Cycling across the archipelago

Midsummer doesn't mean anything special to most people, but for Finns and Scandinavians it's something that could be compared to celebrations such as Christmas or New Year. You don't want to miss it and you want to make it special. Depending where in Finland you are, the sun doesn't go down at all or just for an hour or so. In Finland people mostly go to various midsummer festivals or cottages and get waisted (even people who don't drink so often, midsummer is the day to do it), and stay awake until the sun rises. In Sweden the celebration is colored with more traditions, such as midsummer poles. That's what I wanted to see, and because Sweden was a bit too far for my budget, I headed for the Åland islands, which are technically part of Finland, but practically part of Sweden.

Students know for sure how to do it cheaply. In Åland the ferries between the islands cost nothing and you can get small summer houses for fairly cheap price if you're 5. We bought all the food in Turku and carried it in our bike bags, so the costs were cut utterly low. A new concept of "plastic bag food" was invented. We're such a bad tourists, leaving almost no money in the island.

20.6

Our first night

All 5 of us (I, Emil, Vittorio, Nicholas and Kata) met up in Turku and cought a bus to Korppoo (Korpo), one of the last islands in Turku archipelago before Åland. And yes, you can get here by bus because the bus took several ferries to get there. Korppoo is such a pieceful corner of the World, I felt homey. Finnish signs were getting rare and the language turned to Swedish. We slept in a small barn building in the yard of a big farm house. The owner of the house was super friendly and called to the harbor to quarantee that we will get a boat to Kökar island the next day and gaves us some cutlery to eat our food we brought from Turku. Just 5 minutes walk from the farm house we had an own private beach with superb view over the archipelago and a perfect spot to enjoy the sun going down.

The life was good.

21.6

For some reason I cannot sleap well in new places. After playing badminton outside in midnight sun until 3 am, I woke up at 4.30 to sunshine in my eyes and decided to wake everyone up - "hey guys, I think you should wake up.. it's late". They were like "Anniina, for god's sake, it's 4 o clock in the morning". Three hours later I woke up again, gave up sleeping and went skinny dipping in the pleasantly cool sea water and observed an old man picking potatoes.  Oh how I love to watch the world wake up.

Our 2nd and 3rd night

The midsummer had made some changes to ferry schedules and after sitting 2,5 hours on a boat to Kökar island we had just 15 minutes to spend there before another ferry to Långnäs via Husö and Sottunga (3 more hours). Now no one for sure speaks Finnish anymore and I had to sharpen up my Swedish skills, left somewhere in high school.  First thing we saw after stepping on Eckerö island was a Günther poster - thanks to Nicholas peeing on the three - the plans for the midsummerday party are made. Åland has weird red roads (due to the red granite they have in the island) and it couldn't get any more idyllic. The roads are in excellent condition for biking and there is nearly no cars at all. We visited a small grocery store which seemed to be from the 80s, having almost only local products (damn these Ålanders are so proud of their "country"!). We bicycled nearly 3 hours to Gottby, where we stayed in over 100 years old house in the yard of a farm. Some kids and Smilla- dog accompanied us, but the language burden remained quite high. It's not too easy to understand a 3 years old kid, especially if it's only your 2nd language, but I was very satisfied that I understood well the owner of the house, even though it's almost 5 years since I quit my Swedish studies.

Being too tired after spending the whole day on boat and bike, we just had BBQ, drank some wine (cheap wine which needed plenty of coke and sugar to be possible to drink) and fell asleep.

22.6

Once again I woke up way too early (8 o clock) and decided to go to the beach. Gottby had very attractive small beach with cute run-down "boat houses". The water was pleasantly warm, and so was the air. After playing with Smilla, washing dishes and reading book for a couple of hours, the others woke up and we left for Mariehamn, the capital of Åland. It's such a pleasant city, I could well imagine myself living there! The Åland beer, Stallhagen, tastes excellent on the beach. As a midsummer dinner we enjoyed new Finnish potatoes with dill, herring (not good, but must), eggs and moose meat, and I must say I was extremely satisfied to the results of my cooking.

 

This was to be the Great Günther Day, which needed 3 hours pre-party. Wine (with sugar and cola), schnapps (from Austria), Vergi (from Estonia) and possibly something else gave us super powers to bicycle 10km to Mariehamn. Oh, you touch my tralala... The epicness of the trip just rised to new levels with speaches that beats the ones of Obama combined with our biking clothes in one of the fanciest clubs I've ever visited. Our dream came true when we met our hero, mr. Günther (yes, the teeny weeny string bikini- guy). Although he left us disappointes as he just "sang" half on hour playback and disappeared in the backstage. I could have made a better appearance. Nevertheless, it gave us even more super powers to bicycle back to Gottby with an average speed of 23km/h.

23.6

Is anything better than waking up after a couple of hours of sleep to cleap up the house and bicycle another 10km with sun shining brighter than ever before? The ferry, M/S Viking Grace, provided us a dark and cool cabin to sleep almost the whole trip back to Turku, Finland.  It was too late for me to catch a train home, so I couchsurfed with a pleasant couple, Nathaniel and Ania.

A perfect midsummer trip! Gotta get back to Åland!

Comments about Åland

As said before, Åland is an autonomous swedish-speaking region between Finland and Sweden which comprises over 5000 islands and skerries, although most people live in the main island "Fasta Åland". It has a population of around 28 000 and outside Mariehamn it's very rural. Despite being very rural, at summer time I would recommend it to pretty much everyone. It's especially popular among bikers because the ferry transportation between the islands costs practically nothing, the roads are in excellent condition and it's very flat. The downside is that unlike in other Nordic countries, you aren't allowed to put up your tent where you want and the accommodation can be rather expensive, especially if you're just one or two. With 5, like we were, you could hire an overnight cabin or a small summer house which would cost 10-15 euros a night for each. Outside Mariehamn there's very few shops and groceries cost 30% more than in mainland Finland, which must be taken into account.

The archipelago is strikingly beautiful with it's rolling fields, old barns, scandinavian houses and sheep. And of course the sea, the beaches and red granite. It's significantly different from mainland Finland. It's peaceful and relaxed ambianse, old-fashioned buildings and traditional lifestyle reminds me of old Swedish children stories by Astrid Lindgren. But the place is not only for those looking to get into nature, it has also quite vivid night life in it's capital with various bars and plenty of youth. As I mentioned in this text, we went to party in it's newest club "Kino" which was the fanciest club with most flashing lights I had ever visited, inside or outside Finland. The whole island seem to be inhabitated by traditional Ålanders and at summertime rich Finns and Sweds (and in between) and it seems to be very well off. Mariehamn is probably among the cleanest cities I've been to and you couln't imagine any crime happening out there. Nevertheless, it's interesting and fun :) Even better, there's so many islands that there's plenty to discover - you can even rent a cottage in your own island! Also the locals are very friendly and helpful - although rather don't speak Finnish ;-)


Here's the budget of my Åland trip:



Transportation

Train Seinäjoki-Turku-Seinäjoki with bike 65€
Bus Turku - Korppoo 7€
Ferry Korppoo - Långnäs 5€
Ferry Mariehamn - Turku 22€
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Total 100€



Accommodation

1st night in Korppoo 17€
2nd and third nights in Gottby 16€/night
4th night in Turku 0€
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Total 50€

 

Food and drinks

Grocery shopping in Turku 10€
Additional grocery shopping in Mariehamn 10€
Wine 1L 8€
Eating and drinking outside 10€
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Total 38€



Amusements
Clubbing 15€


Total costs: 200€