Saariselkä is more than thousand kilometers North of Helsinki and it took us 12 hours to get there; first by train to Oulu (5h30m), where we changed to another train for Rovaniemi (2h15m). From there we took a bus to Saariselkä (3h). We arrived late in Lapland but it was still light — the first sunset of the Summer was about three weeks away. It was also very chilly.
We spent just one day at my parents-in-law’s house in Laanila, Saariselkä before starting the road trip back South on their automatic Toyota Yaris. Even if the day was grey and chilly (+6 – +10C) we had a nice hike along the same tracks we skied last Winter. To our surprise there were practically no mosquitoes. Maybe because there were not too many victims to bite, just a couple of hikers and fat tire bicyclists, but of course hundreds of reindeers.
The drive down to the eastern town of Kuusamo was rather uneventful if one does not count frequent reindeer encounters. The road was practically empty and embankment was clear so it was easy to spot animals standing by the road, and even easier if they were in the middle of the road. However, they moved out of way very reluctantly. We rented a fully equipped cottage by the lake at Ollilan Lomamajat. Actually we booked a bit more modest cottage but were upgraded because of some problems with the original accommodation. We had a secluded spot with no neighbors (not even mosquitoes) so we could plunge in the lake from sauna in all privacy. The water was freezing, though.
The weather changed drastically during the night. It was chilly and rainy in the morning, but still went for a run to the nearby Muovaara hill.
The day’s drive took us from Kuusamo to Lieksa. After about one third of the trip we met a somewhat bizarre — or even spooky —- environmental art installation designed by dancer Reijo Kela in 1994 called “Silent people”. Wikipedia tells that a local association for unemployed dresses the figures according to seasons. No wonder they looked so fresh after being exposed to elements for 25 years.
After a beautiful day — despite the morning’s rain — we arrived at our hotel in Lieksa quite late in pouring rain, to find out that there was no restaurant. Luckily we had some bread and cheese left. Not so luckily, power went off for a couple of hours. It wasn’t only the hotel but concerned more than 400 households in the area. There was no thunder so no one knew the reason. Again luckily, the evening was light at this time of the year, even if the sky was covered in clouds. Not the most romantic dinner, but close 🙂
Next morning beautiful weather was back. We drove to Kangaslampi, to my parents-in-law’s house, and made a short visit to their Summer house on the island in Tappuvirta. They had made again quite a lot of improvement works there. It is such a charming place. Unfortunately, we could not stay longer. Actually, I would have liked to stay in Lapland longer, since it was so peaceful there.
Next morning we started the day with run in a perfect sunny weather with +10 degrees of Celsius. It was my birthday — that’s why the flowers from my mother-in-law.
Our Summer tradition for, I don’t even remember how many years now, has been to visit the visual arts festival in Mänttä. It is a small town in South-central Finland with a long and strong history with paper industry. Considering this, and the town’s relatively small population size, it is a bit surprising location for a vivid art scene. This was the 24th time the festival was organized — actually, it is still going on since it lasts the whole Summer. Here are some random photos I took in Pekilo.
The next morning we went running again — it was such a luxury in the cool temperature. We found a very scenic trail by the lake.
Before driving back to Helsinki — via Tampere where we visited my mother — we checked Serlachius Museum Gösta, where we hadn’t been before. Below are some random pictures I took of the exhibitions.
Then we were back in Helsinki a day before our flight back to Nice. We stayed at the same Airbnb place in Munkkisaari as before our road trip. This stay was made a bit more exciting by previous guests who had left the freezer door open, sot that it was completely covered in ice and the door did not close properly and the drawers did not open. We would not have noticed otherwise, but we needed to freeze our freezer blocks to get the cheese safely back to France. We spent quite a while melting the ice with a tiny blow dryer. Under the heaps of ice we found a bag of frozen vegetables that were not there on our first visit.
Fast forward and we were on another morning run in Nice. This time we stayed at a bit shady looking hotel next to the railway station. However, the super small room was clean and surprisingly quiet even with the windows open. The hotel staff was very friendly and English-speaking.
We took a bus to Grenoble with a connection in Aix-en-Provence. What we did not know was that the bust stop there was at a parking garage out of town with no services. Well, there were “services” such a restroom and a waiting room with a vending machine serving hot beverages (insert your favorite Sheldon Cooper quote here). We frantically used our mobile data to find out if there was anything nearby. Our phones had problems of locating us but eventually we found that there was Lidl and a coffee shop about 700 meters away. It was not fun to walk in the heat with the luggage, especially when we were not sure if we were heading to the right direction. Eventually we found a idyllic street with a bakery, a fruit store, and several restaurants, including the coffee shop. We bought sandwiches at the bakery, had coffees at the coffee shop, and happily returned to the parking garage to wait for our bus to Grenoble, where we arrived in time.
A few notes to finish this post (there is going to be one more, about food): I was surprised how clean it was in Finland compared to France, and how well kept the roads, streets, and sidewalks were. I remember from our previous trips that there were a lot of trash on the streets in Helsinki, but I did not notice anything extraordinary this time. Maybe it was because some of our previous visits were from Singapore? Or maybe because the Finnish people smoke less, and they don’t toss their butts and cigarette packs on the streets?