near the sea at his place. Most of his coastline was to the north after all. Ivans summerhouses were therefore mostly built in forests or otherwise on the countryside.

Thus, Finland’s archipelago fascinated him, with all its small islands and islets. He had had a military base over in Hanko between the wars with Finland, and had really enjoyed the landscape. That was a long time ago though.

An orthodox church went passed the window. Ivan had somewhat returned to his former beliefs after 1991, but he wasn’t very religious, the years of forced atheism had left its mark. The churches tended to be quite beautiful, however, so he did visit every now and then. Mostly on Easter.

Ivan turned his attention back to Tino. “How far out is that дача of yours?”

Ivans question pulled him back from his thoughts.
"Oh it's not far, you wont almost noitce it with your view on distance"
Tino laughed a little, yeah, this would go well. No problems.

Why had he been so worried? Even if it would've been awkward in the beginning, alcohol solves all problems like that in a few shots. And he had a feeling there would be many.
"Look, there's Viking Line, now we'll get off at the next stop." He got up and pressed the red button framed by a yellow plastic square. A small pinging sound was heard when the lightsign that said "Pysähtyy - stannar" was lit.

------

bah, de ble kort.

Ivan laughed a little at Tinos comment. He remembered an incident a few years back when “about six kilometers to walk” hadn’t meant quite the same to both of them. Oh well, they had reached their destination, a bit later than expected. Tino had been incredibly frustrated. Finland was one of the only countries Ivan knew who was always on time.

They got of the tram and started walking, Tino in the lead again. This time Ivan really had no idea where they were going, but he was looking forward to finding out. The other seemed completely relaxed now, Ivan noticed. That was good. Intimidating people was fun at times, but on friendly visits it just got annoying.

Ivan followed Tino down the harbor. This would be a fun midsummer.

---------------------------------------------
kort här också.^^

He noticed Ivan had fallen a step or two behind but kept walking in the same pace. Maybe he wanted to be a little behind him. Oh well. There wasn't much of a walk left anyway. He could already see the pier to which the boat was tied, only a couple of hundreds of meters away.

He did his best not to feel awkward again, but when no words were excahnged the creeping feeling the taller man always caused found it's way back into his head. He tried shrugging it off, which must've been visible, he realized and quickly regained his posture. What the heck. They were just gonna have fun as friends. Some alcohol and all that jazz, you know.

There finally! Finland made a pointing motion towards the white boat that waited for them and smiled at Ivan before umping in and lifting a bench to reveal a box full of life vests.
"Here's one for you"

Ivan had visited Finland many times before, and he was aware that the distance from one place to another generally was pretty short, but he was still surprised at how quickly the journey went. Especially since Tino hadn’t been very talkative the whole trip. Tino being quiet was nothing new, of course, but Ivan was getting a feeling something was wrong. He figured he’d ignore it for the time being. Tino would tell him when he was ready, or drunk enough.

Ivan admired Finland’s summer place as the got of the boat. He made a pause in his monologue (currently involving a Russian painter who had been painting Finnish politicians) as he took in the beautiful surroundings.

The дача itself was particularly intriguing. Ivan had always found the red-with-white-corners color scheme interesting, if a little weird. It made the small house easy to spot between the trees. He commented on this as they made their way to the house.

Finland was listening to Ivan speak for most of the time, despite maybe not actively showing it. Some of the conversation topics he found more interesting as others (such as the painter, which brought back some partly painful and partly happy memories of one of his past presidents). Instead he found himself concentrating on the air blowing in his face, breathing in the lovely smell of the just slightly salty water of the Baltic Sea. Or the Gulf of Finland, as this particular area was called, he thought with a small smile.

It was somehow fascinating to Tino that Ivan liked his little cottage. It wasn't anything he should be surprised by, as getting summer houses in Finland was quite the trend in Russia, but it still made him feel good in a really odd way.

He put his bag down on the little porch and unlocked the door so they could get in. The familiar, somehow so strangely summery, smell greeted him and he couldn't help but smile. He stepped into the little cottage, that didn't have much else than a bed, a sofa, a little kitchen and a fireplace and took of his jacket. He then decided to ask Ivan if he should light the fireplace, since it could get quite cold at night even at summer. This of course, was mostly out of politeness, as he knew very well both of them could last cold nights without problems. And with the amounts they'd most probably be drinking they wouldn't feel any cold either way.

Ivan followed Tino into the funny-colored cottage, musing over how different the smell was from the average дача in his country. There was the absence of cabbage, for one thing. Ivan sometimes felt “the absence of cabbage” was a smell in it’s own right.

He put his bags down beside Tino’s, smiling at the slight “klonk”-sound it made as it touched the ground. The smile became even more amused when he heard Finland ask whether he should light a fire. Like there would be a need for one, with the alcohol and the bonfire and the fact that it was Midsummer! Always the polite one, Finland was.

“Maybe later”, Ivan smiled.

"That sounds good!" Tino replied with another smile and reached out to turn on the radio and as he heard the familiar tunes of "Kotiseudulle Pohjois-Karjalaan" he quickly changed the channel knowing that "Karjala" would most likely be the only word Ivan would understand. As soon as something that was most likely this year's summer pain could be heard instead he was satisfied.

"So, I'm gonna unpack the food into the fridge, but how about we get started right away?" He pulled out a couple of random bottles from his bag, ending up with a salmiakki vodka and some Koskenkorva Blueberry. A few stes away he opened a small cupboard and rummaged through it until he found what he was looking for. Shot glasses.
As he placed them down on the table, right next tothe bottles he found the need to excuse the pictures of naked ladies on them.

"Ahaha, sorry about these. Denmark gave me them for my birthday once..."

Ivan watched Tino fidget with the radio with an amused smile. He really had terrible taste in music. Except hard rock. Tino knew his hard rock.

He nodded affirmatively to Tinos suggestion to start drinking right away. That’s why they were there, anyway. Besides, it would be bad luck not to toast to their arrival. Not that he would tell the other one that. Tino might think he was superstitious.

Tino started putting bottles and glasses on the table. Ivan raised an eyebrow at the rather graphic pictures of naked women on the shot glasses. Tino apparently caught the look.

"Ahaha, sorry about these. Denmark gave me them for my birthday once..."

That explained a lot really. That was jut the kind of present he’d expect Denmark, except he kind of figured the pictures would be of naked men rather than women. Ivan was a bit surprised that Finland would actually use the present.

“It’s fine”, Ivan smiled. “They’re not that bad. Last time I visited Denmark the glasses had a lot more people on them. Not any more clothes though.”