My husband’s childhood was surrounded by several settings and geographical places but the one that left more indelible marks on him was a magical spot in northern Finland, that place was far from the Polar Circle named Ivalo. During all the time that we have been together, for the past 11 years, it has been a kind of personal ritual for us to visit Finland.
The journey
It is not possible to go every year to the northern part because we don’t have enough time, it is a journey that takes time. Not only because of the distance we have to travel, more than 2500 from Berlin if we want to go on a road trip as we usually do but also because it is almost intolerable not wanting to stay overnight wherever the road finds us and settle in to let our eyes marvel with all the possible bluish and greenish we can take in.
My mistake, anyway, since speaking about nights during the Finnish summer is bizarre because their nights are as clear as a beautiful afternoon at 5:00 o’clock. We made this trip as a couple every time we could.
Now we have two children, Aurelio who’s recently 4, and Savanna who’s turning 9 months while we are traveling, we decided that we were going to do a fair part of the trip between Germany and Finland by boat.
We took a ship from Finnlines named Finnmaid that took us as a heavy magic carpet through the calm Baltic Sea for more than 30 hours.
On Thursday, July 9 while everyone else was sleeping, we were entered through a steel monster’s mouth with eyes wide open.
Aurelio and Savanna were entering an extraordinary paradise, a giant toy, a gift without lace or wrapping paper.
Marvels are also tiering
But marvels also tired us eventually and we confirmed it when an hour after we arrived they were already exhausted and dreaming. All Thursday was sunny and warm without a blow of sea breeze, another unexpected gift. We climbed to the helipad and there we found the biggest path for Savanna’s crawling and a whole sea of adventures for Aurelio.
We couldn’t choose a better day for traveling. In the afternoon, while they were resting from a race in which they didn’t have any other racers on the helipad, I went to the sauna and shared my 90-degree relaxing bath with a German lady resting in a room surrounded by wood and stones with a wonderful view of the ocean, it was delightful.
The day ended in a blink of an eye between long crawling, hops, jumps, and questions about everything, there was also a playing room and we had enough time to build and pull down block and foam houses and slide with them through colorful slides without a pause, we didn’t realize either that we were floating over the beautiful blue Baltic Sea, on our way to Helsinki.
On Friday, at 10:00 am, local time we left the iron giant in our brand red car turned into a mini motor home, heading towards Vantaa, the place where my father-in-law has been living for the past 17 years.
There, we were going to spend a week, visiting him, working a little and playing. Aurelio and Savanna had a task, they were in charge of exhausting their grandparents with laughter and joy.
It was as if that ship had brought a load of parrots (illegal), macaws, and all sorts of birds. We enjoyed that country week and the wet breeze, the green forest, the fog at 10:00 in the night, and the dawns filled with sunlight, lots of light. Every time we go there. We have to improvise heavy blinds with blankets trying to trick our bodies and being able to get some sleep. That’s how things are in Helsinki, located in the southern part of the country.
On Friday the 17th we went downtown and visited the local market around the port, there are all kinds of sales and traditional food from Lapland such as reindeer meat in different presentations. I always search for Muikku, which are little fried anchovies served soaked in garlic sauce.
There are also colorful fruit sales where the lilac from the cranberries, the strawberries red range, and the greenish from the peas are highlighted.
In the center of Helsinki there is the majestic dome (Tuomiokirkko), imposing for its whiteness, which is located at the Senat Square in an elevated classic construction, the first plans of this classic construction were designed by Carl Ludwig Engel between 1830 and 1850.
After the construction of its 6 frontal columns, the Corinthian capitals, and its high cupola, it was named Nikolas I as the Russian Tsar.
Later on, the 4 little towers and the lateral domes were constructed, giving it a Russian air with the copper and green ceilings. In 1959 after the Finnish independence, it was named The Great Church or Dome.
The city view from the dome’s stairs is one of the greatest city views. This time, its stairs were full of athletes from all over the world because our visit coincided with the world’s biggest gymnastics competition held that year in Helsinki. We also visited the local market that has existed since 1989.
A one of a kind experience
The promenade around the city was a totally different and unique experience this time, with our two children there was no time at all for visiting museums, monuments, or hidden places around the city.
However, being able to enjoy the Muikkus facing the pier with them was a wonderful experience and the seagulls are always going to be thankful for it.
We spent all Saturday dismantling the camp we had improvised in two different rooms of the house as we always did, we were going to Ivalo as early as possible on Sunday but we will have to stop twice for sleeping anyway.
Sunday’s route would be from Vantaa to Pyhäjärvi a city that was 435 Km away. We didn’t want to have long journeys on the road with the children and we also wanted to enjoy our stops as much as we could.
We made a call to a camping place to book a stay and they told us it was a free spot on Sunday night. We arrived around 7:00 and in fact, we were able to choose a pretty cottage in front of the lake, and between sights of delight we found out that our adventure was just starting and that we nearly forgot how magic is the nature in Finland, it always make me feel as the smallest sand grain in a complex universe.
Pyhäjärvi’s stay was a good dream one of those you wake up in the best scene.
The sky was so blue and the breeze was perfect for keeping mosquitoes away. Children played in the boats parked on the beach on the small dock while we tried to plan our route to Ivalo and forced ourselves not to stay there for the other three weeks.
We packed again our belongings while we tried to bathe as much as we could with the bright sun. We packed the car and we said farewell totally nostalgic to cabin 27, perfectly named “The Strawberries’ place”.
When we had driven almost 100 km towards Rovaniemi, where we were going to spend the other night, I realized I had left my pillow in the cottage but we decided to leave it behind so we would have another excuse to make a stop and visit again the beautiful Pyhä (Pyhäjärvi) Lake on our way back.
The permanence of light
In Rovaniemi we arrived to another cabin also on a lake, but it left us with a longing sensation for the previous cottage. The new one lacked ventilation and we wanted to go more than we wanted to stay and wait for the sunrise.
At Rovaniemi’s level daylight was more present throughout the day and we were savoring knowing that on that same day, we were going to arrive at our own cottage at Ivalo.
When we left the cabin in Rovaniemi we made a stop at the Artic circle to get some rest and drink some coffee and also to visit Santa’s post office and even tried to visit him since that’s where he lives. We will continue the route from Rovaniemi non-stop to Ivalo on July 21st. This adventure will continue…
