Helsinki, Finland (Interrail)
Already my next adventure coming up. I got on a plane to Helsinki via Amsterdam. Arrived there, I directly met a friend I knew from my last trip to Spain. We went into a good pizza place and had some talks.
Because I knew that Scandinavia is an expensive place I opted for hostels on this journey. In Helsinki, I met some great people, like Thomas from New Zealand, with whom I explored Helsinki and it’s surroundings. The island “Suomenlinna” was one of these. Since I was in Finnland I needed to try out a Finnish sauna which I also did with Paul and other two Swiss guys, which we met on a city sightseeing tour. It was fun.
The education system is one of the best worldwide in Finnland. A part of the service the government provide to the students are huge libraries which can be used for free. They even provide office spaces for free. First come first serve principle. I also used that opportunity and worked most of the time from the new central library (Oodi) in Helsinki.
Tampere, Finland
The next city was Tampere. There I rented an Airbnb. On the second day, the weather was great and I was able to meet a local and went for a hike on top of the frozen lake.
Rovaniemi, Finland
By train, I went all the way up to Rovaniemi via Oulu. A full day ride into the far north. I enjoyed my train ride since the internet was great at any time on the journey and people were very silent. It’s just a Finish habit which I really like. So I was able to work for 7 straight hours and finish my workday when I arrived in the north. That’s great work/life balance, right.
Rovaniemi is a very touristy place since it’s the official home of Santa Clause. The good part about that is that there’s a hostel, which is not very common in the far north. So I stayed there. In February, the polar night takes action in the northern part of Finnland, which means you can see the northern lights. I already saw them but it’s always magical. So I went for northern light hunting.
On the next day, I also needed to visit the Santa clause village with a roommate of mine from the hostel.
Pyhä, Finland
From the perspective of public transportation, I was at the end of the world. The only way to go even more to the north was to rent a car. I wasn’t that excited at first since the roads are covered in ice (not snow). But in the end, it worked very well and the cars are ready to drive on that surface. So I went all the way up into Luosto Nationalpark. There, I wanted to experience how to sleep in an igloo. I spend two days at a farm (Lucky Ranch) in the middle of nowhere. There the owner, Antti, explained to me a lot of things. He also showed me a very special sport they practise up there in the mountain of Pyhä — called snow surfing.
Kemijärvi, Finland
My last stop in the northern part of Finland was Kemijärvi. I found a nice place to stay in an old fisher house (Hotel Uitonniemi). I was lucky once again. A very small group stayed at the guesthouse and the owner cooked traditional reindeer meat for us and told us local stories. Just an amazing experience.
Kemi, Finland
Next up going all the way to the south. But in the middle, I took a stop in Kemi. There I wanted to go on a tour with an old icebreaker (Sampo). Sadly I arrived exactly on the day off (bad/no planning on my side 🤪). So I stopped there to focus on work for a couple of days and moved on to the south. Into a student city called Vasa. There, I stayed for just one night. Way too short, because I had a very modern and spacious Airbnb which I really liked. On the next day, I took the ferry to Sweden.
Umeå, Sweden
I arrived at the port of Umeå by ferry. There I did “self-checking” in a hotel for the first time. I was pretty excited. The hotel was pretty amazing. Had a beautiful view and was located in the city centre. The city was already on my list because I knew that the design school is pretty famous. So I needed to visit the art museum (Bildmuseet) there. Also during my time, the northern lights activity was pretty high. So I headed to a lake and watched them. Thanks to Martijn, which studied there. He got me some good local tips.
Sundsvall, Sweden
After two days I headed south. I ended up in Sundsvall, where I stayed in a ship which is used as a hotel. Since there’s not a lot to see in the city I used the time to work focused.
Stockholm, Sweden
The next day, I continued my trip to Stockholm. There I visited the city centre and went into the photography gallery (Fotografiska). I also met a local and enjoyed the evening in a bar talking.