Today when we arrived at Jacobstad it was raining quite hard, so the sight-seeing trip was postponed until in the afternoon. Instead we walked up through the main street of the town and found a place to eat, and then we went back to the car and wrote letters.
At 2:30 we had frukost at "Privat Villa i Ahlmenhol". Something very amusing and yet very, very embarrassing happened to me while we were eating. The tables we sat at were very narrow, really not enough room for two plates. I was cutting a rather tough piece of meat and my knife slipped and kerflop, upside-down in my lap went my plate. I nonchalantly lifted my napkin by its four corners and put its contents on the table again and said that I wasn't very hungry anyway.
Runeberg's Stuga
After dinner we drove out to Runeberg's "stuga" and sang several songs, took pictures, etc. Then we were taken to a school house where a church choir entertained us with songs while we drank coffee. A soloist rendered "The Star-Spangled Banner" as well as could be expected. It sounded wonderful to us, as it was the first time we had heard that song sung in Finland.
The concert that evening was held at Brandkarshuset. It was a rather small hall and was packed to overflowing. We received a beautiful wreath of pink carnations, ferns and ribbons. It was shaped like a lyre. A funny thing happened when Blanche sang. The piano was right by an open window. (Instead of opening the window, they took the whole window out). U started tge ubtridyctuib if "Jej elsker dej" and the page blew over. I put a book on it to hold it up and then the next page blew over. A man then came and put the window in and he had to stand holding it. After Blanche had sung her first two songs he took the window out again. Blanche had to sing an encore, and then the man got regusted and instead of putting the window back again he held my music.
Jakobstad Ribbon from the Wreath
After the concert we walked a long-long way to the "Segel Pavilion". We sang songs on the way and had a good time. About half way to the pavilion we stopped at a dance hall. There had been a great overflow crowd from our concert and we sang a few songs for them at this place. (Imagine! Hundreds of people who couldn't get in the hall who stopped at this place just to hear us sing). We had a banquet at the pavilion when we got there. This is a beautiful place right by athe Botniska Viken. The sun was just going down and the sky was all red, and was reflected in the water. It certainly made a beautiful picture! Of all the smorgabords we'd had on our trip, this certainly beat them all. The tables fairly groaned with all the good things to eat. Big roasts of all kinds, whole baked fishes, large cheeses, all kinds of salads, breads, vegetables, and facy piles of butter. I think we counted around 37 different kinds of meats and fish. After the banquet we went out for a while. The choir from Jacobstad sang and the mosquitos bit like fury. Then there was dancing, which was fun. We walked all the long way back through the woods to town and to our car. It certainly was a long way to go, but we enjoyed every minute of it.
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