A random token exchange and bad timing.

When I was couchsurfing with my new Finnish friend Elina in Rovaniemi in 2019, her awesome dad decided to borrow us his car for the whole weekend. We got to explore the Ranua wildlife zoo and the Santa Claus village with the 100 huskies, so the car really was an invaluable asset.

I first met her father on Friday, when he brought the car and we drove him and his friend back to the parking lot so they could go do their own thing. He did not speak much English, but he had a big friendly smile on his face and seemed to think it was very fancy that his daughter now had a friend from Slovenia. We got by with my limited Swedish and Elina’s translations and on Sunday when he came back to pick up the car, he brought me a bear beer coaster. But, unfortunately, I was not there anymore!

So, Elina messaged me that her dad brought me a beer coaster – I collect them everywhere I go and I guess we must have told him that at some point. Anyhow, it was an incredibly nice gesture from him, so I figured she could send it to me via post and I could send something back to him from Slovenia, and so it was.

As these things usually go, both me and Elina took our sweet time getting our respective tokens to the post office, but I just managed to mail mine today, so the Finnish-Slovenian token exchange is on! 🙂