A weekend at Espoo

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Because of my usual habit of happily ignoring alarms and because yesterday the cell was conveniently in the silent mode, I was still warmly tucked into the bed when I started getting calls. Ouch, I missed an appointment and along with it breakfast at a cute sea-side restaurant. I asked my friend to drive over to my place, got ready and prepared breakfast with all my efficiency. Its scrambled eggs and toast for him and left overs from the previous day for me. The project discussion took really long after the breakfast and so I asked my friends to leave for the city centre without waiting for me. Our Finnish friend Sussi had agreed to drive us to Espoo earlier.

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Fortunately for me Sussi also got late and my friend was kind enough to drive me to the city centre and I could join my friends in time. The drive to the Espoo was beautiful and we stopped by the Mecca of Finland, the Nokia global headquarters. They have a huge campus by the sea side and a helipad even. Then we drove by the luxurious '5-million-each' houses with a view to the sea. We slowly crossed the city limits of Espoo and in no time off into the beautiful country side and woods.

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Sussi parked her car around a corner and we started walking into the woods, uphill - there was a small creek running along the path, gurgling with fresh water. Quite reminiscient of that particular forest adventure in January 2005, only that there is no heat and sweat this time. So we walked, and Lo! there a quiet lake at the end of the trail. There is a small wooden cottage even, with a fire place and smoke in the chimney. Very much like a fairy tale setting.

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After that, we had custard cake at a typical cosy cottage restaurant. As its Christmas time, it looked even warmer and festive. Then we went to Sussi's small cute home with its little garden and spent a few hours chatting. The drive back home on well illuminated highways was also worth an experience. As a perfect end to a perfect day, we watched 'Love Actually' at night before dozing off.