On the go, 27.07.2017

We camped royally at First Camp Umeå, including shower and frisbee session, and enjoyed the sunny morning so much that we were a bit in a hurry when reloading the car - checkout was at 11 a.m. We went straight to the center of Umeå. Because of a big fire in 1888, all the streets of the university town were planted with birch trees to avoid sparks. These huge birch avenues give the city with its old brick buildings a special charm. Apart from that, the harbor and the city center appear modern and lively - very appealing. Around 12 o'clock, we embarked on another great stage of our journey. We were able to see how the landscape changed. Juicy green meadows were replaced by endless dense dark forests, which in turn, in the northernmost part of Sweden, increasingly thinned out somewhat like a savannah. For hours, we crossed Lapland without encountering a single car. Somehow that triggered a feeling of loneliness in us. When we passed a wooden house - by the way, all with exemplary well-tended gardens, even the Queen would turn green with envy - we wondered if life in the wilderness here is sometimes very hard and lonely. Shortly before Teurajärvi, a white station wagon came towards us. Obviously, he was just as happy as we were to see another car, because he greeted us quite intrusively with his high beams. Forget about it. Something straight ahead, in the middle of the road, stood a moose in all its glory. Now we understood that the high beams weren't a greeting at all, but rather the information: get the camera out as quickly as you can! Well, as the clever fox immediately recognizes, there is no photo of a moose among today's photos. The reason for this is that the moose happily galloped towards our Volvo and Leon at the wheel is not a woman with multitasking skills. So this encounter will always remain with Leon and me. Not bad either. The way the navigation led us to the North Cape ran alongside a highway on the Finnish side for several hundred kilometers, as it turned out afterwards. But we are happy to have driven on country roads and seen the moose. At a lonely gas station, where we incidentally noticed asylum seekers in Sweden for the first time (probably Finns), I asked a nice lady if it was dangerous to camp wild in this area. She replied that nothing had happened for a while, but we could at most encounter a bear. It was clear that we wouldn't sleep outdoors tonight. A little further north - we were slowly losing our orientation - the navigation led us across the Finnish border. Suddenly the landscape looks even wilder and more desolate. Since the wildlife fences were also missing here at the roadside, we had several opportunities today to have photo shoots with moose that were chilling absolutely self-confidently on the road. Although we could never drive faster than 80 km/h due to a construction site over 100 km long in Finland, the moose forced us to make several full stops. Two hours in Finland was definitely an experience. All the Finns we saw, three in number, were sturdy and grim (perfect for ice hockey!). The few houses were reminiscent of the Swedish ones at first glance, but more like Småland in the Czech style. And of course, almost all of them have a sweat lodge in the garden. To be honest, I was relieved when we crossed the border to Norway around 10 p.m. Even the first house - rather a villa - made it clear that we had left Finland behind. The first impression of Norway's landscape is impressive. More hilly, winding, and curvy than Sweden, but still more extravagant, powerful. As far as the eye can see, there is lush green deciduous forest. The absolute highlight, however, is the sun. Even now, at 11 p.m., the sky is still radiant blue and the sun, which has only just slowly set, bathes everything around us - roads, lakes, forests - in a beautiful, warm orange. Above the water, the elves dance in the mist - at least that's the Waldorf school version. It seems as if the whole world is warm and peaceful. Even the now 10°C feel (in a skirt!) mild.