First week in Finland

After having taken the shortest route possible to get to Finland, because the weather wasn’t all that inviting anymore in the north of Sweden, there hasn’t been a single day of rain so far. Also it seemed that just by crossing the border I was immediately a lot further in the south. Looking back, I now would have loved to endure the weather conditions a little longer, to at least see the city of Rovaniemi, but hey: there’s always a next time :)

The time in Finland so far was a breeze anyway! The first night I spent beneath the stars, accompanied by a fire slowly going out.

The next day I learned a couple of useful Finnish words at a camping site / restaurant, which I used quite often. The cycling itself is very nice, at least near larger cities. There are widely build cycling tracks and enough signs to never get lost. Sometimes there are paths like this as well:

But that’s only the case, when you’re looking for a Kota (a shelter in Finnish) located inside a bird preserve. Here I spent the second night, yet again by a large campfire. The next couple of nights looked quite similar, a hut next to some kind of water.

The first week had me mostly sleeping in huts or camping. From my experience so far, getting invited is way easier in Sweden. Most people in Finland seem interested, but are not as communicative. Thus it’s rather hard to get a conversation going. A bit south of Kokkola there was Marcus, whom I’ve contacted via Warmshowers. He even arranged a stay for me the night before at Meri’s, which was as spontaneous as it was soothing to have social contact again. There I’ve met Sam, an exchange student from Hongkong. With him I spent a couple of hours in Kokkola and had a good time just as well.

That day, it was like summer again: 20 degrees, T-shirt and shorts, brilliant! I’ve spent the day cycling across some islands along the coast and making my camp near Pörkenäs, at Svedja Grillplats, where I had a huge campfire, what a surprise. This night, I thought I might get lucky seeing the northern lights, so I was awake until half past 2, looking at the stars in the sky. It was a very beautiful sight, seeing some shooting stars, but no aurora borealis unfortunately. Here’s the sunset I had dinner to:

The next day, I made my way to Marcus place, which was only 15km down the road. Me being rather tired that day, was invited to a very good self made pizza after having a little time for myself (laying in bed and relaxing). Marcus was a really kind host and very knowledgeable when it comes to brewing your own beer. Now I have all the knowledge to start my own brewery! I maybe even give it a try some day. But for now all I can say is: “Thanks a lot for having me and for the nice company, and for the most professional Fotoshooting I’ve had in a long time.” :)