Saltwater Skin

Cala Mondrago, Spain

My name is Finnish and means 'Ocean'.

Since I can remember, the sea has been one of my favourite places in the whole world. When I was a kid, I spent nearly every holiday with my family at the West coast of France in different appartements which were all close to the sea.

I loved it. I can remeber how I marched to the beach with my brother, we both in our rubberboots and rainjackets, sometimes with balls or frisbees with us. I can remember how we waded in the flat water, jumped over the waves and counted them. The Seventh, my father used to say, was always the biggest, and we screamed of joy when the waves washed in and nearly ran into our boots. I can remember how we collected sea shells and built castles of sand and observed crabs and seagulls, how we made up our own imaginary worlds hiding between bushes and jumping from stone to stone.

I can remember how the marram grass used to prick us while we ran up and down the sandy dunes, nearly too fast for our feet.

Those were good times and happy memories I am thankful for.

But back to the days now when the vacations with my family are rare, but my obsession with the ocean is still there.

I've always longed for the distance. And where else, when not at the beach, looking to the horizon where waves kiss the sky, the seagulls fly high and the sun sets deep far behind the crystal seas, can it be found?

The most beautiful ocean I have ever seen is in Mallorca, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea.

I was there 2 weeks ago with a really good friend of mine. It was warm and perfect. We spent days at the beach listening to the soft crashing of the waves, burying our feet in the sand, feeling the sun shine down on our saltwatered bodies. We swam in the ocean, swam away from the crowd and turned back to see how far away the beach was, how tiny our towels and how near the horizon. I scuba dived through the shades of blue above small fishes into the deep which was so much colder than the surface, only to get that alarming but yet thrilling feeling of diving too deep. I can still recall the feeling when our arms cut through the brilliant water as we swam and the salty taste in my mouth and my nose as a bigger wave crashed into my face. I wish I could still float on the water, lying on my back swaying in the waves like on a giant bed of turquoise jelly.

Cala Mondrago, Mallorca, Spain

I miss the ocean, now that I think about it. I feel like I need to go back there, feel the salty breeze on my face and hear the sound of the waves in my ears. I feel like I need to be there.

One of the dreams I have is owning a house on the seaside, only a stone's throw away from the beach. A house with big windows, which fill the rooms with rushing sea and seagull orchestra when they are opened. A house so near to the escape I long to and the never-ending daydreams I have when I stare into the waves.

The ocean is a fascinating thing. Until I can be there again, I will listen to "Explorers" by Sky Sailing, "Into the Sea" by Port Blue or "Scuba Dive" by Glacier Island. Those songs understand the beauty of the crystal seas I begin to miss the second I leave them.