Marieke

I thought I would see all my (close) family this winter, except my Finland-dwelling sister. I turned out to not see anybody except my Finland-dwelling sister…

I am notoriously bad at maintaining contact with relatives, especially in person. I phone my mother quite often, and send my Finnish sister quite many letters, but I hardly ever show up. Christmas would be the moment of redemption, but my health didn’t allow it. And then my sister decided to take matters in her own hand: she came to me.

I dragged Hugh to the railway station, where soon a train rolled in. And then a familiar face appeared through the train window! Seeing family is always special (even I know that!), but Marieke and I have always had an extra strong bond. And we haven’t lived in the same country for 15 years now, but that doesn’t change things.

The first thing Marieke did after we had hugged was asking Hugh if his intentions were honourable. When he answered positively that matter was effectively settled, and we could go home for food and sleep. She arrived at the station at ~20.25, which is 22.25 Finnish time… a pie awaited us in the oven, and soon we could eat and catch up. Only so much of that before it was bedtime, but quite good anyway!

The next morning I awoke when in my living room, which doubled as Marieke’s bedroom, still nothing stirred. So I did the nerd thing and quietly checked my mail and the news and such things. Managed to get a blog post up! But time passed by. She would only stay for a few days! And if she would spend that time asleep we wouldn’t use this opportunity for sisterly reconnecting to its maximum potential. So I then did the dishes. I got louder and louder, but still nothing stirred. When it was almost noon (2PM Finnish time!) I decided it had been enough and I woke her up.

This Saturday wouldn’t be very suitable for adventures; half the day was already gone, and the weather was abominable. So we just drank tea and spoke. For hours. The pinnacle of activity was doing the food shopping (which revealed a preference for English instant hot chocolate in my sister), and then engaging in some female bonding by means of cooking an elaborate meal together. A calm day, but a good one!

Throwing the spinach dumplings into the oxtail stew! No need to explain I would never make such a dish for myself.

The weather forecast had identified the Sunday and Monday as days for venturing outside; we picked a nice 16km stroll over Dartmoor for Sunday. And under somewhat menacing clouds we combined our incessant conversation with glorious, wide views. Maybe not as empty and spectacular as Finland, and surely not as hibernal, but beautiful nonetheless!

There were no pubs on this route, and by the time we came back to the start pubs wouldn’t serve lunch anymore, so we went home, and went into town for food. I was a bit afraid we would get swarmed by the nightlife crowds, but that expectation was happily dismantled by the realisation it was Sunday. We did end up at a table next to four Dutch blokes… we did the Dutch thing and switched to another language (or two, in our case: Swedish and Norwegian) in order to avoid detection. How silly we Dutch are…

The day after we went out again. Not just because the countryside here has a lot to offer, but also because my heating had given up. And my Fennoscandian sister doesn’t like cold! This time we picked a walk that had two pubs in it. This time pub lunch wouldn’t escape us! We hoped.

As we didn’t start early we had to walk briskly to make it at a safe time to the first pub. Which was closed on Monday. No! Our best bet was to take the quickest route to the next one. Which was shrouded in scaffolding… a bad sign. Indeed, this pub was not functional. Luckily, two of the men involved in the renovation pointed us up the road, where another pub would be found. And when we walked there the surroundings seemed to familiar… and indeed; the pub we indeed reached, and which fortunately served lunch until the late hour of 2.30, was the same in which we had had our CORiF Xmas lunch! And the one in renovation was the one that had provided our initial pint… it’s a small world.

Me on a muddy track. Pic by Marieke

After a very nice lunch we walked back, making sure we covered the prettiest parts of the indicated walk. Not enough daylight to do the whole walk after these antics! And we were back at the car at dusk.

That was a bit melancholy, already; this was our last evening together! This time we got so deep down and personal we did not only drink seas of tea but also some alcohol. And then it was bedtime again… and the only thing left to do was sleep, do a standard morning routine, pack, and leave for the railway station. There we said goodbye. I don’t know when we’ll see each other again. I should be the next one to make the trip! But when? And in the meantime we’ll have our trusted letters to keep communication going. And the next time we see each other it will still be as if we’ve been not only sisters, but also neighbours, all our life!