The Finland Files - Week 4
So...this week has been a big one. We started out early Tuesday morning where we caught an hour train ride to Turku (Abo). From there we walked the short distance to the Viking Line Ferry terminal and collected our tickets to the Åland Islands.
It wasn't long before we boarded the 'ferry' for the five hour journey to the Åland Island's main port in Mariehamn. Now when I say ferry, I mean a small cruise ship, because it had multiple cafés, restaurants, a buffet, a nightclub and a duty free shopping centre.
Our host Nina kindly purchased us a 'Seabreakfast Buffet' ticket and so we spent the first hour or so enjoying several helpings of breakfast and countless cups of coffee. Afterwards, we wandered up to the top sun deck and found a nice spot to sit, read and enjoy the 30+ weather.
The ferry journey itself is incredibly scenic with thousands of tiny rocky islands with cute red houses and natural harbours with the occasional yacht docked. With the weather being so hot, it was hard to remember that we were in Finland and not sailing the Mediterranean.
Upon arriving in Mariehamn, we headed straight to the beach where we spent the entire afternoon swimming, sunbathing and sleeping off the early morning. When hunger struck, we headed to the local K-market and secured ourselves a delicious picnic dinner that we enjoyed looking out over the water. At around 8pm we met up with our host Siv (Nina's mother who has a holiday house on Åland) and upon arriving at her house, fell almost immediately to sleep.
The next morning, thanks to the heat, we woke up early and walked to a church not far from Siv's house, we then did a bit of a loop through the forest...saw some cows and a snake...before venturing a look at the King's rock, which you could see from Siv's kitchen window, and was where the Swedish King stood whilst rallying the troops in early 1800's.
We decided that we wanted to see another island whilst we were there, so Siv kindly lent us her pop up tent and drove us to another port where we caught a free ferry (for foot passengers) to Kökar (Cher-kha). We met a lovely couple from mainland Finland who were traveling by bike for a week around the islands. who kindly gave us some tips and directions for things to do on the island whilst we were there.
Kökar is the southern most inhabited island and so after another two and a half beautiful hours cruising, we arrived into port. From the port you could see the camping grounds, and by boat would probably only be 500m max. However, by the road it was 4km, so we decided to beat the system and walk across who knows how many people's properties to get to the campsite.
We eventually got there, but annoyingly we managed to find a much easier, less trailblazing path with way-stones and so could have saved a lot of time initially. Once we arrived at the campgrounds, after setting up our tent (took three seconds total), we spent the evening swimming and diving off a floating wooden platform.
Unbeknown to us, there was a fully stocked kitchen, café and shop at the campsite...but as we had already purchased supplies we settled for another classic picnic by a viewpoint, complete with crackers, pesto, brie, tomatoes, bananas and a game or two of cards.
On the Viking Line Ferry to Åland we purchased a couple of bevies, so we watched the sunset sitting on the dock, overlooking fifty or so yachts sipping on some slightly warm Kopparberg ciders and Stallhagen beers. Our night in the tent wasn't glamorous, we had pillow cases filled with our clothes plus the backpacks to rest our heads on plus a towel and a sheet as the bedding. It did the job, but can't say it was our best sleep ever.
We were up early again and so we decided to walk to another church...AGAIN, or as Mads stated (A.F.C. if you know what we mean). This walk actually proved to be a fantastic success as we not only found another hidden pathway with way-stones (my new favourite obsession) but we saw a seal! Well kinda, we saw the head and heard it come up for air...but it still counts.
We were tempted to hire bikes to see more of the island, but time got away from us, so we spent the last little bit of our time in Kökar (remember Cher-kha, not Kor-Kha) sitting by the water, taking a moment to have a 'holiday' as opposed to traveling. In no time at all, our tent and bags were packed and we were back on the ferry heading to the main island.
Siv graciously picked us up again from the port and took us to another café similar to Café Ivan & Alexander where I had some ice-cream and Madie bought a book. Once we got home we quickly showered and got ourselves ready before Siv dropped us off at the Stallhagen Brewery, which is 800m around the corner from her house (convenient). Also to show our appreciation to Siv for opening her home to us, we cooked our red lentil and sweet potato curry (coming soon to the blog).
The following day Siv took us to Kastleholm where we walked around the grounds, fed the sheep, watched a smithy at work and perused the restaurant's shop...where I was very tempted to buy a moose blown glass bottle (for what purpose I'm not sure). From there we headed back to the main port, said goodbye to Siv and hopped back on the Viking Line Ferry back to Finland.
Now we thought the first ferry was nice, this one was next level. There was a photographer taking photos of us as we boarded the ship (WHY?!). There were even more cafés, a nightclub with a live band, an even bigger duty free shopping centre complete with a whisky tasting room and €2000 bottle of Cognac (WHY!?) and a kids club, which weirdly was the only place with free tables for us to sit at (we soon learned why).
The following morning, having caught a train back to the farm late the night before, we were straight back into work...which consisted of more café work and hanging out with Jacke. In the evening we decided to play a huge game of farm hide & seek, Madie managed to get stuck in a tree.
The following day was much of the same only Madie and I spent the evening sipping tea under the apple tree and discussing our past, future and present (cue the water-works). We also made a really delicious zucchini pasta and mangold salad for everyone.
Today we did a lot of planning for the next few months, sorting out visas for India, booking accommodation in Estonia, looking at traveling insurance (why must it be so complicated?). I also whipped up a lovely little egg salad for lunch for the whole family.
Madie also wanted me to mention that his day was far more productive than mine, he went for a run, picked wild blueberries and raspberries for the cafe in the morning, worked in the café AND started a new book (Pride and Prejudice, on loan from me).
Our time in Finland is flying by, but I am truly enjoying every moment of it, in particular, this last week spent in the sun and by the sea. Anyway, if you are still reading this, thanks for supporting us.
With Love R xoxo