Tuesday, August 9, 2011
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.
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
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.
You can catch the weirdest things when photographing from the car. Often the clouds looked really threatening.
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.
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
Elk and reindeer were common subjects.
Tina and Jan
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.
Light played a majestic dance in the clouds.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
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.
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