The Finnish Line

Finland! Lapland, Scandinavia. Land of saunas and things made from birch wood. Our brief visit to Finland was enough to double my geographical knowledge of the place. I went in knowing the name of one city and came out knowing two!

I always roll my eyes at people who claim 'culture shock' when travelling. For me it is right up there with 'the accent I acquired while in Australia'. So I will not call what I went throught 'shock'....more like 'awe'. From the moment we disembarked the train there were people who could willingly speak English and were helpful, people didn't stare and laugh at me, there were heavy metal posters at bus stops, you can drink the water...right out of the tap!! And, there were designated bike lanes that are respected by motorists. I kept, to B's annoyance, expressing wonder at these features. I think that is as culture shocked as I can get. Well...I guess I can imagine a little bit more. In the past the most vivid 'culture shocky awey' thing was witnessing the abundance of food in our home grocery stores, all organized and well lit.

After a day of roaming around and a night of playing pool and drinking, B flew home. (must have been the 4 euro beers?) I remained and through the warmshowers website found a great fellow named Markus with whom I spent my remaining two nights. I also got a tour with Kari, twin bro of Artsi who stayed with me in Revey some years back. Did you know that Helsinki hosted the 1952 summer olympic games? I didn't. Part of the Kari tour was to go to the outdoor wooden architecture museum with his dog. There were plenty of cool structures for me and lots of squirrels for the dog so it was a successful outing. I much prefer the more modern buildings to the old, one small windowed, dismal log cabins. And speaking of modern stuff, after visiting the design museum I am convinced that everything at Ikea is copied from a 1950s Finnish product. You see, they were a little isolated for a while and needed to produce stuff for themselves so they pushed the design envelope and the result was a lot of groovy furniture made from wood. Ikea, come on, give the Finns some credit! Also, did you know that orienteering is a huge spectator sport? Somewhere in there I visited a store and bought new shoes...much needed shoes.

And why didn't I fly home too, you may be wondering. Well, here startith my little solo adventure across Europe. First stop Switzerland, second stop Montpellier. OK, you're right. It's fall and getting cold...that'll just add some 'spice' (aka: misery) to the voyage. (just to interject here...I'm writing this 25 days into the tour and I have seen 0...ZERO other cycle tourers...I think I missed a few memos) The plan is to get south quickly by going through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland. Then some sort of route around Czech and Austria to Germany through to Switzerland and then down to France. Details will follow. I didn't even know that Estonia had its own language until Markus told me the day before. "Really!", I thought to myself, "I'm so ignorant!". I visited the bookstore in Helsinki (highly recommended by the way...so big and so cool) and got the 3-in-1 "Balticum" map and went back to the Markus basecamp to "plan". Or was that to drink beer, I forget. Anyway, I learned the name Tallinn which was the first city in Estonia that I would hit when I ferried across the Gulf of Finland.

Tallinn...cool, I though. Sounds like a bird of prey claw. Or a chicken's.