The sweet revenge of the bitter Grandmas United Against Pedal Pushers Club in Munkkivuori, Helsinki. I wonder what caused the installation of this fabulously hilarious and absolutely nonsensical speed bump for bicycles. Were residents of this quiet area riding their bikes too fast? Too reckless? I really wonder just what the hell was going on here that someone actually took the trouble of bolting the bump onto the concrete path tiles. And it’s not that it would require incredible effort to ride around the bump, it’s the sign that scares the bejesus out of me: “No thoroughfare.” I’d much more expect to spot something like this in one of the German speaking countries, not Finland.

I regretted so much that I was on foot, as otherwise I would gladly engage in an act of civil disobedience and ride right through. Boohoo.

Mladen

It was just as I was standing on the edge of a swampy forest looking for the right spot where I would spend my first night on the road that I could really understand why in Finland they annually organize mosquito killing competitions. All my fingers, both palms and hands were flying in all directions trying to ward off the nasty tiny blood-sucking insects. As I begun fiddling with my tent trying to set it up, the situation became even worse. I was trying to pay more attention to the tent, but what I was doing resembled juggling with invisible objects more than anything I’d actually tried to do.

And I was very much aware that I am probably not even getting close to the worst of what mosquitos can offer when they gather in large quantities. I couldn’t have possibly imagined what must it feel like to do anything in Lappland in July, both the right place and time for a mosquito paradise. And considering that I’ve slapped only about 50 or so in the last half an hour, I probably couldn’t even qualify for the first round of any insect swatting competition anywhere.

The first day of my cycling trip to Koli area was almost over. I have only a very rough idea of how I want to get there and what I want to see on this trip. However, it might just as well be that the whole trip itself was a very good excuse for me to go cycling. It’s the journey that matters much more than the actual destination.

If everything had gone according to plan I came up with while I was surprisingly enough, lying on the bed at home in Kuopio one evening, then right now I’d been setting my tent somewhere very close to the town of Juuka. Incredibly enough, getting from point A to point B by dragging a finger on the map seems to be much easier then when you actually set out to cycle there. Juuka is situated on the eastern shore of lake Pielinen and is not very far from Koli national park. But it was already 8 o’clock in the evening and being some 30 kilometers away from Juuka, there was no way I’d reach it while the sun was still up. So I decided to camp close to the hamlet of Kajoo.

I’ve been dreaming about a cycling trip like this for about two months how. All I’ve been waiting for was the right opportunity to go. The weather had to be right, bike had to function properly and I needed enough time. And during those two months preparations were almost all the time under way. The biggest challenge was fixing the bike, as first of all I did not even know what exactly needed fixing. All I knew was that there were too many clicking and squeaking sounds a bike shouldn’t be making at all. Now, I really don’t know anything about fixing bikes so this great source on bike technicalities helped me immensely. After getting all kinds of different special wrenches, nuts and bolts, I finally fixed it the night before I took off. It’s not difficult to imagine you shaking your head thinking “This is not too smart, pal.” I know, I was skeptical myself. But then again, what the heck, I’ll see on the road how good of a job I’ve done.

Physically I haven’t undergone any particular preparations either. Sure, I still run now and then, but not being in good shape did not prevent me from going anywhere anytime earlier either. So I’d merrily spend several evenings sitting in front of a map making really bold plans. 180 kilometers the first day sounded quite right and it didn’t look that far either. After sitting around all day, eating warm dinner and 180 km being there on a piece of paper, that is. But being actually on the road cycling the whole day, being hungry, those 180 km turned out to be something completely different. Sure there were no mountain passes on the way and there won’t be any to come, not anywhere near to where I’m going, but it’s not like I’m cycling in the Netherlands either. It’s rolling hills all the time. And when I say all the time, I truly mean all the time.

Another issue was cycling with panniers. Lifting up the back of the bike with all that luggage attached to it just two minutes before departure was not too encouraging as I could barely lift the damn thing. How in the world am I going to cycle hundreds of kilometers with this? It didn’t sound like fun at all. There was no way I’d cycle 180 kilometers the first day. I didn’t even want to weigh the whole thing. It simply ceased to matter as there was absolutely no way I could have taken less things with me than I did. And I proved to be right on that upon my return home, as of all the things I’ve taken along there was only one long sleeved T-shirt which I have not used. Everything else was in use at least a few times during the trip.

Raindrops hitting the window glass woke me up on the morning of departure. At that point I was still convinced that I’ll just have to delay my trip for another day or two. But as I was reading the paper and eating breakfast, sky begun clearing up a bit. I packed my stuff as quickly as I could and left around noon. The feeling of going on a trip without any particular constraints other then those linked to my personal fitness is probably one of the most liberating feelings of all. Cycling gives a sense of liberty.

Although I might have felt free of the usual everyday concerns, new ones started haunting me all too soon. Not even an hour into the ride a storm was approaching so quickly that my attempts to escape it turned out to be rather futile. Even though I did try riding faster, I knew I’d loose this game. Rain, or rather, large buckets of water were poured on me by the time I reached the Puutossalmi’s cable ferry some 25 kilometers south of Kuopio. Even though I wore my poncho I was wet through and through by the time I stepped of the ferry only a few minutes later.

Not minding the rain too much, I was wondering more about just how well the public transportation is organized in Finland. True, in some places city buses are absurdly expensive and you’d be paying 5,2€ for a single ride, but then there are also such absurdities as cable ferries, or lossi, as they are called around here, which are free of charge. They are considered a public service. You can actually think of it as a moving bridge: they operate 24 hours a day and if the cable-pulled ferry is not on your side of the shore when you want to cross, you ring the bell and there it comes. Probably the most famous one is Föri in Turku, which has been in operation since 1903 and was originally powered by a steam engine. In Turku lossi transports people between the banks of the Aura river, but they can be found all around Finland.

Cycling in Finland is great. There are lots of cycling routes, maps are well made and pretty much all roads are in good enough shape and extremely well marked. Unless you’re daydreaming or go on a trip without a map, there’s almost no way you could get lost. Well, maybe you’d still do just fine even without a map, although meticulous following of small brown signs carrying a bike pictogram with an arrow and a number would be a must. These carefully placed signs mark the national cycling network around the country and are to be found everywhere. I remember wondering about them even before I was aware that such a network is maintained when I spotted quite a few in Jyväskylä a couple of years ago.

Finland might be sparsely populated country, but you’d be amazed to see that not even a few kilometers go by without at least one building visible from the road. Before I set off I thought I’d be alone on the road, but I couldn’t be more wrong. Traffic was sparse, but there was just enough of it to feel safe in case something goes wrong on the road.

As kilometers went by the landscape hardly changed at all. Forest on the left, forest on the right for as far as the eye could see. Only occassionally there was a meadow, a pasture or a lake interrupting this incredibly regular pattern. But it sure made me cycle like crazy. With every single hill I climbed and turn I took I awaited with anticipation possible unseen landscape feature around every turn. But to no avail. All the time it felt like I was cycling around the lake and over the hill.

And there I was, 130 km away from home, sitting by the tent, eating and trying to catch the last rays of light on spread out map, making big plans for tomorrow.

Mladen

This is the second part of the Koli cycling trip series. Here you can find the first, third and fourth parts.

Soon after I moved to Finland to study in Jyväskylä I’ve heard about the Koli national park. And just how couldn’t have I. Not only is it regarded as a natural treasure rich in flora and fauna, but it has also earned a status of a national landscape. There aren’t many places in Finland which could claim the same.

Since the rise of national romanticism at the turn of 20th century every important or even aspiring Finnish artist visited Koli area for inspiration. As writers, painters, composers, poets and other artists came here to seek roots for their own work, they pulled along the whole nation and Koli soon became a tourist attraction. However, the national park itself, covering mere 30 square kilometers and including the famous Koli hill, has been established only in 1991 (although it has been a nature reserve since 1906). Since Koli is today as popular as ever and on top of that easily reachable from anywhere in Finland, there probably aren’t many Finns who have not visited it at least once.

Both Koli hill and the national park run along the western shore of lake Pielinen, which has throughout history of human population in area occupied an important role. The area around the lake has been populated by hunter-gatherer and slash-and-burn cultivating communities. Lake Pielinen was also en route between the Gulf of Bothnia and lake Ladoga (in what is today Russia), a frequently traveled route. The lake had a very important connecting role until the 1930s when easier accesses were established on land.

Such historical and cultural details accumulating in my mind over the last two years resulted in my growing interest in Koli and its surroundings. It became a must-visit destination and I was sure that seeing it would importantly contribute to my knowledge and understanding of my Finnish culture and history. Visiting the area thus just became a matter of time and, as it turned out, style.

It might be a bit difficult to imagine, but 72% of Finland is covered in forest. Let’s put it this way, it is world’s 11th most forested country. For comparison, 32% of Germany is covered with forest and 28% of France is. Both Germany and France are considerably larger than Finland, but it is only when their total areas of forested land are combined that the total barely amounts to more forest than there is in Finland alone. Numbers aside, I thought that visiting an area like Koli by means of motorized transportation would be, to say the least, inappropriate.

That said, I went to a nearby bookstore, picked up a map for cyclists for the area, went home, studied it a bit and drafted a rough plan for the trip. As it turned out Koli was not as far from Kuopio where I currently live as I had first imagined. However, I definitely wanted to avoid traffic as much as possible and thus opted to follow the national cycle touring route of Finland as much as possible on my way journey. As it was probably conceived with leisure in mind instead of efficiency it is a winding road and is far from being the shortest and easiest way to get there. Since there are hundreds, if not even thousands of lakes between lakes of Kallavesi and Pielinen, road was as twisty as it gets. But I knew immediately that it was definitely what I was looking for as it turned out it offered as much nature and silence as one could get from traveling on the road.

Before taking off I’ve only had a pretty solid idea of my route for my first day including a place I’d want to reach by the evening of that day. The rest, I’d decide on the fly. Each evening of the trip I’d sit down holding a well deserved meal in my hand and facing a map spread out on the ground, deciding where I wanted to go the next day. Even though the whole journey lasted only four days, it was fantastic.

So this is the first and introductory of four parts about my cycling journey to Koli. The remaining three parts will be published each a few days following the previous one. Enjoy the ride.

Mladen

This is the first part of the Koli cycling trip series. Here you can find the second, third and fourth parts.

What could be better than spending a warm sunny summer day picking strawberries. Picking and munching to be precise. With tens of strawberry fields in vicinity I can’t wait to get down on my knees and get my hands dirty. Picking is quick. In fact so quick that it’s relatively easy to get about two kilograms in about half an hour. It’s kind of fun, even though I have to admit that cultivated strawberry fields are more for the city slicker type of adventurers. You basically don’t even have to look for any berries as they are right there on the field staring right at you, it doesn’t require any special skill or endurance and even if you tried really, really hard it would be rather difficult to get lost. Which makes picking all other berries a completely different affair. They grow out in the wast forests and swamps, so you might want to put that emergency helicopter number into your mobile phone. If you are picking in the area with a network coverage, that is. Even though this might sound a bit strange, but they are much sweeter when picked like that. It could be more challenging and fun, but could also be too much for the feeble.

By visiting an open market in any Finnish town around this time of the year it’s easy to tell that we’re in the midst of the berry season. Strawberries and bilberries will soon be followed by raspberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, crowberries, cranberries, and what-you-know-it-berries as they gradually ripen in the weeks to come.

And people love picking them. According to some statistics I’ve stumbled upon two-thirds of Finns will pick berries during the summer. So if you spot a person standing in the swamp who appears to be loitering, it is very likely that they are literally knee deep in the berries (and water). Although this is Finland, it is not very likely that anyone would want to be killing their time in the middle of the swamp. Anyway, if you do happen to stumble upon such individuals, chances are both of you are in there for the same reason. Which also means you’re not only invading their turf, but also their privacy. Finns are nuts about their forest fruits and their personal space which can be on a clear day, out in the open within the radius of up to 80 kilometers.

Obviously this whole ordeal is about much more than just berries. It’s about being out and about your favorite swamp, enjoying silence and hopefully solitude too, taking in fresh air, getting a snack on the way and saving some for later. And taking pleasure in such activities is deeply rooted in cultures of all the Nordic peoples. All with the exception of Danes who live in way to densely populated areas to have developed such primal urge for the untouched nature. And the attitude of being one with flora and fauna is also a part of everyman’s right enjoyed by these peoples.

However, even before it was codified into law, which happened in the Nordic countries mostly in the 20th century, everyman’s right was a generally accepted custom. At least in Finland everyman’s right guarantees everyone the right to roam freely in the countryside, without the need to obtain permission from the owner of the land.

This custom has been an integral part of Nordic cultures where people have enjoyed it for hundreds of years. However, everyman’s right covers much more than just free roaming. One of the basic premises of this right is enjoying the fruits and joys of nature as long as you don’t cause any permanent damage. Not only are you allowed to pick berries and mushrooms, and fish without permission to a certain extent, but can also traverse the land at will and camp on it freely. And all this comes without the fear of getting shot, as might be the case in, for instance, the US where it is advised to take the ‘No trespassing’ signs with utmost seriousness. Here, the case is exactly the opposite: it is illegal to put up a ‘No trespassing’ sign and build a fence, even on your own land.

As if it wasn’t difficult enough to wrap my central European mind around such concept of practically boundless freedom, there is still more to these comforts. If you want to sell the collected fruits, not only are you allowed to do so, but are almost encouraged as you do not have to pay any taxes from the sales. Generous? If you consider that Finns annually collect more than 50 million kilograms of berries, I think it is not only generous, but also very tempting.

Even though I am pretty sure that most of berries end up being consumed before they are sold, the volume allocated for sale is still far from negligible. For some this means big business, while for others it can provide a livelihood. What has become a constant in the recent years in Finland are seasonal workers from Thailand who come here to pick berries during the summer months. They usually number in hundreds and in the matter of several weeks they pick enough berries to earn a living until the next season comes about.

Of course, these professional pickers are a bit different than you and me. First of all they have their own areas and know when and how to pick. Secondly, the work might not really be appreciated or even endured by many. The most praised and consequently the most expensive berry in Finland is cloudberry which grows only in swamps. I spoke to a salesman on the local market who buys cloudberries straight from pickers and he told me that on average these pickers pick anywhere from 100 to 150 kilograms of cloudberries per day. And during the high season cloudberries can easily reach prices of about 10€ per kilogram. However, I can’t really imagine that carrying a bucket of berries on my back and wading through the mosquito infested swamps would be fun for more than half an hour. So, I am pretty sure that every cent these people earn is well deserved.

But before you start packing your things and heading to Finland to do some lucrative business consider that this year the season has been worse than usual.

Mladen

Helsinki’s public transportation recently got a lot geekier. Buying tram, bus and metro tickets by sending a message from your handy is so passé. Especially after last year when HKL introduced wireless Internet access on some of the trams and buses traversing the city at no additional cost to users. You can surf as much as you want for the 90 minutes the two euros ticket is valid.

If you’re using the public transportation to get to and from work, this is excellent. It’s so convenient to browse the Web and read your email. So whoever thinks that Google’s employees have it good because they have the access on their shuttle bus between San Francisco and Mountain View should think again. Having the access in this country is definitely a commodity, rather than a privilege. And Wi-Fi on public buses and trams is just another proof.

However the latest improvement is about much more than just the access. From the beginning on June anyone can track public transportation in Helsinki on the Internet in real time. By visiting HKL’s Public Transport Map you can follow individual GPS outfitted trams and buses as they roll down the streets of Helsinki. And this is just the beginning.

The sweetest thing happens when you click the icon of a selected vehicle on the map. As a result a table listing the upcoming stops with estimated times of arrival for each of them pops up. Now, that is not just geeky, but also extremely useful. In addition you also get to see the exact location of each stop on the way and can tell the map to follow the selected vehicle automatically.

Currently only several bus and tram lines are shown on the map so Helsinki looks deserted like Chernobyl. However, according to HKL this will change in the near future as they plan to add all trams to this service by 2008, while by 2010 you’ll be able to follow the complete public transportation network in Helsinki. Quite nifty.

I can easily imagine that from that point on every resident of Helsinki will know exactly how many seconds it takes them to get from their computer screen to getting to that stop.

This just makes me wonder how much more will they be able to encourage the population to use the public transportation with a service like this. Already now for 64% of all motorized transportation within Helsinki people use public transportation.

I encourage you to go and check out the Public Transport Map even if you do not live in Helsinki or Finland. Write to you mayor and ask them to beef up your buses, trams, boats or what you have it with a similar system. Meanwhile I’ll go and get some paper towels to wipe the drool off my keyboard.

Mladen