The Land of the Midnight Sun

I think for today’s post I'll outline my current plans for Finland, the first leg of the Epic Viking Tour (EVT from here on out). This is extremely subject to change, and nothing ever goes to plan on the day anyway, so don't quote me on this.

I start in Helsinki. It'll be Heathers (a friend of mine who's coming with me) birthday the day after we arrive, so we'll have time to settle into Eurohostel, where we'll be staying, and get some sleep before unleashing chaos on Helsinki’s nightlife to celebrate. I've read some very good things about Helsinki after dark; Lots of rock clubs and music venues, and free open-air concerts on Sundays. And of course, being Finland’s biggest and most prosperous city there are plenty of sights to see during the day.

After a few days there, we move on up to Hameenlinna, a small town more or less half way between Helsinki and Tampere. Here we will camp at Aulanko campsite, on the edge of Aulanko national park. Aside from being a good opportunity to take in some of Finland’s beautiful forests and lakes and relax between big cities, Hameenlinna is a particular point of interest for me - It happens to be the home town of one of my favorite bands, Turisas. In their DVD "A Finnish Summer with Turisas" they visit a lake near Hameenlinna (it's within walking distance of the campsite) called Katumajarvi. In the middle ages, invaders came from the South to force Christianity on the locals, and being simple forest-dwelling folk they eventually had to accept. Then, after the Christians had left, the villagers all went into this lake (which was presumably of some local spiritual significance) to symbolically wash off their false baptism and promptly returned to their Norse-pagan ways. Fortunately I was never baptized, but I plan to follow their example by taking a dip in the lake anyway, and perhaps combine this with another great tradition - the Finnish Sauna. Not many people realize that 'Sauna' is a Finnish word, where it is such a part of daily life that there are enough in the country to accommodate Finland’s entire population with only two in each Sauna. Traditionally, after a spell sweating it out in the sauna, you run out and go for a roll in the snow or a swim in the nearest lake, and seeing as it'll be summer and there won't be much snow around, the lake is the obvious choice. Hameenlinna also has a medieval castle to visit if we have time.

After a night or two in Hameenlinna (depending on what time of day we arrive/what time of day we can leave) we'll move on to Tampere, which is very similar to Helsinki, if slightly more industrial. We'll probably only spend one night here, and a day sightseeing before hooking ourselves up with a night train through Parkano to Vaasa. Alternatively, depending on how much time we've spent already and what we feel like, we might take a detour via Jyvaskyla to see some more of the inland countryside, but camping in Hameenlinna will probably have satisfied that desire.

Vaasa is another of Finland’s larger cities, on the Western coast. Here we can stretch our legs after the long train journey and sample the local food, before getting a ferry to Umea, Sweden, thus ending the Finnish section of the EVT.

As you can see from the map, we're not seeing all that much of Finland comparatively, but inland and up north the sights are mostly the same as what we'll see in Hameenlinna and Aulanko national park. We are also stuck with the constraints of the trains, which don't run much in the northern end of Finland, and our rail pass only lasts 21 days so we have to move fairly quickly from place to place.

And now for something completely different. Someone linked me to this last night.