On a Lo Fotr / Ilveksen Käpälällä

Lofoten, Norway

Everybody is talking about it

At least everybody somehow related to outdoor life

So when they asked me

Do you wanna hop on a car and go for an adventure

I said YES

And this is how

I ended up exploring these famous islands

If you ask me

What comes to my mind when you say 'Norway'

The answer would be

Mountains

Sea

Vikings

Not necessarily in that order

I was amazed the first time I visited Norway few years ago

How come there was this beautiful land

With magnified mountains and fjords

Just next to my country and I have never visited there

Well, I partly blame my parents

Whom always on holidays took us to the southern Europe

But it's ok

They are not winter people

Although both of them have been born in middle of the winter

But anyway

Finnish Lapland was the most north they felt they needed to go

And ofcourse it's way more cheaper to drive to Spain with four kids

Than travel to Norway with them

Norway?

No-way!

 Now

On my third trip to this land full of wonders

I'm still amazed

I can't get rid of the question in my mind

Why do people wan't to travel all the way to New Zealand

When you have all the same possibilities here in Northern Europe

But of course it's a matter of preferences

2 hours in a plane

Or 22 hours in a plane
(Or in my case 12 hours in a car)

I have always loved water

It's one of the most multiple elements in this world

It can be salt or fresh

Calm or rapid

Strong and unstoppable

Or light mist

As a clouds that grab the mountain peaks

When frozen

It covers everything in it's protecting white blanket

It's the power of life

Without it 

There wouldn't be any

And finally
The sea and the mountain shore villages
Brings us to the vikings
That horribly violent fighter folk
With their mystical life
Between the giants and the goods

Despite all the violense

I admire them

They found a way to habit the rough mountain shores

They cultivated the land where they could

And took what was them by the rights of the strongest one

They respect their free women

And as men also women lead them to victorious battles

Can't but admire them

Now days the viking life styles lives mainly in museums

And among people whom keep up memory of their society

It is important to understand where we come from

Acknowledge the wisdom that has been there for thousands of years before us

And I think Norwegians whom have been successfully inhabited this rough land

Have that wisdom in their blood

It's strong in their roots

Knowing all this

Standing on a shore of the great sea

Surrounded by mountains

That has been here way before me

And will be here long after me

I can feel this deep peace inside me

Rising up from my roots on this earth

Roots stronger and older than my words to describe them

It's a deep feeling of belonging

And I know it deep in my soul and heart

I need to come here again

Pssst!

Here you can find the stories from my first adventure to Norway

Nordkapp - There and Back Again part1

Nordkapp - There and Back Again part2

Finders Keep.. Or Is it? / Löytäjä Saa Pitää.. Vai Saako?

Somewhere in Lapland

On the one of my adventures I found this hidden gem

So beautiful

Standing on the meadow

Surrounded by flowers

I assumed this one was abandoned too

Like so many other old house

Sense this one was almost collapsed

Like too many other old house

The door was loosely locked

Again I was wondering

Where goes the line of trespassing

When it is breaking in

And when it is a friendly visit

The law says it is always trespassing when you go in

No matter if the door is open or closed

And I understand this

There is too much people whom don't know how to respect the old house

They brake windows to get in

Make a mess inside

And take all kind of old things with them from the house

For these kinda things there is a simple term

It's called burklary

There is a simple code for people wanting to visit old places

Take only photographes

Leave only foot prints

Simple as that

Then the other thing is

What is 'abandoned'

Old house or cottage that looks like there has been nobody in decades

Can be still somebody's summer house

It would be wise to find out the history of the place

Before you go in

But like me so often

I come a cross with the places by accident

In this case I try to use common sense

I always also ask from the house if I'm welcome

Usually the house welcomes me and shows me the way in

But sometimes not

Then I respect that and continue my way

When I was younger

I was too thirsty for adventures

And too blind to stop and listen

So I made a way to get in this old house

While inside I got this really bad vibes

The whole house was rejecting me

There was a lot of scary stuff

And stuff that where obviously stolen

And I realized there has been somebody

Somebody I wouldn't want to meet

I left the place and never came back

Afterwords I felt bad

I had broke my code and the common code

I had actually done something that wasn't fun anymore

So you live, you learn

I never posted the pics from that house anywhere

and I never will

So now I was standing on one door again

Asking if I'm welcome

This time I was

The house was in a really bad shape

The basement was totally collapsed

I was stepping super carefully on the floor

Numbers at the house base stonewall tells that the house has been build 1938-50

Note on the bench tells that somebody has been visiting the owner 1983

Latest newspaper was the Hufvudstadsbladet from 1994

From the internet I couldn't find any information about the house

So it remains a mystery house for me

Exploring the main floor is always nice and exiting

But going higher or lower is always a bit scary

Especially if the house can collapse in any minute

Do you rather get burried

Or take a leap of faith with the upstairs floor

This is always a nice mind game to play alone in the spooky old house

This time also there was no ghosts making them selves visible for me

Not even afterwords from the pictures

Which is also kinda spooky when you see something in the pic

That wasn't there when taking the pic

So this seemed very peaceful house

It just stands there in the middle of the flower meadow

With the bright colors little by little fainting from it's walls

I'm not going to reveal the location of this place

So let just say it is somewhere in Lapland

Local people probably know the place already

Sense I definitely wan't the first one visiting there

(Some ladies had typed on the piece of paper that they were here)

But I hope you will enjoy the beautiness of this old house through my pictures

And maybe understand why I sometimes bend the law for the pics and stories

The Castle Mountain / Linnavuori

Ikoinniemi, Savonlinna

For a long time I have been looking this place on a map

The Castle Mountain

Actually just one of them

There is about 90 places in Finland called as Castle Mountain

Seven of them here in Southern Savo

Some of them have actually served as Iron Age fortresses

Lookout places for enemies

At some of the places they have found evidences about this

But some of the places have just the name

I visited one of these Castle Mountains

Here in Ikoniemi there is no evidence about ancient fortress being here

But for my opinion this has been a perfect lookout place 

The dirt road was so small and curvy

That I was really glad to have my new adventure partner  with me

This being my 4wd car

I just love it

The "parking area" was just a small wider spot by the road

And the path that was supposed to start from the "parking area"

Was so unused that I couldn't find it at first

It had been taken over by the Lilys of the valley

Nice

This kinda places I like

The hidden gems

 It was super hot summer day

I love the smell of the pine tree forests

They smell like home

Like a childhood summers

It's so quiet and peaceful

Only the Whooper swans disagree

At the nearby bay there is some kind of swan mayhem going on

National bird of Finland negotiating who was on that bay first
I would see this noise as a part
Of this kinda national and cultural view

Like Common Gull or Arctic Loon

I try to step carefully on the super dry lichen
Which seems to grow everywhere here
Funny plants these liches
On  rainy day they are like sponges
Soft and elastic
And now in this sudden heatwave
They are crispy and crunchy
And break easily

I also record that
It has been way too long sense my last adventure
Should remember to do this more often
Refill my batteries
Enjoy the moment

I didn't find either any signs about the Iron Age Fortress being here
Two stone piles on the top
Turn out to be some thing that tourists and visitors make when they visit here
It's apparently common to bring your own stone to the pile
I just wonder why so many people carry stones with them?
And I was thinking if the binoculars are too heavy to take with
Jeesus

Definitely worth visiting

Like so many places are

Now I just want to find those six other Castle Mountains

But that's a matter of some other day

Get Naked / Alasti

Get naked

A writing on the wall

Followed by a snail

What's it message

I wonder

Laying on a bed

In a clean looking hotel

In the heart of a dirty city

Get naked slowly

Annoying snail

The bed is soft

Sheets smell fresh 'n clean

I hope they are too

I remember the news

About five star hotels

Wore bed sheets were made bed again

How it is in this kinda hotel

In this kinda city

Where snails on the walls advice to get naked

Where they pay you to get naked

Where dirty is love

Vicious love

I love this city

The Abandoned Town of The CrownMountain

- Abandoned places -

Finland

The abandoned place in Finland

The one

Everybody is talking about it

Everybody has been there

I wanted there too

I wanted to see The Place

I wanted to photograph it too

I wanted to bee one of them

One of the many others

I parked my bicycle by the gate

Which says 'no entry'

I follow a forest path to the greenness of the summer 

Here and there

I saw little fainting signs

Of long gone settlement

From the condition of the buildings

If you can still call them buildings

Maybe ruins would be more truthful

You can see the fact

That everybody knows this place

Everybody has been here

And everybody has left their mark here

I had read from the newspapers about the arsons of the area

But it didn't prepare me to the truth

Most of the place was just simply destroyed

Burned

Collapsed

Or otherwise vandalized

The place looked nothing like the pictures I had seen on the internet

There was nothing left

Where I had seen houses

No windows or walls

Were they supposed to be

In just three years

People had destroyed most of it

Permanently

Of course nature will take back it's own
On it's own natural way

But this was something else

I even understand people's need to mark their own hand

Their present

At the Stone Age it was drawings and hand marks at the rock walls

Now it's tags and spraying's on the building walls

Same same but different

How much is too much?

The City would like to smash these old buildings

In order to build something new

The citizens have put on many addresses
To save the buildings

They say

They are part of the history

That the place should let be

I kinda understood them

The pictures I saw told about beautiful old villas

But have this people been here sens then?

Have they seen the place?

Do they know

That the citizens have already destroyed the place

By themselves

That there is nothing more to save?

This was really interesting visit

But not in a way I was expecting

This abandoned ghost town

Was anything but abandoned

I saw a lot of people while I was there

Some of them picking berries

Some of them photographing like me

Some of them jogging

Maybe there could be something old saved

And something new build beside it

I experienced a peaceful and beautiful place

For outdoor activity's

Widely used by citizens

But the old ruins should be cleaned

Before they collapse

On someones child

I felt like a tourist

Everybody knew why I was there

Seeing a famous sights

From the 'must to do while you are here' list

Only thing missing

Was the tourist guide's voice in my headphones

Telling me about the history

In my memory

I was once again on that creepy Auschwitz tour

With forty other people

Psst! If you liked this one
Here's some more:

An Old Finnish School
A Spa of Misfortune
Scratching the Matches