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A Southern Finnish Tale 1999-08-03
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Saturday, 24.07.1999
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We started the day off by waking at around 05.00 hours. The train
for Tampere would depart at 06.30 hours. Basically enough time to
get to the station but I had figured on walking there which would
take something of an hour, so there wasn't much time to linger.
Since Merja still had some packing to do I had mentally changed our
plan to the next train. By 05.55 hours she decided that we should
go by bicycle and thus we started off. Within 5 metres this proved
to be a disaster: 2 people on a bike with 2 heavy backpacks and the
one sitting on the backside of the bike not having enough room to
sit due to the size of the pack of the one in front. I took the
bike to the station and Merja hitched a ride. She was at the
station waiting for me and we still had 10 minutes to spare, so in
other words it had taken me only 20 minutes to get there fully
packed. We just had to be on this train since Merja's son would be
awaiting us in Oulu where the train was due at 09.12 hours.
During the trip to Oulu some elderly women and a man were already
annoying us with their loud chatter so early in the morning, we had
figured to sleep at least until Oulu. I slept all right but Merja
kept waking to the people's talks.
The train arrived in time in Oulu and we had 18 minutes to spare
before departure time and during which we were to find Merja's
son. While Merja walked towards the station via the tunnel
underneath the tracks, I walked beyond the adjacent train and saw
him walking from the station towards the tunnel, he saw me as well,
and pretty soon they both walked up the stairs towards our
carriage. We were off to Tampere at precisely 09.30 hours.
We got off the train in Tampere at 14.46 hours after having spent
the day chatting, eating the huge breakfast Merja had made the
previous evening and reading in Jack Kerouac's Big Sur. Tampere had
been on our minds as a place where we might spent the night camping
out in the wild. It was unfortunately so disgustingly big, noisy,
full of cars, people and smog and the annoying sign at the local
branch of Stockmann, Finland's largest department store telling us
that it was only 160 days 9 hours 12 minutes and 20 seconds, 160
days 9 hours 12 minutes and 19 seconds, 160 days 9 hours 12 minutes
and 18 seconds to the Third Millennium.
From the centre we walked along Hämeenkatu towards some scenery at
the other end of the town. We sat ourselves down on some benches
overlooking the Särkänniemi amusement park, which looked
significantly bigger on television than in reality. The Näsinneula
observation tower would have given a gigantic view of the whole
Häme region but since my money hadn't come in yet we just ate some
sandwiches and enjoyed the view from below. We decided to go on
towards Hämeenlinna, the region's capital and just under an hour's
train ride from Tampere. The train left from the station at 18.00
hours and we arrived in Hämeenlinna at 18.45 hours.
The cleanliness of Hämeenlinna's railway-station was the first
thing I noticed. It also looked just renovated, but there wasn't a
single piece of garbage lying around and no evil-looking men
drinking from obscure bottles from plastic or brown paper bags were
to be seen here. In fact hardly anyone could be seen here. We
checked out a town-map inside the station and walked about 4
kilometres Northeast to Aulanko Park. Along the road we couldn't
help but notice the overall cleanliness everywhere around us.
We needed water and took it from a tennis-park close to the
park. In fact we had had the park to our right hand side for some
time now but continued onwards to be as far away from the town as
possible. Just before the hotel and golf-park we turned right and
made our way into the woods via the portal of an old castle, which
was now being used for summer-theatre performances. We walked
straight past it up and up and up until we came upon a small lake,
which according to the map was called Joutsenlampi (Swan's pond)
and made our dinner on one of the surrounding benches and tables.
The coffee, bread and cheese and 2 packs of noodles tasted
remarkably good after a whole day on the road.
The park is artificial and modelled in Central European style with
small ponds, pavilions and exotic trees if one could call Eastern
Siberian trees "exotic," they were huge though. After dinner we
made our way further into the woods and made camp not too far from
the Joutsenlampi.
Sunday, 25.07.1999
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At around 11.00 hours we packed up and made our way back to
Joutsenlampi for a brunch. We had seen a few people enjoying the
vicinity of the lake the day before, but we were not prepared for
the enormous amount of them that we saw when we arrived there
now. Cars were parked on the one end and lots and lots of people
were walking around the pond disturbing our peaceful brunch. But
all right, it was Sunday after all.
Unfortunately there are one-way car-roads around the park and one
can thus reach rather deep into it by car, as many seem to do. Even
though we had slept quite far away from the regular roads, passing
cars, during the previous night's rest once in a while awaked us.
We followed one of the roads closest by and came upon a car park,
after having already passed one at a nearby pavilion. From this one
everyone seemed to be walking along a steep road up towards some
restaurant. We followed this road as well and quickly realised what
all the fuss was about, the restaurant wasn't the main attraction,
a viewing-tower was and a -free- view over the edge of a cliff
overlooking the valley and river below. Here we stood for a while
and watched the beautiful scenery.
To the right of the viewing platform stairs led down into the
valley. Heavy backpacks strapped tighter on our backs we descended
along the stairs which were interrupted at regular intervals by
platforms with benches and some even with tables in order to enjoy
yet another view of thick forest, rocks, bushes, flowers or simply
to take a rest from either coming down or climbing the stairs.
The weather began to change rapidly, we had already seen some dark
clouds coming towards us from the North and distant thunder was
audible. Just before one reaches the bottom of the valley a shallow
man-made cave emerges on the left-hand side. A statue of big stone
bears -a female and some cubs- guard the entrance and the benches
behind them.
The rain had reached us by now and it started to pour down upon us
so we took shelter in the cave and while the storm was raging over
we waited and waited. The rain changed from drops to bigger drops
and even hail. I sort of washed my hair in the downpour ending up
standing right in the middle of it. After that I laid myself down
on one of the benches and read some Big Sur.
After a while the rain wasn't much more than a drizzle and we hiked
on into the valley along the road, which was of the "people-only"
kind, so no disturbing cars here anymore. We simply walked on and
come upon a cottage with a car road leading back to the hotel and
golf-park.
Merja took her time in using the toilet of the hotel for refreshing
herself. In fact it took such a long time that Merja's son and I
waited on the steps to the entrance of the hotel and sheltered
there for quite some time for the rain that was pouring down
again. Finally she came out and since the rain had stopped we
decided to go on towards the centre in order to check it out and
find a place for the night on the other end of town.
Next to the hotel is the art-gallery of one of Finland's most
famous living painter, Mr Juhani Palmu. Merja couldn't restrain
herself and walked right on in; waiting and waiting again. The
gallery doubled as the honorary consulate to Haiti; perhaps this is
where Mr Palmu spends a lot of his time gaining inspiration. My
inspiration had to come from the nearby castle where I had decided
to wait for Merja. When she was finished looking at the art we
walked towards the centre via the railway-station.
Unfortunately it started to rain again and we took shelter under a
group of trees underneath which grew -as everywhere else in this
area- raspberries. I had taken on eating them whenever I found some
and so the rain wasn't too bad indeed. During our walks I was
constantly bending over picking up raspberries.
After crossing the seemingly dead centre of the town we continued
along the main street Raatihuoneenkatu in search for a shop that
was open so that we could buy some more supplies. We finally found
a local branch of Antila; a large Finnish department-store group
and again we waited and waited for Merja.
While the rain poured down again we had a good look at the map and
decided to walk towards the Ahvenisto Park area to the East of the
centre. Upon arrival at this marvellous area we descended down
towards a lake and the closer we came to it the more we liked
it. We dropped our packs on the grass next to the sandy shore and
enjoyed the sight of this beautiful clear and clean lake.
I made some coffee and tea and afterwards I couldn't help myself
but change into my swimming trunks and into the water. As I stood
about chest deep in the cool water I noticed the surface being
disturbed by something not too small. A fish I presumed and a large
one it must have been. I started to swim anyway and after a few
laps I took the string out of my hair and let it flow freely and
thus sort of washed it again with fresh lake water.
We had dinner on bread and cheese and sausages and I made another
thermos of tea for later in the evening at our campsite. After this
fresh swim and dinner we hiked up the surrounding hills and found a
site to camp out for the night. Hung my trunks out to dry on some
branches and laid myself to rest in my sleeping bag. I woke up
during the night and realised that this was probably the most quiet
I had ever "heard," if hearing quiet is indeed possible.
Monday, 26.07.1999
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Woke up, rain poured but ended soon enough. Walked down to the lake
again, where Merja finally took a swim as well. Had our breakfast
here and walked to the centre.
Money had arrived and the first thing I did was buying some pipe
tobacco -- Amphora. Looked around for 2nd-hand bookstores and found
some. Bought a copy of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre and will read
it someday, it was only Fim 4,-.
Got on the bus towards the holiday-centre where we were supposed to
arrive by today. Had to get of the bus about 4 kilometres from the
centre though, so we walked to our final destination and were thus
unfortunately late for dinner but were given some sandwiches and
yoghurt.
After a short shower we walked around and saw a beautiful sunset at
the beach. 3 saunas were still hot and we wished that we had known
that earlier so we could have used them, maybe tomorrow. Beer was
only Fim 10,- at the centre, definitely the cheapest I have ever
seen in Finland, apart of course from normal food-shops.
Tuesday, 27.07.1999
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Our first taste of the food here. Had breakfast at 08.30 hours and
lots of it, I had cereals, porridge, bread, orange juice and
coffee. We were too tired after all that food; all we could do was
sleep. Laid out the tents to dry in a nearby shed. Woke up again
around 11.30 hours just in time for lunch. Vegetables, rice and
potatoes and some good chicken-gravy. Self service as usual, so
standing in line with old people shuffling in front, getting
hungrier by the second. Unfortunately no coffee!
13.00 hours: a little walking trip to a farm about a kilometre
away. Big group, lot of people with children. Not too many old
people (they're dancing the Tango next to the cafeteria and it's
too far to walk for them), so we weren't kept up too long. The farm
had 2 cows and some sheep. There was a shop nearby as well which
sold sheep-products, well wool-products anyway since I started to
miss sheep-meat by now. Checked on the tents and sleeping bags, I
was afraid that children would start to play with them.
Don't know what kind of problems these people have: the old people
are simply old, with or without disabilities (they seem to be able
to throw darts and marbles whole day long, but they just walk from
their rooms to the food-house and back via the cafeteria). Can get
peace and quiet here just as long as there are not too many people
around. Sitting at the waterfront, is what I like.
The young people, young families all look terrible, bad clothes,
bad skin, don't know what kind of social cases most of them are. In
general: all look poor and poorly educated. I Am probably the only
foreigner around here. Plan to swim and take some sauna later on
today. Turning back now to Jack Kerouac (Big Sur again).
A squirrel just came as close as 50 centimetres from me, it wasn't
tame, but wasn't too afraid as well. Ran away from my outstretched
hand quick enough though.
Dinner was served in the usual buffet-style order. Summer-soup and
bread, again no coffee. From 18.00 - 21.00 hours the swimming-hall
and adjoining sauna were available without a fee. So -naturally- it
was swimming- and sauna-time for us.
Two beers and a few pipes to refuel the lost fluids. We had a
little bit of an excitement after that. Merja wanted some more
coffee--she had bought a cup at the cafeteria but it closes at 21.30
hours. It being ca. 22.00 hours now there was nothing else to do
but start the fuel-stove in the bathroom.
Unfortunately the fire alarm disagreed with this and a terrible
sound was heard for a few minutes until Merja had found the
housekeeper to turn the whole system off and reset it. He didn't
see it as a problem, but some of the old people -in night-gowns-
didn't seem to understand the simple fact that people simply want
some more coffee at this -for them- late hour. Merja told some that
it was only the coffee-machine and that they needn't worry. Who
knows what they'll start doing at home now, since coffee-machines
can make fire alarms go off? "All these new technologies are good
for nothing, the old days, that's when everything was fine."
Wednesday, 28.07.1999
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I skipped breakfast, Merja didn't. We rented 3 bicycles and were
off to Hauho (some 10 kilometres from here) after a lunch of salad,
vegetables, potatoes, and some meat-mush.
There was some money on my bank account but not what I had
expected. The Social Security deposit was late. Merja phoned their
office in Rovaniemi and convinced them to hurry since I was
somewhere in the south, had phoned her to call them since I was out
of money, picking berries and couldn't come back now. She lied and
it seemed to work. They promised that the money would be on my
account by Friday. Let's hope so, bills have to be paid. I also
sent my passport to the Dutch embassy in order to apply for a new
one. Mine had expired last April.
We drove around this little town after that, going to the local
library for a piss, refreshing of water, and checking the local
magazines for events and just because there was nothing better to
do. This little town does have a great selection of small idyllic
houses that sets one's mind off in a dreamlike state.
The local church wasn't much of a site. No beautiful Florentine
frescos here just one dark biblical painting which I didn't
understand and some glass-in-lead windows with no significant
patterns.
The boat-dock had mainly open boats but one boat made me wishing
for one; a beautiful sea-going motorboat with all the gadgets named
Sea Rose, an English name on a Finnish boat. It reminded me of an
article I had recently read in Newsweek about Hemingway's
captain. A lot seems to remind me of Hemingway lately.
We then went to a local food-shop because Merja wanted to have some
chocolate or ice cream, naturally her son wanted this as well. I
opted for 2 bottles of Tuborg beer. Wrote cards to my grandmothers
and brother and niece. Sarcastically told my brother -who just
recently co-opened a Czech-style bar named Praha in Amsterdam- that
I was drinking Danish beer and certainly not Velkopopovicky, which
by the way is a splendid Czech beer.
After that I left Merja and her son sitting in front of a museum
while I quickly went off to the post office to send the cards.
Incidentally I also brought the bottles back and bought some new
pipe tobacco. They didn't have any imported brands so I had to do
with some Finnish stuff. Not as thick as I had wanted but it
works. When it's finished I'll go back to the better stuff
immediately.
Some 300 metres from the church was supposed to be a museum-area
with old Finish houses. We thought we'd found it when we cycled
into a nice clean yard. A man opened the door of the main house
while we were walking around the yard. We thought wrongly. It was
the local priest's and his, or rather his community's, house. He
friendly directed us further towards the museum-area. It consisted
of a few scattered barns; one house and a windmill. Merja's son's
constant whining made us cut our trip short and return to the
holiday-centre. We were back in time for dinner with just 10
minutes to spare. How happy Merja's son was.
After dinner we fell asleep for about 3 hours. Took some coffee
with Merja after that in the cafeteria. Now, as I'm scribbling
these words, the sun has dropped below the horizon after a bright
orange sunset. Puffing at my pipe, under the hungry eyes of Merja's
son, who practically janked the thing from my mouth after several
times asking me to give it to him for a while and his mother's
approval of him taking some puffs himself.
I finished Big Sur, only the poem at the end is left: "Sea: Sounds
of the Pacific Ocean at Big Sur". I shall read it now, while Merja
and her son have left for the beach for a stroll and I am finally
able to appreciate the sounds of the wind again, alone in peace.
Inspired by Jack's Sea poem I wrote the following:
The lake's waves make sounds:
swoosh, swoosh, swash, swooch.
The wind blows through my hair, past my face:
frough, frough, swough.
Fading orange in the west,
light to clear blue over me.
Haven't seen a star
in what seems like ages.
Scattered clouds in the west as well.
Where have the colours gone?
Can't see them but they must be there.
Trees don't change colour like chameleons.
Van Gogh might have liked this place
in one of his darker periods.
I like it.
Thursday, 29.07.1999
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Woke up in time, for breakfast that is. Merja and her son were
still fast asleep so I went by myself to the food-hall. Breakfast
was no surprise; bread, cereals and porridge. The only difference
this time were Karjalan Piirakka (Karelian Pies) with scrambled
eggs. Returned to bed after all that, read some Dharma Bums and
Jane Eyre and wondered why old people always sit with their mouths
ajar; you just wait for them to start drooling.
3 old women arrived the other day; all 3 of them have their hairs
tied in knots on the back of their heads. Nuns perhaps, they surely
look like nuns.
Lunch was quite as usual as well, nothing special. Actually so
usual that I don't even remember what it was. We went down to the
beach after that. Merja wanted to have some coffee there so I had
to bring the cooking-gear along as well. It was quite warm, we sat
in the grass, I read some Dharmabums and smoked some more pipe.
The wind was blowing far more fiercely than it had done the
previous night. Merja's son kept longing for a suck at my pipe and
thus irritated the living shit out of me. Constantly whining when
we or I would come to swim with him. "Go alone, leave me in peace."
He finally fell asleep on the grass, time for Merja and I to have
some time amongst ourselves.
The time was around 15.00 hours and a half-hour before a short
guided nature-walk had started. First in line were the 3 nuns. They
lingered long enough for Merja's son to wake up and thus prevent us
from any immoral conduct. Time thus for making coffee. Since the
wind was blowing so strongly we had to make windshields out of all
available furniture and towels. Before long the fire burnt
uninterrupted for our water to heat. After coffee I retired to the
room and enjoyed some Jane Eyre.
Dinner was meatballs with brown sauce, potatoes and salads. We
decided to heat one of the beach-saunas and have a dip in the
lake. The sauna didn't have a mirror so I walked back to the room
and shaved there. The sauna was heated sufficiently by the time I
returned. Heated it was all right but unfortunately Merja's son
kept throwing water on the rocks all the time -as he always does-,
so I ended up taking a shower in the room anyway.
Washing finished thus beer-time. The road to the cafeteria was so
quiet that I wondered where everyone was. They were all sitting in
a room adjoining the cafeteria listening to some man talking, later
they started dancing the Tango and I had to stand in line for my
beers, Ah well, I can wait, sometimes.
I have forgotten to mention that there's this cute little squirrel
running around here and taking food from people's hands. Since this
is my most favourite animal I'll try to feed it tomorrow. I just
love these little animals, I like watching them eat. Their little
hands quickly turning their food around while they eat as quickly
as possible. The one here is rather small, probably a young one.
Later in the evening while Merja and her son were watching
television -everyone looking at the same odd thing at the same time
and laughing at the same jokes at the same prescribed moment- I
wandered off to the beach again to do some writing and reading
-Jack Kerouac, of course- and smoking another few pipes.
Friday, 30.07.1999
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Some old guy woke us up by knocking on the door, opening it,
apologising, and telling us that the door was open. Well it didn't
matter much to me since he woke me -us- up in time for breakfast,
which was the usual stuff. Had my cereals and thick dark-brown
bread. Most of the old people seemed to be leaving; they were
carrying their suitcases and Captain Hook had his carried for
him. The biggest open-mouth-drooler appeared to play the violin,
since he had a violin-case as part of his luggage.
We slept a few hours more after that to be in time for our lunch. I
skipped the liver-sauce but had 3 pieces of chicken-wing. The salad
was pretty good as well. After lunch we paid Fim 20,- for renting a
boat. According to Merja everyone was jealous because we were going
onto the water for a row and no one had noticed the boats before.
We were finally off for an island close by. As we neared it -I was
doing the rowing- we noticed that it had a cottage and
boat-dock. At first Merja thought that the cottage was a boat-house
but that changed as we walked towards it, it was indeed a cottage:
dark-brownish with only a few windows with shields; must be dark
inside even with the shields open. Tramping over this little island
and seeing the evidence that no one -like the owner- had been here
in quite a while, we -relieved as we were- sat down on the porch
for a while.
Merja wanted to see if we could get to some other place, so we got
in the boat again and rowed on towards a group of rocks dooming out
of the lake's other side. They appeared quite far away so that we
decided to head towards another shore. It was extremely difficult
to land there so that we headed back to "our" island. In doing so
we passed an area occupied by birds (gulls). One was rather pissed
of at our presence and tried to irritate us away by flying low
overhead. It didn't succeed. We landed again at the dock and sat
down on the porch.
I read Dharmabums and fell asleep in the sun. Made coffee when I
woke up and Merja was halfway through her Helsinki newspaper. My
stove's fuel must have been nearly finished because it didn't burn
as fiercely as it had done before. Somehow the bottom seal caught
fire again as it had done so often before when I was still using
lamp-oil for fuel--I now use gasoline (Euro lead-free 95/98). I had
cleaned the stove the previous day -when it burnt perfectly- and
had removed and had put back the 'fuel-direction-line', perhaps I
had pushed it back in too far?
Coffee was ready but Merja had forgotten to take some cups along
with her. I poured it into a water bottle and we went back to the
holiday-camp, mainly because of Merja's son's constant whining
about going back so that he wouldn't miss dinner. We were too late
for dinner so we fed ourselves on the evening-food-packages, which
we got every evening, nothing much but something. For Merja and her
son this was not enough so they had to have something from the
cafeteria as well. I had beer.
Later in the evening we had sort of a last walk around the
premises, we were to leave tomorrow. The sun shone strongly still
and I enjoyed -fully clothed- the last of one of the beach-sauna's
warmth.
Saturday, 31.07.1999
--------------------
The alarm rang at precisely 07.15 hours and we were thus in time to
start cleaning and packing. I ate a few extra pieces of the dark
bread and Merja -secretly, as in that no one saw it- packed some
bread for the road, since we would be leaving today for a yet still
unknown destination. Merja's son had decided to leave for Oulu (his
home) today so we figured that the best place to go to would be
Tampere--again. We could have gone to Hämeenlinna but then we would
have had to hike the 4 kilometres to the crossroad in order to
catch the right bus. The bus for Tampere had a stop not even 200
metres from the holiday-camp. It was a trifle late but that was no
problem, we had all the time in the world.
Since it was 153 days 10 hours 31 minutes and 46 seconds, 153 days
10 hours 31 minutes and 45 seconds, nay 153 days 10 hours 31
minutes and 44 seconds to the Third Millennium, it was clear that
we were back in Tampere. We wanted to leave our bags in a locker at
the railway station, but the only one left with a key in it was
broken, so we hauled them along with us to at least 4 different
bookshops in search for another Jack Kerouac book--no luck there
though. I was quite hopeful entering Akateeminen Kirjakauppa but
saw none of his books. Unfortunately I should have looked better
than I had. The following Sunday while waiting for the train to
Rovaniemi, I spotted his Mexico City Blues in the window. Better
luck next time.
After the train for Oulu had departed Merja's ideal was running to
the local branch of the Alko chain and buy some wine. I followed
her ideal. We sat in a central park and drank a bottle each. I
checked the local food-shops here and couldn't find any noodles; we
still had a few days to go and I thought of buying a carton of rice
as well (basmati or jasmine) and some dehydrated herbs or something
in order to make our meals. Had to buy fuel as well.
After the wine I went out to buy the fuel. I found a gas-station
not too far off and filled my 0,6 litres fuel-bottle with Euro
lead-free 98. The guys working there laughed at my "big" buy but
understood. Tried the food-shop again for the "rice and stuff" but
it was closed by now. Went to a kiosk around the corner and
surprisingly they had noodles, so I bought us 2 packs of chicken
noodles. Furthermore a pack of Amphora pipe tobacco and a bottle of
Raspberry Cider, which I drank to one of nature's calls in the
toilet of the place where Merja was waiting for me. At that time we
still hadn't a clue as to where we would go, although Merja had
indicated to take the train and go to Turku on the western shore of
Finland, where boats for Stockholm depart and arrive from as well.
We made our way back to the railway station and found ourselves
with enough time to spare -at least 153 days 4 hours 18 minutes and
17 seconds- in order to buy a beer and some french-fries. Hoping
that we would find a nice place to camp in Turku we boarded and
were on our way again.
From the railway station in Turku, where it was now dark since the
time was around 23.00 hours, we walked along a road and turned
right towards a gas station. Merja filled the water-bag and we
walked a bit further to find a camp-site for the night. Up a hill
we went and it was so dark and steep that I tripped over some rocks
and fell flat on my back. Finally I got my front-bag loose and was
able to crawl up again; I had only cut my left knee a bit.
It was so dark that I had to get out my little flashlight and build
camp with it between my teeth halfway under an overhanging tree.
Sunday, 01.08.1999
------------------
The cars had roared past whole the time we were there, but Merja
hadn't noticed this. We had absolutely no idea what time it was,
but figured it to be about 14.00, maybe 16.00 hours. Downhill from
our site we saw that during our last night's hike we had ended up
quite near a shopping-mall which appeared to be open on Sundays.
Time was only 12.30. We shopped for some cheese and bread and Merja
insisted on using the toilets to refresh herself. The choice fell
upon the -usually cleanest- invalid's toilet, and clean it was al
right. During Merja's visit there I re-entered the mall and bought
some instant cappuccino and a bottle of Coke. After Merja's turn it
was mine and I read some Dharmabums while peacefully relieving
myself.
Heavy packs once again strapped to our backs and on the road we
were again to the centre of Turku. The central church is a
prominent point of reference when looking for the centre, we used
it to guide us along in a general direction towards our planned
destination. In a park, dominantly overshadowed by this St.
Michael's church, we made some coffee -cappuccino- and ate some
bread. The gas-stove was rather troublesome. I couldn't get a good
fire going and it kept going out. Perhaps it was just dirty (this
proved to be true when I finally cleaned it at home).
We wanted to go to the caste, Turku's main attraction, and soon
enough found ourselves along the main road to the international
harbour which is next to the castle. Turku's central canal was
filled with boats of all sorts and sizes and some Swedish naval
exhibition was going on at the end. Before reaching the castle we
boarded a navy-yacht which was open without a fee for visitors to
look around. Thirsty as we were -the temperature was somewhere
around 30 degrees Celsius- we had some refreshments, Merja coffee I
Coke, just outside the castle.
We wondered what the entrance fee to the castle would be and
philosophised on this for a while. Through the portal we went and
were able to go in past the sign saying "Tickets in here" towards
the courtyard. An open door looked inviting and we quickly dumped
our bags behind a wall and headed for the open door. Alas, the
passage was blocked by a young man playing some ancient instrument.
To the normal entrance then which was up some stairs towards the
ticket-booths. Tickets were a hefty Fim 40,- per person and since
there was just over an hour of opening-time left we skipped the
whole damn idea of entering and just sat outside.
Later yet I did go further in past the ticket-booths, but that was
just to get some fresh water from the toilets and relieve myself of
another call of nature.
From a phonebook at the shopping-mall we had visited this morning
we had taken a sheet with discount coupons for one of Finland's
leading fast-food chains Hesburger. Our quest was now to find the
nearest branch. This took us on a journey halfway through the city
again, with our heavy packs strapped to our backs still. We finally
found a small one, after several closed ones, and boldly I went in
for our order. The coupons however were last year's and thus no
longer valid. Had we only looked a bit closer. We both had a double
hamburger anyway.
Just to the right of the international harbour is the recreational
island of Ruissalo, famous for its yearly beach-rock-concerts. We
hiked towards it -halfway across town again- in order to find a
sleeping place for the night, that is a reasonable campsite. Just
across the bridge to the island we realised that we were in need
for fresh water again. Since there didn't seem to be anything close
by I decided to go back to the harbour area and find us some
water. Merja stayed behind on the island with our packs and I
started walking again in search of our holy water with quite sore
feet by now.
The gas-station on which I had set my mind was already closed by
the time I got there, so it was past 21.00 hours as I concluded
from the opening times table. Its free water supply was
-unfortunately- behind locked doors and so I had to go on, we
needed water. All the places I found needed special keys to get the
water flowing. Eventually I ended up in the Silja-Line terminal
where the evening boat for Stockholm had just left (at 21.30
hours). The guards let me in the closing terminal and so I got the
water from the toilet.
By the time I came back to Merja she was already so worried that
she had contemplated on carrying both our backs in search of me.
She thought that in my quest for water, probably smoking my pipe,
daydreaming, asking the government where the children play and
generally floating along the road, I must have been hit by a
passing car or something. Luckily none of the sort, I just had to
walk a bit further for water, that was all. I had been gone for
more than an hour and had been walking all the time, in other words
kept warm. She however was quite cold by now so we quickly decided
to go onto the nature-trail not too far behind from where we were
standing.
We walked back about a 100 metres and disappeared into the woods in
search for a site to camp. Houses were build along the trail,
somewhat hidden and probably just used in the summertime. We came
upon a gigantic big house, no one was home here, but along the road
was another house where the residents had decided to be that night.
We washed ourselves with some fresh rainwater from the big house
and I even drank some of it. "This isn't Germany's Ruhr-area," I
figured. We continued along a train from behind the big house and
quickly found a site. It was on a large rock overgrown with soft
moss. Comfortable at first but still quite hard as we learned the
hard way throughout the night.
Monday, 02.08.1999
------------------
We wanted to wake up a little earlier so that we would have enough
time for exploring Turku even further than we had done the previous
day. We packed and walked back to the big house which was -luckily-
still unoccupied. Merja used the rainwater to refresh herself. She
also used the privacy of the area to change some clothes and at
some time she was actually walking around stark naked totally
oblivious to her surroundings and the fact that someone might
really be inside the house after all. All this while I suffered
over the stove making coffee; it still wasn't working properly and
I didn't have a small enough pin with me to clean it. I had already
refreshed myself by pouring two buckets of rainwater over my head.
After our breakfast we headed towards the centre and quick enough
realised that the time was only 10.00 hours, so we still had the
whole day in front of us. We decided to head for the railway
station, first of all to check on the departing trains and second
to leave our packs in a locker or something so that we didn't have
to haul them along for the rest of the day. A smart move, since the
temperature had already risen towards the upper 20-ies Celsius.
We didn't really know where to go when we had arrived in what is
commonly known as the centre. Merja is currently studying
Aromatherapy and the main office of her "school" happens to be in
downtown Turku. We decided to visit there and at least buy her some
oil that she would be able to use for her studies. We were on the
right street but couldn't resist walking into an enclosed market
place. Something like we know from Oulu, an inside market place
where one can mainly buy fresh fish and ready to eat fish-dishes. A
lot of noodles and herbs around but not so much fish-dishes as we
are used to. I missed the salmon-pie that I usually buy and
immediately eat in Oulu.
Continuing along the street we found Merja's school. Up with the
near century old elevator and in we were. It was a normal house
converted into an office and classroom. After Merja had her tour
and we were both introduced to those working there, I bought her
some oil and out we went again.
We decided to go to the outside market in downtown Turku to try to
find some coffee and some other refreshments. A lot of fresh fruits
were on sale there, not too expensive, but we didn't buy any. Merja
was dying for coffee by now and I needed to sit down and give my
feet some rest. A local grill sold coffee and some foods. We
luckily found 2 plastic seats and I ordered us 2 cups of -rather
weak- coffee. We had bought 2 doughnuts elsewhere and drank and ate
while resting and watching the locals pass by. Merja gave me her
camera and had me take her picture in front of a vegetable-stand
between the people. She later on took my picture whilst I stood in
front of a stand full of sunflowers; sort of a Van Gogh thing.
After the coffee it was time again to hit the bookshops in my
desperate search for another Jack Kerouac-novel. Guess we checked
them all, but unfortunately I didn't get lucky here either. From
the bookshops to numerous indistinguishable other shops and yet
again to other shops.
Apart from the caste Turku has other attractions like the Maritime,
biological and "what's in an name" pharmacy museums. All of which
have entrance fees. We walked towards the maritime museum and its
neighbouring "old crafts" museum. We didn't go in neither, just
walked towards them in order to see the other side of town.
When one turns to the left just in front of the entrances of these
museums and past the Russian consulate one enters a park stretching
out over a hill overlooking Turku and on top of which lies the Art
museum. Here too the entrance fee was rather hefty but we did enjoy
the view from its surrounding benches. We sat there for a while and
were just glad to be in the shadow of some trees since the
temperature had risen above 30 degrees Celsius. We contemplated on
what to do. Out of professional interest Merja wanted to have a
look at Turku's central hospital, so we had a look at the map,
stood up, and headed down from the park onto the streets towards
the hospital. A local food-shop provided -for a fee of course- the
necessary fluids to continue.
Merja really went inside the hospital to have a look. I merely
followed. We both used the clean toilets and I took so long that
Merja opened the doors and called my name. I had taken on reading
Dharmabums again and was washing most of myself since even I was
getting disgusted by the smells "perfuming" from my body.
All this walking had brought us a healthy appetite and we both
craved a pizza. Rovaniemi doesn't have cheap pizza-joints like Oulu
has, but luckily we had seen some scattered around Turku. We
entered one just around the corner of the hospital and next to the
university. Basic fee plus an additional cost per topping, salads,
water and coffee or tea included.
Full and satisfied we walked towards Turku's cathedral for a
visit. What I had missed in Hauho's church on frescoes, sculptures,
and other art was abundantly available here. Mikael Agricola (1510
1557), the archbishop of Turku who was the first to write down the
Finnish alphabet and translate parts of the bible in Finnish as
well as properly documenting the traditions and animist religious
rites of ethnic Finns in the 16th century, had probably been here
since the cathedral dates from before his time. Its oldest parts
even date back to the 13th century.
Since there wasn't much more to do on this side of town, we headed
for the centre once more. Checking out all the shops we apparently
hadn't visited yet. Finally time closed in for us to head for the
railway station, retrieve our bags and board for Tampere--where
else? On the road to the station we went into a local food-shop and
bought a bottle of spring-water and some sandwiches. From another
food-shop still we bought the missing items, like some cheese and
meat. Merja actually went into this latter one in order to buy us a
pack of cologned tissue papers, for washing your hands and face
with in the train.
We arrived a bit early at the station, but sat outside it in a park
for a while amongst the locals and others waiting for the departure
of their trains. Our train would leave at 20.15 hours and arrive in
Tampere with about 4 minutes to spare to 22:25 hours: the departure
time for our train back to Rovaniemi. We went in to retrieve our
bags and use the toilets. Merja had mentioned something about
smelly feet, so I took my shoes and socks off and washed my feet in
the washbasin. Filled up my empty water bottle and waited for Merja
in the lobby while surfing the internet at no charge on a big
touchscreen. 5 minutes before departure time we were on the train
and ready to go.
As I mentioned the train arrive in Tampere about 40 minutes before
the train to Rovaniemi would leave, so that gave us some time to
check around. Tampere is supposed to be famous for its Musta
Makkara, which literally means "Black Sausage." Its reason for
being black or rather dark, is to be found in one of its
ingredients: blood. Just outside the station is a grill which sells
them for Fim 10,- apiece. I couldn't resist buying one of
course. The man serving them topped ours of (we bought just one,
since they are rather large) with puolukka, or red berries which is
supposed to be the grand topping. The idea may sound disgusting,
but the sausage was very tasty. Some young skaters asked us in
English whether we liked the sausage, in Finnish we replied that we
did. Apparently only tourists eat them.
There was still enough time left to walk a little further on
towards some church we hadn't noticed before. We turned around it
twice to the left and walked towards the main street. Upon passing
the bookshop Akateeminen Kirjakauppa I noticed Jack Kerouac's
Mexico City Blues in the window, why hadn't I seen that before when
I was inside trying to find on of his books, why hadn't I asked?
Around the corner I noticed that we still had 151 days 2 hours 50
minutes and 23 seconds left to the Third Millennium, so perhaps
I'll buy the book another time. We boarded the train and at
precisely 22:25 hours it departed for Rovaniemi.
We took our seats halfway a carriage slightly to the back of the
train. It was still light outside, but darkness would fill the
Finnish landscape soon enough. The couple next to us were already
drinking. Typical Finnish thing, drinking whenever they travel
anywhere, given their tax-free bottles they presumably had come
from either Tallinn or Stockholm or maybe even flew in from
elsewhere. I took the Dharmabums book from my bag and started
reading again, while Merja made us some sandwiches. After a while
when the eating and reading was over I started writing down these
notes and helped Merja get her sleeping bag from her backpack. She
was tired enough to start sleeping and made herself a nice bed on 2
seats. I continued writing and at some point when she was fast
asleep I went to the cafeteria and bought us a small bottle of pop,
the water bottles were already half gone. I used the tent bag for a
pillow and started to sleep as well, but I kept waking at every
stop the train made.
Tuesday, 03.08.1999
-------------------
I had been rather cramped on my 2 seats but had slept fine anyway
and awoke about half an hour before arrival in Rovaniemi. The train
arrived at precisely 07:49 hours and we were off towards Merja's
workplace less than 2 minutes later after we had retrieved her
bicycle, which had been standing at the railway station all the
time since we had left. We went to Merja's workplace simply because
she had to start working again this day. While Merja showered I
made us coffee and at 09:15 hours I was in the bus home and fell
fast asleep on the bed.
