On a summer day in Helsinki we had a few hours to spare for a visit somewhere, and this time Lauttasaari Island was our chosen destination. We found beautiful smooth-rock shores, ja nice beach and clear seawater! The area has a public swimming beach and protected coastal meadows. We were out and about, inspired by […]
In the village of Muurla in Salo, there’s a short path leading up a wooded hill, at the top of which a stone ancient burial cairn spreads out in a ring shape in a beautiful spot. The grave doesn’t offer views into the distance, but together with the surrounding trees, the path, and the undergrowth, […]
If you only have one long afternoon in Hanko, I would personally recommend two things above everything else: a stroll along the grand wooden villas of Appelgrenintie road (along which you’ll also find one of Hanko’s most famous beaches, Bellevue), and the Tulliniemi (Uddskatan) nature trail, which winds through beautiful shoreline nature all the way […]
My friend and I had planned our forest date days in advance. Nothing special, really, just an ordinary Sunday and an ordinary patch of forest close to home. But there’s something about that ordinariness I can never quite explain, except to say: it’s always enough. The Sunday morning didn’t promise anything remarkable. The sky was […]
When someone comes to visit me in Salo from far away, I always know where I’ll take them. We head for Teijo National Park, to its very best spots: Lake Matildanjärvi and Teerisaari. Over the years I’ve gotten to lead wonderful guests down these paths — from Lapland, from Ukraine, and most recently from Alta […]
We arrived in Rovaniemi in the early evening, after almost 12 hours on the road from southern Finland, winding our way up through the small towns of Ostrobothnia. There’s an easier way to get here — the night train will take you from Helsinki straight to Rovaniemi without you lifting a finger — but our […]
If you want to know whether the Finnish blueberry season has started, you don’t even have to go into the forest. Just look down: bird droppings have turned purple. Birds love blueberries as much as people do, and by late July their droppings give away the fact that it’s time to head into the woods. […]
The sky was grey and the air rich with oxygen when my husband, our friend, and I set out on a weekday in July to walk the Värikallio Loop trail in Hossa National Park, in Suomussalmi, Kainuu. The forecast promised heavy rain all day, but we’d decided in advance not to let it ruin the […]
Sapokka Water Garden spreads across the area surrounding Sapokka Bay in Kotka. It’s a beautiful park where water features play a central role. My memory had long held onto an image of a tall waterfall in Sapokka, so when I arrived in Kotka for an entirely different reason and that very waterfall happened to catch […]
Haapasaari island is one of those wonderful destinations you can reach for free by a scheduled commuter ferry service. The M/S Otava operates from Kuusinen harbour, and the crossing takes two hours each way — long enough to let the sea breeze blow away the everyday worries while getting a taste of the Eastern Gulf […]
