Arto's Blog

When traveling, I'm breathing in a new environment every moment. In Helsinki, I'm familiar with the surroundings and how the system works. Part of that is easy access to information what is happening around. As a result I end up going to more concerts, festivals and other cultural events than during my travels.

The most interesting event happened through a CouchSurfing guest. I hosted Kevin who came from Berlin for the Helsinki Festival of New Juggling. The opening show was officially only for festival participants but the organizers kindly let me in with him. That was one and a half hours of most amazing juggling — in a nearby school gymnastics hall. :-) You could really feel the good vibes in the whole crowd. I also went to both public shows attached to the festival. The French group Compagnie Non Nova's Jongleur pas confondre on Saturday was a disappointment, but Ville Walo's and Kalle Hakkarainen's Puun syy was beautiful.

Love and Anarchy film festival took over the screens as usual in late September. The Icelandic comedy Astrópía offered the best laughs and was my favourite this year. Death Note came second by exploring the dark side of human mind in somehow very Japanese way. Some fans of the Death Note manga (comic) didn't appreciate the movie too much though. I should also mention the animation Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no tani no Naushika) which is one of my favourite movies and comic books from all times. It was in the festival program, but as I had already seen the film and the hour of the screening was bad I skipped it this time.

Last weekend my friend Tuula came in Helsinki and we went together to the yearly book fair. Lectures were the most interesting part of the event. As adventurers and explorers in our own lives we both connected with the theme Vieraat kulttuurit suomalaisin silmin (Foreign cultures through Finnish eyes), and talks about happiness and personal choices in life. Marketta Horn told how she loved meeting people in the lively cheapest classes of trains during her travels in Asia and Australia. – Tän pitäis olla Kela-korvattavia asioita (This should be subsidized by the Finnish social security system), laughed Risto Lindstedt about the therapeutic value of his motorcycle travels. Parliament member and avid cyclist Osmo Soininvaara sitting besides him seemed to agree. – Hulluus tarjoaa helpotusta (Craziness offers relief), suggested Timo Airaksinen in his lecture. – Naisen sydän ei ole yhteensopiva nykymaailman kanssa. Voisiko hän muuttaa maailman sydämellisemmäksi? (The heart of a woman is not compatible with the modern world. Could she change the world into a more heartfelt one?), asked Hilkka Olkinuora, who touched the audience telling how women in particular submit too easily into the busy life expected by the society.

Tuula also joined me on Saturday to Alternative Party, where people come together to celebrate weird computers, music and funky digital arts. This year's event was bigger than ever but it had managed to preserve its friendly atmosphere. Front 242 did a great live concert on Friday night and Brad Templeton from Electronic Frontier Foundation was the guest of honor on Saturday. To my surprise Tuula also found the visit interesting and funny. She was probably more open minded towards the event than me. I realized how I had categorized Altparty as a nerd gathering which others wouldn't understand, and presented it as such.

During October I've also visited the Ateneum Art Museum, the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art and the Sinebrychoff Art Museum in Helsinki, plus Museum Centre Vapriikki in Tampere. It was a good reminder that museums are not static: all had plenty of new things to see. I particularly liked the Japanese wood prints in Ateneum and some works playing with light and colors in the Full House exhibition at Kiasma. Hint: Entrance to both Ateneum, Kiasma and Sinebrychoff Art Museum is free of charge on the first Wednesday of every month at 17-20 in the evening.

Settling down after the summer travels has been faster than it was after spending a whole year on the road. I've been meeting with friends, family and relatives, participating in club activities and spending countless hours reading and writing email, as usual. I also have a job again, but will write more about that later.

After hiking in Triglav I stopped in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia for five nights. I met other travelers in Metelkova, joined a Free Hugs party and had one of the most extreme CouchSurfing experiences ever.

Ljubljana is nice and small for being a capital. The castle hill overlooks the city center which is crossed by the Ljubljanica river. Many buildings date back several hundred years but the center got its current look during the first half of 20th century, largely from the drawing board of one architect, Joze Plecnik. Stylish cafes populate the riverside which also has plenty of spots where street artists play music and show their skills every day. Only about a kilometer away there's Metelkova, a group of buildings squatted 15 years ago with funky art galleries, graffiti all over the walls and people hanging out drinking beer every night.

I had already walked the usual touristic trail with my mother and brothers two weeks earlier so this time I spent more time meeting people in Metelkova. I cooked with a group of Finns who were traveling from a festival to festival in an old campervan and listened to music with two French guys from Lyon. And in Metelkova I also met Andrej.

Andrej was the most active CouchSurfing member in Ljubljana and didn't have any guests at the moment so he readily invited me to his house. I was staying in a hostel but moved the next day. One day later an American guy and two Canadians arrived, also bringing in as a surprise four Danish girls who had been in the same bus and didn't have a place to stay. Andrej picked up everybody from the city center in his car and gave a city tour in the evening while still keeping his building maintenance business going at the same time.

Laurent and Gabrielle, the two Canadians got an idea to have a Free Hugs event on Saturday. The idea is simple: make signs which say Free Hugs in English, the local language and possibly other languages, smile and give a hug everyone who is willing to accept one. We met in the city center and started hugging strangers under the covered sidewalk by the market and on Preseren square, in the middle of rain. After two hours everybody was wet and happy.

While giving hugs we also met a group of French students who were looking for a place to set up their tent. They didn't have to: Andrej invited them in to have 12 guests in total and the day ended in a drinking party in his house 8 km from city center.

On Sunday morning everybody went in their own directions. I had planned to hitchhike towards Bosnia, but late Sunday morning apparently wasn't the best time for that. After a couple of hourse of waiting I decided to take a train to Zagreb, Croatia and spend the evening there.

The first weekend of May I traveled to Hämeenlinna and Riihimäki — both less than 100 km away from where I live. I met a Russian marionette artist, a Peruvian musician and a group of Finnish rock fans. They all picked me up from the roadside.

Still a few years ago it didn't cross my mind to hitchhike. My traveling style was fairly modest, but I always had enough money for the bus or train ticket. So I didn't have to waste time standing by the dusty roadside and rely on luck in getting to my destinations. I hitched a couple of short rides in places where there was no public transport, but that was it.

When I joined the hospitality exchange networks, one of the side effects was that I started meeting hitchhikers. I hosted a few and listened to others in story telling circles during meetings. It was clear that there was more to them in hitchhiking than saving money. It was a way to meet interesting people and to leave room for surprises to happen. I had already decided that I'd try some day, and then one of my guests, a Russian girl called Julia, invited me to hitchhike with her to Hämeenlinna.

I live only 1 km away from where the highway starts, so it was just a short walk to the best spot. In about two minutes an old van with Russian plates stopped and the driver waved us to hop in. His name was Vlad, a musician and marionette artist who had lived for the last 20 years wandering around Europe, performing on the streets and entertaining children in kindergartens. Vlad was just on his way to Hämeenlinna to play on the main square - what a happy coincidence!

So we got a ride to Hämeenlinna in good company, I spent a nice sunny afternoon walking around with Julia, and of course we saw Vlad's performance too. There weren't too many spectators as it was the official hangover day after Vappu (as Vlad put it), but at least he got two more by picking us up. Then we each went our own ways, me taking a bus back to Helsinki because I wanted to be here in time to welcome Tuula, a good friend of mine who was coming for a visit.

Tuula got an idea the next day that we should go and have barbeque and sauna with Jukka, a common friend of ours. Well, Jukka lives in Riihimäki about 70 km from Helsinki so we filled our backpacks with food and walked to the same spot at the beginning of the highway. Again in less than 10 minutes a van stopped. Our driver was a Peruvian musician from the Amerinca group which I had seen several times in Helsinki. I even bought their cd a few years ago. He lived just a few kilometers away from where I and Tuula were going so we got a ride almost to Jukka's doorstep, much closer than a train or bus would have taken us, and got a small insight into the life of a Peruvian-Finnish family on the way.

We spent a relaxed barbeque and sauna evening and slept at Jukka's place. It's funny how hospitality exchange changes habits: we laughed with Tuula on the way that when she called him she didn't even ask if we were welcome to stay overnight. Of course we were. :) In fact Jukka seemed to be more than happy to have us there to cook and chat with.

Next day Tuula hitched back north towards her home and I back to Helsinki. Standing by the highway is forbidden so we chose a spot near one of the exits. Fastest way to get a ride would probably have been to go to the nearby gas station and start asking who would be going to the directions we wanted. However, Tuula said she feels more comfortable not to ask but rather wait for drivers who stop and pick hitchhikers up from free will, and I fully agreed.

This time we had to wait for about half an hour, but then got rides right after each other. Tuula traveled with someone returning from an enduro race, and I got picked up by four Finnish rock fans who were cruising back from a party in Tampere previous night. They had black clothes, big tattoos, funky hairstyles and a 1960's black Chevrolet with a Kajaani Hot Rod Club sticker attached to the rear window. It was a loud ride, I can still remember the sound of the engine at 100 km/h, windows open. With my light blue jacket and hiking backpack I didn't exactly blend in the group — but hey, these people were cool with it.

I recently read an essay by Kevin Kelly titled The Universe Is Conspiring to Help Us, which I liked a lot. It's about the art of receiving, of which hitchhiking is one example. I suggest you to scroll down the page and read also the full version of the essay (direct link), which I find better than the abridged one.

Kamei and Maki, two Japanese friends of mine, came for a 12 day vacation in Europe. We spent a few days in Finland, did a short trip over the bay to Tallinn and then traveled to France together. First time in years I was on a classic holiday trip, including odd things such as hotel reservations and pre-booked transport tickets.

For Kamei and Maki the trip was to experience Europe. For me, the main themes were enjoying food and meeting old friends from the time I spent an exchange year in Lyon. With Kamei I had tried the best food I ever had in Japan, and relaxed meals in atmospheric small bistros are one the best things France has to offer. During the slow dinners I also had the best discussions and felt being on the same frequency with my friends. Perhaps a couple of glasses of wine helped, too.

Sightseeing was naturally part of the trip. I did enjoy it, but it wasn't very important, pretty much as I expected. The best parts were views from hills in the countryside of Eastern France, where one of my friends now lives and hosted us for a couple of days. He and his wife are also building a very interesting ecological house. In Paris, I visited first time the Centre Pompidou and was impressed by some of the modern art pieces there. Still more than that, I liked wandering in the streets of Montmartre and riding around on a city bike (Paris has a city bike network nowadays!) which I did while my friends went shopping.

After Kamei and Maki left, I CouchSurfed for one night in the eastern parts of the 18th district of Paris. I immediately liked the area: a lively mix of different ethnic groups, old buildings which were not too classy but still in good condition, and friendly small bars. As my hosts explained, it remained one of the neighbourhoods where people continue to go out in local hangouts and get to know each other. We even got invited to a flat party after simply chatting for a while with other customers in the table beside us.

The last day and night I spent at another friend's place in Noisy-le-Grand, an Eastern suburb of Paris. That had a quite different feel from the more central areas. Buildings were architecturally interesting and looked quite nice from the distance, but they were too big and rather poorly maintained. There were no small shops in the bottom floors which would contribute to the atmosphere: smell of fresh croissants, fruit salesmen, couples discussing over a cup of coffee, perhaps artists showing their works. No, a hike or drive to the nearby mall was the only option. Curiously, even very few kids were playing outside. Overall, a completely different way of planning the area, which felt kind of distant and somehow alien to the French way of life. Naturally, that didn't prevent me from having wonderful time with my friend and his kind and hospitable family — after all, to meet them was what I traveled there for.

A message was out, inviting people to play with snow and to build an ice sauna. The people behind the invitation were Philippe, a Canadian mathematician who had settled down in Finnish Lapland some years ago, and his Finnish girlfriend Kirsi. Wow, that was something not to miss. :) Read on, or go directly to the photo gallery on Phil's site.

The meeting was held at Phil's home in Torvinen, a village about 80 km north of the Arctic Circle and about 30 km south of Sodankylä. Three French and a Belgian guy had already arrived a couple of days earlier and helped to cut some seven tons of ice from a nearby lake, using a chainsaw and Phil's Land Cruiser. The ice was chopped to about 50 kg (35x35x40cm) blocks which could be lifted without a winch or other heavy tools.

The ice blocks were then used to build a round shaped small room, leaving a small entrance on one side. Between the blocks we put snow sprinkled with water which worked as glue in the -15°C temperature. Two seats inside and the roof were made out of wood. A sauna stove was installed in the middle.

We were 16 people in total so not everybody could be building the sauna at the same time. In the kitchen Kirsi together with guests baked and cooked Lappish bread, Carelian pies, salmon soup, apple pie with vanilla sauce and other tasty food with enough butter and fat to maintain human energy and good mood.

On Saturday sun shined beautifully and most people went out skiing, snowshoeing or ice fishing. I climbed on top of the Luosto fell with two friends. The small trees carrying a thick snow cover were simply beautiful. This year we've had very little snow in Helsinki, but even during a normal winter there's rarely anything similar in Southern Finland. Only in Lapland and other arctic areas, where the wind blows hard across vast open spaces, does the snow get packed in fascinating shapes like that. See page 5 and page 6 of the photo gallery.

How about the sauna, did it work? Well, not perfectly but at least the temperature was above zero. :) The stove was a bit too small and the wood we used for heating were waste pieces with low energy content. When the stones on the stove were finally hot, it was 2:30 am and most people were already sleeping. I had decided to test my sleeping bag outside and didn't want to get wet just before going to sleep under the stars. So only two people got naked, went in the sauna, poured a lot of water on the stones to get as much steam as possible, and had fun.

The following day some improvements were made and more people tried the special sauna experience. I was already on the way back towards the south with a few fellow travelers by then, but we had a nice sauna evening in Riihimäki. Now I also know that if I put my two sleeping bags inside each other and wear some woollen underwear, a fleece and a face mask I can sleep outside in about -30°C — there's no need to buy a separate winter sleeping bag.