The Ford Fiesta

I call it the Ford Fiasko, but that is only in good humour. I love it really. Everybody in my family who drives (4 out of 6), drives a Ford. My father drives a Sierra, my brother drives an Escort I think (we're not that close anymore :/) and both my older and my younger sister drive Fiestas. I'm particularly attached to my younger sister (and her Fiesta). We call the car HIU (hee-oo) because that's the letters in its register plate. I've gone on many road trips with my sister in that car, both short and long. She's usually the person who drives me to and from the airport when I go to Finland. So she is almost always the first person of my family I meet when I go home.

My sister's Fiesta is also a very social car, for she/we go out in that car with her friends, and when my friends from England came to visit before Christmas last year, we went about in that car. But I like it most when it's just us two. There's so many inside jokes between us, and we like the same type of music, so there's no arguing over which song to play in the car. We also sing along, and we're pretty good together too, hah. We play spotting games with Minis, Volkswagon Bugs, canvas-roof Citroens; my sister is on a quest to see all the taxis in numerical order, starting with 1 (the lowest number taxi she has ever seen is 3). We're also both obsessed with sailing ships, trains, old cars, planes and windmills (to name a few), so it's extra awesome to see those things together when on a road trip.

The longest road trip we've done was from our home in Hamina to Turku. We have some cousins living in there, plus Turku is close to Uusikaupunki, where the Bonk Centre is. So, last summer we decided to visit there, and we drove over. It was about 6-7 hour drive. One of the funnest days of my life.

A funny thing happened during that trip. We kept passing these little side-roads with signs saying something like "Road Arts". So naturally we explored. It was a tiny sand road straight into the forest, up and down really steep hills, really sharp turns - the works. We went past a solid rock hillside with a tunnel being mined straight into it (this was a weekend afternoon so nobody saw us). Eventually we chickened out since the road seemed to not lead anywhere, and we turned back, confused but somehow still excited about the whole ordeal. Later we were told that they were building a new motorway and the Road Arts or whatever it was called is probably the name of the building company or somesuch.

Another shorter exploration trip we did when we both felt like seeing ships (we've really looked forward to the Tall Ships'Races that happen this summer). So we drove to Kotka, which is near Hamina. We followed signs pointing to the port and after a while saw more signs saying "Welcome to the Friendly port of Kotka". We drove for a really long time along this road through a forest til we reached a gate with a notice saying "port area, no trespassing, permit-holders only". Friendly indeed.

Back to the Fiesta.

I don't believe in coincidences, so I pay attention to things like Fiestas. So when my bestest friend in uni told me that he got a new car, a Fiesta, I was really happy. Another time I was getting a lift by some friends of a friend; I'd had a good feeling about them all evening, and when I found out that they had a Fiesta, my good feel was just strenghtened. I always get a nice little nudge when someone mentions that car.

I'm also training myself to recognice different models of Ford. I'm pretty good with the most common ones already, although I do keep getting Mondeo and Escort mixed up.