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Oulu Crayfish Banquet 2010

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

7 intrepid explorers set off from Scotland on different dates with high adventure and excitment in mind. What happened next will go down in the annals of JCI Glasgow/Oulu twinning. Some took the easy journey from Sweden to Finland but the more adventorous took the long scenic route from Edinburgh to Tampere. Then by train to Oulu. Nearly a whole day of travelling. There were the early rises at 4am to catch an early flight, navigating the baggage limits and high temperatures on board a train to content with but none of these dampened our spirits. Upon arrival at Oulu we were met by the current President of Oulu Raisa Juntunen and past president Marianne Hirn. We were whisked away to our hosts and spent Thursday evening having dinner with our hosts and then early to bed. The Friday was late rises for the weary travellers and met with nice sunny hot weather too. We were given a guided tour of Oulu then onto lunch overlooking the river Oulu before heading out into the middle of a forest for a night of sauna, food and drink. We were treated to a very traditional smoked sauna which takes hours to heat up due to the amount of stones involved. The tradition at this particular place was to have the sauna then jump into the "stream" as the Finns named this. It was more like a river which was coloured brown due to the fact that it runs through peat bogs. The normal tradition in Finland is to take a sauna "sans clothes" but due to the amount of "mossies" and cold weather. People, well the women, opted for the untraditional bathing costumes. We all had a good time and got re-acquainted with each other. A good time was had by all even the local insects who feasted on the foreign blood. The Saturday was a day of lunching followed by THE event - The Hat competition. No only kidding we had the Crayfish Banquet at night time. This was held at a traditional Finnish house in beautiful surroundings and lovely people. Gifts were exchanged and most importantly the twinning baton. The hat competition was won by a local Finnish lass and judged by past president Marianne and Kerr Luscombe who has joint JCI Glasgow/Oulu citizenship. His split JCI personality shone through. There were runners up who won, which some would say was the better prize, a hug from Marianne. The night went on until the wee small hours and for others the wee small morning. One of the Scottish delegates was trying to improve Scottish/Oulu relations but by all accounts was unsuccessful. The Sunday was a day of sadness as we said goodbye to our Finnish hosts at a brunch on the banks of one a the small inlets near Oulu. This was followed by our trek on trains, planes and automobiles until we ended back in our beds very late on the Sunday night. We would highly recommend anyone who has not been to the Oulu Caryfish banquet to make this journey. It is well worth it.