Finland

We depart from Norway to Finland late in the evening. There are no border controls, even though we had our passports ready. Oh well. We put them back and continue driving, surrounded by small forests and a long straight road. A sight that continues to follow us throughout Finland! After some time, we find a place to sleep at a forest parking lot next to a river, which also serves as a swimming spot the next day. Finally, fresh water and not just the icy, salty North Sea! We explore the area, walk among pine trees and through blueberry bushes, along small typical Finnish wooden cabins in the middle of the forest. That's how we imagined it!

On the first day, we drive to Inari, to the lake of the same name, the third largest lake in Finland, one of about 188,000 lakes - and we thought Sweden had a lot of lakes to offer. The place is not very spectacular, but we take the opportunity for a big shopping trip - finally, more reasonable prices!

Onward. The density of reindeer has increased even more in Finland, at least in Lapland. At some point, it's no longer "special" and we stop taking out the camera. We have to brake again and again. Good thing that most roads have a speed limit of only 80 km/h anyway.

We find a great spot in the small forest next to a lake with a fire pit - wonderful! For the first time, we are really annoyed that we don't have a canoe or SUP or something like that with us. The thought actually keeps recurring throughout Finland. With so many possibilities, it's just too bad not to take advantage of them. Jannis would probably have been willing to spend some money and buy a canoe, but since our travel budget has already been stretched enough, reason prevails! But definitely a tip for anyone who wants to come here - pack a watercraft!

Onward to Lemmenjoki National Park. We follow the tip from our travel guide and don't take the main road, but the supposedly well-developed gravel road. We quickly regret it! We can't confirm that it's well-developed at all. We are shaken vigorously by potholes for about 100 km, averaging only 30 km/h, including rain. The mood is correspondingly bad after a short time! The hike in the national park the next day makes up for the frustration! The view from the summit shows a picture that probably describes Finland very well - flat land, forests, and lakes. Ah - and reindeer!

Admittedly - we needed some time to warm up to Finland. Northern Finland is really sparsely populated and not very diverse. So we drive quite a lot through forests and nature, which is beautiful, no question about it - but at some point, you also know the trees and the lakes. Maybe the impression is also a bit clouded because we have just come from the absolute natural spectacle of Norway. Unfair. Sorry, Finland!

The highlight is supposed to be a visit to Santa Claus. Just outside the city of Rovaniemi, which is really not worth a visit, is the village of Santa Claus. Christmas in the middle of August, Christmas songs playing from the loudspeakers. Crazy and somehow impressive! But mainly because it can't be surpassed in terms of commercialization. One souvenir shop after another, and of course, you can also have your picture taken with Santa Claus himself, for a small fee of 30-40€. No thanks - we don't believe in Santa Claus that much anymore! We would have also liked to have a meet & greet with the huskies, but that fun would have cost a lot of money too. So we prefer to grab our Fiete and cuddle him a little more - after all, he also has a bit of husky in him! But to at least let our loved ones at home experience a bit of Christmas magic, we send postcards from the Arctic Circle!

We are slowly leaving Finnish Lapland and heading towards the Bay of Bothnia, getting hungry and stopping in a small town called Kemi, cooking something, strolling along the promenade, and ending up in a cafe. Once again, Fiete makes us friends, and we quickly start chatting with locals - very nice!

And so our journey continues along the coast for a while. We also visit the city of Oulu, which Wikipedia (or rather Marvin) tells us is the northernmost major city in the EU.

The weather is consistently changeable in Finland. We don't really have summer anymore. The temperatures average around 15 degrees, sometimes with sun, sometimes with clouds, sometimes with rain. But that doesn't stop us from jumping into a lake every now and then.

We particularly enjoy bathing in the nude at our favorite spot on our route through Finland - somewhere in the middle of the forest, surrounded by trees, and a lake all to ourselves. A shelter with a fire pit, plenty of firewood, and seating. We stay here for two nights, unpack our slackline for the first time, and have to admit that we still have a lot of practice ahead - it's not that easy!

Somehow we can't shake the feeling that we still have two essential things on our to-do list in Finland. 1. Canoeing and 2. the classic Finnish sauna. So we do a bit of googling, which is often not so easy. Many websites are only in Finnish, and unlike the other Scandinavian languages, where you can make some sense of it here and there, you really don't understand the Finnish language at all! But it quickly becomes clear that every Finn has a sauna and it seems to be almost a standard feature of campsites.

So we choose a small campsite that offers both a sauna and canoe rental. We are greeted by the owner in a friendly manner and even get to use the canoe for free. Fiete is initially a bit skeptical on the first trip across the lake, but with a little patience and treats, he lets us do almost anything. The sauna costs 10€ per hour, and during that time we have the cabin all to ourselves. An old wooden cabin with a wood stove, where you always have to add more wood. And after the sauna, you can cool off directly in the lake via a jetty. That's exactly how we imagined it - wonderful! The campsite has definitely seen better days, everything is a bit aged and a lot of DIY - but not a problem at all. It somehow makes it even more authentic. We like it a lot and stay for another night. Also to enjoy the sauna once again!

And then, with an overnight stop, we head towards Helsinki. Since we left Lapland, we haven't seen any reindeer anymore. There are now moose warning signs here and there, but we don't get to see any.

Arriving in Helsinki, we park our RedRocket a bit outside in an incredibly beautiful residential area. We want to grab a bite to eat before we start walking and after a short time, a woman approaches us and speaks to us in German. She has been living in Helsinki for 40 years, has not been to Germany for almost 2 years due to Corona, and is visibly happy to be able to chat with us in German. She even gives us a great tip for a great place to stay in the small harbor around the corner. So nice!

It takes us a good hour to walk to the city center. But it's worth it. Most of the time along the water, lots of greenery, and above all, dog parks. As we have already reported, letting dogs off leash is not very popular in Scandinavia, but in Helsinki, there are dog parks everywhere, even in the middle of the city center. Usually, there is an area for small dogs and an area for large dogs. Yippee - Fiete hasn't forgotten how to interact socially! It was also striking how many dogs we encountered in Helsinki. While chatting with a woman, she tells us that Helsinki is the city with the most dogs per capita. We didn't further investigate whether that's really true, but it's imaginable. We are really surprised by Helsinki. A very beautiful harbor city surrounded by water. Lots of green areas, regularly clean public toilets, small well-maintained parks, or streets that have been closed off to use the space as a recreational area instead, with wide bike paths, skateboarding facilities, basketball courts, etc. Even in one of the many huge new housing estates, we notice that a lot of value seems to have been placed on green spaces. There are also many well-developed bike paths, plenty of e-scooters, bicycles, or even cargo bikes for rent - very likeable! So we stroll through the city, also visit a few outskirts, and enjoy a Siphon coffee for the first time. We are happy about the positive impressions and are almost bursting with pride about how well Fiete is handling the hustle and bustle of the big city!

For the next day, we book a ferry to Tallinn, Estonia. We park in time at the harbor and take a long walk, using a dog park for some off-leash fun for Fiete. After a short time, we are joined by two girls, about 13/14 years old, and their puppy Málna, which is Hungarian and means "raspberry" in German, as one of the girls explains to us. The girls ask us in Finnish if it's okay for them to join with their dog. We make it clear that we don't speak Finnish and ask if the two girls can speak English. Apparently not a problem. But it quickly turns out that they also speak perfect German, and we chat with them for a while. Totally nice and open-minded girls. One of them lived in Germany for 7 years until last year and originally comes from Hungary. The other has a German father. They both attend a German school here in Helsinki, where most subjects are taught in German - except for Finnish and other languages, of course. They talk about homeschooling during Corona times, which was not a problem for them at all because the conditions here are easier. Every child has good access to the internet and a mobile device, unlike in Germany. Well, she's right... she has a point!

And so our journey through Finland ends. The initial "difficulties" of warming up to Finland have definitely disappeared in the last few days. We plan to visit Finnish Lapland again someday in winter - that must be breathtaking!

And now not only our journey through Finland is over - we also say goodbye to Scandinavia!

On to the Baltic states! We head to the ferry - a huge ship arrives. But more about that in the next report!