Category: Finland

Posted on

Hiking Finland’s Karhunkierros Trail (Bear Trail)

*Last summer I hiked the Karhunkierros long distance hiking trail in northern Finland. It’s taken me forever to write about it!*

Me and Sara are in Ruka, a ski resort in northern Finland, and we’re about to walk the 82km-long Karhunkierros, or Bear Trail in English. We grab a not-very-detailed map from the tourist information centre. The worker assures us that this is all we will need. “It’s impossible to get lost!” she says.

Continue reading “Hiking Finland’s Karhunkierros Trail (Bear Trail)”
Posted on

Finland – The land of a thousand lakes, a million trees and ten million mosquitoes

I leave England once again and have one intention – to visit Norway. I get as far as Sara’s in Malmo, Sweden, and we spontaneously agree, “let’s go to Finland!” And so my Norway plans are put on hold and I board a ferry in Stockholm with Sara, her sister Lea and Lea’s daughter, Aviaja. Nothing can ruin my excitement about visiting Finland, not even the hideous ferry crossing where most people’s intention is to get paraletic, and where the security man threatens to confiscate our food. Apparently we are not allowed to bring food on a sixteen hour ferry crossing which doesn’t cater for vegans!

We arrive in Helsinki. I have wanted to visit this city for about ten years, but all I see of it is a ten minute tram ride to a hitchhiking spot. I vow to come back to Helsinki in a week or two, but fate has other ideas, and I never make it back there. I also never make it to Norway. I hitch alone northwards, whilst Sara and family take the train. We are heading to the Finland Rainbow Gathering (a hippie meet-up) in the countryside in Paukarlahti. I repeatedly mutter to myself, “I have never seen so many trees!” There is forest absolutely everywhere.
Continue reading “Finland – The land of a thousand lakes, a million trees and ten million mosquitoes”