People who are not interested in motorsports, are always baffled by my excitement about the annual Neste Rally Finland.

So you go in the middle of nowhere, and every few minutes a car goes by really fast?
What's the fun in that!?

It's so much more than a rally!

It's about the people, being in the nature, eating snack outside and supporting a sport that brings joy, and jobs, to a lot of people. This year we had the pleasure of having the most amazing weather, so everyone was enjoying the sun while waiting to see some rally cars.

For me the people part is the most important one, because I'm always spending the rally with my little brother and father. Though this year was the first time both me and my brother also spend time with our friends during the rally, and left dad to fend for himself. I guess we are grown-ups now, kinda, so we don't have to trail after him all the time. I felt a little bad about that but he assured me he was having fun going alone for the Saturday, and he is very social so I know he talked to a lot of people everywhere he went. We did end the rally by spending the last day together and even though we were already tired, we had fun.

I'm a bit shy around new people and I don't easily talk to stranger, but what I find interesting, is that I connect pretty easily on motorsport events. I know a part of that is to do with my looks and my camera, so people want to approach me and it's easy to open the conversation by asking if I got any good pictures. 90% of the times it's a person I don't really care for, but every once in a while there are people that are interesting to talk to. More on the 10% on a later date, maybe.

When I was little, the rally tourist were pigs, and dad remembers it was even worse a few more decades ago. Everyone was drunk, yelling, honking horns, being rude, running in the roads and more than a few times, the stage had to be cancelled because of that. These days the rally is a lot more cleaned up and people take better care of their environment, themselves, and other people, and show a lot more respect to each other and the whole rally. It's awesome to be a tiny part of all of that is Rally Finland, the best rally in the world.

_{The group of Estonians that lend their ladder(not pictured) to me. Jolly good fellas!}

_{The forest owners have fenced themselves a little private area to make sure they got their moneys worth for lending their part of the land for the rally.}

_{People are quite crafty when they want to get the best seats in the house to see the cars.}

With every social gathering, food plays a part too, and we go a bit over the top with ours. There is just something the outside air adds to the eating experience, food tasted better outside! We like taking little trips with the family to spend time in the nature and cook in there so we've had practice with this one. I think it was Friday when I cooked new potatoes with butter and dill, a Finnish summer tradition, together with stakes. I can tell you that the people around us were very very jealous. I didn't picture it but I made pancakes on several different times, while dad brewed coffee, but I did show you a snapshot of grilled cheese sandwiches I made for lunch one day.

Even though I have said I don't cook anymore after I quit my job as a chef, I still do sometimes, and I don't mind cooking when it's happening on the rally route and for my family! I love it when they are truly grateful and like my cooking.

All pictures, except the last two, are taken with the Nikon D7200 and Sigma 50-100mm f/1.8, the last two are with the little brother Sigma 18-35mm.