I Wanted My Young Daughter to Learn How to Skate-So We Traveled to the Frozen Lakes of Finland

"Imagine a living room in Soviet-era Belarus, circa 1985. The television is tuned in to-what else?-ice hockey. The Soviet team, in blood red, squares off against the neighboring Finns, in serene white and blue. A six-year-old boy watches, transfixed, his mind drifting to his own stick-wielding escapades on the wild ice outside. He has two secrets: One is that he doesn't know how to skate. He's a decent scorer, but he usually shoots from his knees, having fallen after sliding around in his boots."

"Forty years later, he's the father of a six-year-old girl. He still hasn't learned how to skate, and he still hasn't seen Finland. Russia's attack on Ukraine has made a return to his birthplace unimaginable. America, his adopted homeland, struggles with its own hard times. He has been trying to show his daughter the world, so she knows there are options."

A six-year-old in Soviet-era Belarus watches a hockey game and becomes captivated by the Soviet team and the neighboring Finns. He cannot skate and typically shoots from his knees after falling in his boots. He secretly roots for the Finns and is enchanted by their vowel-rich surnames. Forty years later he is the father of a six-year-old daughter, still unable to skate and unable to return to his birthplace because of Russia's attack on Ukraine. He travels to Finland with his daughter in February, lands in Helsinki where temperatures are just above freezing, and resolves to find natural frozen lakes so they can learn to skate together.

Read at Travel + Leisure