1st and 2nd of August, 2022.
Hitchhiking in Finland.
After getting a bit lost with the trail, I finally find my way and arrive in Koli village. I brush my teeth and get some water in a cafe. Right in front of me there is a father and a son and they are buying some goodies. Oh, Loki! I have to admit that it felt nice just to imagine be able to do what they were doing: just pointing to the pastries they wanted and getting them. Yummy!
I don’t stand for more than a few minutes in the road. A woman stops for me and with tears in her eyes she tells me to be going about 40 Km ahead. I take it!
The tears are because she just heard that o friend of her has passed away. How sad! We talk a bit about that and the fact that we must move on. She is a very nice lady and she repeats that she is happy to help me! The company where she works is right at the highway and in front there is a huge parking spot where she drops me off.
When a man tells me he is going to Rovaniemi, I think it is great! I am not going there but I know it is a long drive all in the same direction towards Oulanka. I know that because the day after tomorrow I am going to Rovaniemi. His car is full of stuff but we make some space. He is going for one week around that region, camping, hiking and working.
Now, he might not be a bad person but he is a bit prejudiced and judgmental, even though he had travelled a lot, including in some countries in Africa. He says he wouldn’t go for a long travel in South America because there is a lot of criminality. Apparently, he has many friends who were robed there. And the way he talks about African people… he calls them ignorant, who have no future because they are reproducing themselves way too much and not getting educated. First of all, how can you be so cruel and insensible? Second of all, you cannot simply ignore all the history and misery of these countries. Everything they passed since the moment they were “discovered” by the colonizer was a huge injustice, and they are the only ones paying for that until nowadays.
So anyway, I feel like it is useless to argue with him and just try to change the subject every time he starts to speak something like that. He drops me off in the highway and turns left to Rovaniemi.
Unfortunately, I have also some issues with the next guy. But not with his lovely dog, Einsten, who looks a lot like a Border Collie. Tomas was born in Germany but is now living in Norway. Although he is more travelling around in his campervan and working remotely.
One of the things he said which made less sense for me was about how some people (mostly women, in his words) approach Einstein for some cuddling, something like one minute or two, and then they just go away, leaving Einstein all broken heart. Please, I don’t even know what to say about that.
I think that, after knowing my way of living, without using money as much as possible, some people just get angry at me. Why? I don’t know for sure but I believe that they are actually angry at themselves because they don’t know how to live without buying stuff all the time. For these last two guys who picked me up, I believe it was the case.
Tomas drops me off in the highway while he goes to a reindeer farm.
It is getting late and I have no food apart from my instant soup. I am so close to Oulanka National Park now but I am not sure I will make it. Perhaps it is better just to camp somewhere before the park, to have some good hours of rest and tomorrow carry on.
Two beautiful young women stop for me. They are going to run in Ruka, the next tourist town, which is also part of Oulanka National Park and a ski town. Heidi and her friend are nice and get very surprised with my life style. Heidi has trained Jiu-Jitsu for 7 years and I think that is amazing!
They ask me if I would like to stay by the road or come to Ruka, which is about 2 Km up the hill. I am glad they tell me I wouldn’t get any food in the gas station around here because they are only mini-shops, so I go up with them. At least, the way back to the highway next morning will be all downhill.
The first restaurant I enter to ask for some leftovers food it is a United States restaurant style. I don’t like it much. When I am walking around, a family of four people, two adult and two kid, is about to leave. But the mother is just about to throw it away a full bowl of chips in the rubbish bin. Luckily, I see it in time of asking her if she mind of me taking that. She seems very surprised but is also very sweet when answering that of course I can have it. I am quite hungry already so I seat by the table and eat them.
I ask for some hot water to the owner of the shop so I can prepare my soup. The plan is having the soup ready with me in case I cannot get any more food. I don’t mind eating it cold later. I ask the same guy if he could give me any bread but he is very indifferent and says no.
The next place I ask is a burger place. Another no.
Third is a charm! But also, a very fancy restaurant and hotel. I stop and think for a few seconds, but then I decide to go in and ask anyway. If you don’t ask you don’t get!
I first talk with the lady at reception. She is lovely but tells me I should ask in the restaurant. The young man by the cashier is busy, so I talk directly with a waitress. She is also lovely and first ask me if I could come back by the time they close, around 9.30 p.m. I explain to her why I cannot, so she tells me she will talk with the kitchen and see what she can do.
When I hear someone from the kitchen saying: “Oh, I know this kind of people…” – I fell a bit bad and for a moment I think that there will be bad news for Lei. But I keep waiting. A few minutes have passed when the waitress come and tell me to wait a bit so they will put something together for me. Yay! Of course, I can wait…
In a few minutes, a lady from the kitchen brings me not one, but two take away packages, full of food. I am shocked! And extremely happy! When I turn around to say thank you to the waitress, she was already looking at me, which means she saw my reaction, and that makes me even happier. Now she knows how some leftovers food can make someone extremely happy.
I spend some good time looking for a place to camp. Nothing in this side of the road. Schools and houses everywhere. Across the highway there is a small road going straight, so I follow. Again, many summer cottages, and in the forest by the lake, too many berries for me to pinch my tent. I keep walking. I end up at the lake again, by a summer cottage which seems not to be waiting for anyone. I could have simply put my tent right in front of it (laugh), but I am worried that someone will show up at night, so I find a small area without berries, and slightly straight, plus not visible from the cottage, and I camp there. There is still a lake view.
Then when I am to eat my dinner, I realize what the ladies have given to me: cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, bread, cheese, butter, mayonnaise, mini hot-dogs, mini burgers and two salmon sandwiches. Salmon sandwiches! Excuse me, but I will just have some salmon sandwiches for dinner. Laugh. And I still have my soup, which means that if I plan well, I can have food for the whole day tomorrow, lunch and dinner at the park, which is perfect because it would be very difficult to get something else in the park tomorrow morning.
Nobody comes for the cottage. I have a relaxed breakfast in front of it, the next morning, and I even consider to wash by face and socks in the lake, but the water looks disgusting. I guess I can wait to do it in the park.
10 Years Around the World 