Airport atmospheres pt. 2

Airport atmospheres!

Maps

You can see the whole journey in Google maps:

Map

Day ten - home sweet home

The atmosphere was more and more on lets go home than wow, what an adventure. Partially the feeling was even a little longing, it was such a pity to end this but home sounded like a paradise... But I was dreaming on other coming adventures to Birtavarre or other places already!

The Finnish couple gave us a ride all the way till Parkano. From there we got a ride To Hämeenkyrö. The woman was going to Turku and I would have been more than happy to go there but all our stuff were mixed and most of mine were still in Espoo so we got of on a gas station and continued our way.

Our last ride was to Vuosaari on a truck. I mostly slept (like I often do in a car, not the best quality in a hitch hiker!) and we were just too tired to talk. From Vuosaari it was just a short but strenuous hop to Kamppi and Espoo.

Our last part of the journey:

In Espoo there was food and tea and fresh bread waiting for us! Shower and internet and cats and loved ones!

I am happy we made this journey. I hope we will do something like this soon again. I need more adventures in my life and I am happy to share them with Taru!

So until the next adventure, take care! Comment and keep in touch, and keep up the love!

Day nine - Please take us away!

By this time we were just tired. The anticipation that kept us going in the beginning of the journey was gone. We had no real time to do anything anymore, everything that was left was just traveling back home. We were ragged, smelly, tired of noodles, I was too tired to take any photographs anymore (this will make the last posts a little boring).

With our new "AWAY" sign we started early in the morning not to miss any traffic. It still took us an hour and a half to get a ride from a amazing traveling french guy who really did not have the room in the car but took us in anyway! We talked broken english and listened to music, we were relieved and happy to get to Kiiruna.

Kiiruna had one of the coolest things ever: food that was warm and wasn't cooked on a small gas burner and a kettle. Pizza! Coffee! Toilet! Civilization even though Kiiruna is a weird newly built mining city.

Fro Kiiruna we got a ride from a swedish mining company guy. The ride was safe and long all the way till Töre. From Töre it was waiting again. Not much traffic was going here and even less rides even though we got quite hilarious looks with our AWAY sign. Eventually we got a ride till Kalix, luckily the ride wasn't longer... The young guy was listening to his music so loud I was missing my earplugs that were stashed in the back backs... we really though we were going to go deaf. In better situations that ride would have been one that we would have said no thanks to.

We continued trying to get a ride from Kalix. So close to Finnish border, no giving up now! Finally we got a ride from a very nice finnish couple who had been visiting friends in Norway and were now returning to Finland. A ride all the way to Finland!

One of the best road signs for a while!

We stopped for the night after Tornio on a resting site. We put our tent up in stony ground knowing that this would be the last night and felt relieved.

Journey on day nine: We can't stop here, this is Sweden!

Day eight - We wanna go home!

We had a very very slow morning. The rest and doing nothing was very much needed and we felt invigorated when we finally dragged ourselves to the road. The weather liked to give us nice little showers of rain all the time but it was not that cold yet.

We got a ride from a norwegian guy to a village on our way. We heard very good norwegian folk music in the car and were happy to get forward. From the village we got a ride from a Czech guy who was working in ski centers in the winters in Norway.

One of the best things in hitch hiking is the various people you meet on the road. It is so interesting! I hope many of you who gave us a ride is reading this blog now (even though it has taken me a lot of time to write this...)

From the crossing to Kiiruna and Narwik we tried to get a ride for four hours until we gave up and put our camp up. It was a miracle we got the tent up dry and well. Exhausted and tired we just wanted to get out of (still beautiful) Norway and to Sweden were we could actually afford pizza or coffee and other luxuries!

Our short way on our eight day:

Day seven - it rains in Norway

"Yep. Tourists..."

We started in the morning for Birtavarre and the nature reservoir in the region. Unfortunately we started to realize we would not have many days left on our trip before we wanted to be home. Even hiking on our way to Sweden started looking unlikely.

Sometimes the scenery was just amazing.

You can catch the weirdest things when photographing from the car. Often the clouds looked really threatening.

Smaller and bigger streams falling from the mountains was a common but spectacular sight.

We continued our way to Birtavarre (Pirttivaara) with our german company. The area was amazing, dead low birches, mining facility ruins, deep canyons and high mountains. Deeper in the area there would have been waterfalls and a hanging bridge... but we had little time and not really the optimum gear to start hiking to Halti from there.

We got a ride till Skibotten with our friends and continued our way from there.

Or wanted to. Really really wanted to. But Skibotten, that was a really dead road, no traffic and it was getting dark. And it was windy and rainy. We froze our asses on the side of the road and finally got a ride from a norwegian woman to Trømso crossing. It was difficult to get a ride from that road and gas station cluster but finally we got a short ride to a better hitching site.

Our friend the rain kept us company. Finally we gave up and put our tent up very close to the road but on a nice spot with a beautiful view. We really needed that nights sleep.

Just when we got our tent up the light showed a spectacular dance in the clouds.

Massive clouds, heavy light, scenes like from Mordor. Norway.

Our journey on day seven.

Day six - karma hits back

Day six started out even better than the day before. We got a ride from Tina And Jan, a german couple in their self made trailer car. The car was maybe coolest ever with bus benches and a real heavy feeling. We started first to go and see rock paintings in a huge nature path + museum in Alta.

Tina and Jan

Who did they draw in these pictures?

Elk and reindeer were common subjects.

The rock forms them selves were worth seeing. The site had a lot of drawings from different eras.

We travelled with them for a very beautiful camping site in Badderfjorden/Sørstrømmen. The site had a lot of others and quite a few Finns too.

But karma decided this was the time to hit us back with a huge blow. We happily put out tent up and heard this CRACK! One of the supporting rods broke!

I was OMFG and Taru was how are we gonna fix this... and we asked help from our german friends who were packing all the needed tools with them. Such luck to have bad luck in a place were there was help available!

In the evening we took a long walk to the near hills to do some photography. This made me happy but Taru was tired and about to catch a cold... We both wee starting to be tired even though being on the road was awesome.

Tina in Front of their car. The picture is taken with my pinhole lens to my DSLR

The clouds were eating the earth. I dreamt of walking to the clouds even though it apparently is just foggy and wet experience.


Light played a majestic dance in the clouds.

Day six route. Shortish but enjoyable.

Day five part 2 - good karma

We got away from Hammerfest on a short ride to a better place for hitching. From there we got a slow nice ride from a german guy who was slowly traveling south. We took our leave to a better road for our plans and quite soon got a very nice ride, people returning to Alta from the Midnight rock from Laekselv. The ride was packed and smokey, filled with good humor and talking. They lived as neighbors in Alta and offered us a place to stay for the night, a shower and good company! We readily took the offer for some comfort and civilization, shower, coffee, beer, internet... a beer in the hand and pizza! We slept in their caravan for the night, a real bed with a roof! And during the morning we were the happiest hitch hikers in Norway because it started raining like someone was washing the ground with a pressure washer. The water drops bounced from the road a meter high and you could not really see anything. We woke up to the rain and routinely checked all the windows for rain. Funny how some things become a routine...

In the morning we just walked 500m to the road to a perfect place to get a ride. We had no idea how our Karma would hit us back, we just hoped it would not be very soon.

Our route on day five. The map does not have the ferry ride on it.

Day five part 1- beautiful Norway

We woke up early in the morning to get our camp together without hurry. We wanted to take the ferry to the islands, originally I wanted to see Måsøya or Ingøya but we had already on Saturday figured out that this would be impossible on this trip. The small ferry that goes from Havøysund to the islands is expensive and it runs on the island very irregularly. Sunday was the only day on the week the ferry goes to Hammerfest and I did not trust that we would get a ride from Havøysund very easily. From Hammerfest we could get on our journey more easily we hoped.

We had ample time in the Havøysund harbor. The day was a cloudy and windy but beautiful.


Fish in the harbor shallows.

The ferry was fast and comfortable. We spent a little time on the deck to shoot some photos and scenery was amazing!




Beautiful archipelago.


On our way to Hammerfest we also saw an oil facility.


Hammerfest church was a sight to see from the sea but unfortunately I do not have pics from it. Inside it had beautiful color glass windows.

Next episode: karma and our route.

Pictures from day four

Okei, this is a teasepost... but I'm doing other stuff this weekend and cannot really put much effort on the blog. So when I have extra time I will play with the Game labs new screenpad wacom thingie and give you pics at least!

So here you go, a psychedelic norwegian oil refinery. The colors came from the ferry window plus a polaroid filter I think. Trippy!



This is also a test on color calibration because I have no idea what this wacom is showing me!

Day four - Norwegian desert and summer heat

We spent the nigh in a magical little meadow near the fjord.

In the morning we continued to the road. We soon realized there was no traffic this up north and on Saturday. Also everyone would think we were going to Nordkapp and we had by now decided we would see Havøysund instead.

We got a small ride to the right road from locals and kept a lunch brake. After this we noticed we were stuck on a desert. It was flat, we could see the straight(!) road on both directions for a kilometer, on our left side there were few houses by the sea and on our right side the rocky lowa shrubbery continued to faraway hills. The atmosphere was unique. But it was hot... I changed into bikini top and a scarf skirt and we just laid on the empty road waiting for traffic that did not come. We played with the camera, we made mental lists on what to do when hitch hiking on a desert, we got bored and we got desperate.

We can't stop here, this is bat country!

A very bright coloured road kill.

Finally we got a kilometer forward and found a little stream to refill our water bottles. Cold lovely mountain stream water! The sea looked so warm and colorful but we did not stop to take a break in case we missed a rare car. We pleaded for a ride from some tourists, we walked in the heat onward on the road.

And finally! A german couple picked us up, and they were going to Havøysund too! They did not stay there but we did so we thanked them for saving us and planned for the evening and the ferry.

We visited the local small church, marveled the fishing town atmosphere and dragged our pack backs on a hill. But have me deciding on a place for a tent when I'm tired! We ended up camping on a windiest place on a night that was almost storm. We dragged stones on the corners and Taru spent half of the night awake to check on the stones and keep the tent steady. I was so tired in the evening I almost walked past the tent when dragging the stones to it so I could not trust myself to keep awake the night and Taru had to be the heroine and suffer.

In the morning the tent was visibly bent by the wind. Luckily it did not really rain that night.

The coast guard was in harbor.

Not all the town is this idyllic picture of old run down fisher town in Norway but you get to see some details like this. We were really happy to go to Havøysund instead of Nordkapp.

Day three - Oldefjord

More pics from Russenes. The sea here isn't technically the Arctic sea I guess but it is close enough for us!

Beautiful place in many ways but filled with tourist busses, asians taking pics of trolls and themselves and cabins and trailers.

Taru by the sea.

Yes, I have dipped my toes, fingers and my nose to the Arctic sea!

Day 3 - The love of Lapland

We started relatively early in the morning back to the road side. We got really lucky and got a ride on a empty tourist bus on its way to Ivalo airport. We helped a little on the way to clean the bus and perhaps gained a bit of that famous Karma you will soon hear about. Apparently tourist busses go around a lot empty so they are real hitchhikers prices!

On our way to Ivalo the scenery started to change. I had never been northern than Sodankylä before and even the road sides were beautiful in their Lapland scarce way. Ivalo was a very small place, we shopped for ice cream and fresh food and borrowed a screw driver from an outdoors shop. Unfortunately we did not have time or energy to go see a local handy crafts and art exhibition. We just itched to continue our way.

I also met a fellow student from my school! The world is so small... Nuppu was on her way to Murmansk to catch a train to China! I eagerly wait to hear about her travels. It is a journey I want to do someday too.

From Ivalo we got a ride to Kaamaisen Kievari, the tavern at Kaamainen. Oiva who gave us a ride told us about his younger days in the southern Finland and how he fell in love with lapland. I looked at the scenery and understood him, there is just something very rare and amazing in the nature here.

Oiva at Kaamainen

From the tavern we asked a ride for only a few kilometers to the right road to Karasjok. This was the second ride that told us about Nordkapp and it started feeling less and less inviting as a goal of our journey. Tourists by buss loads and mist, it is the almost most northern place in Europe and very expensive.

At the road to Kaamainen we sent the last sms to people and closed our phones. It took a while to get a ride but when we got one it was a speedy one! The norwegian guy also gave us smoked fish when he dropped us to the Saame center in Karasjok. The fish was delicious and the tourist info was very helpful and kind. We had now a decent map book of northern Norway.

We also had a problem with fish. We had too much of it and it would not last to the evening in the warm weather. Luckily we ran across to the buss driver from earlier and could donate the fish to a good new home in his fridge!

Me and all the fish!

We got a ride to Lakselv in a two-door small car from two russian tourists! The ride was hilarious and fun and we were just so happy to be in Norway. (Well the weather was awesome still at this point!)

From Lakselv it was more difficult to get to Oldefjord/Russeness but a local guy drove us there. We stopped on the way to do some photography but we were in Russeness decently early.

In Russeness we spent the evening doing photography and put up our camp. The place we found for our tent felt really magical and close to nature because it was sufficiently far from all the caravans and cabins!

In next post more pics from Russeness and Oldefjord!

Day three route:

Day 2 - alternative routes

We slept at the Tupos gas stations back yard and woke up in the morning. We had no idea what the time was but it seemed morning enough and we had slept enough. We packed our gear and headed to the cafeteria for morning caffeine and bursted out laughing! It was only 6.30. This is no time for nerds to wake up, it should be a time to go to sleep! Nevertheless it was a beautiful morning and we itched to get to the road.

Our tent would become very familiar to us.

The road was not easy to get a ride from here. We had to try to get rides from the people who stopped at the gas station only. This would be very easy if you could take rides from the truckers but they can only take one in their cockpit.

We tried anyway! And we got a ride from a wide transport caravan. Taru got to ride with the truck and I was in the lead car that notified the drivers about up coming traffic and stopped the cars if necessary. Their route took us the scenic way up to Sodankylä. They had to go around Rovaniemi for 60 km just to be able to pass the city. Often the bridges were too low so the trucks had to drive a ramp up and down the wrong way. This meant that the guiding cars in the front and on the back had to stop the traffic for the trucks to pass. Traffic also had to be stopped when crossing narrow bridges.

There was a road work on our way. It would have taken too long to wait for them to finish so they filled up the hole on the road for the transportation.

It took the whole day to reach to Sodankylä but it definitely was worth it! You really saw the traffic in a different way after that. Usually people get annoyed or do not believe if they are instructed to wait for just a half a minute. Why are we all always in such a hurry?

They were transporting containers for a mine.

In Sodankylä it started pouring. We got a little too wet before we could run to the shelter of the gas station but after the rain we saw a beautiful rainbow with a upper halo and a inner halo too!

Sodankylä after rain.

But there was no more rides in the evening and we put our tent up for the night with the company of mosquitos and rain. It was a miracle we managed to keep a little dry.

Day 2 route:

Day 1 route

Here is our route with the kind help of google maps.

612 km and three rides.

Day One

We started our journey to Nordkapp from a whim - why not? Why wait when you are 50 and finally have that caravan? I want to explore the world today, take my camera to places, see and experience other things.

And that we did! We planned and packed for ten days. We bought all the food from Finland because Norway is known to be expensive. It truly is - because the clouds seem so low you can say the prices are above clouds. We packed our food, clothes and camping gear to two backpacks and started on Wednesday morning in Helsinki. Our simple goal was to dip our toes to the arctic sea.

Our first day did not start easy, it took about four hours to get the first ride to Heinola. The ride was nice and unproblematic and when we got out of the car in under a minute we got the second lift to Viitasaari Kiosk! At the kiosk we had a beer and lunch and went back to the roadside.

Finnish summer is beautiful. View from the Viitasaari kiosk.

A girl at the kiosk was reading a book.

The lake.

The last ride of the day was up to Oulu. We stayed before Oulu at Tupos gas station where we blogged and camped. the atmosphere was positive and exited!

Many truckers spend their night at Tupos.