DAY 5: ANNA'S FOLKS ARRIVE!

Having gone to bed at 11.30pm, I had hoped to get a few hours sleep before having to get up to meet Anna's parents at reception. I should have known! By 12.20am, they had phoned to say that they had crossed the border into Finland, and were only 30 miles or so away from us! They arrived at 1.45am, their driver having found Santalahti eventually. After tea and biscuits, we went to bed at 3am.

We got a long lie in the morning, till about 8am! When Sandy woke up, I was so proud of him, as he went straight over to Anna's mum and dad, hugged them both solemnly, and gave out the presents we had bought for them. What's more, he immediately launched into loads of Russian with them, and with Uncle Boris and Auntie Lucia too! He was amazing! Of course, I can only imagine how they felt, seeing him for the first time in 15 months, and seeing their grand daughter Olivia for the first time.

Anna's mum and dad meet Olivia!


Once everyone had had breakfast, I shuttled all eight of us into Kotka's town centre, as we had decided to visit the Sappoka Water Gardens. The gardens were really beautiful and the sun was hot now as we headed round the big lake towards the huge waterfall. Baboushka and Lucia stayed at the foot of the waterfall while the rest of us, led by Sandy, headed up the steps to the side of the falls.

At the top we had a great view of all the falls and of the gardens. We came back down and had ice creams before stopping in the shade of a nearby park. There, an old Finnish guy told me how he had visited Inverness many years before.

We headed home and had a late lunch at about 3pm. Anna and I then drove back into Kotka centre with Olivia while Sandy stayed at the house and explored around the place with Baboushka. When we returned with some shopping, he had a purple tongue and face- he had been gorging himself on loads of blueberries that he had been picking with Anna's mum!

Later, Sandy went exploring with Boris and Anna's dad. When they returned, he announced he wanted to play mini-golf. Perhaps tomorrow!

It was lovely just to sit out on the balcony as the sun went down. I tell you, if the weather stays like it has been today, around 25-26C, it'll be just fantastic here! The setting is amazing. Even if the weather doesn't stay so good, it's still very beautiful.