There will be more
words than images on the Finland page, as I didn't take so many
pictures there. It was the start of my trip and I hadn't
become accustomed to taking out my camera and snapping away.
The trip began
with your webmaster riding solo. I left MSP on a sunny
afternoon in early March, connected in Amsterdam, and arrived at
Helsinki Vantaa airport on an even sunnier afternoon.
After gathering my bag I was very much surprised to find that
there was no customs or immigration to report to. I
assembled and put on my pack, and walked straight out the door
into Finland. I thought perhaps that I had gone the wrong
way, or done something incorrect so I went back inside.
But there was no one there. This was the first thing
I noticed that was different between America and
Scandinavia/Finland. No security anywhere.
I spent two days
in Helsinki in a youth hostel with a Sikh roommate from Spain
who introduced me to the foul pleasures of the
Golden Rax Pizza Buffet.
It's an all you can eat place with nasty cabbage salads,
frightening chicken wings, and pizzas made of cardboard.
Fortunately, the hostel I stayed at did have a breakfast buffet
that introduced me to the joys of Scandinavian frucosts:
musli with pourable yoghurt, tasty hard bread, butter,
soft-boiled eggs, cheese, and slices of red pepper. I'll
take that combo over Cheerio's any day.
Helsinki was a
little bit too big city for me. It was beautiful, of
course, with the ocean and the big ships and all the old
historic buildings. It also taught me the second big
difference been there and America, as there are no public
toilets. I needed 5 Euros to enter the WC and thank god I
had the change and found the library in time... Maybe
that's why I like the smaller towns better--there is always a
grove of trees to hide in.
From Helsinki I
took the morning train north to
Kuopio with the goal of ice fishing. I had visited all
3 fishing shops in Helsinki and each of them told me to go
Kuopio--so I did. I had the hostel make a
reservation for me in Kuopio which in retrospect wasn't the best
idea. Over the phone I heard "It's up the hill from the
train station and he'll have to walk". No problem, I said.
It was at the top of this hill:
And a 3 Km hike
from the city Centrum (where everything was) but it wasn't all
bad because it had a wonderful sauna and looked like this:
All told, I spent
three nights in Kuopio and did catch a fish. I bought a
cheap rod and some pirks at the bait store, found a hole out on
the bay, and caught some little fish that I couldn't recognize.
But I did catch it! Kuopio is just west of the country
where the Winter War against Russia was fought prior to WW2.
If I ever go back to Finland, I think I will go to that part of
the country and try to learn more about that war. The Fins
put up a hell of a fight.
I should note that
the stereotype of Fins is mostly true. They do not talk to
strangers, talk infrequently to people they know, and do not
make eye contact on the streets. It is the perfect iPod
country for a fellow who has to walk 3K down a hill, than 3K
back up to get anything. Just strap on the tunes and go,
as there is a 0% chance you're going to get into a talk with a
stranger.
One final note on
Kuopio. I always like to try the native dish of a place
and Kuopio had a very strange one. It's called
kalakukko, and if you click the link you'll see what it
looks like inside. Here is a picture of mine, prior to
opening it. I wish I could say it was good, but I just
can't. Cold minnows in hard bread is a difficult thing to
enjoy:
After three
enjoyable nights in Kuopio, and quite many walks up and down the
hill to get to the centrum, I decided to head toward Sweden.
I met a Swede in a bar who told me to go there to fish. He
was as perplexed by the Fins as I was, so we got along fine
drinking excellent Estonian beer. On the fourth day, I hit
the train early morning and headed west to Vaasa. From
Vaasa I took the boat across the Gulf of Bothnia to
Umeå
, Sweden and you'll
need to go to the Sweden page to hear about that.
Go to Sweden
Finland
