Kiruna-Lofoten- Backe (Jämtlands Län)

icy roads final part sadly also: biking with good ol’ Tom final part

in the background: Sverige

HERO

GOD

Dance for me

Kiruna sky

Leaving Kiruna, direction Abisko

Fuck the system! Perhaps, but not the systembolaget

So I guess this is Norway…

My friends in Stamsund

My friends and me in Stamsund

Looking back on Norway…

…back in Sweden

Hmpff, I suffer writer’s block. Probably due to too much cycling. For me, this is still better than vice versa: biker’s block because of excessive writing.

So, I have been around, and it makes me happy! Happy with myself and this unforgettable journey…and very happy that I finally arrived at my good friends place. Yes I am in Backe, Jämtlands län. Visiting Tom Q. and Frida, Einar and Vera. Tom and myself have always been close friends, we did a lot of foolish things together, and some other stuff too. In 2008 he and Frida married and a bit later Einar (2009) and Vera (2012) said hello to the world. Today I am saying hello to the four of them.

So after me and the other good old Tom (Tom S., the one I biked with in Finland) had to say goodbye in Rovaniemi, I was tempted to move on to Jämtlands län asap, but also I realised that back home, looking at a map of northern Europe, I was always curious about the Kiruna region. Same goes for Lofoten. If ever there would be a chance to check it out, this had to be it! So I called Tom Q. and we discussed the issue, finally we said ‘later alligator’ and decided I had to go West, and a bit North.

The moment I crossed the border with Sweden and went right to Pajala, I was assured this was the right thing to do. Landscapes are not challenging, as I wrote before. Nope, they are rewarding. This is similar but the difference is obvious I would think. The only challenge could be to get the damn smile of my face…I didn’t even try…..

Kiruna Matata!

Just a quicky for those wondering whether I am still biking…I am. Only not today. Me and Tom had to say goodbye in Rovaniemi, his knee was spoiling all the fun for him. Bad luck. And so I am on my own now, for a day or five now I think. I am in Kiruna, mining city. Got here yesterday evening and the lady from the youth hostel was just closing the reception. She told me they were full, and wasn’t really polite… so I wasn’t either. I am almost sure she just didn’t feel like checking me in. On her way out she saw my bike and luggage and she became a bit nicer, but not in a way that she was going to offer me a bed, so I cut the crap and said goodbye, went off to look for another place. Luckily I managed to do so for a reasonable price. So today I have been eating and napping, what a life!

Tomorrow I head for Abisko and further on Lofoten Islands, I guess…. actually this time I am quite sure about it. The last days the surroundings are getting a bit more diverse and more challenging again. I think Abisko, Riskgransen, Lofoten, are very promising so this must be it!

But let there be no misunderstanding: I loved every bit of Finland. Every bit? Well not Rovaniemi, only being there made me feel like a stupid tourist, for the rest every single bit, yeah! Landscapes tend to get a bit monotonous, but in a beautiful, serene way. And people are silent, but also this is not a bad thing. In three days of Sweden I probably had as many conversations with locals as I had in over  a month in Finland, and it is nice to hear that people are curious where I come from and where I head for, and whether it is not too cold for such a trip. But silence is golden, and Finland will always be a really good memory.

People looking for pictures will have to be patient, here in the library I cannot upload them.

Cheerios!

Epilogue for those who like little stories: my French roomie here in Kiruna arrived yesterday with a plane from Paris, today she went for a reindeer sled ride…tomorrow she flies back (and people say I am crazy?). This morning we had breakfast together and here’s what she said: here in Kiruna sun doesn’t rise for six months, consequently it doesn’t set for six months. I replied that yesterday sunset was around 21.30 and this morning sunrise was a bit after 5.00. I don’t think she got my point, maybe Swedish and French years count more then 12 months…

exped problem solved, special request, only for specialists

Special request, not from the manufacturer, who is still hibernating hehehe

Date you up in the update club

A bit later we find ourselves in Syöte, at the border of the national park. Tompies knee is itching again, a little bit… this, our friendly host Jenna and the stunning scenery give us reason enough to take a day off. The snow shoes are ready for us to explore the area, but as you maybe know, a day off for the bike wanderer usually is to been taken litteraly…meaning we can’t be fucked, not moving. Allright, I have been out with Jenna to the visitor’s centre, she works there, and I am gonna pick her back up at 5.30pm, but with a car. Yes! By car!! Odd feeling, but not so bad 🙂 So I guess apart from this, having coffee and more coffee, a snack and another one, a little pc-session and the necessary minimalistic washing, nothing much is gonna happen here.

So, maybe I can provide some information in the margin:
Exped HQ is letting me down…no feedback from them. Exped is the manufacturer of my sleeping mat. The good news is that we managed to fix it. So no more horrible nights, I sleep well, with my fingers crossed… If you read my blog from the beginning you get it, I am a regular whiner, so here I go again: I sent an email to Exped explaining my situation (which is not your average hiker’s situation I suppose) and that we found the leakage, more specifficaly between the deflation valve and the matress tissue. Since the valve is plastic and not textile, we doubted whether the glue from the reparation kit would do…so I asked them…but they kept silent. Fortunately Tom took the intitiative to go with glue, after three layers it was still leeking. After 5 layers not anymore, what a relief. But, to conclude with a little nagging session: they could have let me know something, lazy Easter eggs. So, hoping I never have to bring up this subject again: I never had such a good sleeping mat as this one (Exped synmat 7), but also I never had a leeking one. So don’t look at me if you ever need advice as to which sleeping mat to get, because this is too complicated for me.

I am also figuring out that we cannot say much about the silent Suomalainen. Sometimes they make me mad, sometimes they make me laugh. Examples of the first: we go to an outdoor fair with four free tickets, each one worth 16euro. Since we are only two, I decide to do somebody a pleasure. We enter the building and a guy wants to sell me a ticket for 10euro. I say he can get 2 tickets for one beer if he wants, good for him good for me, haha. End of the conversation. I walk on to the pay desk. Two girls approach, looking for their wallet. I interrupt them and present them two tickets. They take them and turn their back to me. End of the conversation? No! I decide to go for it, attract their attention and tell them that tey are very welcome, that is has been my pleasure… they remain silent and look as if they want to say: go now or we start screaming! So I go, slightly shocked. A second example can be read in the earlier post about the ABC gas stations, with me trying to get half a litre of fuel.
Examples of the latter: we are camping close to a building, which we thought wouöld be empty for night. The owner arrives, Tom approaches him and asks him if there is any problem with us camping in his backyard.He answers, waving his arm: ‘you sleep’. As he says this, he goes inside and closes the door. The question whether he was really not a single bit curious where thes two bike vagabonds come from is still puzzeling us. But, since he gave us permission, without a single doubt, we cannot say anything bad about this good man. Another time, at a crossroad, we have to stop unexpected. The maneuver is a bit fuzzy and Tom hits a guy with his shoulder. He says sorry but the guy looks at him half a second and then looks away again, not one single emotion.
So what to say about these people, except that they are silent? I don’t know, probably I talk too much and came to the wrong country, or the good one, to change this habit 🙂

about to leave Oulu, bbye borbalaanen!

Chef Tom and his kitchen Bob

finely sipping some exquisite coffee

and exquisitely grinding some more fine beans

near Kipinä

Joop

hard to get

but not really

just recovered from a ‘hunger knock’

still life bringing us alive

after a 5km psuhbike session, they really need a rest (the bikes)

around Iinatijärvi

approaching Syöte

Under deconstruction

And hup, we are back together, in Oulu. More specific we are in Sanginsuu, 12k before Oulu, making things easy. The last day I studied this Finnish phenomenon, road 22. I think everybody in the neighborhood is driving his or her car on the road 22 during Easter holiday. And then they have rendez-vous at the most authentic place, ABC gas station. There one can show off with his snowmobile, and have an industrial pizza and/or a burger.

Soooorry, biking on Easter friday, sunday and monday made me a bit cynical. The only places open to warm up hands and feet, drink kahvi and buy food were those gas stations that are planted all over the country and destroy the small authentic ones. One day I was there trying to get half a liter of gasoline for cooking. But I had to buy 5 liters, so I go to everyone who’s tanking unleaded and offer a euro for half a liter, explaining my problem….the best reaction I got was sometimes a ‘no thank you’, also a lot of disturbed facial expressions, …, in the end I had to bike on without fuel, just a little pissed off, looking forward to cold dinner.
For the rest of the journey I had good fun. A couple of times I almost fell. It didn’t happen, there’s always room for improvement. And euhm, my sleeping mat started leaking!!! So I woke up every hour, feeling cold and touching the ground with my bones. Next thing you get up, pump it and go back to ‘bed’, spreading arms and legs as much as the sleeping bag allows me, to divide pressure so that air escapes as slowly as possible. One hour later: same thing. Nightly routine so to say. Really what you are hoping for when temperature’s go down to about -20. In daytime then I started biking like a zombie to reach Oulu asap, to hug Tommyboy, have a shower, sleep warm, and of course try to fix the damn thing, we will see if that worked out next night, when we start heading for Syöte national park.

Luckily apart from this, all was wonderful, nice amazing and beautiful. I had some good conversations in words I didn’t understand. I managed to swirl around the big roads, looking for the nice stretches, avoiding the boring ones and the dangerous traffic. Koli was an absolute highlight, because of the scenery, the company, and the smoke sauna session, complete with a jump in the icy water! Lovely, lovely, lovely!!!!
I have now seen some very nice fragments of this vast country, from Helsinki to the ultimate southeastern border with Russia, then up along this border visiting Lappeenranta, Imatra, Parrikala,… back inside to Joensuu, Koli, Vuokatti, Oulujärvi and now I find myself at west coast. According to plan? Nope. But we will make new plans, no worries…Furthermore we are staying with some Erasmus students, what a sense of humor they have! Keeping the exhausted cyclist focused, laughing his sour ass off.

Just a quick pic selection and by the time you are reading this we hit the road, continue our troublesome adventures. Because no matter what, we stick to the plan!

without assistance a trip like this is not possible

Tommila Jukka, my host in Koli

the smoke sauna the day after

been there, butt naked 🙂

Koli scenery

more Koli scenery

happy biker

growing multiple mustaches

wait a minute

something wrong

it’s snowing in the middle of nowhere

too lazy to put the tent

koude linkervoet, of was het rechter

This is not a diary

Bike medic

Guesthouse WITH sauna in Porvoo kiitos 🙂

luomoviinit appreciation society

The troops

Hamenie

Hei

Game over guys, authority is here, @vaalimaa

Ice ice baby

Kari bike guru and perfect warmshower host

Tea for two

I will take some pics tom you just go on drinking, never mind

It’s been a while so possibly some of you think we proceeded a thousand miles or more, others probably forgot about me. Well, we went eaaaaaaasy and slooooowly, and for the moment we are in Joensuu. We dwelled the south coast all the way from Helsinki to the Russian border, and then started cruisin’ up north. And I have to say maybe I should start nagging again….man this is heavy. BUT….worth the trip in every way. Maybe not in one way, I mean Tom hurt his knee and is now an impaired bike spastic…not funny….actually really not. Tomorrow I continue by myself 😦 I head for Koli which is supposed to be a really nice place. After that i’ll probably leave east side for what it is and try to rejoin my pall in Oulu. Tom will see a medic tomorrow and then he will try and reach Oulu by train and/or car. Pffff let’s see if we can handle this, not easy for the both of us. There is not one of the countless hairs on my head that would have thought to bike these stretches this time of the year on my own.Let alone the camping! But hey, I can still look at this as a holiday, because that’s what it is, obviously.

And of course the country is beautiful. Even though the trees and the forests are all planted by man, so diversity is scarse, and for the rest Finland is more of country for captains and fishermen then for bikers (take a map and look at it and you will understand), I am impressed and most often I have to say ‘vaut le voyage’, to quote my friend Michelin. Also we are proud to announce that this month of march has been the coldest one in Finland in 50 years. Hehe. Now spring is arriving, we don’t know how fast or how slow but we can feel it. Sometimes temperature rises to about zero celsius, nights are still cold though.

So for the moment we are with Temuu, a very fine host in Joensuu, and my company starts hitting the bottle. I have to join them, stay in touch with local culture, you know.

So later pals. I’ll try to post at least some pics in a while.

false start

Rotterdam – Helsinki: I do not carry a lot, a lot is carrying me

Tom had this one made for me in Nepal, how about that!!?

Yep, we are in Helsinki…I am together with Tom now, and I don’t really want to get going, haha, no seriously, I do, but it’s hard to imagine how it’s going to be. We are now living in some sort of a Suomi cocoon, what we are seeing is different from what we are heading for.  The other 99,99% of the country will be more desolate and probably a bit colder still. But Helsinki was very nice, I got here on friday morning,  in time to warm up for the weekend, we are staying with nice people, had good times, it’s a holiday!

How did I get here? Basically I ate as much I could, until I got a sour taste, then I biked a bit until this feeling was gone, then a little snack and bike on….I remember me nagging about the bike setup and weight. Of course these are two different things, sometimes influencing each other. Now I can say that it is all good. Once i ate most of the food I took from home, I got stronger and the machine got lighter. I got the hang of it and kilometers are now no longer an issue, I did enough of those 🙂

Every day I got lost, and back on track. I like biking in Germany! Although people put their garbage bins on the bikeways (or should I say sorry excuse for a bikeway?), there are also lots of hidden little roads and paths. Plus they have picnic spots all over the place, perfect for quality time with nice bread and patisserie and coffee or tea. All it takes is some experience to find the best ones, and discipline not to stop too soon and too many times. I am still learning. And in the end when the last patisserie is gone all you can do is maybe one more coffee, and bike on.

Being a host for a stranger is one of the coolest things one can do. Some people I didn’t know have thus become such an important factor in my journey, never to forget! Thanks and praises to them, Marten, Bertram, Lasse, Mikus, Anna and families.

In an hour or two we hit the, road, east side. Most Finnish people advised us to catch a train, but almost generally speaking they all got interested when we mentioned our preference for the eastern regions. We saw this as an endorsement because it’s all in the eye of the beholder. And it was all we needed, along with some maps, the Karttakeskus retkeilykartat and pyöräilykartat, which will serve us good, I hope and think. For now, it looks as if we are heading to Inari and then on to Nordkapp, but this is not sure, of course not. I am just gonna ride my bike until I get home 🙂

Schedule update

Some of you are maybe wondering ‘what is this guy actually up to?’. Well I am biking to Lübeck to catch a ferry to go to Helsinki. There I will meet with a friend and bike further upnorth. We do not yet know which route we are going to try to take in Finland, left, central, or right, or….

But for now I am leaving Rotterdam and my friend Bruno who gave me a very pleasant stay in this impressive city. I am off to bike some 100km, with a stop in Woerden to check an outdoor store, of which I heard some nice comments. I want to go camping in the woods and tomorrow I should reach Kiel – Windeweer, where I hope to learn how to fix a broken bicycle (bicycle repair course with m-gineering).

So then monday I’ll be going into Germany, I hope to get on the boat to Helsinki as early as thursday 3am, joining my buddy Tom in Helsinki some 30 hours later…….