Helsinki, Finland
When I arrived in Helsinki, there was no time to waste. I headed directly to the place of my co-worker’s brother. I headed to Finland because my co-worker, who was generally in Colombia, spent a month in Helsinki visiting his brother. He’s also doing remote work like me, so it’d be fun to come up there and spend some time together.
Since I arrived on Saturday morning, we have planned a weekend camping trip. Finland has a beautiful landscape with many lakes. My co-worker, his brother, and another Italian friend living in Helsinki joined us, so we were a group of four. The “locals” knew some good spots and got us some tents for the night. The trip was amazing. We headed out in the middle of nowhere. First, we went to a parking spot by car, then an hour’s walk until we arrived at a lake with an island. On the island, there was a fireplace prepared. In Finland, many prepared picnic sites with a fireplace and wood are already there for the public to use. So we had barbecue and enjoyed the sunset. We also walked around for a bit, explored some nearby lakes, and found a rock with a nice view.
After that weekend trip, I got a hotel room for a few nights in Helsinki. I’ve been on the road for 1.5 weeks now, and I needed a hot shower and some comfort. There was still football going on, and Switzerland was performing very well. So we went to a public viewing to watch the game. But before, we had a delicious dinner at a traditional Finnish restaurant.
After my few nights in the hotel had ended, I left the city and moved a bit more to the East, toward Russia. It’s still on the South Coast of Finland. While driving on the highway, a sign suddenly appeared: “250km to St. Petersburg”. I was shocked at how close it already is and thought about going closer to the border. After some research, I saw it was closed because of the war and the issues between the European Union and Russia. I found another hidden place at a fisherman’s port to park my camper and work peacefully. Another day, I went to a proper campsite to do my laundry.
For the weekend, I returned to the city for another trip with the “boys” in nature. This time, we went hiking by the coast. We also barbecued and finished all the sausages and beers from last week.
I continued spending time with my coworker a bit longer before I moved further west to reach Sweden again. I had a 4.5-hour drive up North to Vaasa, where another ferry to Umeå was leaving. On the ferry, they streamed the football final, which was amazing and a swift trip for that reason.
Åre, Sweden
When I arrived in Sweden, I had little time to explore. I’ve been to Umeå before during the winter. My holiday ended when I came to Finland a week ago, so I had to work again. But I also needed to get to Oslo in time because a friend of mine was arriving there by plane. My only place I wanted to visit on my trip to Oslo was Åre. It’s a Swedish skiing resort I heard a lot about, but never managed to go because it’s quite remote. But now with the camper, I can reach it. The way there was beautiful. So I kept moving step by step. I drive for a couple of hours in the morning, find a nice spot to work, and have another driving session in the evening. That schedule isn’t sustainable for sure if I were to work like that always, because it’s very exhausting. But for a couple of days, it’s doable.
I saw many beautiful places on the way. The area outside of the cities in Sweden is very rural and untouched. Not many people live out there. So it was perfect to be in the camper van. I always had a place to sleep, a kitchen, a fridge, running water, and electricity—everything I needed. So, despite the distance I had to drive, I was still relaxed, very with myself, and focused. To Åre it was 500km and 6 hours driving. I found some very nice lakes and countryside houses, those are just the dream. So untouched and very modern. One evening, I parked next to one of such houses on a lake. There was a bench for me to work and a decent internet connection. That was perfect. It was my workplace for almost a full day.
I arrived in Åre in the evening. It was a rainy, grey, and cold day, so I got another hotel room for a night to warm up and shower. Sometimes, you need those recharging points. As comfortable as I feel in the camper, certain standards are not met. For example, I can’t really shower, the toilets are an issue, and the laundry has to be done at some point. Power isn’t an issue since I’m driving quite a bit. My battery always gets charged while driving, and from that, I can power my laptop and the phone, which provides me with mobile data.
Trondheim, Norway
In Åre, I decided not to drive South in Sweden until Oslo but instead to go to Norway directly and visit Trondheim. It was just a little more than a 2-hour drive through the mountains and beautiful landscape again. In Trondheim, I parked my camper and headed into the city centre, where I met a Portuguese guy I know from Couchsurfing. There, we grabbed a pizza and had fascinating talks. Afterwards, we had a walk around the seaside and the centre. I liked Trondheim a lot. It was very unexpected, and I was happy to have diverted again from my original route.
The next day was a sunny weekend—perfect for the beach. What a scene on such days. There are some artificial sand beaches, and Nordic people go there on such days to swim and tan. The water is so cold, but they’re different kinds of humans—I’m the opposite. The water has to be 28° at least. So I also took a rest day in Trondheim and explored a bit more of the city in the afternoon after the beach.
Oslo, Norway
The next day, I headed South to Oslo, two days before picking up my friend at the airport. So I made it in time. A Bulgarian friend I talked to for quite a while texted me a few days ago that he’s in Oslo working at a farmer’s and that I should come there. I was initially sceptical since I didn’t know the details. He said it’s not an issue; there’s enough space for my camper to park, and good internet, and the owner agreed that I could come. It was great. He was working on a big farm with much space so that I would park the camper somewhere, plug it into power, and have good WiFi coverage from the guest house, where I could do laundry and shower. We even had a kitchen where my friend was cooking food for me. I felt a little spoiled. It was so unexpected and great. On my arrival, there was already a nice barbecue waiting in the big garden of the farm. What a welcome, and I’m happy to see my Bulgarian travel friend.
I worked for two days from the farm and lived in an extraordinary place with extraordinary people at the “Harry Potter Farm”, as we call it jokingly. Then my friend arrived by plane from Spain. I went to the airport to welcome her to Norway, and another holiday started for me. A week-long road trip through Norway—that sounds exciting. We did not have many plans; we just had a fixed plan to be back home in Switzerland.
Geiranger, Norway (Roadtrip)
We made our way North quickly towards the coast. We passed some smaller and bigger waterfalls, one of which was Pollfoss. After that, we stopped at a small lake called Djupvatnet in the mountains with a very nice view. We spend the night there before driving to a very famous tourist spot. We made sure to be close by and leave early to get around the tourists, and the plan worked. We reached the fjord of Geiranger before 10 am. There were already some people there, but it wasn’t crazy crowded.
After that, we drove through the mountains. We took everything very relaxed and arrived at a campsite next to the Jostedalsbreen National Park. Our goal was to hike up the one glacier tongue called “Briksdalsbreen,” part of the biggest glacier on Europe’s mainland. We hiked up for around an hour to reach the lake in front of the glacier. The view was very nice. I took out my drone and took some shots.
Bergen, Norway
We spent a night at the campsite and continued our drive South to Bergen, a city on the coast. There, we had another rest day in a hotel. Bergen is surrounded by mountains and the sea. There’s one peak called “Stoltzekleiven”, which locals love to climb as a workout. There are almost 1000 steps to the top, but you will be rewarded with a nice view over the bay. My friend was struggling and wanted to quit a couple of times. Nice, she pushed and made it to the top to receive the reward.
Next, we continued South, using a couple of ferries. Norway is tricky to navigate, especially close to the coast, because of its sea tongues, called Fjords, which sometimes reach deep inside the country. For that reason, Norway had to build big bridges or tunnels. In places where such crazy constructions do not exist, ferries are very well integrated into the road network. They run regularly and it’s very easy to get on them. We searched for a nice place next to a fjord to spend the night and have a nice view in the morning. First, we planned to hike up to Preikestolen, but when we figured out how far it was to walk and how busy it was, we decided to skip it and pass by the road below it.
Mandø, Denmark
After Bergen, we started to increase our daily driving. It was already the 28th of July, and we had to reach Switzerland by the 1st of August. So, we made sure to get to the South of Norway by the next day. From there, we took the big ferry over to Hirtshals, Denmark. On the West coast of Denmark and Germany, the Wadden Sea is a nature reserve with a big tidal range. This means that the sea level at low tide differs greatly from that at high tide. For example, an island in Denmark called Mandø can be reached by car during certain times of the day, but the road disappears into the water during other times. We went exactly there and crossed over to the island for a quick visit to the windmill and said hi to a cute sheep.
Hamburg, Germany
Next, we stopped in Hamburg, the famous port city in the North of Germany. A good friend from Colombia lives there with her boyfriend. We were lucky she had no work that day and was free to meet. So she could tour us around. It was also nice for my friend to meet another Spanish-speaking girl. The weather was very nice, so we made the most of it. I walked around the city, went to the park, tried local food (currywurst), and had bubble tea.
The last night in the camper was coming up. After a non-alcoholic drink at the famous Reeperbahn, the party district of Hamburg, we slept in a large parking lot used by many motorhomes, located right by the big river, making it very central. The next day, we left early to drive all the way through Germany. We had to reach my hometown by evening to arrive before August 1st. We had 900 km (9 hours of driving) ahead of us. We made it and arrived at my parents’ home in the late evening.
