trip02: Finland to Norway
Excerpt from a PATREON post from OCTOBER 9, 2022
Simo, Finland to Kautokeino, Norway 469km 6hrs of driving
I left my sweet Salmela family in Simo after a wonderful Finnish breakfast with karjalanpirakka and fresh sämpyllä, to embark on my first big driving day of the solo-journey leg of my trip. I stopped for coffee after 2 hours on the road in Turtola to say a quick hello to my Matti relatives (dad‘s maternal side) whom I will be seeing again on my way south.
To give you some reference points on the map below, Rovaniemi is on the Arctic Circle. Turtola just south of Pello, on that blue line along the western border which is E8, the main road north. I drove another 4 hours north from Turtola to Kautokeino, Norway. E8 is a well-maintained 2-lane highway with adequate space (though not a full shoulder) next to each lane, that averages 100km/hr with bits of slow down to 80 or 60 for small towns. In Palojoensuu, I turned east on 93 which was narrower lanes and no shoulder at all. That didn't stop buses and big trucks from driving it, though.
The tall birch trees suddenly were short and curvy in an evermore barren landscape, the further north I traveled. I only took one photo along the way because I needed to make sure my eyes and body took it in instead of trying to capture it.
Seared into my body memory is the first herd of reindeer I encountered next to the road; the bumpy hill covered in bare birch trees, branches twisting like the tangled hair of a sleeping giant; the sun beams bleeding through a cloud as I wound my way between little lakes; and the very abstract way the angular wooden structures, meant to keep animals from entering the area, danced along the base of two steep hills as I crossed the border from Finland into Norway. Movement was part of living, whether it was to follow reindeer or to find options beyond famine, or to pay their way to Minnesota - was this the path my ancestors took to reach the northern coast? Did they come by foot? By sleigh? By ski?
The time changed when I crossed the boarder. Norway and Sweden are 1 hour behind Finland, even in the parts of Norway that are directly north of Finland. So, I gained an hour and had just enough time to check-in to my little cabin in Kautokeino, to visit Juhls (deserves its own post), and grab some dinner from the Pit Stop Cafe’ before it got too dark. I decided against pizza and burgers in favor of reindeer and boiled potatoes with gravy and lingonberry sauce and a side salad with a dressing that resembles thousand island, but is unique in a way that I’ve only ever really tasted in over here. (the food here deserves its own post, too. Simple food with basic ingredients that bring the flavor. My body is so happy)
I returned to my cabin after the sun went down, but as ’the last light of day’ lingered in the sky, illuminating subtle streaks of clouds. The cold wind carried winter air to my skin and told me I was in the right place. I took a short walk around the Arctic Hotel campgrounds, noticing details from summer visitors who are long gone, and the poles of a lavvu set-up around a fire pit, half-sawn trees as benches, and a permanent/built doorway/portal that suggests it will gather winter guests in the coming weeks/months. I am here in the off-season, which I take to mean October. One month = off season when the midnight sun of summer is as much of a draw as the snow and winter activities.
I laid my body down on one of the benches and looked-up to the sky, cloud streams broken-up by the geometry of the lavvu structure. I exhaled, one with the wind. “I am here” ….
