the weekend of bonfires

I love nights around a bonfire. They really bring people together. There’s always lots of eating, laughing and entertaining stories to accompany them. This weekend we definitely got our fair share of bonfire time. Friday night we went with some of our new friends from Spain to build a bonfire and cook out near our apartment. It was perfect. The meeting of new people, eating of tortilla española and the gazing at stars was more than I could’ve asked for.The stars were pretty amazing. They decorated the entire sky with twinkling light. That’s one of the really special things about the middle of the forest at night.

We had so much fun that we decided to do it again Saturday night! We trekked over to the other side of town to celebrate a friend’s 30th birthday. These little hidden treasure’s in Joensuu make you want to bonfire (yes, you can also use it as a verb) every night of the week. We rented a little cabin by the lake where the only light inside came from the dimly lit fire and the candles sprinkled throughout. We kept that fire going all night. Even though that in itself would have been enough, the best part of the evening was getting to share a classic American tradition. The s’more. We had the great privilege of demonstrating how to roast a marshmallow (that we smuggled back from Texas) to the perfect golden brown state and transform that lonely marshmallow into a mouthwatering chocolate-graham cracker sandwich. It was magical. I’ll just say there were seconds involved. They’re not called s’mores for nothing.