explorish.com

August 1
The 1000 lakes are actually more than 180000 (one hundred and eighty thousand!), and this morning i didnt know what to do with them. There i was in the middle of Karelia, the Lake District, and i wndt have liked to leave without checking them out, at least a little. One option was a [...]

July 31
I dont know exactly why i expected this trip with so much excitement. Maybe because it’s “off the beaten path”, maybe because everything is “on the edge” and has to work perfectly within narrow margins for it to happen, donno, but i was bursting with excitement.
Train was at 7:15am. Well, yeah, had to cross [...]

July 30
I’m at a terrace in the center of Rovaniemi, surrounded by talkative Finns. I am wearing shorts and a Tshirt. It’s 9pm, sunny and warm on the Arctic Circle.
The first impression in the Rovaniemi railway station were the probably American boy in flipflops. Dude, you’re on the Arctic Circle!!
Out in the street, though, I [...]

July 29
The first target in Helsinki was the railway station, to buy tickets for the next destination. The lady at the counter was called Ms. Ruotsalainen, which I found very cool . That’s when I felt it – I’m in Finland!
When you leave your luggage at the railway station, you should be careful and [...]

July 28, 23:41
Announced by a lighthouse

and overtaken by a boat,

We reached the Åland islands around 11pm, the first and last stop on the way to Helsinki.

Funnily enough (or maybe not), the red light had moved from west to north, falling behind the harbor

where another Viking Line ship was anchored, empty.

We docked next to it,

and when [...]