Sylvia's Journal

We completed the archipelago tour with an overnight at the edge of an island where a ferry was to take us further north the next day. After our splurge the night before we reserved a hut, happy to find a place at all, and not paying much attention to the details of our accommodation. Inexpensive, we thought.

As it turned out the ‘hut’ we reserved was a charming rustic one room hut (indeed) with four bunkbeds, a miniature kitchen and a porch. No toilet (ouch). Only the tiny window in the back of the hut opened and had a screen, the first screen we saw on a window since we arrived in Finland. We soon understood why. There were mosquitoes, midges and large meat eating flies. Unfortunately the large front window did not open and so there was no air moving in the hut, this on the hottest day so far (31C). I was reminded of sleeping in one star hotels in the Sahel, and that a good part of the world population lives in those conditions night after night. We have gotten so spoiled by AC. And so it was an endless uncomfortable night.

The next morning we lined up for the ferry to make sure we got on as it would only go 4 times a day. On the 1st of July Finland’s summer tourist season starts in all earnest. So far we had marveled at the empty roads and restaurants. Compared to New England, it still feels very empty.

There were more ferries to hop from island to island. The next ferry, like poorly aligned traffic lights, wasn’t going for another 3 hours. Luckily there was a small coffee shop (these are ubiquitous here as the Fins, apparently, drink more coffee than anyone else) a few 100 meters from the embarkation point. Even better, there were open faced salmon sandwiches which I washed away with a spruce root Prosecco from Lapland. Walking back there were sweet wild strawberries growing along the road.

All along the way we shared the road with bike riders. Apparently the 250 kilometer archipelago bike trail is a popular summer outing. We saw fully loaded bikes with people sweating in 30 degree heat over undulating roads. It would have been a good reason to have an e-bike but we saw very few of those.

Once we had completed the trail in the comfort of our air conditioned car, we returned to the familiar surroundings of our Finnish home and collected the usual ingredients for dinner: gravlax and cold smoked salmon, fresh peas, freshly dug potatoes and strawberries, all bought by ‘the liter.’ We will probably be tired of this dinner when it is time to go home, and will have to make do with the US version of it all.