Planning for Island Hopping, Finnish Style, in Turku (Åbo)

Zagan the motorhome’s enjoying a rather pleasant parking spot on the Aura river (thanks to Europebycamper.com) in Turku, southwest Finland (N60.44237, E22.24915). It’s free to park here for up to 12 hours, which would take us up to 2am, at which point we could drive to another spot along the river or, more sensibly, just stay until the morning and then leave.

As the post title suggests, we’re also in Åbo, the Swedish name for Turku. Like many places across Europe, Finland is officially bilingual, after the country was ruled by Sweden for about 500 years before the Russians managed to get their hands on it in 1809. The Russians held on until 1917 and only partly managed to nab it back again in WW2 (note to self: don’t mess with the Finns). Again like many other European countries, Finland’s only existed as an independent country for about 100 years.

Zagan by the Aura River in Turku

Yep, we’re in, we can even get the door open. Just.

We slept well last night at our beach-side freebie spot after watching England draw with Slovakia, seeing them through to the next round in Euro 2016, with the Strawberry Moon rising up behind us in counterweight to the late setting sun. 20 June was, this year, the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere, although not for us. As we head towards the far north the days will get steadily longer. As long as we top out at Nordkapp before 29 July, we should see the midnight sun; effectively we’ll see our first ever 24 hour day.

Strawberry Moon over Helsinki on the Summer Solstice

Today we headed off west. We’ve long wondered which route to take through Finland, and only yesterday did we suss out how to tackle the country. The World Wife Carrying Championship‘s been given the official thumb’s up for 1 July, which gives us Sonkajärvi to head for, which is here:

Sonkajärvi, where Finns practice stealing wives

So it would make sense to drive north from Helsinki, through the famous lake district, no? Well it would, but for the ongoing rumour of hordes of mosquitoes, which would, if proven true, necessitate the use of gallons of Jungle Formula, and a hat which looks like this:

Mosquito hat: photo from travelsafe.co.nl

Yeah, neither of us fancy the hat that much, so we’re taking the long way around, heading west and north around the coast before crossing inland at the last minute. That’s the plan, although it’ll still leave us with 1000km of Finland and Norway to get to the Cape, so don’t give up hope of seeing us in them thar hats yet folks.

The drive out of Helsinki on the E18 spun my head as I imagined myself to be in the US. Wide roads, a million traffic lights and tall shining buildings all had me in a mind of Ju and I in an SUV nipping from New York to Philadelphia. As per almost every motorway outside the UK and the Netherlands, the E18’s just about empty (and toll free – as are all Finnish roads – woo hoo!). Leaving the coastal city behind, something got me weirdly excited: the road passed through a few cuttings made in hard, pink rock. Ermmm, what’s happening? Hang on, what’s this, a tunnel?! Topology!!! Finally Europe’s gone bumpy again after four country’s worth of soul-swallowing flat Earth. Not too bumpy mind, but the road’s burrows and stilts served to inflate me.

Rock and holes on the E18 in Finland

Smooth, empty and toll free. We’re making the most of it before the endless route north begins

More moose-taunting signs. They might as well have signs warning that Sauron The Dark Lord might be crossing the road somewhere ahead

Before squeezing our back end into this parking spot, Zagan insisted on a quick trip to the Blue and Yellow Temple that is Lidl. Having not visited this OurTour Mecca since Poland, and since none of the Baltic countries have any UHT milk, anywhere, we needed in. Almost as soon as we were in, we went a bit red-faced. Yep, it’s generally more expensive that Estonia but flippin’ ‘eck, it’s really not that expensive, we have certainly over-stocked. In fact, some of the stuff we bought in Estonia’s cheaper here, not booze though, as we’re still working through our Polish cheaper-than-water beer stash.

Lidl Finland – we love a Lidl leaflet. Meatballs can be had here for less than €2 for a kilogram. I’m making it my life’s mission to eat my way across Finland, meatballs all the way

Cheap way to try some Finnish grub – Lidl pastries. The rugby ball ones were a rice-milk-cheese in a brown pastry, the other one was a sweet cheese. Both nice, but the rugby ball ones tasted a bit too healthy

Finding this spot, we supped a drink while we waited for the sun to disappear behind the clouds and the rain to start. Huh? Wrong way round? Ah, yeah, messed that up a bit, but it was just a shower. Not fussed about doing the full city tour, we ambled down the river, side-stepping the folks on bikes (one Dutch-style had three nippers in a wooden box on the front), those unstable/daft-looking hoverboards and skateboards. Ju’s been in the information office and we’re now loaded up with info on the 250km Archipelago Trail across the islands to the south of us. It’s my birthday tomorrow (44, a year nearer to my pension!) and we’re doing a bit of nature to celebrate.

The tourist info guys told Ju it’s going to be busy. The Finns get to endure a rough-ass winter around here (think an hour of sunlight per day), and like to live it up a bit when they can see each other at midsummer. Should be fun! I’ll leave those of you that made it this far with a few photos from Turku.

Something to do with Rostock in Germany and here, but what, I do not know

Cool bridge, like being under a boat

Lidl wasn’t expensive, but eating out is. This is about the best our budget can stretch to…

Or maybe in here…

Turku market – good place to get a few veggies but no match for the beautiful markets of France and Italy

Ships line the river playing host to bars and restaurants – the river seems to be the centre of life in this city

Turku

Ahhheeerrrmmm…

Things to see in Turku

Cheers! Jay

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