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Sent: 03 July 1999 09:36

Subject: Carried Away

Well, this is one day early because we are held captive in the van by the onslaught of mosquitoes! Finland is lovely - full of lakes and pine trees and lakes and pine trees and lakes and pine trees, oh yes - AND MOSQUITOES!!!! They truly reach plague proportions here and you cannot go outside without repellent and many people wear mosquito net hats!!! The blighters are big enough to carry you away! All this, north of the arctic circle!

I am being a bit flippant but they really do make sitting outside in 28oC sunshine extremely difficult. Weather - travellers always talk about it! "You should have been here yesterday" they all say. Well we have been amazed at the weather for the last 4 days. Until yesterday we have been in the Arctic Circle and we have been walking around in tee shirts and shorts. Rovaniemi is just south of the Finnish Arctic Circle and it was such a contrast to go through the Circle there.

We were really excited by the prospect of entering the Circle several weeks ago and certainly sad to be leaving it. It is unfortunate that here in Finland the powers that be have seen fit to have Santa Park on the Circle and it is so commercial with Santa's Post Office, Santa's Workshop, Santa's this, Santa's that etc etc etc. that it was an anti-climax to pass through there. You are supposed to be cold, going through the ARCTIC Circle!! Anyway, now we are about 100km south of the circle and the sun is shining, the pine trees are growing, the lakes are shimmering and the mosquitoes are buzzing. The spot we are in is lovely and as the rays of light come through the trees you almost expect a "godly" voice to speak to you from them. (Vivid imagination what?)

We have had some good discussions with people from the Netherlands and from Germany about places perceived by them as good to go for holidays. They all come up with different places and we could never visit them all. It is always amazing to us that they keep apologising for their poor English language! How is our German, Dutch, French etc???????

Don't have a lot to report really. Although the Finnish scenery is very pretty it cannot compare with the majesty of Norway and it would be unfair of us to make those comparisons. Tomorrow we are off to see some rapids (no shooting them for me! not when the tourist book promises a white knuckle experience but Arnold, the intrepid glacier climber, may do so!). Keep well everyone. Keep in touch

What has happened this week? Well, I think that the most interesting, despite being brief, was a trip to the Russian Border - or should I say Frontier Zone. We travelled about 10 km on a dirt track to be greeted with a large sign telling us to turn around and go back, that we had reached the Frontier Zone between the borders of Russia and Finland and that, unless we had a permit, we could not go any further. Instructions were then given about getting a permit but basically saying you have to have a bloody good reason to go beyond this point or you won't get a permit.

Seems strange to me that if all is supposed to be above board now in Russia - why are they still so, what's the word, militant and dictatorial in their edicts? I guess we don't need to be Einstein to know the answers. Anyway, we took a picture of the sign and a couple of war memorials around the place and then did as we were instructed - turned around and went back. It was a strange feeling just being there. Maybe it is my imagination again or maybe it is the warning our friend Stan gave us about Russia (Promise me you will not go into Russia!) that made the place feel .... well, just feel - the place had a definite aura and it wasn't pure white that's for sure. When we were in Tromso in Norway a gentleman warned us also about going into Russia and the border regions because the Russian Mafia was rife. We have been spared them, fortunately.

The area near the Finnish/Russian border that we were in is called Karelia and the WW2 history of this area was not good for the Russians - they lost about 10,000 troops. The war was called the Winter War here and I imagine that it was the Winter that killed many of them.

Traditional food in this area is what is advertised highly in the tourist brochures - so of course we had to partake. It was great, provided you like fish, boiled potatoes, cabbage and boiled meat. Actually, it was better than it sounds but it made us appreciate (yet again) what we have in Australia. At a high class buffet we had some mushroom soup (interesting), some really good cold salmon, several salads - all based on beetroot, cabbage and carrots - and then a choice of what tasted like a Hungarian goulash or some more (hot) fish - don't know what, boiled potatoes and that was your lot, oh yeah, and cabbage rolls.

Watching what people prepare for their meals in the cooking facilities at the campsites seems to indicate that this is pretty well basic fare all over Finland and it is all soaked up with lots of bread. Variation seems to be very small. Certainly as far as culinary delights are concerned, Australia is still very much the lucky country.

A couple of days ago we saw what was quintessential Finnish scenery (yes, more lakes and pine trees). However, this was special. We climbed to the top of Mount Koli, over glacial rocks to the very edge of the mountain (not a mountain by Norwegian standards, but one of the largest we have seen in this part of Finland) and the whole view from there was water and islands covered in trees. It was a lovely clear day and the view unbelievable - every bit as good as in the tourist guides. After coming down from the mountain (gosh, I sound like Moses!) we went to the caravan park at the foot of the mountain and spent the evening sitting on the beach of the lake watching the sun (almost) set. It is amazing just how good a little bit of darkness can feel when you want to go to bed. The park is set amongst pine trees that are tall and very very thin. It was lovely. The lake was lapping at the beach producing pattern of waves in the sand. This was in marked contrast to the following night when there was no wind and the lake was the proverbial millpond with canoes gliding swiftly across the unrippled surface.

I am writing this now as Arnold is away for four hours shooting the Ruuna rapids (another area near the Russian border). I thought seriously about trying to overcome my fear of this sort of thing but figured I had done well climbing up and down over some rather precipitous rocks this week and one phobia overcome per week is more than enough. (The other one I have almost overcome is driving the van on the wrong side of the road - still get sweaty palms though.) When he gets back he can describe for you what it was like. However, when he left he was decked out in gum boots and all sorts of wet weather gear and bright orange life jackets were piled up in the van that was taking them to the rapids. Lunch at the half way point sounded good - but not enough to tempt me onto the little wooden boat. Maybe next time.

Insert (AG): There were about 8 rapids but only a few were "serious" rapids (well to we glacier climbers what's a rapid or two?). It was great fun and when not in the rapids the scenery viewed from the lake was magnificent. I was thoroughly soaked in the last part of the run. A Karelian lunch was provided with the usual "grilli" ( a saveloy like job) and what has been described above.

Note to Belinda and Barbara - have seen two Griffons - one an 11 year old smooth coat the other a young dog with a huge beard who walked backwards as he barked and then proceeded to snuffle and sneeze when he greeted me. Pity the owners weren't so friendly!! Not with the snuffling and sneezing so much as just a friendly hello. We have found that the Fins do not have as much English as people in the Scandinavian countries. They are not as outgoing as a gross generalisation.

Tonight we are staying in the only 5 star caravan park in Finland. It is very neat and tidy and well ordered but compared to some we have experienced elsewhere - we have had better. Doesn't matter the beer is cold and the sun warm AND we have read our first English newspaper in nearly 3 months - the world still exists - without mention of Australia though!

Answers

Orange juice is appelsin

Potato crisps are franske dartofler

Tuna in oil is atum filetos em oleo vegetal

Mulled wine is glogg

Berry jam is drossingsylt

Hospital is sjukhus

Flaskeindlevering – return empty bottles

Scumbo - buy caneware

Polser - buy a hot dog

Rav muset – purchase amber

Stenhuggeri – buy a headstone

Bilsenter – buy a car

We are in Helsinki where the weather is between 25-30oC (average summer temperature here is 19oC). It is the hottest summer on record for over 100 years and the Fins are all out baking themselves black in the unusually hot weather. We have picked up a bit of a tan ourselves without really trying. Believe it or not swimming costumes have been donned and two little white Australians have now twice plunged into the frigid waters of the Finnish lakes. It is amazing how cold they are but needs must and it was a great way to get cool quickly. The locals here thrive on the sauna as a way of life and I just cannot imagine how they spend time in a sauna and then jump into the lakes - all year round! Often they break a hole in the ice to do it!!!!!!!!!

Met up with an Australian exchange student at one of our swimming holes and she says that her "family" have daily saunas and that often babies are born in the sauna! (Welcome to the world - but just wait until we take you outside in the minus however many degrees later!!) We have really had a lazy week. The heat has been overwhelming (with humidity too) and there has been nothing for it but to swim, have a couple of beers and then barb-b-q some fresh salmon for dinner.

Met a New Zealand couple (Ron & Tricia - their surname was Cooper - Ken & Shirley) who were on their third trip in a van. Their previous trips had all been over 12 months. Got lots of information from them and, in exchange we helped them with a few things. Also met a young couple from England who were planning to go to NZ next year and neither they nor we had spoken English to anyone (except our partners) for well over a week. We talked the leg off the proverbial chair!! It has really been quite a lazy week with not much done except enjoy the last of the Finnish lakes before we head for the west coast and Turku - an area of Finland that has thousands of tiny islands many of which are in the national park, making them unspoiled as is so much of Finland.

Finland isn't a place for buildings or old churches etc (although it does have quite of few of those too) but it is a place for enjoying the gentle soft blue/green lakes and fir trees that are ever-present. Coming to Helsinki we crossed the Punkajarju Ridge which is the terminal moraine of an Ice Age glacier and in many places is only as narrow as the old road that crosses it. There are not a lot of stopping places because of the narrow road but where you can stop, taking the 120 steps down (and back up again) to the lake was well worth while. (Mosquito numbers have dropped considerably and this made life much more livable.)

Caravan parks are generally not as good a standard as in Norway but they are cheaper and you don't have to pay to take a shower. The camps are only just now being given a star rating and we stayed in Kuipio at the only 5 star one in the country. Would rate about 3 stars in Norway. They talk about "the season" and how the parks get filled rapidly - it has begun almost overnight and if we don't get into a park by about 3pm at the latest, we could miss out.

The other highlight of the week was Sara (no, not Arnold's daughter). It is a form of food. Actually it is a roast lamb dinner but consists of meat and potatoes only. Not quite as bad as it sounds. Apparently it is a southern Karalian specialty with strong Russian overtones. A large wooden trough is made from a birch tree trunk and then, to quote the literature given to us, "you need also a few mutton leg, and they need to be salted. To get good salt they need to stay almost a week in salty water." To cut a long story short, they are then roasted in a huge oven for 5-6 hours with the potatoes being put underneath at about the 3 hour mark. It was very strange to have a meal of meat and potatoes and that's all. No green veges or salad but we hadn't had roast lamb since we left Aus so we didn't really care. The whole food presentation is a performance and the hostess kept offering second and third helpings. The restaurant only serves Sara and as the meat takes so long to prepare you only get in with a reservation (unless you plead ignorance and say you have come all the way from Australia). The set menu also includes home made non-alcoholic beer, great bread and a cold fruit soup (that you are supposed to eat with bread and butter) for desert. It was something different and it was as much entertainment as a meal out.

AG: Had an International Incident last night. We were plugged into the last available outlet in a 5 plug elecriic box. An Austrian arrived later and asked if he could unplug my plug and insert an adapter. No problems says Arnold but he produced an adapter with 4 plug holes. I anticipated what would happen but my German couldnt explain it to him. You guessed it 2 later arrivals tried to plug into his 4 poster. Now the amperage of these outlets is 10amps, so that would have meant 2.5amps for each of us....not enough to run our 6-8 amp microwave. ...so a discussion followed between me, the Austrian, a Finn and his wife and an Israeli couple. There was much sign language and retranslating by the Finnish lady and the Israeli to English, German and Finnish We solved it amicably, aided by a Swiss who produced a roll of cable 200metres long which allowed plugging into another outlet at some distance away. Travel " broadens the mind", it also requires a lot of tolerance.