White nights.

25th May 2012

Tonight will be the first all white night of my life although it felt like an all white night last night. I didn't get to sleep until 4 in the morning and it was light enough in my room with the blinds drawn to see clearly the whole time.

In St. Petersburg and Helsinki, which are more southerly than where I am in Kauhava, they refer to these summer nights as White Nights. Although the sun does set, it doesn't get dark as it is never more than 6 degrees below the horizon.

In Kauhava, however, it stays brighter for longer and it will not get dark again until the 18th of July when the sun will be just more than 6 degrees south of the horizon for one hour. In fact it won't really get truly dark - civil twilight will be curtailed and we shall enter nautical twilight for one hour.

This is the season for outdoor concerts and frolicking fun in the midnight sun. Midsummer events are planned and if I can get any sleep and conserve enough energy, I may just have to go and sample a few, for purely journalistic purposes of course.