The arrival in Helsinki was one of our most brutal culture shocks. Nobody was spitting or gobbling, no constant honking, it was just quite, even while waiting for the airport shuttle. The driver was a women, also something we have not seen for quite a while. All the seatbelts in the car where actually working and during the short drive to the hotel she actually stayed in her line and did not open the door once to spit out. It was beautiful. The best thing however was the good tasting tap water. We nearly forgot that this exists and were really exited to drink it again.
We did not stay long in Helsinki, only one night at an airport hotel. The next morning we flew up to Oulu, which lies on the west coast just in the middle of Finland. Our goal was to explore Lapland and see the Nordkap. Within less than 48 hours we went from Delhi, a city with a high density of population (22’419 inhabitants/km2) to Lapland, one of the least densely populated areas in Europe (2 inhabitants/ km2). It was pleasant, relaxing and irritating sometimes. Puzzling was also the infrastructure. Most of it was finished and well done, no holes in walls and streets, not windows missing, no construction material still laying in the backyard. It was nice but also very boring. After traveling such a long time in Asia, which is buzzing and humming all the times you got stimulated every few minutes up to stimulus satiation. Here it was almost depressingly, boringly normal. Walking around those nearly empty, quite villages, we noticed how much we were used to get constantly alerted by smells, noises, and sights. The quite with of Lapland turned out to be a very good therapy and an ideal transition zone to calm down. Driving through endless forests and lakes helped to relax and let all the Indian stress fly away.
After visiting parts of Michi’s Swiss family, which were then at a training camp nearby in Sweden, we started our journey up north. Scandinavia is far from being a cheap place to travel, especially Norway is unbelievably expensive. We tried our best to keep our expenses low by pick-nicking a lot and sleeping in campgrounds cottages.
In the land of Santa Claus we wanted to see reindeers and luckily there are so many, that even we saw a lot.
With our Skoda (how typical) we arrived after a two-day drive at the North Cape. The famous North Cape point has a steep cliff, a metal globe statue and a visitor terrasse. We just assumed that, since it is a landmark, it is a public domain. Well the smart Norwegian put a museum next to it and demand now a hefty entry fee for the whole area. 80 USD, respectively 50 USD for limited access, seemed just too much for us. However, most of the people pay, since the North Cape is the highlight of their Norway holidays. A look in the guide showed that the real geographic northernmost point is just nearby, a place called Knivskjellodden. You can reach this point for fee, if you are ready to walk about 9km forth and back. We had not much money but a lot of time, so we decided to go for a midnight hike. The prices for accommodations were accordingly high thus we drove to the parking spot and slept a while in the car before taking of.
At 10pm we started walking. The sky was still bright and the air unpleasantly cold. The trail is signposted with stone piles and luckily there is only one trail. After crossing the first little hill, the surrounding looked the same everywhere. Without signs it would be so easy to get lost, especially as there is not even the sun as orientation point. Whoever came up with the 9km was wrong. We walked and walk until we finally reached the see and a altar with a rubber boot. We were a little disappointed, having hiked nearly two hours to stand in front of an unmarked rubber boot and not even seeing the midnight sun. Tired and disappointed we started walking towards the sun, to get at least a glance of the notorious midnight sun. After a few meters we noticed that there was actually a trail and the rubber boot did not mark the northernmost point Knivskjellodden. Half an hours and a few wet feets later, we finally arrived at the northernmost point. It was even marked with a nice stone. Alone at 1pm we enjoyed the midnight sun and the view to the North Cape.
A never-ending hike later we reached our car at 4am in the morning and the light looked the same as at 10pm, fascinating. We were too tired to fully celebrate our conquering of Knivskjellodden and slept as soon as we hit our seats. Thank you inventor of the car seat heating!
We spent some more day cruising in Lapland, crossing the polar circle, enjoyed a sauna and visited the Santa Claus park. There we went to the elf school and learnt a few tricks before flying for our last day to Helsinki.
Helsinki is a nice little town, which is super in summer. It got dark at 11pm, but still it is great to have such long days and people enjoying it. Since they have long dark winters the inhabitants seem to even more appreciate the long days and spend as much time a as possible outside. We visited the touristiest place and thought about a dignified finale for our trip. We determined it to be a Finish rock concert. The Finns are crazy about rock and have tons of metal and rock festivals in summer. The cellar was quite empty when the first band started to play. Not a Finish one, but the funniest Lithuanian ska band ever. It was a great start for our rock night out. Later the room got crowded with an interesting people mix and all where really excited about the main act. Well… the crowed obviously loved them. Somehow we did not fall for their rustic charm, the loud guitar riffs and the flabby bellies. Nevertheless we had a great last night and went home dreaming of future adventures.
Thank you all for accompanying our trip on our blog! We are now safe and sound at home and already plan our next trips.
If you caught the travel bug while reading, we recommend to check out our travel tips at "our trip" we put together after our year.
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