Last days Finland / last Days Finland

Mon 07/08/2023

Shortly before noon, we set off from Koli Camping. Our first stop was the city of Joensuu. Right by the river, we had a delicious pizza at a boat restaurant and then digested it with a long walk along the river promenade and in the city. We had the opportunity to observe a wood transport on the river. Instead of many trucks, the logs are driven downstream here, with a smaller ship at the front and back guiding the way. A little later, a third cargo ship followed, collecting the lost and stuck logs.

We continued driving south. There are endless forests in the south as well, but since more agriculture is practiced here, the areas are somewhat more open and let in more light. Although we were in an area with thousands of lakes, we sometimes couldn't see the lakes at all because of the many trees. We haven't told you yet: Finland has 187,888 lakes! Lake Saimaa is the largest in the country with an area of 1377.05 km2.

Before we reached Savonlinna, we made a detour to the Punkaharju Nature Reserve. It is particularly beautiful to drive over the Ridge Area, a few meters of land, with lakes on the left and right. On a small island, there was a replica trench to visit, which was originally built for the Winter War between Finland and Russia between 1944 and 1950 but was never used. Since the original facility has decayed, this trench has been faithfully rebuilt.

Afterwards, we drove the remaining half hour to Savonlinna.

Another interesting fact about Finland: they actually only use 3% of their total fresh water supply.

Tue 08/08/2023

After a peaceful night, we walked through the city in the morning and took a guided tour of Olavinlinna Castle. Construction began in 1475, and the castle served to defend the border between Sweden-Finland and Russia because the border was not clearly defined at that time.

After a delicious lunch near the castle, we drove a few kilometers south to an interesting rock in the middle of the forest, called the Kummakivi. The 7-meter-long boulder lies on a convex bedrock surface with a very small base area but is so firmly fixed that it cannot be moved back and forth with human force. We tried.

For the night, we found a beautiful spot right by the lake. Sarah discovered her new favorite animal in Finland: the Black-throated Loon. Not only does it look magnificent, but when its call echoes across the lake at sunset and hardly any other sounds can be heard, it has a certain romantic charm. If you want to hear the call, you can listen to this short YouTube video: [click here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-QNZTSNkkc&ab_channel=ScenePhotos)

Wed 09/08/2023

On Wednesday, we drove to the city of Lappeenranta to see the sand castles. This year, they celebrated their 20th anniversary. The sand castles were really impressive, from Gandalf to Puss in Boots and entire castles and dragons. And all of them were handmade. In this place, we had a very good lunch at a boat restaurant and treated ourselves to a warm chocolate cake for dessert.

Close to the Russian border, we drove all the way south to Hamina. We strolled through the city, visited a nature photography exhibition, and with the same entrance ticket, we could also visit an exhibition about the universe in the original bastion, which included photos from the Hubble Telescope. It was very interesting, and the dimensions were sometimes quite difficult to grasp for the human brain.

We spent the night at Hamina Camping right by the sea.

Thu 10/08/2023

We went to the campsite, among other things, to prepare for the upcoming weekend, as there was a three-day metal festival in the neighboring town of Kotka. Before heading there, we passed by the largest flag in Finland. The mast is 100 meters high, the flag itself is 27 meters long and 16.5 meters wide. Quite a big thing.

We decided two weeks ago that we wanted to attend the festival. But then we were shocked to discover that the festival campsite was sold out. In Kotka itself, there was a campsite near the harbor, but it would have been a 20-minute drive each time, and one of us would not have been able to drink alcohol, and we simply wanted to fully experience the event. In the Facebook group, we saw that a certain Joona was willing to share his assigned spot because his friends were not coming to the festival. We contacted him and met him on Thursday, and together we went to the festival. The first bands started playing at 5:00 p.m.

Fri 11/08/2023 + Sat 12/08/2023

We got along great with Joona right from the start, and we spent the whole weekend together. We also met two Swiss people (or rather, they met us) through the Facebook group, and we had conversations with them throughout the weekend. Our camping neighbors were always up for a chat as well. We exchanged contact information with all of them. It's simply wonderful to make new friends while traveling and at festivals.

The festival itself was fantastic. Different food vendors, two stages, three days of different metal genres, lots of great, funny, and eccentric people, and great weather. Everything you could wish for.

Sun 13/08/2023

With a heavy heart, we said goodbye to our new friends. We were the second-to-last to leave the event grounds. After three days with like-minded people, we already felt a bit of post-festival blues. For us, it was time to head towards Helsinki, as not only was the festival over on Sunday, but also our time in Finland. Around 5:00 p.m., we met up with Kari, a friend of Lukas whom he met at another festival in 2017, in a suburb of Helsinki. As mentioned before, Finland and festivals seem to create lifelong friendships. After 1.5 hours, we said goodbye to Kari and went shopping (yes, on a Sunday evening...) to make sure we could take a few cans of Hartwall's gin-grapefruit drink with us, as it seems to be only available in Finland. Afterwards, we went to the port, and just in time for sunset, we took the ferry to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.

We spent a total of one month in Finland. Lukas had been here twice before, but it was Sarah's first time. And we probably could have stayed for another month or even longer. We can hardly say anything negative, except that we had a bit of bad luck with the weather at first. We met so many great, open-minded people and experienced beautiful landscapes and moods. Especially as the weather turned nice and warm, and we witnessed wonderful sunsets over the lakes, Finland showed us its picturesque side and brought a certain romance into the mix. We will definitely not be the last ones to visit here.