Crossing over to Finland

In the past days I was extraordinarily lucky when it was time to look for a good spot to sleep. Actually, the last three days I didn’t have to look out for anything.

Coming to the town of Luleå with a ripped tire on Sunday, Oskar, with whom I’ve had contact via Warmshowers, welcomed me for the night. Thus I could replace the faulty piece on Monday morning and get going again.

The next days, when I was starting to feel tired, both times a small cottage popped up out of nowhere and gave me shelter.

On Monday the hut itself was pretty cold: There was no stove, but small gaps in between the wood, thus good ventilation was taken care of. The bad side was the temperature being somewhere near to zero, the good side is my beloved sleeping bag. And the best was the small sauna next to the river. After eating my delicious and warm curry, I had a couple of even warmer hours in the sauna, brilliant!

The next evening was quite similar, only this time the cottage had an oven. I was so glad to be able to heat up for the night it this time, that I nearly turned the whole cottage to a sauna 😅

After regulating the heat a little, I had a pleasant night and a wonderful morning.

Today, Wednesday 22nd September, I’ve officially left Sweden, after seeing the dream of every child (or at least my dream when I was a child).

In Haparanda I only was getting some groceries, while in Tornio, the Finnish sibling of Haparanda, I had a nice pizza and a much needed rest. When the food coma passed, I was sure to make my way into Finland, having this feeling of a newly starting adventure. I was happy to leave Sweden behind, even though it was a very nice country with loads of amazingly friendly people!

Yet I was glad not having to go further up north. And I kind of think that the “hard part” is over now, but I know that this is just my exhausted legs wishing to get some rest. There is no hard or easy part, but the last week had me very exhausted. We will see what kind of rest Finland will have in store for me. For now, I’ve just ran into a fire burning to keep me warm.