Midsummer in Finland

Midsummer is celebrated the weekend around the 21th of july (the longest day of the year) and it is probably the most important holiday in Scandinavian countries. Three days, from friday to sunday the time stands still. The shop in Ålidhem for example, which is open every day (even on christmas and easter) closes on midsummer. I already heard a lot about midsummer in Sweden in advance, so I planned to stay at least till this date in Umeå, but now it came even better and I went to Finland for midsummer.

I had the chance to spend these days with Leena in her mother´s summer cottage near Pori together with her sister Laura, their cousin Lauri and Laura´s boyfriend Heikki. First of all, midsummer is a lot about relaxing; eating, drinking beer, going to sauna and forgetting time. Ok, that wasn´t the only thing we did. On friday afternoon was a little celebration for Laura, who got her master degree with some of here relatives. In the night then we watched the traditional bonfires at the shores.

On saturday was a traditional charity football game, which was originated by Leena´s dad and his two brothers about 20 years ago; Niittyluoto (their family and relatives, the Furuholms) plays against Sandö (a local team). The event is quite a big thing with a lot of spectators and the money raised goes to local youth organisations. I had the great honour to play for Niittyluoto. I think we were the better team and should have won the game, but as always, if you don´t score your opponent will. At the end we lost 3-1. But it was fun anyway and I don´t think I ever played in front of a bigger crowd (ca. 800 spectators). By the way, it was the first time I played football this year, but obviously it wasn´t too bad. At least I got invited to play next year again.

On sunday we had a boat trip with Leena´s dad in the arichipelago of Pori, a really nice area with a lot of little green islands and inbetween the blue sea. But also not too warm because of the wind.

Midsummer is nice holiday and very relaxing. I think I have to celebrate this again.

Have a nice summer!

Goodbye Umeå

It´s time to say goodbye to my chosen home city for the last 10 months. Actually, I already left Umeå last thursday, but I didn´t have time to write something before leaving. It was strange somehow to go to the city centre a last time. I remembered the first day I came to Umeå, it was raining, I didn´t know anybody or anything and I had to search stuff for my broken tent. Now the sun was shining, I felt like home and many places were connected with memories.

Cleaning my room and packing my things wasn´t that easy as well; a lot of stuff was collected during this year and I got a lot of things, which are still useful but which I don´t need anymore. Somehow I managed to get rid of all the stuff I didn´t want to take home and to pack the things I still need in my car. At 5 p.m. I left Pedagoggränd 9A and Ålidhem, brought back the keys to the international housing office and drove to Holmsund, where I took the ferry to Vaasa.

A blue sky with some single white clouds promised nice weather for midsummer, while the ferry headed for Finland and Umeå diminished at the horizon. Soon the sorrow of leaving was displaced by anticipation of the midsummer festivities in Finland.

Is this the end now of my blog? No, certainly not yet. I´m still on my "farewell tour" and the way back home is also part of the journey. So I try to write regular updates if possible about my travel. Back home I´ll probably write a summary about this year in Umeå. But I have to think first about this all anyway before I´ll be able to draw a conclusion.

See you

Lofoten and North cape

Hej there,

just came back from a ten days trip to Norway. First I went with Andrea, Juliane and Sarah to the Lofoten. We drove by car to Bodö and then by ferry to Sörvågen. We spent 4 nights on the Lofoten, unfortunately was the weather really bad during the first two days, but somehow the rain also created a special ambiance in the rough landscape. Ok, there isn't so much to do, when it is constantly raining but luckily the rain stopped and the sun came back on the third day. Time to see the midnight sun, impressing when the sun doesn't disappear at all. After four days we left the Lofoten and traveled northwards to the Vesterålen, after a night in Sortland we drove to Andenes on the top end of the islands to go to whale safari. We stayed two days there, but unfortunately the sea was too stormy, so the tour was cancelled on both days. It's really a pity that we couldn't see the spermwhales, but now we have still a reason to go there again.
After the Vesterålen our travel group split up. While the girls went southwards to the Lofoen again and took the Hurtigruten boat (the costal post ship) from Sortland to Svolvär, I drove northwards. I also took the hurtigruten boat from Harstad to Tromsö. These ships have a long tradition as mail and person transports along the coast, but nowadays they are more like cruising ships for elderly people. But the trip on the boat was interesting anyway.
From Tromsö, I drove up north, stayed overnight in Alta and then to the North cape. Nowadays the North cape is kind of a big tourist attraction, with restaurants, souvenir shops, museums, etc. You even have to pay entrance fee to the North cape, which is, with 190 NoK regular price or 105 NoK for students respectively, really expensive. In addition you have to pay street toll for the tunnel under the sea on the way to the North cape. So, the trip to the North cape is quite expensive and once there, you have to see that the whole thing is mainly a big tourist attraction. First I thought if it was worth to come there, but still this place has a kind of magic. The nature is rough and sparse, and the rocks of the cape stand steep against the arctic sea. Ok, I had also really good weather there, but the landscape has a special beauty. The other special aspect of being there is probably a more metaphoric; you are at the end of a journey. Sure the journey continues by driving back, but arrived at this point the only way to go is the way back.
That's somehow also the point where I stand now concerning my adventure of studying a year abroad; the semester is over, most of the people went home and I'll leave Umeå soon as well. The way left to go is the way back home, but it's part of the travel and the way back can be nice as well.
The way back from the North cape was quite, I stayed one more night in Kautokeino in Norway and then picked up the girls again on the railway station in Gällivare. On Friday night we arrived back in Umeå, which is nice and green now, but also quite empty since allmost everybody left the city.

I won't stay long as well, probably on thursday I'll leave Umeå for good and will travel to Finland. But I will probalby write more about my plans during this week.

Ha det bra

Short trip to Finland

I just came back from a short trip to Finland. As you might know, I planned my Finland-trip for july, but now I drove Leena back home and spent several days there. First we went to Tampere and stayed there two days. The city has an interesting night live and a lot of good bars and restaurants and I had not enough time to try all these nice places. Surely a reason to go there again. Afterwards we went to Pori and I stayed two more days there. Yesterday we were in the family's summer cottage. That's quite cool in Finland and in Sweden as well that many families have these really nice "sommarstugor", eventhough it is surely a lot of work. Today now, I came back to Umeå and on the road back I made the 10'000th km with my car since I left Switzerland last summer.

Umeå seems already to be quite empty a lot of international students have left during the last days and the Swedish students went home as well. This weekend are the last farewell parties and it is probably interesting to see what will go on next week when almost everybody went home. But ok, on tuesday I'll leave also for Norway (Lofots and North cape) but I'll be back in Umeå once again probably for midsommar.

At the end I just want to mention that to friends (Mark and Daniel) were running the Stockholm Marathon today and they both finished in quite good times, congratulations! And respect to Mark's trainings effort and respect to Daniel's result without any planned training.