Vappu

The purpose of our most recent trip to Finland was to experience Vappu in Helsinki. Vappu is the Finnish version of Walpurgis Night, but it is celebrated rather differently in Finland. One thing to be noted is that Vappu is about student traditions - many people found their student hats and donned them. Not just young people with relatively new hats like in the picture, but a lot of older generations had also dug old their old student hats for the occasion.


The many different overalls in characteristic colours were also hard to miss - connoisseurs will be able to deduce people's line of study by the colour of their overalls.


The attitude was generally one of fun, dressing up, and drinking sparkly - and apparently lots of balloons were also required.


One of the main details of Vappu in Helsinki is when the Havis Amanda statue (seen as a symbol of Helsinki) is fitted with a student hat in a complicated ceremony involving multiple crane trucks.


After proper dressing with the student hat, the crowds responded by waving vigorously with their own student hats.

Bothnian archipelagos

It was bound to happen sooner or later - so we took advantage of one of the long weekends of the springtime for going to Finland by boat. The crossing took about 11 hours, but we succeeded in sleeping for most of the trip..

The last light of the day over the Stockholm archipelago

Sunrise over the archipelago (far) outside of Turku

Spare mail

Concerning their personal mailboxes the Finns give priority to visibility in the wintertime landscape (green and red are the most popular) and general weather-resistance (plastic is most common) over such issues as individuality.

However, since we were there in the summer we were much better able to appreciate the unique foot this mailbox had been given.

Ounasjoki & Kemijoki

Rovaniemi is situated where Ounasjoki (the Ounas river) runs into Kemijoki (the Kemi river) we crossed one or more bridges daily while we were there. One of the last days we were there we biked west along Kemijoki until the road suddenly disappeared into the river - there we stood waiting by the gate while the little ferry came from the other side just to pick up the two of us and our bikes. It was even free, but then the service only runs from 6 am till 11 pm...


Apart from that we spent quite some time relaxing on the rocks by the river, reading books and/or enjoying a picnic. Tue insisted on bathing in both Ounasjoki and Kemijoki.

Ranua Zoo

We decided to make a day trip to Ranua to visit Ranua Zoo. The trip started in Rovaniemi with an almost full minibus. During the 80 km south-east towards Ranua the bus slowly emptied as unmistakably local passengers got off one by one along the route.


Ranua Zoo turned out to be designed in a very pleasant way: Rather than clearing the forest to make way for the park they had simply let the park be in the forest - one walks through the forest along a path from animal to animal. Additionally the park was notable for having only Finnish and Arctic animals - without seeming in any way boring or limited.


After we had been through the park, we glanced at the watch and decided not to walk to Ranua town and just wait outside the park for the next bus back to Rovaniemi. While we were waiting we saw a squirrel who had found a treasure: some french fries which he fetched one by one in the trash can. Later the bus came: this time a rather large bus - but there were no other passengers on it when we got on. Since the bus came all the way from Kajaani we kind of hope there had been some other passengers on it earlier on the trip..

Posti

For those less fortunate than to be living right next to Santa Claus' post office, there's the standard Finnish mailbox - but remember: no loose dogs!

Finnish delicacies

In the woods around Rovaniemi we found blueberries - loads of blueberries.

And turned out to be quite convenient if we ended up being out a little longer than we had originally brought supplies for.

In Rovaniemi itself there was a market on Friday and Saturday, and thus we got another chance to enjoy the speciality we had already seen in Oulu: the little fish from the lakes fried in large pans.

Joulupukin Pääposti

The previously mentioned Christmas theme park may have reminded some of our readers that the Finns believe Santa Claus lives in Finland. One might then think that he lives in this Christmas land just outside Rovaniemi but that turns out to be completely wrong. Instead, it seems to be a southern outpost as he is supposed to have his home by a fell quite a bit further north. What this Christmas park does have, however, is Santa Claus' Main Post Office - where letters for Santa Claus are collected and Christmas stamps are sold all year round.


Additionally one has the choice of two mailboxes: one for earliest possible delivery and one for delivery around Christmas...

Finnish signs

In Finland there's a number of signs on the roads - several of which were new to us.

Actually there were surprisingly few mosquitoes - possibly due to the unusually dry and sunny summer this year. We spotted neither reindeer nor moose out in the wild.

And apparently it wasn't snowmobile season either.

Napapiiri

After our weekend in Oulu we took the train north to Rovaniemi where we stayed in a lovely bed&breakfast a few kilometres out of town - fortunately we could also borrow two bicycles there. One of the first things we did was to bike out to cross the Arctic circle - no, it's not marked all the way across Finland. But it is marked on the asphalt in the Christmas park a few kilometres north of Rovaniemi.

Bright nights in Oulu

Much to the surprise of our Swedish colleagues we decided to go to Finland for our summer vacation this year. The trip started with a weekend in Oulu, beautifully located on the Gulf of Bothnia by the mouth of Oulujoki (the Oulu river).


From our hotel room on the seventh floor we had a nice view of the place. In the picture you see how light it is in Oulu around midnight in the beginning of August (actually, the sun didn't crawl back over the horizon till 5 hours later).


On the other side of the hotel one finds kauppatori: the city's largest square with lots of small stalls: fresh berries and mushrooms as well as loads of fried small fish from the lakes - more about those later.