Apon arrival, we discovered there was a strange market going on. I later found out this was for Paraisten Päivät (Parainen days?). Anyway, there was some odd music, a man on a segway, a man in a tutu offering potatoes, a stag night party (more on that later), and most notably a CD stall selling Swedish CDs :) Actually I didnt buy any as I'll be going to Stockholm soon, and am confident I'll find them cheaper there, but still it was exciting to see Måns, Sanna Nielsen, Alcazar, MF and many others.
After looking at a map we decided to head towards what looked like a nature trail. It was also close to a beach. As we walked along the coast, the sun started to think about shining... We then cut through a very nice little residential area. I'm guessing these are very sought after houses. They were fairly big (in terms of Finland at least), had lovely gardens, and most had views of the ocean. Also as we were walking along, we passed another group walking along who said a friendly 'Hej/Hei' to us as we went past! What?! That never happens in Finland. I've decided if I move to Finland permanently, this is where I want to live. Especially after we reached the beach...
The sun came out, and I decided to go for a paddle. It was so nice. I could have happily gone for a swim in fact. Although I nearly did when I foolishly decided to try and walk along a group of rocks. They were a bit slippery...
After that we went and sat on the pier so I could wash and dry my feet without the issue of sand. Unfortunately I somehow ended up flinging my sock into the ocean :/ So I had to walk around with just one sock on for the rest of the day... Oh, and then it started hailing. Yes, it was cold enough to hail. In June. Crazy country.
So then we explored the woods. Not much to say really. Trees, plants, pine cones, you know the drill. However, due to the recent rain, it did smell nice. Must be the Brit in me, but I love the smells after it rains.
We then went to explore the old town. Well, it was no Porvoo, but there was an interesting church. Something about the shiny roof made me think of the Wizard of Oz for some reason.
We then went back to the river, where we found a nice little cafe place to sit and have what was in fact a very big portion of chips and a burger. Yum Yum. Possibly the highlight of the day was the stag party mentioned earlier. Sadly I have no photographic evidence, but the stag was dressed up in a blonde wig and carried a guitar to serenade unsuspecting victims with. Luckily we were not one of these victims, so it was just funny :)
After that we went back into the old town and continued to walk around marveling at all the lovely big houses. After sufficiently walking off said burger and chips we went and sat down by the bay again, and watch a seagull attempting to catch his own lunch. Was quite impressive to watch him diving for the fish. Didnt see him actually catch any mind you...
And then it was time to say goodbye to Pargas. It was a fun day. The only way it could have been better is if the weather had been a bit better, and if we had found the mysterious sheep farm, haha! But still, it was so nice to get out of Turku for a while. In some ways it did feel like we had gone abroad (Swedish was the main language, and although most of what we heard was Finnish, shops and signs were all written in Swedish first, and then Finnish). I would definitely like to see some of the other islands before my time here is up.
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