Pardon me Boy, is that the Seinäjoki choo-choo?

Oh dear, we have had a busy summer vacation. We went to Finland in the middle of July. It was so exiting. I have traveled with the ferry couple of times before, but all the people, rattling bags-on-wheels, screaming kids and other loud noises make me nervous. It feels much better once we get in the cabin. I was a very good boy and only tried to climb into my human dad's bed twice. Since it was barely big enough for him, he had to disappoint me and pushed me out.

We usually travel at night, since it fits best with my potty routines. Well, it means a quick wee-wee tour outside the terminal just before boarding and when we arrive to teh desination my human mom runs out with me as fast as we possible can. During the first trip I didn't quite make it. I started leaking couple of meters before the exit. This time I manahed to hold it all the way out, but then I'm a big boy now.

After spending few days at my human grandparent's, it was time to take the train to Seinäjoki. My humans visited the Tangomarkkinat,

I was quite calm at the railway station. They had set aside half a car for people traveling with dogs and there were three or four other dogs in the car. As always, there was a Jack Russell, growling and threatening to kick all the other dogs’ asses. There was also a French Poodle that was causing a commotion. He told me to bugger off everytime I got a little too close. I didn't do anything wrong. It was hardly my fault, if the seats were so close to each other. I'm 48 kg, so you can hardly expect me to sit on my mom's lap, can you. A big, handsome boy like me needs lot of room to lie down. I basically ignored the poodle and all the other dogs and tried my best to sleep through the three and a half hour trip. Changing trains in Tampere went well too.

Seinäjoki is a town of 50,000 people and there were over 100,000 visitors for the Tango Festival. My humans had rented a small apartment for the weekend. A gentleman met us at the station to take us there. When asked before we came how he would recognize us, my mom said that wouldn’t be a problem as she would be accompanied by a very tall husband and a large black dog. Amazingly, he spotted us without difficulty.

When my humans went to tango, they left me alone in the apartment. They carefully placed all the stuffed toys on the top shelves so that I couldn’t get to them and do a a doggy-style autopsy. Knowing my habit of sneaking into the bedroom and sleeping on the bed, they closed the bedroom door.

After awhile I got bored and needed some kind of entertainment. I gave the apartment a thorough inspection and found a basket full of small stuffed animals. Opening the bedroom door wasn't very difficult. A strategically placed paw and - ooppss - the handle turned down. I picked up Winnie the Pooh, lied down on the bed and gave Winnie a mauro-style nose-job. Unfortunately my humans came home earlier than expected and caught me right in action. Next time they left the apartment all the suffed animals were put in the bedroom and the doorway was blocked with two chairs.

Virtually across the street was a park with a small river running through it. On the other side of the river, was a wilderness area that was absolutely beautiful and we walked there every day. The summer in the Nordic countries brings mosquitoes. This wilderness area was no exception. My human dad claimed that they were rather wimpy mosquitoes. They didn't bother me much, but my humans made the mistake a couple of times of walking without insect repellent. These mosquitoes just kind of buzzed around a lot and didn’t bite my dad too much. They did chow down pretty well on my mom but she is much sweeter than dad and me.

The trip back home to Stockholm was uneventful. All this tangoing and stuff was rather tiring so I was a quiet boy for few days. All and all it was a very pleasant trip.